All Hallows Evening Prayer for Friday Evening (July 17, 2020)
Evening Prayer
The Service of Light
Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can extinguish.
Joyous light of
glory of the immortal Father,
Heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ,
We have come to the setting of the Sun
And we look to the evening light.
We sing to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy of being praised with pure voices forever.
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
The universe proclaims your glory.
Heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ,
We have come to the setting of the Sun
And we look to the evening light.
We sing to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy of being praised with pure voices forever.
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
The universe proclaims your glory.
Thanksgiving
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
We praise you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the universe!
Your word brings on the dusk of evening,
your wisdom creates both night and day.
You determine the cycles of time,
arrange the succession of the seasons,
and establish the stars in their heavenly courses.
Lord of the starry hosts is your name.
Living and eternal God,
rule over us always.
Blessed be the Lord,
whose word makes evening fall.
Amen.
Psalm 141 is sung and incense may be burned.
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
let
my rise to you.
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
let
my prayer rise to you.
1
I call out to you,
Come
quickly to my aid.
My
song cries out to you,
O
listen to me now.
I
raise my hands in off’ring to you.
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
2
Let me speak your truth;
watch
over all I say.
Keep
my thoughts on you;
let
goodness rule my heart.
Keep
me far from those who do harm.
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
3
Never let me dine
with
those who seek to harm.
Keep
your holy ones
always
at my side.
Plant
your wisdom deep in my soul.
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
4
I look to you for help;
I
seek your loving eyes.
Guard
my life for you;
Spare
me from all wrong.
Keep
all evil far from my heart.
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
5
Glory be to God
and
to God’s only Son,
glory
to the Spirit,
three
in one,
now
and for ever. Amen.
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
Like
burning incense, O Lord,
(Like
burning incense, O Lord,)
let
my prayer rise to you.
(let
my prayer rise to you.)
Silence
is kept.
Let
the incense of our repentant prayer ascend before you, O Lord, and let your
loving kindness descend upon us, that with purified minds we may sing your
praises with the Church on earth and the whole heavenly host, and may glorify
you forever and ever. Amen.
The Psalms
Praise
the Lord! Praise the Lord!
All
you nations.
Extol
him! Extol him!
All
you peoples.
For
great is his love toward us,
and
the faithfulness of the Lord
endures
forever.
Praise
the Lord! Praise the Lord!
All
you nations.
Extol
him! Extol him!
All
you peoples.
For
great is his love toward us,
and
the faithfulness of the Lord
endures
forever.
Silence
is kept.
Gracious
God,
we
praise you for your faithfulness
and
pray that every nation may find your blessing
in
the face of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The Proclamation of the Word
The Reading
The Holy Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
Glory to you, Lord Jesus
Christ.
And one of
them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which
commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘“You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind.” This is the greatest and first
commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall
love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
The Gospel of Christ
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
Homily
Love
Is from God
Sounds easy, right? All we have to do to live our faith is
to love God and to love our neighbour. The problem is that loving God and
loving our neighbour do not come naturally. We cannot on our own love God, much
less love our neighbour. If we could, the world would a whole lot better place
than it is.
However, our natural inclination is not to love God or to
love our neighbour. We are apt to pay God no mind, to act as if he doesn’t
exist.
As for our neighbour, that may be a stretch. We may envy
him—his house, his car, his wife. We may despise him, wish something unpleasant
would happen to him. But love him. You’ve gotta be kidding. Love that loudmouth
bigot, that snowflake.
No, loving God and loving our neighbour do not come
naturally. But here Jesus is saying on loving God and loving our neighbour
“hang all the law and the prophets”—in other words, everything that God
requires from us as revealed in his word.
Luke records another conversation Jesus had with an expert
in the law who was testing Jesus. In this conversation Jesus identifies who is
our neighbour. It was not just a fellow Jew. It was not just the guy next door
who blows the clippings from his lawn into our driveway. It was a Samaritan
whom the Jews despised. The feeling was mutual.
There had been bad blood
between the Jews and Samaritans since the northern kingdom fell to the
Assyrians and the Assyrians as was their custom after they defeated a kingdom
moved most of the conquered population to another part of their empire, resettling
the defeated kingdom with people from one of its other provinces. These people
intermarried with the remaining Jewish population of the northern kingdom and
adopted their religion.
This must have been
mind-blowing to the expert in the law and to anyone else who was a present. A
Samaritan? You got to be kidding? Did I hear you right, Jesus?
That is still pretty well our
own response. You mean we’ve got to love them?!
We hear a lot about the
tribalization of America these days. But that is not new. People have formed
into tribes since a time in the past that was so long ago that we have no memory
of it. Tribes have fought with each other, killed each other, and stolen each
other’s women, livestock, and land. A lot of that still goes on in parts of the
world today.
But Jesus is saying, we are
not just to love those in our tribe. We must love those in other tribes too. We
must love everybody!
As they say here in the South,
“that’s a hard row to hoe!” At one time people used hoes to remove the weeds
from their fields. Some rows between the young plants had more weeds than
others. The weeds were harder to root up.
If loving God and loving our
neighbour does not come naturally, how in the world are we going to do what
Jesus is telling us to do?
God knows our weaknesses. He
knows that we cannot love him or our neighbour on our own. He gives us power to
help us do what we cannot do on our own. He works within us to will and do what is
pleasing to him. That power is grace.
When my oldest grandnephew was
little, he had one of those plastic cars that toddlers can sit in and push
around with their feet. He didn’t get very far on his own so much to his
delight I would push him around the house.
Unlike my grandnephew we don’t
even have the strength to budge the car on our own. We need God’s strength to
move even a fraction of an inch. That’s how much we are dependent upon God’s
grace. It not only gets us rolling but also keeps us rolling.
We can’t do anything to
deserve the help God gives us. Nothing at all! God gives us help because he is
a loving God. It is his nature.
I could have ignored my grandnephew,
left him to struggle on his own, stuck in a corner, unable to go forward or
backward, one way or another. Some folks might even argue that was the right
thing to do.
But my grandnephew would not
have learned about kindness, about love. He would not have learned that others
cared for him. He would not have learned that there is a loving God who cares for
him.
God sent Jesus into our world
to show us that he is a loving God and cares for us. Jesus showed us not only
by his miracles, his teaching, and example but also by his suffering and death
on the cross.
I was reading last night about
a young boy who threw himself between his four-year old sister and a dog that
was about to attack her. He was brutally mauled by the dog but survived the
attack. When asked why he had done what he did, his answer was, “I thought that
it was better for me to die.” He chose to die in her place.
His brave act captures something
of what motivated Jesus. He chose to die in our place for the sins of the whole
world when rightfully the death should have been our own. He suffered a brutal
death that the divide that separated us from God might be closed for ever. I
don’t think that we grasp the magnitude of what he did or how important it is
to our salvation.
It shows how far God was
willing to go for us, how much he loves us. He put himself in the person of his
Son between his righteous anger and ourselves. He who is holiness itself turned
his own wrath away from that which is unholy.
This knowledge, the knowledge
that he cares deeply for us, and the knowledge that he gives us his help to do
what is pleasing to him should spur us on to love him with our whole being and
to love others with a sacrificial love like Jesus’. Loving God and love our neighbor
does not come naturally. But what may be impossible for humans is not
impossible for God. As John reminds us, “love is from God.”
Silence is kept.
The Gospel Canticle
My
soul proclaims the Lord my God.
My
spirit sings God’s praise,
Who
looks on me, and lifts me up,
That
gladness fills my days.
All
nations now will share my joy;
For
gifts God has outpoured.
This
lowly one has been made great.
I
magnify the Lord.
For
those who fear the Holy One,
God’s
mercy will not die.
Whose
strong right arm puts down the proud,
And
lifts the lowly high.
God
fills the hungry with good things,
And
sends the rich away;
The
promise made to Abraham
Is
filled to endless day.
Then
let all nations praise our God,
The
Father and the Son,
The
Spirit blest, who lives in us,
While
endless ages run.
Intercessions
Let us complete our evening prayer to the
Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For peace from on high and for our salvation, let
us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For the welfare of all churches and for the
unity of the human family, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For (name), our bishop, and (name),
our pastor, and for all ministers of the Gospel, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For our nation, its government, and for all
who serve and protect us, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For this city (town, university, monastery…).
For every city and community, and for all those living in them, let us pray to
the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For the good earth which God has given us and
for the wisdom and will to conserve it, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For the safety of travelers, the recovery of
the sick, the care of the destitute and the release of prisoners, let us pray
to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For an angel of peace to guide and protect
us, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For a peaceful evening and a night free from
sin, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For a Christian end to our lives and for all
who have fallen asleep in Christ, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.
In the communion of the Holy Spirit (and of
all the saints), let us commend ourselves and one another to the living God
through Christ our Lord.
To you, O Lord.
Free
Prayer
In silent or spontaneous prayer all bring before God the
concerns of the day.
The
Collect
Lighten
our darkness,
Lord,
we pray,
and
in your great mercy
defend
us from all perils and dangers of this night,
for
the love of your only Son,
our
Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The
Lord’s Prayer is said
And now, as our Saviour
has taught us,
we are bold to say,
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,
the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Dismissal
Now
it is evening:
lights
of the city
bid
us remember
Christ is our Light.
Many
are lonely,
who
will be neighbor?
Where
there is caring,
Christ is our Light.
Now
it is evening:
little
ones sleeping
bid
us remember
Christ is our Peace.
Some
are neglected,
who
will be neighbor?
Where
there is caring,
Christ is our Peace.
Now
it is evening:
food
on the table
bids
us remember
Christ is our Life.
Many
are hungry,
who
will be neighbor?
Where
there is sharing,
Christ is our Life.
Now
it is evening:
here
in our meeting
may
we remember
Christ is our Friend.
Some
may be strangers,
who
will be neighbor?
Where
there's a welcome,
Christ is our Friend.
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The Lord bless us and keep us.
The Lord make his face to shine upon us
and be gracious to us.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon us
and give us peace. Amen
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