All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (May 16, 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 David von Kampen’s choral arrangement of “Joyous Light of Glory.”

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 the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy of being praised
with pure voices forever.
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
The universe proclaims your glory,
your glory, your glory.

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 Mark Shepperd’s choral arrangement of Psalm 84, “How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place.”

O Lord, O Lord, O Lord,
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord,
how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord.

My soul, my soul, yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God,
my heart and my flesh cry out cry out for the living God.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord,
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord.

Even the sparrow, the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest,
where she may have her young,
where she may have her young.

O Lord almighty, my King and my God.
O Lord almighty, my King, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you,
ever praising you,
ever praising you, O my God,
O my God.

O Lord, O Lord, O Lord,
how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, O Lord, O Lord.

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 John A. L. Riley’s hymn, “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones.”

1 Ye watchers and ye holy ones,
Bright seraphs, cherubim and thrones,
Raise the glad strain, Alleluya!
Cry out Dominions, princedoms, powers,
Virtues, archangels, angels' choirs,
Alleluya, Alleluya,
Alleluya, alleluya, alleluya!

2 O higher than the cherubim,
More glorious than the seraphim,
Lead their praises, Alleluya!
Thou Bearer of the eternal Word,
Most gracious, magnify the Lord,
Alleluya, Alleluya,
Alleluya, alleluya, alleluya!

3 Respond, ye souls in endless rest,
Ye patriarchs and prophets blest,
Alleluya, Alleluya!
Ye holy twelve, ye martyrs strong,
All saints triumphant, raise the song
Alleluya, Alleluya,
Alleluya, alleluya, alleluya!

4 O friends, in gladness let us sing,
Supernal anthems echoing,
Alleluya, Alleluya!
To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, Three in One,
Alleluya, Alleluya,
Alleluya, alleluya, alleluya!

The Proclamation of the Word

The Reading

1 John 5: 9-13 The Testimony of God

If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God [or in the Son] have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Silence is kept

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

The Homily

Life in the Son

To understand what John is saying in today’s reading, we must turn to John’s Gospel in which we find several passages in which Jesus ties the gift of eternal life to belief in him. I recommend visiting biblegateway.com, typing “eternal life” into the search window, clicking New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) in the Bible version window, and clicking the search button. This search will yield seventeen passages from John’s Gospel. You can choose to read each passage in context or to read the entire chapter. I generally read the entire chapter.

The passages in John's Gospel, which are most pertinent to today’s reading are found in Chapter 5. Jesus has just healed a sick man lying beside the pool of Bethesda. The Jews are furious with Jesus and are seeking to kill him because he not only healed a man on the sabbath but also is calling God his Father. In this chapter Jesus claims to be doing the work that he sees God doing, the work God has given him.

The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Elsewhere in John’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples that his words are not his own. He is repeating what God told him to say. His words are God’s words. Those who hear his words and believe what he says are believing God. They are believing God’s testimony.

In the same chapter Jesus goes on to say that God testifies on his behalf.

The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Jesus further says.

Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?

Here Jesus is saying that God is not only testifying on his behalf in his preaching and teaching, the people’s repentance in response to his preaching and teaching, his healings, his exorcisms, and the other signs and wonders that he performs but also in the scriptures. The prophet Moses to whom God gave the Law also wrote about him.

Believing in Jesus goes beyond accepting his teaching, trimmed to our liking. “No, he can’t have meant loving THEM! After Jesus miraculously multiplied bread and fishes and fed 5000 people, some of the multitude chose to follow him. Jesus questioned their motives. The bread that he offered was not the ordinary kind. It was the Bread of Life, the true bread, himself, To receive what he offers, we must believe in Jesus wholeheartedly. We must chew him up, swallow him down, digest him, and assimilate him. We must abide in him and his word abide in us.

This is why John can say that those who believe in the Son of God have God’s testimony in their hearts. They have trusted what Jesus said, what he heard from the Father, and have internalized it. They are Jesus’ sheep, having heard Jesus’ voice and recognized him as their shepherd. In John’s Gospel Jesus compares himself to a shepherd and his followers to his sheep. They know his voice and follow him. In the ancient Mid-East and in the Mid-East today shepherds will name their sheep when they are lambs, and they will follow him when he calls them by name.

Jesus promised to send to his disciples the Holy Spirit when he returned to the Father, when he resumed his place at the Father’s side. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence indwelling our innermost being. The Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirit that what Jesus said can be trusted, what he said is true. It is indeed God’s own words, God’s own testimony.

Jesus also taught the disciples that those who whole heartedly believed in him would out of their love for him keep his word and obey his commandments, In doing so they would show their love for him and their love for the Father who sent him. He and the Father would love them and come and dwell with them. They, the Father, and the Son would be united to each other.

The way that we are united to God in the person of the Father and the Son is through God in the person of the Holy Spirit. We know that we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us because we grow in our love of God, our love of Jesus, our love of each other, and our love of our fellow human beings. We become more like Jesus himself—loving, compassionate, kind, gentle, patient, forgiving, holy, generous, pure. The power of God’s presence working in us is a gift of God’s grace, his favor and goodwill toward us, but it may also be described as God’s grace.

Eternal life is not just something to which we look forward.

“Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

Eternal life begins in this life. In the High Priestly Prayer in John’s Gospel, Jesus utters these words.

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

Jesus is not talking about an intellectual knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ whom God sent. He is talking about having an intimate personal relationship with God and himself, a relationship that, while it begins in this life, endures for all eternity. This is why John can say with assurance that whoever has the Son has life!

Our faith may have a small beginning. But because its beginning is small, does not mean that we have do not have Jesus. Jesus does not wait until the acorn becomes a mighty oak before giving us eternal life. We have eternal life the very moment that we believe in him.

Silence is kept.

The Gospel Canticle

Open this link in a new tab to hear Chaz Bower’s choral arrangement of “My Soul Proclaims Your Greatness, Lord.”

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

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,
you withdraw from our sight
that you may be known by our love:
help us to enter the cloud where you are hidden,
and to surrender all our certainty
to the darkness of faith
in Jesus Christ. 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 Steven C. Warner’s arrangement of Julian of Norwich’s “All Will Be Well.”

Refrain:
All will be well,
and all will be well,
all manner of things will be well.

1 Our Lord said that all would be well,
All manner of things would be well.
Refrain

2 With all the sadness wrought in the world,
the good shall always prevail.
Refrain

3 In all the doubts that shroud simple truths,
we pray for the wisdom of God.
Refrain

4 Give us the faith to trust in your love,
when things are concealed from our view.
Refrain

5 Our faith is firm and stands on the Word,
the Word that endures for all time.
Refrain

6 And so we pray to trust in the hope
that all manner of things shall be well.

Final Refrain:
All will be well,
and all will be well,
all manners of things will be well.
will be well, will be well.

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

Open this link in a new tab to hear Elaine Hagenberg’s setting of the traditional Irish blessing, “You Do Not Walk Alone.”

May you see God's light on the path ahead
when the road you walk is dark.
May you always hear
even in your hour of sorrow
the gentle singing of the lark.
When times are hard
may hardness never turn your heart to stone.
May you always remember when the shadows fall–
You do not walk alone.

May you see God's light on the path ahead
when the road you walk is dark.
May you always hear
even in your hour of sorrow
the gentle singing of the lark.
When times are hard
may hardness never turn your heart to stone.
May you always remember when the shadows fall–
You do not walk alone.
You do not walk alone.

May you see God's light on the path ahead
when the road you walk is dark.
May you always hear
even in your hour of sorrow
the gentle singing of the lark.
When times are hard
may hardness never turn your heart to stone.
May you always remember when the shadows fall–
You do not walk alone.
May you always remember when the shadows fall–
You do not walk alone.