All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (April 11, 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 Tony Alphonso's arrangement of Psalm 141, “Like Burning Incense, O Lord.”

Like burning incense, O Lord,
let my rise to you.
Like burning incense, O Lord,
let my prayer rise to you.

1 I call out to you,
Come quickly to my aid.
My song cries out to you,
O listen to me now.
I raise my hands in off’ring to you.

Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)
Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)

2 Let me speak your truth;
watch over all I say.
Keep my thoughts on you;
let goodness rule my heart.
Keep me far from those who do harm.

Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)
Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)

3 Never let me dine
with those who seek to harm.
Keep your holy ones
always at my side.
Plant your wisdom deep in my soul.

Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)
Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)

4 I look to you for help;
I seek your loving eyes.
Guard my life for you;
Spare me from all wrong.
Keep all evil far from my heart.

Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)
Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)

5 Glory be to God
and to God’s only Son,
glory to the Spirit,
three in one,
now and for ever. Amen.

Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise to you.)
Like burning incense, O Lord,
(Like burning incense, O Lord,)
let my prayer rise to you.
(let my prayer rise 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

Open this link to hear Marty Haugen’s arrangement of Psalm 66: Let All the Earth Cry Out in Joy to the Lord.

Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord.
Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord;
Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord!

Cry out in joy to the Lord all peoples on earth,
sing to the praise of his name, proclaiming forever,
“tremendous his deeds for us.”

Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord;
(Cry out in joy unto the Lord, Alleluia’)
Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord!
(Cry out in joy unto the Lord!)

Leading his people safe through fire and water,
bringing their souls to life, we sing of his glory,
his love is eternal.

Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord;
(Cry out in joy unto the Lord, Alleluia’)
Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord!
(Cry out in joy unto the Lord!)

Hearken to me as I sing my love of the Lord,
he answers the prayer of my heart.
He leads me in safety,
from death unto life.

Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord;
(Cry out in joy unto the Lord, Alleluia’)
Let all the earth cry out in joy to the Lord! to the Lord!
(Alleluia!)
To the Lord!
(Alleluia!)
To the Lord!
(Alleluia!)
To the Lord!
(Alleluia!)

Silence is kept.

How generous is your goodness, O God,
how great is your salvation,
how faithful is your love;
help us to trust you in trial
and praise you in deliverance;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Open this link to hear David Blackwell’s anthem “Glory to the Lamb”

Come, let us join our cheerful songs
with angels round the throne;
ten thousand thousand are their tongues,
but all their joys are one.
Alleluia, alleluia, glory to the Lamb.

'Worthy the Lamb that died,' they cry,
'to be exalted thus';
'Worthy the Lamb,' our lips reply,
'for he was slain for us.'
Alleluia, alleluia, glory to the Lamb.

Let all that dwell above the sky,
and in the earth and seas,
combine to lift your glories,
and sing your endless praise.
Let all creation joins in one
to bless the sacred name
of him that sits upon the throne,
and to adore the Lamb.
Alleluia, alleluia, glory to the Lamb.
Glory to the Lamb.

The Proclamation of the Word

The Reading

John 20:19-23 Jesus Appears to the Disciples

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

Silence is kept.

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

The Homily

Jesus’ Fingerposts

When my family emigrated from England to the United States in the late 1950s, one of the things that I missed the most were fingerposts—fingerposts, country lanes, foot paths, grassy commons, hedgerows, peewits, and curlews. The West Bank across the Mississippi River from New Orleans was a far cry from rural Suffolk—hot sun, rows of untidy clapboard houses, concrete steps, chain link fences, statues of the Blessed Virgin, weed-filled empty lots, and white shells on the roadside. It was a different world.

Fingerposts fascinated me as a young boy. They are a traditional type of wooden signpost. They may be found in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. They consist of a post with one or more arms from which they get their name--fingerposts. The arms are called fingers. Each finger points in the direction of the place painted or engraved on the finger. Fingerposts are erected at road junctions. They were helpful guides to a young boy who liked to ride around the Suffolk countryside on his bicycle and visit its churches. Suffolk is known as Seely Suffolk, or Holy Suffolk, for its many churches built in the late Middle Ages. A few fingerposts might bear the shield or emblem of the village where they were located, for example, a huntsman chasing a wild boar.

In World War II the Home Guard took down many fingerposts or turned them around so they pointed in the wrong directions. The Home Guard did this to confuse any German spies that might secretly parachute into a lonely part of the country and to slow the advance of the German Army should Hitler launch his long-awaited invasion of the British Isles. They may have been futile measures, but they helped the Home Guard feel like it was doing its bit to protect the country.

Just as the Father sent the Son, Jesus sends the Church to carryout God’s mission. In today’s reading the disciples and whoever else was present in the house where the disciples had met represent the Church. It is onto the Church that Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit, not onto the individual disciples.

It is to the Church that Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” He is not bestowing on individual ministers the power to forgive sins or to retain them.

What is the God’s mission for the Church? Later on in his gospel, John writes, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” The God's mission for the Church is to point to Jesus those who have not yet come to believe that he is the Messiah, God’s Anointed One, the Savior of the world. That is what John himself is doing in his gospel.

We are to be fingerposts, fingerposts with one finger, a finger which points to Jesus and to no one else. Our lives, our words, our deeds—they are selfsame finger, pointing always to Jesus. It does not matter where we are. What matters is that we point to Jesus.

The devil, the world, and the flesh, the threesome that oppose God, will seek to turn us around so that we point in a different direction and lead others astray. Jesus, however, is not a spy. He is not an invading army. He is the Son of God, our Savior, “who by his death on the cross and rising to new life offered the one true sacrifice for sin and obtained an eternal deliverance for his people.”

What about making disciples of all people groups, baptizing them in the name of the Holy Trinity and instructing them in what Jesus taught and commanded; proclaiming eternal salvation; going into the world and spreading the good news to all creation; proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins to the entire world? They are part of the God’s mission for the Church. But they cannot be fulfilled unless we point people to Jesus. Whose disciples are they to become—Jesus’! In whose teaching and commandments are they to be instructed—Jesus’! By faith in whom are we saved—Jesus! What is the good news we are spreading—Jesus! Who made a new life possible for us—Jesus! In whom is found forgiveness of sins—Jesus! When we point people to Jesus, we point them to a life of discipleship. We point them to a life lived in accordance with Jesus’ teaching and commandments, a life of loving God and of loving others, a life of doing to others what we would wish done to us, a life of going the extra mile and of blessing instead of cursing, a life lived as children of the Most High. We point them to salvation, forgiveness of their sins, and a transformed life, a life lived to God’s glory.

We may stand at a road intersection in a crowded city, in a poor neighborhood, a wealthy suburb, in a quiet country village, or at one of the loneliest places on earth. We stand there because God placed us there to point to Jesus to all who come that way, to point to the One in whom they may have life and have it abundantly.

Silence is kept.

The Gospel Canticle

Open this link in a new tab to hear 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

Risen Christ,
whose absence leaves us in despair
but whose presence is overwhelming:
breathe on us with your abundant life,
that where we cannot see
we may have courage to believe
that we may be raised with you. 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 in a new tab to hear Rusty Edwards’ hymn, “Praise the One Who Break the Darkness”

1 Praise the One who breaks the darkness
With a liberating light;
Praise the One who frees the pris'ners
Turning blindness into sight.
Praise the One who preached the Gospel,
Healing ev'ry dread disease,
Calming storms, and feeding thousands
With the very Bread of peace.

2 Praise the One who blessed the children
With a strong, yet gentle word;
Praise the One who drove out demons
With the piercing two-edged sword.
Praise the one who brings cool water
To the desert's burning sand;
From this Well comes living water
Quenching thirst in ev'ry land.

3 Let us praise the Word incarnate,
Christ, who suffered in our place.
Jesus died and rose victorious
That we may know God by grace.
Let us sing for joy and gladness,
Seeing what our God has done;
Let us praise the true Redeemer,
Praise the One who makes us one.

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.