All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (February 7, 2021)

Evening Prayer

The Service of Light

Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can extinguish.

Open this link to hear Carl P. Schalk’s setting of the Phos Hilaron, “Joyous Light of Glory.”

Joyous light ,
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,
we sing to God,
we sing to God,
we sing to God
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You, you are worthy of being praised,
of being praised with pure voices forever.
O Son of God,
O Son of God,
O Son of God,
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.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Peter Inwood’s setting of Psalm 141, “O Lord, Let My Prayer Rise Before You Like Incense.”

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.

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

Open this link in a new tab to hear Bernadette Farrell’s adaptation of Psalm 139, “O God, You Search Me, and You Know Me.”

1 O God, you search me, and you know me
All my thoughts lie open to your gaze
When I walk or lie down, you are before me
Ever the maker and keeper of my days.

2 You know my resting and my rising
You discern my purpose from afar
And with love everlasting, you besiege me
In ev'ry moment of life or death, you are.

3 Before a word is on my tongue, Lord
You have known its meaning through and through
You are with me beyond my understanding
God of my present, my past and future, too.

4 Although your Spirit is upon me
Still I search for shelter from your light
There is nowhere on Earth I can escape you
Even the darkness is radiant in your sight.

5 For you created me and shaped me
Gave me life within my mother’s womb
For the wonder of who I am, I praise you.
Safe in your hands, all creation is made new.

Silence is kept.

Creator God,
may every breath we take be for your glory,
may every footstep show you as our way,
that, trusting in your presence in this world,
we may, beyond this life, still be with you
where you are alive and reign
for ever and ever.
Amen.

The Proclamation of the Word

The Reading

John 14:15-21 The Promise of the Holy Spirit

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.

May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.

Silence is kept.

Homily

The Holy Spirit—God’s Gift of His Presence in Us

Imagine a cold winter morning. This should not be too difficult because it is February and spring is more than a month away. Everything is cold, frozen, and gray. The sun begins to rise. The sky brightens. Sunlight creeps across the ground toward us. We feel the warmth of the sun’s rays on our face. All around us light is driving away the darkness. This is how the Holy Spirit manifests himself in our lives.

If you have read C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in his Narnia Chronicles, you may remember a passage when Aslan returns to Narnia, breaking the White Witch’s spell that made it always winter. The thaw begin. Snow and ice melt. Trees bud and flowers bloom. Birds sing. Narnia awakens from its winter sleep. This too is how Holy Spirit manifests himself.

The Holy Spirit quickens us to new life. “Quicken” is a word that we do not use very much anymore. It is an old word. It means to stir up, to rouse, to waken, to make alive. The older versions of the Apostles’ Creed refer to the “quick and the dead,” the living and the dead.

Often as not we do not see the signs of that quickening all at once. God does not reveal his activity in our lives all at one time. God’s appearance in our lives is like the arrival of spring. We see the signs that mark spring’s arrival one by one. The Holy Spirit manifests his presence in us much in the same way.

The New Testament has several passages which, unless we read them in context, may give us a mistaken idea of how the Holy Spirit manifests himself. We may come to expect the Holy Spirit to make a sudden, miraculous appearance, accompanied, if not by the sound of rushing wind and tongues of flame, by speaking in tongues and other signs, and wonders.

The Holy Spirit can and has manifest himself in dramatic ways. But God has generally chosen to do so for a purpose. God manifest himself in this manner in the apostle Paul, Cornelius and his household, the Samaritans, and the Ephesians to show his acceptance of them. While God may manifest himself in us in this way, it is a mistake to expect God to manifest himself this way in every believer as some churches have come to do.

God is more likely to manifest himself in us like a bud breaking on the bare branch of a tree in spring or a snow drop flower emerging from the cold soil. We will experience the first stirrings of faith in much the same way.

The different ways God may manifest himself in us has led to theologians to argue with each other about what comes first—faith or regeneration. Do we believe first and then experience the new birth? Or do we experience the new birth first and then believe? Or do the believing and the new birth go hand in hand?

Jesus connects the new birth to the Holy Spirit. As Jesus points to Nicodemus’ attention, the new birth is a spiritual birth. It is a birth that the Holy Spirit makes happen. It is God’s doing and not our own.

Theologians ties themselves in knots contemplating how the Holy Spirit makes this happen. Does God bring about the new birth from outside of us. Or does he accomplish it from within us? Does he first indwell us before he quickens us to new life?

Nothing is impossible for God. God could breathe new life into us from outside of ourselves. On the other hand, God also could indwell us first. God, the source of all life—physical, spiritual, and that which we cannot even imagine—could also quietly take up residence in our souls and pervade our souls with spiritual life.

In whatever way God goes about it, God is the one who takes the initiative. We do not reach up to God. God reaches down to us. We would not look heavenward if God did not enable us to do so. God’s grace, his favor and goodwill toward us, comes first. It goes before. It proceeds whatever happens.

The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to us. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God’s own presence in us, God himself dwelling in us. God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, of himself, is like the gift of his Son Jesus. It shows God’ great love for us.

Silence is kept.

The Gospel Canticle

Open this link in a new tab to hear Ann Krentz’s choral arrangement of “My Soul Proclaims Your Greatness.”

My soul proclaims your greatness, O Lord;
I sing my Savior’s praise!
Great wonders you have done for me,
and holy is your name.

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.

My soul proclaims your greatness, O Lord;
I sing my Savior’s praise!
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 lonely throned instead;
the hungry filled with all good things,
the rich sent off unfed.

My soul proclaims your greatness, O Lord;
I sing my Savior’s praise!
Great wonders you have done for me,
and holy is your name.

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.

My soul proclaims your greatness, O Lord;
I sing my Savior’s praise!
Great wonders you have done for me,
and holy is your name,
and holy is your name.

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

Be present, merciful God,
and protect us through the hours of this night:
that we, who are wearied by the changes
and chances of this fleeting world,
may rest on your eternal changelessness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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

Open this link to hear Dan Schutte’s hymn, “Send Us Your Spirit, O Lord.”

1 Send us your Spirit, O Lord
Evening enfolds us and holds us too near
Wake the morning light; make our living bright
Shine on our darkness, O Lord

2 Teach us your wisdom, O Lord
Shadows have clouded, have crowded our sight
Give us hearts that see. Set our loving free
Hear us and help us, O Lord

3 Send us good summer, O Lord
Winters have chilled us, have stilled us too long
Give us love’s own fire. Be our true desire
Send us your Spirit, O Lord

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us praise 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