All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (August 12, 2020)
Evening Prayer
The Service of Light
Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can extinguish.
1 O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the
everliving Father in heaven.
O Jesus, Christ, holy and blessed!
pure brightness of the
everliving Father in heaven.
O Jesus, Christ, holy and blessed!
2 Now as we come to the setting of the
sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing thy praises, O God:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing thy praises, O God:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3 Thou art worthy at all times
to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.
to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.
Thanksgiving
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and
praise.
God our Father, we give you thanks
for all your gifts freely bestowed upon
us;
for the beauty and wonder of your
creation,
in earth and sky and sea; for all that
is gracious
in the lives of men and women,
revealing the light of Christ;
for minds to muse and hearts to love
and hands to serve;
for health and strength to work,
for leisure to rest and play;
for communion with your saints,
in all times and places,
and above all for the great promises
and mercies
given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To him be praise and glory,
with you and the Holy Spirit, now and
forever. Amen.
Psalm 141 is sung and incense may be
burned.
Open this link
in a new tab to hear Will Chiles’ choral arrangement of Psalm 141, “O God, My
Lord, on Thee I Call,” from the Bay Psalm Book.
O God, my Lord, on thee I call,
do thou make hast to me:
and hearken thou unto my voice,
when I cry unto thee.
And let my prayer directed be
as incense in thy sight:
my hands uplifted unto thee
as sacrifice at night.
Jehovah, oh that thou would’st set
a watch my mouth before:
as also of my lips with care
O do thou keep the door.
Bow not my heart to evil things;
to do the wicked deed
with wicked workers: and let not
me of their dainties feed.
Like unto one who on the earth
doth cut and cleave the wood,
even so our bones at the graves mouth
are scatter’d all abroad.
But unto thee O God, the Lord
directed are mine eyes;
my soul, O leave not destitute,
on thee my hope relies.
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
The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am his
And he is mine for ever.
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am his
And he is mine for ever.
Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul he leadeth,
And where the verdant pastures grow
With food celestial feedeth.
My ransomed soul he leadeth,
And where the verdant pastures grow
With food celestial feedeth.
Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me,
And on his shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.
But yet in love he sought me,
And on his shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.
In death's dark vale I fear no ill
With thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.
With thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.
Thou spread'st a table in my sight;
Thy unction, grace bestoweth:
And O what transport of delight
From thy pure chalice floweth!
Thy unction, grace bestoweth:
And O what transport of delight
From thy pure chalice floweth!
And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
Within thy house for ever.
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
Within thy house for ever.
Silence is kept.
O God,
our sovereign and shepherd,
who
brought again your Son Jesus Christ
from the
valley of death,
comfort
us with your protecting presence
and your
angels of goodness and love,
that we
also may come home
and
dwell with him in your house for ever.
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
Now he was teaching in
one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there
appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She
was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw
her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When
he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising
God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on
the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought
to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath
day.’ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each
of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it
away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham
whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the
sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his opponents were
put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things
that he was doing.
The Gospel of Christ
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Silence is kept.
Silence is kept.
The Homily
Only
by His Grace
In my last homily I drew attention to how a passage
in the Old Testament anticipates Jesus’ teaching that we should love not just
our neighbors and our fellow Christians but also our enemies. In today’s reading Jesus alludes to a verse
in the Book of Proverbs when he asks the question, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on
the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to
give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan
bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath
day?’” The verse to which he is alluding is Proverbs 12: 10, “The righteous know the
needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked
is cruel.”
Elsewhere in the Old Testament, in Exodus 23: 3-5,
the people of Israel are instructed to bring back the straying ox or donkey of
an enemy and to free the donkey of one who hates them if it collapses beneath
its load. In Deuteronomy 22: 1-4 they
are instructed to return a neighbor’s ox, sheep, or donkey that has strayed and
to lift up a neighbor’s donkey or oxen that has fallen in the road. They cannot
ignore the straying or fallen animals. These passages are important because for
the Jews caring for animals was not just a practical matter. It was a religious
duty.
Jesus’ point is that if the Pharisees and scribes
were willing to show kindness to their livestock on the Sabbath, why were they
so unwilling to show compassion to a fellow human being? While Jesus does not
say so in today’s reading or Luke 14: 5, God has also instructed the people of
Israel to show mercy to their neighbor and the stranger in their midst. The
Pharisees and the scribes are willing to make exceptions to the prohibition
against working on the Sabbath for their livestock. Why are they unwilling to
make exceptions for suffering human beings? His unspoken rebuke is that they
regard animals as more important than human beings. They will make exception
for one but not for the other. Yet God commands them to show mercy to both.
In today’s reading and Luke 14:5 Jesus exposes the
weakness of the Pharisees and scribes’ interpretation of the Law. It is devoid
of the compassion towards their fellow human beings, which God had commanded
the people of Israel to show. God has in the Books of the Prophets strong
condemnation for the people of Israel for their lack of mercy. Jesus himself
repeated the words God spoke through the prophet Hosea, “I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.”
When we rationalize away the need to show
compassion to our fellow human beings, we are doing what the Pharisees and the
scribes did. Whether we recognize it, we are not that far from the Pharisees
and the scribes in our thinking.
Being merciful not only means being kind,
forgiving, and compassionate, it also means exercising patience and
self-control and restraining ourselves from doing harm to others. Being
merciful may involve holding back from doing what we have the right to do. It
may entail putting up with a less than desirable situation. God does all these
things in relation to ourselves. In the sermon on the mountain Jesus instructs
his listeners to be merciful as God is merciful. The apostle Paul echoes Jesus
when he urges the members of the Ephesian church to be imitators of God as
beloved children.
Due to our fallen state we lean toward defying God rather than obeying God, toward doing evil rather than doing good. We cannot show the kind of mercy that Jesus instructs us to show without the help of God’s grace—the power of God’s presence working in us. Every day we pray for the help of God’s grace to walk the path of a disciple of Jesus, to show and share the love of Jesus, we align ourselves with God’s will for us. It is God’s will that we turn to him for the grace that he alone can supply. He is a merciful God and will not withhold the help of his grace from us. He supplies us with an abundance of his grace—like a full measure of freshly-winnowed grain put into our laps, “pressed down, shaken together, running over.” No one can surpass his generosity. God knows the needs of his people. His mercy is not cruel like that of the wicked.
The Gospel Canticle
My soul proclaims your greatness, Lord;
I sing my Savior’s praise!
You looked upon my lowliness,
and I am full of grace.
Now ev’ry land and ev’ry age
this blessing shall proclaim—
great wonders you have done for me,
and holy is your name.
To all who live in holy fear
Your mercy ever flows.
With mighty arm you dash the proud,
Their scheming hearts expose.
The ruthless you have cast aside,
the lowly throned instead;
the hungry filled with all good things,
the rich sent off unfed.
To Israel, your servant blest,
your help is ever sure;
the promise to our parents made
their children will secure.
Sing glory to the Holy One,
give honor to the Word,
and praise the Pow’r of the Most High,
one God, by all adored,
on God, by all adored.
Intercessions
In peace let us pray to the Lord,
Lord, have mercy.
For God’s holy Church, that it may be
filled with truth and love,
and be found without fault at the day
of his coming, let us pray
to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the ministers of. the Church
(especially …………), that they
may be faithful to the Gospel and
worthy servants of the people
of God, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For all who fear God and believe in the
Lord Jesus, that our
divisions may cease, and that all may
be one, as he wills, let us
pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the mission of the Church, that in
faithful witness it may preach
the Gospel to the ends of the earth,
let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For those who do not yet believe, and
for those who have lost
their faith, that they may receive the
light of the Gospel, let us
pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the peace of the world, that
respect and understanding may
grow among nations and peoples, let us
pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For those in positions of public trust
(especially ………...), that
they may serve justice and truth, and
promote the dignity and
freedom of every person, let us pray to
the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For our families and all those who are
dear to us; for the aged and
for the young that they may have a
future to hope in, let us pray
to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the poor, the persecuted, the sick,
and all who suffer; for
refugees, prisoners, and all who are in
danger, that they may be
relieved and protected, let us pray to
the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For our enemies, and those who wish us
harm; and for all whom
we have injured or offended, let us
pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
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
Every promise we can make
Every prayer and step of faith
Every difference we can make
Is only by His grace.
Every mountain we will climb
Every ray of hope we shine
Every blessing left behind
Is only by His grace
Grace alone
Which God supplies
Strength unknown He will provide
Christ in us, our cornerstone
We will go forth in grace alone.
Every soul we long to reach
Every heart we hope to teach
Everywhere we share His peace
Is only by His grace,
Is only by His grace.
Every loving word we say
Every tear we wipe away
Every sorrow turned to praise
Is only by His grace.
Grace alone
Which God supplies
Strength unknown He will provide
Christ in us, our cornerstone,
Cornerstone,
We will go forth,
We will go forth,
We will go forth,
We will go forth in grace alone.
Let us bless the
Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The God of all
grace bless us now and forever. Amen
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