All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (November 21, 2021)
Evening Prayer
The Service of LightJesus Christ is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can extinguish.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Joyous Light of Glorious God from Kent Gustavson’s Mountain Vespers.
Joyous light of glorious God,
heavenly, holy, Jesus Christ,
We have come to the setting of the Sun
and we look to the ev’ning light.
We sing to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our voices pure voices together.
O precious God, giver of life,
we sing your praises forever.
Joyous light of glorious God,
heavenly, holy, Jesus Christ,
We have come to the setting of the Sun
and we look to the ev’ning light.
We sing to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our voices pure voices together.
O precious God, giver of life,
we sing your praises forever.
Thanksgiving
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Blessed are you, Creator of the universe,
from old you have led your people by night and day.
May the light of your Christ make our darkness bright,
for your Word and your presence are the light of our pathways,
and you are the light and life of all creation.
Amen.
Psalm 141 is sung and incense may be burned.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Psalm 141 from Kent Gustavson's Mountain Vespers.
Let my prayer rise before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
O God, I call you; come to me quickly;
Hear my voice when I cry to you.
Let my prayer rise before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Set a watch before my mouth,
and guard the doors of my lips.
Let not my heart incline to any evil thing;
Never occupied in wickedness.
Let my prayer rise before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
My eyes are turned to you, O God,
in you I take refuge.
My eyes are turned to you, O God,
Strip me not of my life.
Let my prayer rise before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Silence is kept.
May our prayers come before you, O God, as incense, and may your presence surround and fill us, so that in union with all creation, we might sing your praise and your love in our lives. Amen.
The Psalms
Open this link in a new tab to hear the It’s About the Word setting of Psalm 93, “The Lord Is Mighty.”
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
You reign with majesty and strength.
Your throne has always been from eternity.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
The seas have lifted up, O Lord.
The seas have lifted up their voice.
The seas have lifted up their pounding waves.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
You reign with majesty and strength.
Your throne has always been from eternity.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
Oh Oh.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
The Lord is mighty and holy for all days.
Holy for all days.
Silence is kept.
Christ our King,
you put on the apparel of our nature
and raised us to your glory;
reign from your royal throne
above the chaos of this world,
that all may see the victory you have won
and trust in your salvation;
for your glory’s sake. Amen.
The Proclamation of the Word
The Reading
John 12: 20-33 Jesus speaks of his death
Among those who had come up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They approached Philip with the request, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”
Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew went with Philip and told Jesus.
Jesus told them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you truly that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain of wheat; but if it does, it brings a good harvest. The man who loves his own life will destroy it, and the man who hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. If a man wants to enter my service, he must follow my way; and where I am, my servant will also be. And my Father will honour every man who enters my service.
“Now comes my hour of heart-break, and what can I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very purpose that I came to this hour. ‘Father, honour your own name!’” At this there came a voice from Heaven, “I have honoured it and I will honour it again!”
When the crowd of bystanders heard this, they said it thundered, but some of them said, “An angel spoke to him.”
Then Jesus said, “That voice came for your sake, not for mine. Now is the time for the judgment of this world to begin, and now will the spirit that rules this world be driven out. As for me, if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all men to myself.” (He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.)
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
The Homily
Servants of the King
In a number of Christian traditions this Sunday is Christ the King Sunday in which Christ’s kingship or his reign is celebrated. It is the last Sunday of the Season after Pentecost. Next Sunday will be Advent Sunday, the first Sunday of the Advent Season, the season that precedes the Christmas Season, the first of four Sundays that focus on Jesus’ second coming, his coming not as our Savior but as our King and Judge.
Today’s reading is one of the supplemental readings appointed in the lectionary for Christ the King Sunday. The preceding passages in the Gospel of John describe Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem in which the great crowd who had come to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover heard that Jesus was coming into the city, and went to meet him, waving palm branches and shouting, “God save him! ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’, God bless the king of Israel!”
In today’s reading Jesus, upon hearing some Greeks, some non-Jews, want to see him, say these words—
“The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you truly that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain of wheat; but if it does, it brings a good harvest. The man who loves his own life will destroy it, and the man who hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. If a man wants to enter my service, he must follow my way; and where I am, my servant will also be. And my Father will honour every man who enters my service.”
I believe that we can safely assume that Jesus was not only talking about himself but also those who want to follow him. When a seed is planted, it is in a dormant state, a death-like state. In that state it undergoes a transformation, It quickens, comes to life, and germinates, begins to grow and put out shoots. These shoots push their way to the surface of the earth and become a young plant. When the young plant grows to maturity, it produces seeds of its own.
The Greeks who came looking for Jesus were the first of the harvest that Jesus’ own death would produce. Gentiles and Samaritans as well as Jews would come to believe in Jesus after he was crucified and died, was buried, and then rose from the dead. His suffering, death and resurrection would yield a great harvest, a harvest that has lasted to this day and may continue for years to come.
From the same words we can conclude that Jesus also had in mind those who wanted to enter his service, to become his disciples. His early followers concluded that the death to which Jesus was alluding was their symbolic death in the water of baptism in which they died to sin and from which they rose to a new life in Christ. If they were to live this new life in Christ, they had to put to death their old self with its sinful ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. They were to leave behind their worst self and to become fully their better self.
We cannot follow Jesus and act like we did before we turned to him. When we turned to him, we turned from our old ways, the ways of this world. We cannot go on doing the things that our family members, friends, coworkers, fellow students, and acquaintances are doing.
When we entered Jesus’ service, we embarked on a new life. No more ghosting people. No more bullying them. No more being overly bossy, domineering, and arrogant, No more giving no thought to people’s feelings. No more temper outbursts over trivial matters. No more giving people the silent treatment. No more talking about them behind their back. No more insisting that we have our way in everything. No more being dishonest with people. No more treating them unkindly.
The new life on which we embarked is a life of loving God, loving Jesus, loving others, loving those who treat us badly, praying for them, doing good to them, treating other people exactly how we would wish ourselves to be treated, loving one another as Jesus loved us, pursuing holiness, emulating Jesus’s character, and following his example.
As we undergo the process of transformation into our new self, our better self, we become more compassionate, gentler, kinder, more patient, more forgiving, more caring, more generous, more peace-loving, more self-controlled. This does not happen suddenly, all at once. It is a gradual process. We are a work in progress.
There may be setbacks. We may temporarily fall back into old habits. But God’s sanctifying and perfecting grace keep us moving steadily in the direction of our new self, our better self. The Holy Spirit keeps nudging us in that direction. We get better at being loving. We get better at being kind. We get better at being forgiving. We get better at letting go of our anger, resentment, fear, anxiety, and other negative feelings and trusting God.
One thing to remember when we enter the service of Jesus. We are not entering the service of an ordinary lord or king. We are entering the service of the King, the one to whom every knee must bow and whom every tongue must confess is Lord. Jesus is the one to whom God has given supreme power over all creation, over everything in heaven and on the earth, in the seas, and under the earth. Jesus is Lord of all.
Living in the twenty-first century we see ourselves as our own master. However, when we surrender our lives to Jesus and trust in him for our salvation, he becomes our master. We yield control of our lives to him. He is the one who is now in charge of our life. We put our old life behind us and we begin a new life with him—the life of servants of the King.
The Gospel Canticle
Open this link in a new tab to hear the Magnificat from Kent Gustavson’s Mountain Vespers.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
1 You O God have done great things
and holy is your name.
You have mercy on those who fear you
n ev’ry generation.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
2 You have shown the strength of your arm,
you have scattered the proud in their conceit.
You have cast the might down from thrones
and have lifted up the lowly.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
3 You have filled the hungry with good things,
the rich you have sent away empty.
You have come to the help of your servant Israel
you’ve remembered your promise of mercy.
The promise you made
to Sarah and Abraham.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
Glory to you, O Lord our God
With your love and power.
Glory to you, O Lord our God
With your love and power.
Amen
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
In darkness and in light,
in trouble and in joy,
help us, heavenly Father,
to trust your love,
to serve your purpose,
and to praise your name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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 Scot Crandal’s choral arrangement of James Quinn’s “Christ Be Beside Me.”
Christ be beside me,
Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me,
King of my heart,
Christ be within me,
Christ be below me,
Christ be above me,
Never to part.
Christ on my right hand,
Christ on my left hand,
Christ all around me,
Shield in the strife.
Christ in my sleeping,
Christ in my sitting,
Christ in my rising,
Light of my life.
Christ be in all hearts
Thinking about me.
Christ be on all tongues
Telling of me.
Christ be the vision
In eyes that see me,
In ears that hear me
Christ ever be.
Christ ever be.
The Lord be with you.
And the Lord bless you.
Let us praise the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
May our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our Father,
comfort our hearts and establish them
In every good work and word. Amen
From the same words we can conclude that Jesus also had in mind those who wanted to enter his service, to become his disciples. His early followers concluded that the death to which Jesus was alluding was their symbolic death in the water of baptism in which they died to sin and from which they rose to a new life in Christ. If they were to live this new life in Christ, they had to put to death their old self with its sinful ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. They were to leave behind their worst self and to become fully their better self.
We cannot follow Jesus and act like we did before we turned to him. When we turned to him, we turned from our old ways, the ways of this world. We cannot go on doing the things that our family members, friends, coworkers, fellow students, and acquaintances are doing.
When we entered Jesus’ service, we embarked on a new life. No more ghosting people. No more bullying them. No more being overly bossy, domineering, and arrogant, No more giving no thought to people’s feelings. No more temper outbursts over trivial matters. No more giving people the silent treatment. No more talking about them behind their back. No more insisting that we have our way in everything. No more being dishonest with people. No more treating them unkindly.
The new life on which we embarked is a life of loving God, loving Jesus, loving others, loving those who treat us badly, praying for them, doing good to them, treating other people exactly how we would wish ourselves to be treated, loving one another as Jesus loved us, pursuing holiness, emulating Jesus’s character, and following his example.
As we undergo the process of transformation into our new self, our better self, we become more compassionate, gentler, kinder, more patient, more forgiving, more caring, more generous, more peace-loving, more self-controlled. This does not happen suddenly, all at once. It is a gradual process. We are a work in progress.
There may be setbacks. We may temporarily fall back into old habits. But God’s sanctifying and perfecting grace keep us moving steadily in the direction of our new self, our better self. The Holy Spirit keeps nudging us in that direction. We get better at being loving. We get better at being kind. We get better at being forgiving. We get better at letting go of our anger, resentment, fear, anxiety, and other negative feelings and trusting God.
One thing to remember when we enter the service of Jesus. We are not entering the service of an ordinary lord or king. We are entering the service of the King, the one to whom every knee must bow and whom every tongue must confess is Lord. Jesus is the one to whom God has given supreme power over all creation, over everything in heaven and on the earth, in the seas, and under the earth. Jesus is Lord of all.
Living in the twenty-first century we see ourselves as our own master. However, when we surrender our lives to Jesus and trust in him for our salvation, he becomes our master. We yield control of our lives to him. He is the one who is now in charge of our life. We put our old life behind us and we begin a new life with him—the life of servants of the King.
The Gospel Canticle
Open this link in a new tab to hear the Magnificat from Kent Gustavson’s Mountain Vespers.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
1 You O God have done great things
and holy is your name.
You have mercy on those who fear you
n ev’ry generation.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
2 You have shown the strength of your arm,
you have scattered the proud in their conceit.
You have cast the might down from thrones
and have lifted up the lowly.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
3 You have filled the hungry with good things,
the rich you have sent away empty.
You have come to the help of your servant Israel
you’ve remembered your promise of mercy.
The promise you made
to Sarah and Abraham.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
Glory to you, O Lord our God
With your love and power.
Glory to you, O Lord our God
With your love and power.
Amen
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
In darkness and in light,
in trouble and in joy,
help us, heavenly Father,
to trust your love,
to serve your purpose,
and to praise your name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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 Scot Crandal’s choral arrangement of James Quinn’s “Christ Be Beside Me.”
Christ be beside me,
Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me,
King of my heart,
Christ be within me,
Christ be below me,
Christ be above me,
Never to part.
Christ on my right hand,
Christ on my left hand,
Christ all around me,
Shield in the strife.
Christ in my sleeping,
Christ in my sitting,
Christ in my rising,
Light of my life.
Christ be in all hearts
Thinking about me.
Christ be on all tongues
Telling of me.
Christ be the vision
In eyes that see me,
In ears that hear me
Christ ever be.
Christ ever be.
The Lord be with you.
And the Lord bless you.
Let us praise the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
May our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our Father,
comfort our hearts and establish them
In every good work and word. Amen
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