OREMUS: 21 October 2007

Sun Oct 21 16:45:42 GMT 2007

OREMUS for Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

O Lord, open our lips.
And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Blessed are you, tireless Guardian of your people,
you are always ready to hear the cry of your chosen ones;
you teach us to rely day and night on your care.
You impel us to seek your enduring justice
and your ever-present help
revealed in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
For these and all your mercies, we praise you:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
Blessed be God for ever.>

An opening canticle may be sung.

Psalm 84
How dear to me is your dwelling, O Lord of hosts!*
  My soul has a desire and longing
    for the courts of the Lord;
    my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
The sparrow has found her a house
    and the swallow a nest
    where she may lay her young;*
  by the side of your altars, O Lord of hosts,
    my King and my God.
Happy are they who dwell in your house!*
  they will always be praising you.
Happy are the people whose strength is in you!*
  whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way.
Those who go through the desolate valley
    will find it a place of springs,*
  for the early rains have covered it with pools of water.
They will climb from height to height,*
  and the God of gods will reveal himself in Zion.
Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;*
  hearken, O God of Jacob.
Behold our defender, O God;*
  and look upon the face of your anointed.
For one day in your courts
    is better than a thousand in my own room,*
  and to stand at the threshold of the house of my God
    than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is both sun and shield;*
  he will give grace and glory;
No good thing will the Lord withhold*
  from those who walk with integrity.
O Lord of hosts,*
  happy are they who put their trust in you!

Psalm 85
You have been gracious to your land, O Lord,*
  you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.
You have forgiven the iniquity of your people*
  and blotted out all their sins.
You have withdrawn all your fury*
  and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation.
Restore us then, O God our Saviour;*
  let your anger depart from us.
Will you be displeased with us for ever?*
  will you prolong your anger from age to age?
Will you not give us life again,*
  that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your mercy, O Lord,*
  and grant us your salvation.
I will listen to what the Lord God is saying,*
  for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
    and to those who turn their hearts to him.
Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him,*
  that his glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth have met together;*
  righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall spring up from the earth,*
  and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed grant prosperity,*
  and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness shall go before him,*
  and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.

A Song of the Lamb (from Revelation 19)

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
  whose judgements are true and just.

Praise our God, all you his servants,
  all who fear him, both small and great.

The Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns:
  let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory.

The marriage of the Lamb has come
  and his bride has made herself ready.

Blessed are those who are invited
  to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.

To the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
  be blessing and honour and glory and might,
  for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalm 117
Alleluia!
Praise the Lord, all you nations;*
  laud him, all you peoples.
For his loving-kindness towards us is great,*
  and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.
    Alleluia!

FIRST READING [Nehemiah 8:9-18]:

Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the 
Levites who taught the people said to all the people, 'This day is holy to 
the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.' For all the people wept when they 
heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, 'Go your way, eat the fat 
and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is 
prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the 
joy of the Lord is your strength.' So the Levites stilled all the people, 
saying, 'Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.' And all the 
people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make 
great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared 
to them.

On the second day the heads of ancestral houses of all the people, with the 
priests and the Levites, came together to the scribe Ezra in order to study 
the words of the law. And they found it written in the law, which the Lord 
had commanded by Moses, that the people of Israel should live in booths 
during the festival of the seventh month, and that they should publish and 
proclaim in all their towns and in Jerusalem as follows, 'Go out to the 
hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other 
leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.' So the people went out and 
brought them, and made booths for themselves, each on the roofs of their 
houses, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in 
the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. And 
all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths 
and lived in them; for from the days of Jeshua son of Nun to that day the 
people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. And 
day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the book of 
the law of God. They kept the festival for seven days; and on the eighth 
day there was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.

HYMN
Words: Thomas Pestel (ca. 1586-1660), 1639
Tune: This endris nyght

http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/b /b065.html
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Behold the great Creator makes
himself a house of clay,
a robe of virgin flesh he takes
which he will wear for ay.

Hark, hark, the wise eternal Word,
like a weak infant cries!
In form of servant is the Lord,
and God in cradle lies.

This wonder struck the world amazed,
it shook the starry frame;
squadrons of spirits stood and gazed,
then down in troops they came.

Glad shepherds ran to view this sight;
a choir of angels sings,
and eastern sages with delight
adore this King of kings.

Join then all hearts that are not stone,
and all our voices prove,
to celebrate this holy One,
the God of peace and love.

SECOND READING [John 16:1-11]:

John said, 'I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. 
They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when 
those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to 
God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 
But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may 
remember that I told you about them.

'I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with 
you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, "Where 
are you going?" But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has 
filled your hearts. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your 
advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not 
come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he 
will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about 
sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am 
going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgement, because 
the ruler of this world has been condemned.

The Benedictus (Morning), the Magnificat (Evening), or Nunc dimittis 
(Night) may follow.

Prayer:
Great Friend of the poor, the neglected, the abused, and the distressed,
we pray for any who are now feeling forsaken

In your mercy, help us not to forget the needs of -

the migrant, the child, the elderly....

the deserted wife, or husband or children...

the teenage loner or the spurned parent...

the new arrival in a strange city or country...

the shy person alone in a small flat...

the political prisoner without recourse to justice...

the hospital patient without any visitors...

the dying soul with no one to sit with them...

the grief stricken with no one to comfort them.

Merciful God,
send your angels of mercy to all in need.
Grant them quietness and peace,
through Jesus Christ our Redeemer,
who, hanging on the cross, knew our sufferings. Amen.

Almighty God,
your Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
Give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Gathering our prayers and praises into one,
let us pray as our Savior has taught us.

- The Lord's Prayer

Grant us boldness to desire a place in your kingdom,
the courage to drink the cup of suffering,
and the grace to find in service
the glory you promise. Amen.

The psalms and the invitation to the Lord's Prayer are from Celebrating 
Common Prayer (Mowbray), © The Society of Saint Francis 1992, which is used 
with permission.

The biblical passage is from The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized 
Edition), copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of 
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by 
permission. All rights reserved.

The opening prayer of thanksgiving and the closing prayer use phrases from 
a prayer in Opening Prayers: Collects in Contemporary Language. Canterbury 
Press, Norwich, 1999.