Scripture Readings and Final Prayers

O Lord, open our lips , and our mouths shall proclaim your praise . Let us come into his pres ence with thy sleep . I became light with soul For Lord is a great God and a great king of God In his hand on the sort and the height so And his hands are molded but watch him and will be for make We are the voice for the sheep of his son . Glory to the father , to they song and to the screen as it was in my w I shall be for The night is past, and the day lies open before us. Let us pray with one heart and As we rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence , O God, set our hearts on fire with love for you now and for ever . Amen . Psalm one hundred and forty four Happy are the people who have the Lord for their God . Blessed be the Lord my rock, who teaches my hands for war, and my fingers for battle My steadfast help and my fortress. My stronghold and my deliverer. Trust Who subdues the peoples under me ? O Lord, what are mortals that you should consider them ? Mere human beings that you should take thought for them . They are like a breath of wind . Their days pass away like a shadow . Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke . Cast down your lightnings and scatter them . Shoot out your arrows and let thunder roar . Reach down your hand from on high . Deliver me and take me out of the great waters from the hand of foreign enemies , whose mouth spe aks wickedness , and their right hand is the hand of falsehood . O God, I will sing to you a new song . I will play to you on a ten stringed harp , you that give salvation to kings , and have delivered David your servant . Save me from the peril of the sword , and deliver me from the hand of foreign enemies , whose mouth speaks wickedness , and whose right hand is the hand of falsehood , so that our sons in their youth may be like well nurtured plants , and our daughters like pillars carved for the corners of the temple , our balms be filled with all manner of store , our flocks bearing thousands and ten thousands in our fields our cattle be heavy with young . May there be no miscarriage or untimely birth, no cry of distress in our streets . Happy are the people whose blessing this is . Happy are the people who have the Lord for their God . Happy are the people who have the Lord for their God . Let us pray . God our deliverer, stir our weak wills, revive our weary spirits, and give us the courage to strive for the freedom of all your children, to the praise of your glorious name . Amen Amen . The first reading is from the book of Joshua, beginning at chapter five, verse two . At that time the Lord said to Joshua , Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites a second time . So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Hariloth. This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the warriors, had died during the journey through the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt. Although all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people born on the journey through the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the Israelites travelled for forty years in the wilderness until all the n ation, the warriors who came out of Egypt, perished, not having listened to the voice of the Lord . To them the Lord swore that he would not let them see the land that he had sworn to their ancestors to give us a land flowing with milk and honey. So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way . When the circumcising of all the nation was done, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. The Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt . So that place is called Gilgal to this day. While the Israelites were encamped in Gilgal , they kept the Passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched gra in. The manor ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manor. They ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year. Once when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you one of us or one of our adversaries? He replied, Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come . And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped, and he said to him, What do you command your servant, my lord? The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy . And Joshua did so Dream ing your pres ence calm late us ed to die for sight And we're by our bones After two days he will revive us and under third day will raise us up thy tre really lived in his presence Let us by to alone his opp his shores of He will come to us like the shots like the spring rains that water Why fra me how shall I like ? How shall I deal with your love ? Your love for me is like the list Like they do that goes I Therefore I have near my ones And my judgment goes for us my heart , for loyalty is my design And in the knowledge of God are thy thy toffers glory to the Father I saw the whole esc ape was it was it in the small shall be for ever Raise us up in your The second reading is from the Gospel according to Luke, beginning at chapter ten, verse one . After this, the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, The harvest is pl entiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way, see, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves, carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one in the road. Whatever house you enter, first say peace to this house, and if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person. But if not, it will return to you . Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick who are there, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you. But whenever you enter a town, then they do not welcome you. Go out into its streets and say, even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this the kingdom of God has I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethseda , for if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, that at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you Caperna um would you be exalted to heaven no you will be brought down to Hades . Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me . Forsake me not, O Lord, be not far from me, O my God . Forsake me not, O Lord. Be not far from me, O my God . Make haste to help me, O Lord of my salvation , be not far from me, O my God . Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit . Forsake me not, O Lord , be not far from me, O my God . Give your people knowledge of salvation, O God, by the forgiveness of all their sins . Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel , who has come to his people and set them free . He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour , born of the house of his servant David . Through his holy prophets God promised of old, to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all that hate us to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham, to set us free from the hands of our enem ies , free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life . And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the most high, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way , to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of all their sins , in the tender compassion of our God , the dawn from on high shall break upon us , to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death , and to guide our feet into the way of peace . 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 . Give your people knowledge of salvation, O God , by the forgiveness of all their s ins . Our prayers of intercession this morning are inspired by Psalm ninety five . Let us make our prayers to the Lord , rejoicing in the rock of our salvation . We give thanks this morning for this opportunity to come into God's presence and dwell on God's word . We pray that our worship may sustain us in all the tasks and situations that lie ahead of us today, both expected and unexpec ted . Come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker. We pray for the world, for all people , for our fellow creatures, and the natural world. We ask that God, who made the sea and in whose hand are the depths of the earth, may inspire us to work for a more peaceful, more equitable and sustainable future . Come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker . Finally, we pray for God's church, the people of His past ure . We ask that God will bless all the Christian commun ities of which we are a part, so that together we may listen to God's voice and come to know God's ways. Come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker . Rejoicing in our fellowship with Christians throughout the world and with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and all for whom we pray to the mercy and protection of God . O Lord, from whom all good things come, grant to us your humble servants, that by your holy inspiration we, may think those things that are good, and by your merciful guiding may perform the same. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever . Amen . As our Saviour taught us, so we pray . Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name , your kingdom come , your will be done, on earth as in heaven . Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us . Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever . Amen . The Lord bless us and preserve us from all evil and keep us in eternal life . Amen . Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God .