Pentecost Evening/Pentecost Monday
May 16, 2016
The Lord be with you
In the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, we have had “propers” for Pentecost Evening/Pentecost Monday since the introduction of The Lutheran Hymnal. Liturgically speaking, a day begins at sundown. In the “west,” a day begins at midnight. This explains why the propers for this service can be used for a Pentecost Evening service, like a Vespers service. From a liturgical time perspective, it would be a Monday service. Vespers is one of those services (like Matins and Compline) that developed in the monasteries during the Middle Ages for the monks to gather through the day (and night) for prayer and hearing the Word of God.
If you compare the Gradual and Verse for Pentecost Monday with the Gradual and Verse for Pentecost Eve, you will notice that they are the same. Propers may change with each celebration or they may change with the liturgical seasons. Some that change with each celebration would be the Bible readings and hymns while some that may change with the seasons could be, as we see here, the Gradual and Verse. Those propers that change with the season tend to express the theme of the liturgical season instead of the specific day on which the people of God have gathered to worship the Lord. The Propers for Pentecost Monday are:
Introit (Ps. 48:1-2, 9-10; antiphon Ps 48:8)
As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God,
which God will establish forever.
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.
We have thought on your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple.
As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
You right hand is filled with righteousness.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning,
is now and will be forever. Amen.
As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God,
which God will establish forever.
Collect of the Day [A “collect” is a short prayer that expresses the main theme of the day.]
O God, who gave Your Holy Spirit to the apostles, grant us that same Spirit that we may live in faith and abide in peace; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Gradual (Acts 2:17b; Rom. 10:10)
I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
With the heart on believes and is justified,
and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Verse (Liturgical Text)
Alleluia. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love. Alleluia.
Readings
Isaiah 57:15-21
15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 For I will not contend forever,
nor will I always be angry;
for the spirit would grow faint before me,
and the breath of life that I made.
17 Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry,
I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,
but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.
18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
19 creating the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD,
“and I will heal him.
20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
for it cannot be quiet,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
21 There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
Psalm 43 (antiphon: v. 3) [In a worship service, antiphons are spoken at the beginning and end of the reading. Before the final reading of the antiphon, traditionally, the Gloria Patri is spoken. The antiphon captures a key thought in the reading. Most frequently the antiphon is taken from the reading, but may be taken from somewhere else in the Bible or be a “liturgical” verse that captures a biblical thought from the Psalm. Here the antiphon is not presented at the beginning and end and the Gloria Patri is not present. If we were having a worship service, they would be present.]
1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Acts 10:34a, 42-48
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: …
42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47“Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
John 3:16-21
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert