1 May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary
4 May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, God does not leave us in our sin and shame. He does not abandon us to our self-centered decision-making. We prefer to starve ourselves on the world’s bread that cannot satisfy. But at this table, our God provides us with the Bread of Life. Jesus feeds our souls, knowing just what we need. He said in John 6:51, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Anyone who eats of this bread will live forever.” Through his pierced and broken body, we are made whole. In Christ and through Christ alone we are forgiven, and therefore we rejoice! Amen.
The Lord has hidden his face from our sin. He has blotted out all of our iniquity. For Christ Jesus, the Perfect suffered for the imperfect, the sinless became sin for the sinner. We are forgiven and freed to live in a right relationship with God. He has created within us a clean heart and renewed a right spirit within us. God has restored our joy and given us a willing spirit to do all that he asks. Brothers and sisters, you are forgiven, indeed! Amen.
ALL: God of the Nations
Our hearts are often far from you
Our hearts are closed to our neighbor
We stand with our tribe, we keep strangers far away
We hide behind walls, we speak badly of others
These things dishonor you, they break your heart
When we harm instead of heal, we contradict the gospel.
Leader: 6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
ALL: 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Leader: Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
ALL: 6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
Leader: 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
ALL: 1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD!
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation!