OPENING PRAYER

All-powerful God, by the suffering and death of your Son, strengthen and protect us in our weakness. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever. Amen.

READING I: Isaiah 42:1-9
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

READING II: St. Mark 13:1-23

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher,

what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”

Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs. “As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. “But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away; the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that it may not be in winter. For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days.

And if anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’ —do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be alert; I have already told you everything.

READING III: Paul Scherer (1892 - 1969)

Meanwhile let's bear it in mind for our safe-conduct, that the cross is no incidental privation, no personal misfortune. I've heard everything called a cross, from ill-health to a wayward son; from loneliness to an unruly temper; from somebody who pays you no attention to somebody who pays you too much. It's a kind of blasphemy. When we talk that way we are thinking more of ourselves than of anybody else, fairly eaten away with self-pity. And we dress up our complaining spirit in the garb of sainthood.

The cross is any place where a saving love goes out to undergird this life of ours, and comes back with the hot stab of nails in its hands! It's the place where you try with all your might, and have nothing it may be but a hurt for your trying, and a heart that keeps stretching anyway as far as your arms can reach. When you've begun to grow muscle like that; when you're ready for the defeat life is always trying to impose on you, yet by His grace can assert your mastery still--striking out toward a lost world through the floods that have gone over you--only then may you begin to talk falteringly of a cross, and reach up unashamed to the feet of Him who still rules from it. "There they crucified him." I wish we'd quit expecting anything to come of anything else--in God's world or man's!

CLOSING PRAYER

O God, who in the death of your beloved Son, endured for our sake the agony of the cross, grant to us such a measure of your Spirit that we may not shrink from loss or pain in your service but may do all we can under you to help one another and to promote justice and peace upon earth. Forbid that we should complain of burdens and ills that are not worthy to be compared with the sufferings of Christ. Save us from the weakness and futility of self-pity, and from faithless brooding and anxiety. Teach us to find healing for our hurt in unwearied effort to heal the hurt of the world. Fill us with your own compassion for the sick, the hungry, the lonely, the discouraged, and for all who are victims of prejudice and injustice, that we may enter into the constancy and joy of your service. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.