Ponder Anew
Ye dwellers in darkness
With sin blinded eyes,
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Go, wash, at His bidding,
And light will arise.
The Light of the world is Jesus!
– Philip P. Bliss, 1875
Greeting
It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit
that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—
if, in fact, we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.
(ROMANS 8:16–17)
Hymn No. 188: Christ Is the World’s True Light
Christ is the world’s light,
Christ and none other;
born in our darkness,
he became our brother.
If we have seen him,
we have seen the Father:
Glory to God on high!
Christ is the world’s peace,
Christ and none other;
no one can serve him
and despise another.
Who else unites us,
one in God the Father?
Glory to God on high!
Christ is the world’s life,
Christ and none other;
sold once for silver,
murdered here, our brother;
he who redeems us,
reigns with God the Father:
Glory to God on high!
Give God the glory,
God and none other;
give God the glory,
Spirit, Son, and Father;
give God the glory,
God with us, my brother:
Glory to God on high!
-Fred Pratt Green, 1968
Tune: CHRISTE SANCTORUM
Prayer
Holy and compassionate God, your dear Son went not up to joy
before he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified.
Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son, our Savior. Amen.
(THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, U.S.A., 20TH CENT., ALT.)
Isaiah 49:1-7
49:1 Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.
49:3 And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
49:4 But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the LORD, and my reward with my God.”
49:5 And now the LORD says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God has become my strength-
49:6 he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
49:7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, “Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Psalm 71:1-14
71:1 In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
71:2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
71:4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
71:5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
71:6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.
71:7 I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
71:8 My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long.
71:9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
71:10 For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together.
71:11 They say, “Pursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver.”
71:12 O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
71:13 Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed; let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
71:14 But I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more.
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
1:20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.
1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
1:23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
1:24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1:25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
1:26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,
1:29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1:31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Hymn No. 297 – Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty rock
within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness,
a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noon-tide heat,
and the burden of the day.
Upon that cross of Jesus
mine eye at times can see
the very dying form of One
who suffered there for me;
and from my stricken heart with tears
two wonders I confess:
the wonders of redeeming love
and my unworthiness.
I take, O cross, thy shadow
for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than
the sunshine of his face;
content to let the world go by,
to know no gain nor loss,
my sinful self my only shame,
my glory all the cross.
-Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1872
Tune: ST. CHRISTOPHER
Anthem: O Nata Lux – Morten Lauridsen
John 12:20-36
12:20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.
12:21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
12:22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
12:23 Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
12:24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
12:25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
12:26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
12:27 “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say–‘ Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.
12:28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
12:29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
12:30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.
12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
12:33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
12:34 The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
12:35 Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.
12:36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.
Anthem: Holy Radiant Light – Gretchaninoff
Hymn No. 206: I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
I want to walk as a child of the light.
I want to follow Jesus.
God set the stars to give light to the world.
The star of my life is Jesus.
In him there is no darkness at all.
The night and the day are both alike.
The lamb is the light of the city of God.
Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.
I want to see the brightness of God.
I want to look at Jesus.
Clear Sun of Righteousness, shine on my path,
and show me the way to the Father.
I’m looking for the coming of Christ.
I want to be with Jesus.
When we have run with patience the race,
we shall know the joy of Jesus.
– Kathleen Thomerson, 1966
Tune: HOUSTON
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