All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Eveing (April 25, 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 David Ashley White’s choral arrangement of Carl P. Daw Jr’s paraphrase of Psalm 23, “The Lord My Shepherd Guards Me Well.”

The Lord my Shepherd guards me well,
and all my wants are fed:
amid green pastures made to lie,
beside still waters led.
My careworn soul
grows strong and whole
when God's true path I tread.

Though I should walk in darkest ways
through valleys like the grave,
no evil shall I ever fear;
your presence makes me brave.
On my behalf
your rod and staff
assure me you will save.

For me a table has been spread
where all my foes can see;
you bathe my head with fragrant oil
to soothe and honor me.
My heart and cup
are both filled up
with joyful ecstasy.

Your steadfast love will follow me
to shield me all my days
and bring me to your holy house,
redeemed from error's ways,
my whole life long
to join the song
of those who sing God's praise.

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.

Open this link to hear James Quinn’s translation of the Latin hymn Ubi Caritas, “God Is Love, and Where True Love Is God Himself Is There.”

Refrain
God is love, and where true love is God himself is there.

1 Here in Christ we gather, love of Christ our calling.
Christ, our love, is with us, gladness be his greeting.
Let us fear and love him, holy God eternal.
Loving him, let each love Christ in one another.
Refrain

2 When we Christians gather, members of one Body,
Let there be in us no discord but one spirit.
Banished now be anger, strife and every quarrel.
Christ, our God, be always present here among us.
Refrain

3 Grant us love's fulfillment, joy with all the blessed,
When we see your face, O Savior, in its glory.
Shine on us, O purest Light of all creation,
Be our bliss while endless ages sing your praises.
Refrain

The Proclamation of the Word

The Reading

1 John 3: 16-24 Believe in the Name of Jesus and Love One Another

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Silence is kept

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

The Homily

Love in Truth and Action

When I read today’s lection from the First Letter of John, this verse caught my attention, “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” As practitioners of Lectio Divina say, it “shimmered.” The Holy Spirit drew it to my attention. It stood out from the rest of the passage.

I was reminded of a passage from the Letter of James: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17)

Loving others, whether fellow believers, Jesus followers like ourselves, or fellow human beings, those whom Jesus has shown us are neighbors regardless of whether they believe like us, look like us, speak like us, come from the same part of the world that we did or our forebears did, goes beyond having warm, fuzzy feelings towards them or wishing them well. This is the point that both the apostle John and the apostle James are making. Real love, genuine love, is more than positive feelings or kind words.

In today’s reading the apostle John urges us to love in truth and action. As the saying goes, “Put your money where your mouth is.” It is not enough to say that we love others, we must show our love for them. This does not mean putting our love on display like the Pharisees put their piety on display so everyone could see it and give them what they desired the most—praise and adulation. While we do not need to go to great lengths to hide our loving deeds from others, we also do not need to advertise them, shout them from the rooftops. Love in truth and action should be a normal part of our lives as disciple of Jesus, a normal part of the way that Jesus has taught and shown us how we should live.

Love in truth and action as John points to our attention involves sacrifice. It means inviting people into our lives and our homes. It means giving up our time for them. Giving someone our time is one of the greatest gifts of love that we can give. It means meeting a need when we see one or working with others to meet that need. It may involve the costly sacrifice of sharing scarce resources with them or giving up our lives for them.

Love in truth and action springs from our faith in Jesus. As the apostle Paul wrote the church at Galatia, “the only thing that counts is faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6) We not only believe that Jesus opened to us the way to salvation through his suffering and death and his rising to new life, but he taught and showed us how we should live lives pleasing to God.

Love in truth and action points to the mystical union between Jesus and his followers. Through this union Jesus lives in us and we live in Jesus. We are one with our Lord and he is one with us.

Love in truth and action is evidence of the power of God’s presence working in us. The compassion, the openhandedness, the kindness, the forgiveness, the gentleness, the patience, which we show others are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. We are not only the recipients and beneficiaries of God’s grace, of his unmerited and undeserved favor and goodwill, but we are also the means through which God shows his graciousness to others and the world.

Being loving should not confused with being agreeable, easygoing, and sympathetic. These can be good qualities in a human being. At the same time. they are not appropriate in every situation. It is not loving to affirm or encourage what may harm an individual or which may harm others. In many situations the loving thing to do is to dissuade the individual from taking the action that they are thinking of taking, to give it further thought. Because someone wants to do something and has thought up a rationalization for doing it does not make what they want to the right thing to do or letting them do it the loving thing to do. The loving thing to do may be to take aggressive action to protect them from themselves or others from them.

 A teenager may want to get a horrible tattoo but her friends, while thinking that she would be making a terrible mistake, say nothing because “that was what she wants to do.” A teenager’s friends took no action to prevent the teenager from committing suicide because “that was what she wanted to do.” Being loving is not going along with everything that someone wants to do. The loving thing to do may be to intervene. They may thank us later on. They may not. But we did the right thing, the loving thing. The world may not see it that way. But for Jesus followers pleasing God is more important than pleasing the world.

Love in truth and action is not satisfied with loving our neighbors as ourselves, doing to others what we would wish done to us, loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us; loving our fellow Jesus followers with the same kind of sacrificial love with which Jesus loved us. Love in truth and action seeks to share with people everywhere the love that Jesus has shown us and the love that Jesus shows others and the world through us. Love in truth and action goes where those who are not yet Jesus followers are, builds relationships with them, gives them a ready welcome and a generous place in our fellowship, and points them to Jesus.

Love in truth and action offers them the most precious thing that we can offer. Love in truth and action offers them Jesus!

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

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 in a new tab to hear Rise Up & Sing’s arrangement of Tom Colvin’s hymn, “Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love.”

Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you.

Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you.

Neighbors are rich folk and poor,
Neighbors are black, brown, and white,
neighbors are nearby and far away.

Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you.

These are the ones we should serve,
these are the ones we should love,
all these are neighbors to us and you.

Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you.

Jesu (Jesu), Jesu (Jesu), fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you.

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.