All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (July 5, 2020)
Evening Prayer
The Service of Light
Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can extinguish.
O radiant Light, O Sun divine
of God the Father's deathless face,
O image of the light sublime
that fills the heav'nly dwelling place.
O Son of God, the source of life,
praise is your due by night and day.
Our happy lips must raise the strain
of your esteemed and splendid name.
Lord Jesus Christ, as daylight fades,
as shine the lights of eventide,
we praise the Father with the Son,
the Spirit blest, and with them one.
Thanksgiving
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe! You
led your people Israel by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by
night. Enlighten our darkness by the light of your Christ. May his word be a
lamp to our feet and a light to our path; for you are full of loving kindness
for your whole creation, and we, your creatures, glorify you, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalm 141 is sung and incense may be burned.
O
Lord, let my prayer rise before you like incense,
my
hands like an evening offering.
1.
Lord, I am calling:
hasten
to help me.
Listen
to me as I cry to you.
Let
my prayer rise before you like incense,
my
hands like an evening offering.
O
Lord, let my prayer rise before you like incense,
my
hands like an evening offering.
2.
Lord, set a guard at my mouth,
keep
watch at the gate of my lips.
Let
my heart not turn to things that are wrong,
to
sharing the evil deeds done by the sinful.
No,
I will never taste their delights.
O
Lord, let my prayer rise before you like incense,
my
hands like an evening offering.
3.
The good may reprove me,
in
kindness chastise me,
but
the wicked shall never anoint my head.
Ev’ry
day I counter their malice with prayer.
O
Lord, let my prayer rise before you like incense,
my
hands like an evening offering.
4
To you, Lord, my God, my eyes are turned:
in
you I take refuge;
do
not forsake me.
Keep
me from the traps they have set for me,
from
the snares of those who do evil.
O
Lord, let my prayer rise before you like incense,
my
hands like an evening offering.
5
Praise to the Father, praise to the Son,
all
praise to the life-giving Spirit.
As
it was, is now and shall always be
for ages unending. Amen.
O
Lord, let my prayer rise before you as incense,
my hands like an evening offering.
Silence is kept.
God our protector and guide, incline our hearts to turn from evil and do good, that our lives
may be a prayer for the coming of your kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Psalms
O Lord, O Lord, O Lord,
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord,
how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord.
My soul, my soul, yearns, even faints, for the courts of
the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God,
my heart and my flesh cry out cry out for the living God.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord,
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord.
Even the sparrow, the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest,
where she may have her young,
where she may have her young.
O Lord almighty, my King and my God.
O Lord almighty, my King, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you,
ever praising you,
ever praising you, O my God,
O my God.
O Lord, O Lord, O Lord,
how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord, O Lord.
Silence is kept.
Lord God,
sustain us in this vale of tears
with the vision of your grace and glory,
that, strengthened by the bread of life,
we may come to your eternal dwelling place;
in the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Proclamation of the Word
The Reading
A
reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
Welcome
those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over
opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only
vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those
who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed
them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of
another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be
upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some
judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be
alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe
the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of
the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in
honour of the Lord and give thanks to God.
We do
not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live
to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or
whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end
Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the
living.
Why
do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or
sister? For we will all stand
before the judgement seat of God. For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow
to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
So
then, each of us will be accountable to God.
Let
us therefore no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve instead never
to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another. I
know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but
it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If
your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer
walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ
died. So do not let your good be spoken of as
evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The
Word of the Lord.
Thanks
be to God.
Homily
Walk in Love
You
may be scratching your head wondering how relevant this passage from Paul’s
Letter to the Romans is to us in the twenty-first century. Most of us don’t
give a second thought to the meat that ends up on our tables. I may be an
exception because I’m a vegetarian. But some Gentile converts to Christianity
were troubled by the fact that most of the meat sold in butcher shops or from
stalls in the market had been sacrificed to one of the pagan gods. Those who
were Jews were concerned about not only the source of the meat but also what
type of meat it was and whether the blood had been drained from the meat. The
Jewish dietary regulations forbade the consumption of the flesh of pigs and the
eating of meat that contained blood. Pagan Gentiles had no such scruples. Some
Gentile converts to Christianity may have picked them up from the Jews. They had acquired feelings of doubt or hesitation with regard
to the propriety of eating meat of animals that has been sacrificed to pagan
gods, which may have been the flesh of pigs, and may not have been salted so as
to drain the blood from the meat. In their minds they questioned whether it was
the right thing to do.
In
our time Jews who keep kosher are not the only ones who eat meat that has been
ritually slaughtered and who do not eat pork. Muslims have their own dietary
restrictions. They may not eat “pork and its by-products,
animals improperly slaughtered or dead before slaughtering, animals slaughtered
in the name of anyone but Allah (God), carnivorous animals, birds of prey,
animals without external ears (some birds and reptiles), blood, alcohol, and
foods contaminated with any of these.” These foods are not halal, or lawful. Strict
vegetarians and vegans will not eat any kind of food that contains animal
products. Vegans will also not wear
clothes, makeup, and shoes that are made from animal products. Certain ethnic
groups also have what sociologist and anthropologists call “food taboos.”
Although we may not realize
it, we have food taboos too. How many of us would eat dog meat? However, the
flesh of our canine friends and companions is eaten in China, South Korea, and
Thailand. The Indian government just recently banned the sale of dogs at wet
markets for human consumption in Nagaland.
We live in an increasingly
multicultural society. As we fulfill our Lord’s mandate to make disciples of
all peoples, we will be reaching and engaging people with a wide range of
cultural backgrounds. They may have dietary concerns like the new disciples in
this passage. They may have other concerns.
Paul uses the term “weaker”
in referring to those who have dietary concerns in the passage. In his use of
this term he is appealing to the egos of the readers of his letter. He is
saying, “Look, guys, you are stronger than these folks and know better. Because
you are stronger and more knowledgeable than they are, you should cut them a
break. The strong should take care of their weaker brothers and sisters.” Our
tendency, however, is to say, “You’ve got to suck it up. You got to be tough
like me.” This is the culture with which we grew up speaking. It is not the Bible.
We are apt to dismiss or ignore other people’s scruples. Their scruples, as
Paul points to the attention of the Roman Christians, are very real.
Paul warns the church at
Rome about putting obstacles in the way of their fellow believers, obstacles
that may cause them to stumble and to sin. What they may not see as a sin,
their fellow believers may see as a sin. If their fellow believers did not believe
what they were doing was right, Paul points to their attention, what their
fellow believers were doing was a sin for their fellow believers when their
fellow believers did it.
What he is urging the Roman
Christians to do is be more sensitive to the scruples of their fellow believers
and to take responsibility for their actions when their actions cause their
fellow believers to fall and sin. They cannot callously disregard their fellow
believers’ scruples or judge their fellow believers harshly for having scruples.
The principle that underlies
what Paul is saying to the church at Rome has a much broader application than to
food. It applies to anything that we put in the way of an enquirer, a new
believer, or a long-time believer that causes him to do what is in his mind not
the right thing to do. If they do it, they believe that they have done the
wrong thing and their consciences are troubled.
For example, we may see no
wrong in decorating the chancel of the church with icons of Jesus, his mother,
and other saints. Our fellow believers, however, may view icons as a form of
idolatry and their consciences may be deeply troubled by the prospect of
worshiping God in a church whose chancel is decorated with icons. If we apply
the underlying principle, we would remove the icons from the sanctuary out of
respect for the consciences of our fellow believers. Removing the icons from
the sanctuary would not prevent us from hanging an icon on the wall of our
house and using it as aid in our personal devotions.
A lot of what we do on
Sundays and other occasions on which we gather to worship God is a matter of
personal preference. We have come to prefer one form of service to another and
one style of music to another. These preferences involve matters that have no effect
upon our salvation. They are what theologians call “adiophora,” things that are
indifferent to our salvation. These preferences, however, can be “stumbling
blocks” to those to whom we are seeking to bring the gospel. They can cause
hesitation or difficulty for those we are seeking to reach and engage.
The Episcopal church which I
attended as a teenager and to which I returned in my thirties after an absence
of a number of years observed the Great Vigil of Easter. It began the vigil
with the singing of the Exsultet, the reading of Scripture, and the saying of prayers.
The nave of the church was in darkness except for flickering candlelight. A thurifer
swung a smoking censor of incense. The priest and the deacon wore copes. As the
deacon chanted the Exsultet, clouds of incense rose from the censor.
My mother,
my youngest niece, and I had brought one of my niece’s friend with us to the
beginning of the vigil. We were late so we went up into the choir loft. The young
girl whom we had brought with us took one look at the scene below and fled from
the church. We were not able to persuade her to go back inside the church.
Things that we take for
grant may be strange and even frightening to other people. What attracts us may
put them off.
The principle underlying what
Paul says in this passage may also apply to our preferences. In putting our
preferences first, we may be putting an obstacle in the way of those whom the
Holy Spirit is drawing to Jesus. It may prove a great enough obstacle that they
may resist the Holy Spirit’s gentle nudging and persist in their rebellion
against God.
God is a gracious God and he
draws people to himself. But as Jesus
pointed to the attention of the Pharisees and the scribes, we can shut the door
to the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.
Chances are we don’t realize
that we are doing it. We have gotten use to do things a certain way that we
cannot imagine doing it any differently. Because we like what we are doing, we
assume that other people will like it too.
While we might intellectually
see a need to do things differently, we emotionally resist making any changes
in how we do things. The world around us is changing so rapidly, we cling to
whatever we can.
I have a challenge for you
this week. Take some time and consider how you as an individual and your church
as a community of Christians can help those whom the Holy Spirit is drawing to
Jesus overcome the obstacles that may be blocking their way. What can you do?
Use your imagination. Be creative. Pray about it. Open yourself to the direction
in which the Holy Spirit is gently nudging you.
Let us pray….
Heavenly Father, your Son, Jesus
Christ, our Saviour and Lord, promised to send us the Holy Spirit to direct and
guide us. Grant us greater sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit that all
we do and say may be done for your greater glory; for his name’s sake. Amen.
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.
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.
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, *
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.
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
That this evening may be holy, good and
peaceful:
we
entreat you, O Lord.
That your holy angels may lead us in the
paths of peace and goodwill:
we
entreat you, O Lord.
That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our
sins and offences:
we
entreat you, O Lord.
That there may be peace in your Church and
for the whole world:
we
entreat you, O Lord.
That we may be bound together by your Holy
Spirit,
in communion with the ever-blessed Virgin
Mary and with all your saints,
entrusting one another and all our life to
Christ:
we entreat you, O Lord.
Let us commend ourselves, and all for whom we
pray,
to the mercy and protection of God.
Open prayer may be
offered and silence is kept.
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
Day of arising, Christ on the roadway,
unknown companion walks with his own.
When they invite him, as fades the first day,
and bread is broken, Christ is made known.
When we are walking, doubtful and dreading,
blinded by sadness,
slowness of heart,
yet Christ walks with us, ever awaiting
our invitation: Stay, do not part.
Lo, I am with you, Jesus has spoken.
This is Christ's promise, this is Christ's sign:
when the church gathers, when bread is broken,
there Christ is with us in bread and wine.
Christ, our companion, hope for the journey,
bread of compassion, open our eyes.
Grant us your vision, set all hearts burning
that all creation with you may rise.
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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