Lenten Midweek 1 2.25.26

Lenten Midweek wk 1 PDF 2.25.26

LENTEN MIDWEEK SERVICE

FEBRUARY 25, 2026 

IN THE NAME OF JESUS, WELCOME TO ST. PAUL’S! 

VESPERS

7:00 p.m.

✠ ✠ ✠

PRELUDE 

ENTRANCE VERSE    (Stand)                                                                     LSB 229

O Lord, open my lips,
   and my mouth will declare Your praise.

Make haste, O God, to deliver me;
   make haste to help me, O Lord.

   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.
   Praise to You, O Christ, Lamb of our salvation. 

PSALMODY                                                                   Psalm 91:9-16

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.” 

FIRST READING    (Be seated)                                                      Hebrews 1:1-14

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?

Or again,

“I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son”?

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God’s angels worship him.”

Of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”

But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

And,

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”

And to which of the angels has he ever said,

“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the
sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

This is the Word of the Lord.
         Thanks be to God. 

RESPONSORY   (Stand)                                                             LSB 231

L    Deliver me, O Lord, my God, for You are the God of my salvation.
C    Rescue me from my enemies, protect me from those who rise against me.
L    In You, O Lord, do I put my trust, leave me not, O Lord, my God.
C    Rescue me from my enemies, protect me from those who rise against me.
L    Deliver me, O Lord, my God, for You are the God of my salvation.
C    Rescue me from my enemies, protect me from those who rise against me. 

HYMN      (Stand)    O Love, How Deep  Sts. 1, 2                   LSB 544

1      O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
Beyond all thought and fantasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake! 

2      He sent no angel to our race,
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame,
And to this world Himself He came. 

SERMON     (Be seated)

 Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen. Dear friends in Christ:

Tonight, we are continuing our Lenten meditation on God’s great love for us as described in the hymn O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High. Last week we examined the teachings of the hymn’s first stanza, especially its emphasis on the incarnation – God becoming man. Tonight, we will look at the second stanza, which begins with thoughts about angels.

Angels are a source of endless fascination and speculation in our world. That was certainly the case when the hymn was written, almost six hundred years ago. And I would say that this is still the case today – though maybe not with the same intensity.

The first appearance of an angel in the Bible is recorded in Genesis chapter three. There we see God placing an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance to the Garden of Eden so that Adam, Eve and their descendants cannot re-enter it.

Throughout the rest of the scriptures, angels appear as messengers, warriors, guardians, and worshipers. These biblical angels are not cute and cuddly, by the way, as often depicted in popular culture. Rather, they are mighty beings who carry out God’s commands and are present at every significant event in the life of God’s people.

It should not surprise us that many people assumed God would send an angel to be the Messiah. This was a common idea, for who could be more powerful and more in tune with God’s will than these wonderfully created servants of his?

But God didn’t send an angel as the Messiah. Rather, he sent his Son.

I’ll say more about this choice in a moment. But first, let’s address another topic that always comes to mind when we think of angels: the topic of demons.

According to the Scriptures, demons are angels who rebelled against God. The leader of these fallen angels is the devil, also called Satan – a name which means “adversary” or “accuser.” The devil sits in opposition to everything God stands for. Last Sunday we heard how the devil tempted Jesus as he was fasting in the wilderness. The devil, as we know, is always lurking and watching in order to tempt a person away from that which is right and true.

Since God’s angels can always overpower the forces of evil, the sending of an angel as the Messiah to initiate the greater reign of God on earth seemed a logical choice, as we just noted. But again, that’s not what God did.

The reason for this is revealed in tonight’s scripture reading from Hebrews chapter one. There we note that the undoing of the devil’s reign wasn’t just a matter of defeating him in a normal battle, but rather one of making “purification for sins” (1:3).

Only the Son of God could make the sacrifice necessary to purify the world of its sins. And that’s because the sacrifice needed to be one of perfection.

Furthermore, the Son needed to take on human flesh to do this, since the needed sacrifice for sin involved death. As one early Christian pastor – the much-celebrated Gregory Nazianzus, Archbishop of Constantinople put it: “that which he did not assume, he cannot redeem.”  In other words, Jesus needed to become one of us so that he could save us.

The writer to the Hebrews celebrates this action of God in saying of Jesus: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (1:3).

After stating this, note how the writer then continues this celebration by saying Jesus had “become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” His point here is that even in his humbling of himself by taking on human flesh, Jesus is still greater than both humans and angels.

This ranking and comparing of different beings is found in other scriptures too. For example, Psalm eight, which the writer of Hebrews quotes in his second chapter, says: “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?  You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

With such rankings and comparisons, the scriptures want us to understand that although God’s creatures are all very important in their own way, it is only God himself who is worthy of worship. And that’s because God is the one who saves, not men or angels.

Angels may have wonderful powers and use them in glorious and helpful ways, but they aren’t equal of God’s Son. Likewise, when God sent the Son into the world to save it, the Son was no mere mortal or angel but rather God himself.

The second stanza of our hymn sums up all of this very well. It says: “He sent no angel to our race, of higher or of lower place, but wore the robe of human frame, and to this world himself he came.”

That line “of higher or of lower place” is meant to capture both the ranking of these beings and the Son’s lowering of himself to save his people. The great biblical text which describes this comes from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the second chapter, where Jesus is described as one “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (2:6-9).

In this humbling, Jesus – in the words of the Psalm – made himself “for a little while lower than the angels.” Yet he is also, at the same time, the one who governs all things. He is both the Lord of all and the servant of all. He is both the greatest and the least. He is fully God and fully man. He is – as the writer of Hebrews notes – the glory and exact imprint (1:3), the very image, of God’s love to the world.

What this means for us is that we have a God who not only understands our weaknesses but also does something about them. He redeems us, purifies us, and calls us to himself. Jesus, we see, not only “gets us” but is us. And as such, he is our savior.

Jesus did all of this for us. Therefore, may we… with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven… serve him in love and obedience, and laud and magnify his name forever.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

CANTICLE     (Magnificat)                                                                           LSB 231

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior;

for He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden.
For behold, from this day all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One has done great things to me, and holy is His name;
and His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

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.

VESPER PRAYERS  (Kneel)                                                                 LSB 233-234

KYRIE                                                                                                               LSB 233

Lord, have mercy;
Christ, have mercy;
Lord, have mercy.

LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven,
     hallowed be Thy name,
     Thy kingdom come,
     Thy will be done on earth
          as it is in heaven;
     give us this day our daily bread;
     and forgive us our trespasses
          as we forgive those
          who trespass against us;
     and lead us not into temptation,
     but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom
     and the power and the glory
     forever and ever. Amen.

COLLECT

O Lord, hear my prayer.
    And let my cry come to You.

O Lord God, You led Your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide the people of Your Church that following our Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

COLLECT FOR PEACE 

O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works, give to us, Your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey Your commandments and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.Amen.

Stand

BENEDICAMUS                                                                                             LSB 234 

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

BENEDICTION                                                                                               LSB 234 

The grace of our Lord ✠ Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.                           

EVENING HYMN        Christ, Mighty Savior                                          LSB 881 

1      Christ, mighty Savior, Light of all creation,
You make the daytime radiant with the sunlight
And to the night give glittering adornment,
Stars in the heavens. 

2      Now comes the day’s end as the sun is setting,
Mirror of daybreak, pledge of resurrection;
While in the heavens choirs of stars appearing
Hallow the nightfall. 

3      Therefore we come now evening rites to offer,
Joyfully chanting holy hymns to praise You,
With all creation joining hearts and voices
Singing Your glory. 

4      Give heed, we pray You, to our supplication,
That You may grant us pardon for offenses,
Strength for our weak hearts, rest for aching bodies,
Soothing the weary. 

5      Though bodies slumber, hearts shall keep their vigil,
Forever resting in the peace of Jesus,
In light or darkness worshiping our Savior
Now and forever. 

POSTLUDE 

THOSE SERVING:

Greeter: Charles Fisher
Reader: Charles Fisher

 

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Acknowledgments

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2026 Concordia Publishing House.

544 O Love, How Deep  Text: attr. Thomas à Kempis, 1380–1471; tr. Benjamin Webb, 1819–85, alt. Tune: English, 15th cent. Text: Public domain

881 Christ, Mighty Savior Text: Latin, c. 7th cent.; tr. Alan McDougall, 1895–1966; rev. Anne K. LeCroy, 1927–2016 Tune: Richard W. Dirksen, 1921–2003 Text: © 1982 The United Methodist Publishing House, admin. Music Services (ASCAP). Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110005326 Tune: © 1984 Washington National Cathedral. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110005326