All Hallows Evening Prayer for Saturday Evening (August 1, 2020)
Evening Prayer
The Service of Light
Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can extinguish.
Open this link
in a new tab to hear the ancient lamp-lighting hymn Phos hilaron, “O Gladsome Light, O Grace.”
1 O
gladsome Light, O Grace
of God the Father’s face,
The eternal splendour wearing;
celestial, holy, blest,
our Saviour Jesus Christ,
joyful in Thine appearing.
2 Now, ere day fadeth quite,
we see the evening light,
our wonted hymn outpouring;
Father of might unknown,
Thee, His incarnate Son,
and Holy Ghost adoring.
3 To Thee of right belongs
all praise of holy songs,
O Son of God, Lifegiver;
Thee, therefore, O Most High,
the world doth glorify,
and shall exalt for ever.
of God the Father’s face,
The eternal splendour wearing;
celestial, holy, blest,
our Saviour Jesus Christ,
joyful in Thine appearing.
2 Now, ere day fadeth quite,
we see the evening light,
our wonted hymn outpouring;
Father of might unknown,
Thee, His incarnate Son,
and Holy Ghost adoring.
3 To Thee of right belongs
all praise of holy songs,
O Son of God, Lifegiver;
Thee, therefore, O Most High,
the world doth glorify,
and shall exalt for ever.
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 prayer rise up to you.
Like burning incense, O
Lord, let my prayer rise up to you.
I have called to you,
Lord, hasten to help me.
Hear my voice when I cry
to you.
Let my prayer arise
before you like incense.
the raising of my hands
like the evening oblation.
Set, O Lord, a guard
over my mouth,
keep watch, O Lord, at
the door of my lips!
Do not turn my heart to
things that are wrong,
to evil deeds with those
who are sinners.
Never allow me to share
in their feasting.
If the righteous strike
or reprove me, it is a kindness;
but let the oil of the
wicked n’er anoint my head.
Let my prayer be ever
against their malice.
To you, Lord God, my
eyes are turned;
in you I take refuge;
spare my soul!
From the trap they have
laid for me keep me safe;
Keep me from the snares
of those who do evil.
Glory to the Father and
to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now,
and will be for ever.
Amen.
Like burning incense, O
Lord, let my prayer rise up 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
1 The Lord doth reign, and clothed is he
with majesty most bright;
His works do show him clothed to be,
and girt about with might.
2 The world is also stablishèd,
that
it cannot depart.
Thy
throne is fixed of old, and thou
from
everlasting art.
3 The floods, O Lord, have lifted up,
they
lifted up their voice;
The
floods have lifted up their waves,
and
made a mighty noise.
4 But yet the Lord, that is on high,
is
more of might by far
Than
noise of many waters is,
or
great sea-billows are.
5 Thy testimonies ev'ry one
in
faithfulness excel;
And
holiness for ever, Lord,
thine
house becometh well.
Silence
is kept.
Christ our King,
you put on the apparel of
our nature
and raised us to your
glory;
reign from your royal
throne
above the chaos of this
world,
that all may see the
victory you have won
and trust in your
salvation;
for your glory’s sake.
Amen.
The Proclamation of the Word
The Reading
The
Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Glory
to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
In those days
when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them,‘I have compassion for the
crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.’ His disciples replied, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?’He asked them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They said, ‘Seven.’ Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.
The
Gospel of Christ
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Homily
Hard Tack and Sun-Dried Sardines
Two
miraculous feedings are recorded in the gospels. The feeding of the five
thousand and the feeding in this passage—the feeding of the four thousand. It
is always tempting with these miraculous feedings to use them as a springboard
to an explanation of how Jesus feeds us in the Holy Eucharist. However, this
passage contains a number of details that deserve our attention for what they
tell us about Jesus and about his small band of disciples.
The disciples
who are with him had already witnessed Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the five
thousand. But from their words it may be inferred that they did not believe
that he would be able to repeat this miracle. ‘How can one feed these people
with bread here in the desert?’
Their choice
of words is significant. God fed the people of Israel in the wilderness with bread
from heaven, with manna. While a man might not be able to perform such a
miracle, it was not beyond God’s capability.
Jesus is not
deterred by their words. He asks them how many loaves of bread they have. Note
that he does not ask them whether they have any bread but how much bread do
they have.
Jesus is not
only very observant but he also knows the hearts of men. One suspects that the
disciples knew how generous he was and therefore kept the bread out of sight,
fearing Jesus would give it to the crowd. No one voluntarily offered the bread.
Jesus was forced to ask them.
The disciples
may having been thinking to themselves, “We don’t have enough bread to go
around. We just have enough bread for ourselves.” This would have not been a
surprising reaction. Whether or not we will admit it, human nature apart from
God’s grace is inclined to selfishness and greed.
One of the
characteristics of Mark’s gospel is that no matter how long the disciples are
with Jesus, they never seem to quite get who is. Those who are reading or
hearing the gospel may catch on fairly early who Jesus is but not the
disciples. This may be a device to hold the attention of the reader or listener.
Having realized for themselves who Jesus is, they eagerly await the moment when
the disciples will come to the same realization. But that moment never comes.
On the other
hand, it may be Mark’s way of encouraging the readers and listeners of his
gospel to believe that Jesus is the Promised One, God’s Anointed, the Messiah. They
can recognize who Jesus is or like the disciples, they can never fully grasp
his identity.
We learn a
number of things about Jesus from this passage. He was able to attract a great
crowd. Some people came from a great distance to hear him. They were willing to
follow him into the desert and to stay with him for three days. Only when they
ran out of food did it become necessary for them to leave. These people came to
hear Jesus not because of an expensive media campaign promoting Jesus—flashy video
ads on the internet, radio spots every half hour, and full page spreads in the newspaper—but
because they had heard of him word of mouth. They did not gather to hear him in
an air-conditioned auditorium with movie theater seating. They gathered to hear
him in the heat of the desert and sat on hard rocky ground. They did not leave
him for three days. During that time they not only endured the desert’s hot
days but also its cold nights. That’s drawing power! That is miraculous in
itself. It tells us something about who Jesus is.
We can safely
assume that Jesus taught the crowd during those three days and his teaching
held the crowd’s attention. How many pastors can hold the attention of their
congregations for more than 15 to 20 minutes when they preach on a Sunday? Jesus’
ability to hold the crowd’s attention for three days in the desert also tell us
something about who Jesus is. Four thousand people under the hot desert sun.
Put yourself
in their place. You can feel the hard rocky ground through your thin robe. The
sun is mercilessly beating down on your head. Your lips are cracked and dry. A scorpion scuttles past your hand. Vultures
circle overhead. Yet you are glad that you came. Jesus is all that you heard
about him and more. You can’t put your finger on it but there is something
really special about him.
This passage
tells us a lot about Jesus’ compassion. He knew what those who had come to hear
him had been experiencing. He knew that they had run out of food. He knew that
they were weak from hunger. He was not going to ignore their need for food to
sustain them on their journey home. As he did when he fed the five thousand, he
took several loaves of bread and a few fishes and fed the crowd. He fed them
just as he had fed the people of Israel in the wilderness when he freed them
from captivity in Egypt.
We are not
talking about the huge round loaves of bread that the Romans baked and gave
away to the poor of Rome. We are not talking about fatty bonito tuna. We are
talking the small loaves of barley bread not much bigger than your fist—the
staple of the ancient Mideastern diet. We are talking about small dried fish
not much longer than your finger. Biscuits and sardines. Not fluffy biscuits topped
with butter or margarine. Not fresh-caught sardines sizzling hot from the pan. Hard
tack and sun-dried sardines. When you are hungry, hard tack and sun-dried sardines
is a feast.
When the
crowd had eaten its fill, the disciples gathered the broken pieces that the
crowd did not eat. The pieces filled seven baskets. I imagine that those
baskets were hamper-sized, the kind of baskets that the people of the ancient
Mideast used to transport all kinds of goods. That detail is included in Mark’s
account of this miraculous feeding to show that the crowd did just get a morsel
of bread and a tiny bit of fish. They were fed until their hunger was sated.
The gospels
tell us that Jesus’ compassion extended beyond feeding a crowd that had spent
three days in the desert with him. His compassion embraced the whole world. He
suffered and died on the cross that we might be reconciled to God.
Jesus not
only modeled compassion for us but also he taught that we should be
compassionate—compassionate toward others, toward each other, toward those who
may hate and despise us.
We cannot
miraculously feed the hungry. However, we can show them compassion. We can support
our community food banks. We can support school feeding programs—free lunches—with
our taxes. We can support local backpack food programs. We can support feeding
programs for seniors, the homebound, and the disabled like Meals on Wheels. We
can also support food assistance programs for needy families, for those who are
below the poverty level, for those who are borderline, for those who have been
laid off or furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We can urge Congress and
the President to expand benefits and not cut them. With the economy reeling
from the pandemic, community food banks are not able to keep up with the
growing demand for food assistance on their own.
Some of us
may be concerned about fraud and waste. Having worked as an eligibility worker
and a fraud investigator in the food stamp program, my experience has been that
fraudulent cases form a very tiny number of the active food stamp cases and
those cases involving deliberate fraud an even smaller number. Agencies
administering the food stamp program at the state and local level operate on
tight budgets and workers who do not pull their weight are terminated. Case
overload is a far greater problem than case underload. In other words, workers
often have more cases than they can handle rather than the other way around.
We can also
sponsor programs to educate people of all ages on how to eat more healthfully
and to stretch their food dollar. In areas that have no supermarket—“food
deserts” as they are called—we can organize food buying cooperatives as well as
encourage supermarket chains to establish a branch store.
While we may never
see the kind of miracles that Jesus performed, God still performs miracles. When
people come together to achieve a purpose aligned with God’s will, God works in
them and through them in miraculous ways.
Silence is kept.
The Gospel Canticle
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
And from this day all generations will call me blessed: *
the Almighty has done great things for me,
holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and sent the rich away empty handed.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers, *
to
Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Intercessions
Let us complete our evening prayer to the
Lord.
Lord have mercy.
For peace from on high and 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
What
does the Lord require
for
praise and offering?
What
sacrifice, desire
or
tribute did you bring?
Do
justly,
love
mercy,
walk
humbly with your God.
Rulers
of earth, give ear!
Should
you not justice know?
Will
God your pleading hear
while
crime and cruelty grow?
Do
justly,
love
mercy,
walk
humbly with your God.
Still
down the ages ring
the
prophet's stern commands:
to
merchant, worker, king,
he
brings God's high commands:
do
justly,
love
mercy,
walk
humbly with your God.
How
shall our life fulfill
God's
law so hard and high?
Let
Christ endue our will
with
grace to fortify.
Then
justly,
in
mercy,
we'll
humbly walk with God.
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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