Thursday Evening Prayer – 4th January. Readings: Psalm 14, 14; Isaiah 33.5-24; John 4. 1-14.

Led by Felicity Scott, Liturgical Assistant at St John the Baptist Anglican Church Bulimba, QLD, Australia.

The full prayer transcript is available by going to this episode on the Podcast website.

https://dailyprayeranglicanprayerbookforaustralia.podbean.com

Welcome to Thursday Evening prayer from the Anglican ‘A prayer book for Australia’.

We proclaim the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ:

GOD in his infinite mercy, forgives all sins, and through our baptism in the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, we are given a rebirth into new life, free from the burden of all sin. ALLELUIA

Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Blessed be God forever.

Let us Pray.

1

The Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult and give God the glory. 

Revelation 19.6–7

Glory to God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit: 

as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen

2 The Opening Canticle, A Song of Joy

Be joyful in the Lord, all the earth: 

serve the Lord with gladness 

and come before his presence with singing. 

Know that the Lord is God: 

it is he who has made us, and we are his; 

for we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; 

go into his courts with praise: 

give thanks to him and praise his name. 

For the Lord is good; 

his loving-kindness is everlasting: 

and his faithfulness endures from age to age. 

Psalm 100

3 The Opening Prayer

The day is now past and the night is at hand. 

Let us pray with one heart and mind. 

Silence may be kept.

Father of lights, receive the prayer and praise we offer you as our evening sacrifice; make us a light for all the world, 

delivered by your goodness from all the works of darkness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. 

Amen.

4 The Psalms as appointed. A pause is observed after each.

Psalm 13; 14

13

1 How long, O Lord, will you so utterly forget me:

how long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I suffer anguish in my soul,

and be so grieved in my heart day and night:

how long shall my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look upon me, O Lord my God, and answer me:

lighten my eyes, lest I sleep in death;

4 Lest my enemy say ‘I have prevailed’:

lest my foes exult at my overthrow.

5 Yet I put my trust in your unfailing love:

O let my heart rejoice in your salvation.

6 And I will make my song to the Lord:

because he deals so bountifully with me.

14

1 Fools have said in their hearts ‘There is no God’:

they have all become vile and abominable in their doings,

there is not one that does good.

2 The Lord looked down from heaven

upon the children of Adam:

to see if there were any who would act wisely

and seek after God.

3 But they have all turned out of the way,

they have all alike become corrupt:

there is none that does good, no not one.

4 Are all the evildoers devoid of understanding:

who eat up my people as they eat bread,

and do not pray to the Lord?

5 They shall be struck with terror:

for God is with the company of the righteous.

6 Though they frustrate the poor in their hopes:

surely the Lord is their refuge.

7 O that deliverance for Israel might come forth

from Zion:

when the Lord turns again the fortunes of his people,

then shall Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

5 At the end of the (last) pause there may follow

God our saviour, you sent Jesus into the world of sin, and delivered him up to death for us: kindle in our hearts the same love with which he loved his own to the end; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

6 One or two Readings from the Bible as appointed.

1st Reading

Isaiah 33.5-24

5 The Lord is exalted, he dwells on high;

     he filled Zion with justice and righteousness; 

6 he will be the stability of your times,

     abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

     the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure. 

7 Listen! the valiant cry in the streets;

     the envoys of peace weep bitterly. 

8 The highways are deserted,

     travellers have left the road.

The treaty is broken,

     its oaths are despised,

     its obligation is disregarded. 

9 The land mourns and languishes;

     Lebanon is confounded and withers away;

Sharon is like a desert;

     and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves. 

10 ‘Now I will arise,’ says the Lord ,

     ‘now I will lift myself up;

     now I will be exalted. 

11 You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble;

     your breath is a fire that will consume you. 

12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,

     like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.’ 

13 Hear, you who are far away, what I have done;

     and you who are near, acknowledge my might. 

14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;

     trembling has seized the godless:

‘Who among us can live with the devouring fire?

     Who among us can live with everlasting flames?’ 

15 Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,

     who despise the gain of oppression,

who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,

     who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed

     and shut their eyes from looking on evil, 

16 they will live on the heights;

     their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;

     their food will be supplied, their water assured. 

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;

     they will behold a land that stretches far away. 

18 Your mind will muse on the terror:

     ‘Where is the one who counted?

     Where is the one who weighed the tribute?

     Where is the one who counted the towers?’ 

19 No longer will you see the insolent people,

     the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,

     stammering in a language that you cannot understand. 

20 Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!

     Your eyes will see Jerusalem,

     a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,

whose stakes will never be pulled up,

     and none of whose ropes will be broken. 

21 But there the Lord in majesty will be for us

     a place of broad rivers and streams,

where no galley with oars can go,

     nor stately ship can pass. 

22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler,

     the Lord is our king; he will save us. 

23 Your rigging hangs loose;

     it cannot hold the mast firm in its place,

     or keep the sail spread out. 

Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;

     even the lame will fall to plundering. 

24 And no inhabitant will say, ‘I am sick’;

     the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity.

2nd Reading

John 4.1-14

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— 2 , although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptiz