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<\/a><\/p>\nYe dwellers in darkness
\nWith sin blinded eyes,
\nThe Light of the world is Jesus!
\nGo, wash, at His bidding,
\nAnd light will arise.
\nThe Light of the world is Jesus!
\n\u2013 Philip P. Bliss, 1875<\/p>\n
Greeting Hymn No. 188: Christ Is the World\u2019s True Light Christ is the world\u2019s peace, Christ is the world\u2019s life, Give God the glory, Prayer Isaiah 49:1-7 Psalm 71:1-14 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Hymn No. 297 \u2013 Beneath the Cross of Jesus Upon that cross of Jesus I take, O cross, thy shadow
\n<\/strong>It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit
\nthat we are children of God, and if children, then heirs,
\nheirs of God and joint heirs with Christ\u2014
\nif, in fact, we suffer with him
\n<\/strong>so that we may also be glorified with him.
\n<\/strong>(ROMANS 8:16\u201317)<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Christ is the world\u2019s light,
\nChrist and none other;
\nborn in our darkness,
\nhe became our brother.
\nIf we have seen him,
\nwe have seen the Father:
\nGlory to God on high!<\/p>\n
\nChrist and none other;
\nno one can serve him
\nand despise another.
\nWho else unites us,
\none in God the Father?
\nGlory to God on high!<\/p>\n
\nChrist and none other;
\nsold once for silver,
\nmurdered here, our brother;
\nhe who redeems us,
\nreigns with God the Father:
\nGlory to God on high!<\/p>\n
\nGod and none other;
\ngive God the glory,
\nSpirit, Son, and Father;
\ngive God the glory,
\nGod with us, my brother:
\nGlory to God on high!
\n-Fred Pratt Green, 1968
\nTune: CHRISTE SANCTORUM<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Holy and compassionate God, your dear Son went not up to joy
\nbefore he suffered pain,
\nand entered not into glory before he was crucified.
\nMercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
\nmay find it the way of life and peace;
\nthrough Jesus Christ your Son, our Savior. Amen.
\n<\/strong>(THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, U.S.A., 20TH CENT., ALT.)<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong>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\u2019s womb he named me.
\n49:2 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.
\n49:3 And he said to me, \u201cYou are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.\u201d
\n49:4 But I said, \u201cI 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.\u201d
\n49:5 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-
\n49:6 he says, \u201cIt 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.\u201d
\n49:7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, \u201cKings 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong>71:1 In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
\n71:2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
\n71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
\n71:4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
\n71:5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
\n71:6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother\u2019s womb. My praise is continually of you.
\n71:7 I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
\n71:8 My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long.
\n71:9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
\n71:10 For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together.
\n71:11 They say, \u201cPursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver.\u201d
\n71:12 O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
\n71:13 Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed; let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
\n71:14 But I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong>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.
\n1:19 For it is written, \u201cI will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.\u201d
\n1:20 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?
\n1:21 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.
\n1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
\n1:23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
\n1:24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
\n1:25 For God\u2019s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God\u2019s weakness is stronger than human strength.
\n1:26 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.
\n1:27 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;
\n1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,
\n1:29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
\n1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
\n1:31 in order that, as it is written, \u201cLet the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Beneath the cross of Jesus
\nI fain would take my stand,
\nthe shadow of a mighty rock
\nwithin a weary land;
\na home within the wilderness,
\na rest upon the way,
\nfrom the burning of the noon-tide heat,
\nand the burden of the day.<\/p>\n
\nmine eye at times can see
\nthe very dying form of One
\nwho suffered there for me;
\nand from my stricken heart with tears
\ntwo wonders I confess:
\nthe wonders of redeeming love
\nand my unworthiness.<\/p>\n
\nfor my abiding place;
\nI ask no other sunshine than
\nthe sunshine of his face;
\ncontent to let the world go by,
\nto know no gain nor loss,
\nmy sinful self my only shame,
\nmy glory all the cross.
\n-Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1872
\nTune: ST. CHRISTOPHER<\/p>\n