OPENING SENTENCES
I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not fall. Psalm 16:7, 8
CONFESSION OF SIN
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
Evening Examen: What was the most draining part of my day? What was the most life-giving part of my day? Let God guide you as you reflect on your day by asking him for light, grace, and gratitude.
O God, make speed to save us. *
O Lord, make haste to help us.
EVENING PSALM
Psalm 18:21-50
Part II
The LORD rewarded me because of my righteous dealing; *
because my hands were clean he rewarded me;
For I have kept the ways of the LORD *
and have not offended against my God;
For all his judgments are before my eyes, *
and his decrees I have not put away from me;
For I have been blameless with him *
and have kept myself from iniquity;
Therefore the LORD rewarded me according to my righteous dealing, *
because of the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
With the faithful you show yourself faithful, O God; *
with the forthright you show yourself forthright.
With the pure you show yourself pure, *
but with the crooked you are wily.
You will save a lowly people, *
but you will humble the haughty eyes.
You, O LORD, are my lamp; *
my God, you make my darkness bright.
With you I will break down an enclosure; *
with the help of my God I will scale any wall.
As for God, his ways are perfect;
the words of the LORD are tried in the fire; *
he is a shield to all who trust in him.
For who is God, but the LORD? *
who is the Rock, except our God?
It is God who girds me about with strength *
and makes my way secure.
He makes me sure-footed like a deer *
and lets me stand firm on the heights.
He trains my hands for battle *
and my arms for bending even a bow of bronze.
You have given me your shield of victory; *
your right hand also sustains me;
your loving care makes me great.
You lengthen my stride beneath me, *
and my ankles do not give way.
I pursue my enemies and overtake them; *
I will not turn back till I have destroyed them.
I strike them down, and they cannot rise; *
they fall defeated at my feet.
You have girded me with strength for the battle; *
you have cast down my adversaries beneath me;
you have put my enemies to flight.
I destroy those who hate me;
they cry out, but there is none to help them; *
they cry to the LORD, but he does not answer.
I beat them small like dust before the wind; *
I trample them like mud in the streets.
You deliver me from the strife of the peoples; *
you put me at the head of the nations.
A people I have not known shall serve me;
no sooner shall they hear than they shall obey me; *
strangers will cringe before me.
The foreign peoples will lose heart; *
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds.
The LORD lives! Blessed is my Rock! *
Exalted is the God of my salvation!
He is the God who gave me victory *
and cast down the peoples beneath me.
You rescued me from the fury of my enemies;
you exalted me above those who rose against me; *
you saved me from my deadly foe.
Therefore will I extol you among the nations, O LORD, *
and sing praises to your Name.
He multiplies the victories of his king; *
he shows loving-kindness to his anointed,
to David and his descendants for ever.
Lord God, our stronghold and our salvation, give us such strength of love that we may reach out to our neighbor without counting the cost, for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit; *
as it was in the beginning
is now and shall be for ever. Amen.
EVENING SONG
We Will Feast in the House of Zion - Sandra McCracken
EVENING LESSONS
Jonah 3:1-4:11
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
Acts 27:27-44
When the fourteenth night had come, as we were drifting across the sea of Adria, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took soundings and found twenty fathoms; a little farther on they took soundings again and found fifteen fathoms. Fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. But when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and had lowered the boat into the sea, on the pretext of putting out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and set it adrift. Just before daybreak, Paul urged all of them to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been in suspense and remaining without food, having eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will help you survive; for none of you will lose a hair from your heads.” After he had said this, he took bread; and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Then all of them were encouraged and took food for themselves. (We were in all two hundred seventy-six persons in the ship.) After they had satisfied their hunger, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea. In the morning they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned to run the ship ashore, if they could. So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea. At the same time they loosened the ropes that tied the steering-oars; then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. But striking a reef, they ran the ship aground; the bow stuck and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the force of the waves. The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, so that none might swim away and escape; but the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest to follow, some on planks and others on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
In the evening, pray for:
peace
individuals and their needs
Conclude with the Lord's Prayer and/or the following Collect:
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Let us bless the Lord. *
Thanks be to God!
The Almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless us and keep us. Amen.