All Hallows Evening Prayer for Saturday Evening (April 24, 2021)

 

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 Carl P. Daw Jr.’s evening hymn, “O Light Whose Splendor Thrills and Gladdens.”

O Light whose splendor thrills and gladdens
with radiance brighter than the sun,
pure gleam of God's unending glory,
O Jesus, blest Anointed One;

as twilight hovers near at sunset,
and lamps are lit, and children nod,
in evening hymns we lift our voices
to Father, Spirit, Son: one God.

In all life's brilliant, timeless moments,
let faithful voices sing your praise,
O Son of God, our Life-bestower,
whose glory lightens endless days.

Thanksgiving

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Blessed are you, O Lord Redeemer God,
You destroyed the bonds of death
and from the darkness of the tomb
drew forth the light of the world.
Led through the waters of death.
we become the children of light
singing our Alleluia
and dancing to the music of new life.
Pour out your Spirit upon us
that dreams and visions bring us
ever closer to the kingdom
of Jesus Christ our Risen Savior.
Through him and in the Holy Spirit
all glory be to you, Almighty Father,
this night and for ever and ever.
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 Daniel Kallman’s choral arrangement of Jonathan Asprey’s paraphrase of Psalm 84, “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place.”

How lovely is thy dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts, to me.
My soul is longing and fainting,
The courts of the Lord to see.
My heart and flesh, they are singing,
For joy to the living God.
How lovely is thy dwelling-place,
O Lord of hosts, to me.

Even the sparrow finds a home,
Where he can settle down.
And the swallow she can build a nest,
Where she may lay her young.
Within the court of the Lord of hosts,
My King, my Lord and my God.
And happy are those who are dwelling where
The song of praise is sung.

And I’d rather be a door-keeper
And only stay a day,
Than live the life of a sinner
And have to stay away.
For the Lord is shining as the sun,
And the Lord, he’s like a shield;
And no good thing does God withhold
From those who walk the way.

How lovely is thy dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts, to me.
My soul is longing and fainting,
The courts of the Lord to see.
My heart and flesh, they are singing,
For joy to the living God.
How lovely is thy dwelling-place,
O Lord of hosts, to me.

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.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Mark Burkhardt’s choral arrangement of Carl P. Daw’s “Splendor and Honor, Majesty and Power.”

Splendor and honor, majesty and power,
are yours, O Lord God, fount of every blessing,
for by your bidding was the whole creation
called into being.

Praised be the true Lamb, slain for our redemption,
by whose self-offering we are made God's people:
a priestly kingdom, from all tongues and nations,
called to God's service.

To the Almighty, throned in heavenly splendor,
and to the Savior, Christ our Lamb and Shepherd,
be adoration, praise, and glory given,
now and for ever. Amen.

The Proclamation of the Word

The Reading

Jeremiah 18: 1-12 The Potter and the Clay

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

But they say, “It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.”

Silence is kept.

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

The Homily

In the Hands of the Potter

The warning that God gives Jeremiah in today’s reading to deliver to the house of Israel, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, is also a warning to us not to presume upon God’s grace. We should not take God’s favor and goodwill toward us for granted and try his patience with our disobedience.

The house of Israel’s relationship to God was more than that of an ordinary nation. The people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem as descendants of Abraham were God’s chosen people. They were the surviving remnant of the people of Israel. After God had given the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, God made a covenant with the people of Israel. He told the people of Israel that he would bless them, care for them and protect them, as long as they obeyed and served him. However, if they disobeyed him and served other gods, he would withdraw his care and protection.

In the Old Testament account of God’s relationship with his chosen people, we learn that God permitted disaster to befall the people of Israel due to their worship of other gods and their disobedience. He sent prophets like Jeremiah to warn them to turn from their evil ways and to return to him. While God’s chosen people were faithless to God, God himself were faithful to them. He did not abandon them.

In today’s reading God sends Jeremiah to the workshop of a potter and there give Jeremiah a warning for the house of Israel, for the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in which God compares himself to a potter turning a pot on his wheel and the house of Israel to the pot that the potter is molding in his hands. A potter’s wheel is “a horizontal revolving disk on which wet clay is shaped into pots or other round ceramic objects.”

If a potter does not like the shape that a pot is taking in his hands, he will squeeze the wet clay back into a lump and begin again. When the potter is satisfied with what he has made, he will trim away any excess clay, allow the pot to dry and then fire the pot in a kiln or pit. He may paint and glaze the pot and then fire it. Firing a pot requires a high temperature that will not only bake the clay but give the pot the right finish.

How does God’s warning to the house of Israel, which God gave to Jeremiah, apply to us? Like the house of Israel, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ are also God’s chosen people, those whom, the apostle Peter tells us, God has called out of darkness into his marvelous light to proclaim his mighty deeds. We are a particular people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. God has made a covenant with us as he made with the people of Israel. The blood that Christ shed for us was the blood by which this new covenant was sealed between God and us.

Because God shows us his favor and goodwill, we cannot assume that he will wink at our wrongdoings or turn his head when we do evil. Our misdeeds grieve God. They cause great distress to God. As a parent who disciplines a child that he loves, God will discipline us. The potter who is dissatisfied with how the pot is taking shape in his hands will squeeze the wet clay back into a lump and reshape the pot to his satisfaction.

How are we in our generation acting in ways that grieve God?

We are allowing the politics of the day “to tower above and cast a shadow over” the teaching and example of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are treating our political opinions, conservative or progressive, as far more important that what he taught and exemplified.

We are not showing compassion and generosity toward our fellow human beings. Our Lord was compassionate and generous. He taught that his followers should be compassionate and generous. The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing that some of us have not taken his example and teaching to heart. We do not view the safety of others as our responsibility. As long as we believe in our own minds that we are safe, we do not care what happens to them. We do not see our neighbor in them. We see our neighbor only in those who believe like we do.

As Knute Larson points to his readers’ attention in an article on the Outreach Magazine website, "the people of the Church speak on" social media "as if God cannot read." They say harsh, unkind things about their fellow Christians and others. Jesus taught us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to go the extra mile, to bless and not to curse, and to return good for evil.

Larson also draws to our attention what he calls “Christian shallowness.” Our lives reflect the influence of the world more than they reflect the influence of the one whom we call Lord. In fact, there are people who are not Christians and who act more like Christians than we do.

We prefer the company of our Christian friends, people like ourselves, to the company of people who are not yet Christians. We do not take the trouble to meet them, much less spend time with them, listen to them, build relationships with them, and be the instruments of God’s grace to them.

I can imagine God turning our pot on his wheel and thinking to himself, “I really do not like the way that this pot is turning out. I think that I’ll fold it back into clay again and refashion it anew.”

God can do that. God can remake his Church over again. If we are not taking shape in his hands in a way that is pleasing to him, he can take us, squeeze us back into a lump of clay, and start again. After all, God is the potter. We are the clay. The clay cannot tell the potter what he should do, how he should mold the clay.

Silence is kept.

The Gospel Canticle

Open this link in a new tab to hear David Ashley White's choral arrangement of the Carl P. Daw Jr. 's paraphrase of the Magnificat, "My Soul Proclaims with Wonder."

Refrain:
My soul proclaims with wonder
the greatness of the Lord;
rejoicing in God's goodness,
my spirit is restored.

For God has looked with favor,
on one the world thought frail;
and blessings through the ages will echo
the angel's first "All hail."
Refrain

God's mercy shields the faithful
and gives them safe retreat
to arms that turns to scatter
the proud in their conceit.
Refrain

The mighty have been vanquished;
the lowly lifted up.
The hungry find abundance;
the rich, an empty cup.
Refrain

To Abraham's descendants
the Lord will steadfast prove,
for God has made with Israel
a covenant of love.
Refrain

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

O God,
whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people:
help us when we hear his voice
to know him who calls us each by name,
and to follow where leads;
who with you and the Holy Spirit
Ives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Lord's Prayer

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 Jonathan Asprey’s “The Potter’s Song.”

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying...

Go down to the house of the potter
Watch him work the clay
Listen to what I say as you watch him
Go down to the house of the potter
Watch him turn the wheel
Know that's how I feel as I'm working.

That is how I need to mould you
Form a vessel in my hand
Just to let me have and hold you
Break you, make you to my plan

Go down to the house of the potter
Watch him work the clay
Listen to what I say as you watch him
Go down to the house of the potter
Watch him turn the wheel
Know that's how I feel as I'm working.

For I need these earthen vessels
Filled with life that overflows
Put my treasure in earthen vessels
Then the skill of the potter shows.

...so I went down to the house of the potter. And there he was, working at his wheel. Sometimes the vessel would spoil in his hands and he would rework it, as it was fitting for him to do.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying...

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us praise the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

May the God of peace, who brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ,
the great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make us perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in us what is pleasing in his sight.
Amen.