All Hallows Evening Prayer for Saturday Evening (March 12, 2022)
One or more candles may be lit.
Bless be God who forgives all our sins
God’s mercy endures forever
EVENING HYMN
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.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
the shepherd of Israel,
their pillar of cloud by day,
their pillar of fire by night.
In these forty days you lead us
into the desert of repentance
that in this pilgrimage of prayer
we might learn to be your people once more.
In fasting and service
you bring us back to your heart.
You open our eyes to your presence in the world
and you free our hands to lead others
to the radiant splendour of your mercy.
Be with us in these journey days
for without you we are lost and will perish.
To you alone be dominion and glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
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.
SCRIPTURE
Ephesians 4: 17-32 Have no more to do with the old life! Learn the new
This is my instruction, then, which I give you from God. Do not live any longer as the Gentiles live. For they live blindfold in a world of illusion, and cut off from the life of God through ignorance and insensitiveness. They have stifled their consciences and then surrendered themselves to sensuality, practising any form of impurity which lust can suggest.
But you have learned nothing like that from Christ, if you have really heard his voice and understood the truth that he has taught you. No, what you learned was to fling off the dirty clothes of the old way of living, which were rotted through and through with lust’s illusions, and, with yourselves mentally and spiritually re-made, to put on the clean fresh clothes of the new life which was made by God’s design for righteousness and the holiness which is no illusion.
Finish, then, with lying and tell your neighbour the truth. For we are not separate units but intimately related to each other in Christ.
If you are angry, be sure that it is not out of wounded pride or bad temper. Never go to bed angry—don’t give the devil that sort of foothold.
If you used to be a thief you must not only give up stealing, but you must learn to make an honest living, so that you may be able to give to those in need.
Let there be no more foul language, but good words instead—words suitable for the occasion, which God can use to help other people.
Never hurt the Holy Spirit. He is, remember, the personal pledge of your eventual full redemption.
Let there be no more resentment, no more anger or temper, no more violent self-assertiveness, no more slander and no more malicious remarks, Be kind to each other, be understanding. Be as ready to forgive others as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
Body-Building
In today’s homily we continue our examination of Ephesians 4: 17-32. Earlier in his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul pleads with the members of the church at Ephesus that they live a life worthy of their calling, reminding them that they have been called by God. Paul urges them to be always humble and gentle. He further urges them to be patient with each other, making allowances for each other’s faults because of the love which they have for each other. He goes to urge them to make very effort to keep themselves united in the Holy Spirit, binding themselves together with peace.
In Ephesians 4:17-32 Paul claims that the instructions that he is giving the Ephesians come from God. They are not of his own devising. He did not make them up himself. Since he attributes them to God, he is asserting that they have far greater authority than something that he came up with himself. Paul does make a distinction in his letters between words that he writes, and which are his own and words that he writes, and which are God’s. He invites those who read his letters and those who hear them read to regard what has written in a particular letter and which attributes to God as having more weight than what he has written in that letter and attributes solely to himself. This is something that we should keep in mind when we read Paul’s letters or hear them read.
Paul goes on to instruct the members of the Ephesian church no longer live as the Gentiles live. Here is using the term “Gentile” to describe the residents of the city of Ephesus and others like them who have not heard the Gospel, who have not accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and who are not disciples of Jesus. He draws our attention of the Ephesian Christians and ourselves to three specific characteristics of these individuals. They cling to all kinds of false beliefs. They have little knowledge or understanding of the life that God gives and refuse to give importance to it. They have suppressed that part of themselves that judges how moral our actions are and makes us feel guilty about the bad things that we have done or the things that we feel responsible for and cater to their sexual desires, doing whatever is sexually gratify to them. In other words, they let their sexual desires control them and their sexual activities know no boundaries or restraint. In pagan Roman world of which Ephesus was a part, Paul’s description would fit a very broad and very diverse segment of the population.
The situation in Ephesus has its parallels in today' society in the United States. Some expositors may be tempted to focus their attention on a particular group in our society. Paul’s description, however, is applicable to a wide segment of the US population. It fits the husband who cheats on his wife with a co-worker. It fits the boyfriend who pressures his reluctant girlfriend into performing sex acts that she finds repellent, secretly videos her, and shares the videos with his friends or posts them online. It fits the adult or teenager who spends a large part of his time watching pornographic videos in which women are humiliated and degraded. It fits the middle-aged man who meets a young girl on the internet, persuades her to meet him, abducts her, and then sexually assaults her.
This country has its seamy side. It is not confined to the pimps that prowl bus stations and terminals, looking for runaways whom they befriend, hook on drugs, and then put on the street. It includes the respected member of a community caught in an FBI and local police sting operation, seeking to have sex with a young person in their early teens, and the young schoolteacher who seduces one of her teen age students.
It does not always make the news. Most of what happens goes unreported. In every case someone deceives themselves with false beliefs; gives no thought to the life which God gives, either from ignorance or stubbornness; stifle their consciences; and let their sexual appetites get the better of them.
If we think about it, this description may fit all of us at some point in our lives. We rationalized a particular action which we were thinking about taking, tuned out God, gave no attention to any qualms that we felt, and permitted our sexual desires to do our thinking for us. We may have regretted our actions later and may still be consumed by guilt and shame for what we did, but at the time we did not care that what we wanted to do was morally wrong or was likely to have bad results.
The characteristics of those whom Paul calls “Gentiles” in this passage also describe our mental processes when we make a bad decision.
First, we lie to ourselves. We convince ourselves that what we are going to do is acceptable or appropriate. This is usually predicated on a false belief that we have acquired or a personal opinion that we have formed, based on scant information and without careful thought. If we have any cognitive distortions, “thought patterns that cause people to view reality in inaccurate — usually negative — ways,” they will activate. These habitual errors in thinking influence how we interpret people’s words and actions, events, and other similar things. They cause us to not expect good things or to consider only the bad side of a situation.
Second, we treat God as if he does not exist and therefore God’s will should not be considered in our decision. If we are not a believer, we are acting from ignorance. If we are a believer, we are acting from willfulness, the determination to do exactly as we want, even if we know that it is wrong. (This language and other phrases and words used in this homily are taken from the Cambridge Dictionary.) We disregard the principles for living our lives as one of his disciples, which Jesus has given us, for example, loving our fellow believers and treating them with kindness and forgiveness.
Third, if we have any second thoughts or experience any hesitancy or doubts regarding the propriety of what we intend to do, we ignore them. We may lie to ourselves again, in order to quieten our consciences. Here are treading on particularly dangerous ground. When we repeatedly ignore the pricking of our conscience, we may eventually erode what inhibitions that we have against doing something such as treating someone in an extremely unpleasant and unkind manner and intentionally causing them pain. It may become habitual.
Fourth, we let our feelings and desires do our thinking. For example, we may have a strong desire to do harm to someone as punishment for the harm which we believe they have done to us. It does no matter whether they have actually harmed us. We believe that they have and therefore we act on that belief. This is one of the reasons why it is dangerous to form personal opinions based on scant information and without careful thought. We may get the wrong end of the stick and misunderstand the situation. We may take actions which, if we had a better grasp of the situation, we would not take.
The further we are along in the mental processes of making a bad decision, the more difficult it is to pull back from making such a decision. In order to keep from making bad decisions, it is important to learn to recognize how far along we are in these processes and to take steps to interrupt any further movement that will result in a bad decision. The closer we are to the beginning of these processes, the easier that will be.
Among the things that we will need to do is to recognize the false beliefs, personal opinions, and cognitive distortions, which influence our judgment; developing the habit of considering the principles for living Jesus has given us in all decisions in which we should give careful thought to such principles; recognizing decisions where they are applicable; recognizing when and how we are lying to ourselves; reinforcing and strengthen any inhibitions that we have against any behavior that conflicts with Jesus’ teachings and example; learning to be more sensitive to any second thoughts that we may have and to consider them in our final decision; seeking the counsel of reliable mentors and spiritual guides who can be trusted to give us sound advice; and learning to recognize when and how our feelings and desires are influencing our thinking.
While we may not have much interest in learning more about how we make decisions, it is critical to our adopting of the new life to which Paul refers in today’s reading. In my next homily I will continue my exposition of Ephesians 4: 17-32 and look at what Paul means when he writes about getting rid of the old self and putting on the new self.
God graciously brings us to a living faith in his Son Jesus. Having brought us to faith, God by his grace works in us to sanctify and perfect us, to make us more like his Son. As we grow more Christ-like, we are transformed into the kind of person that God originally meant us to be—gentle, caring, loving, patient, kind, and forgiving.
Our growth as the Body of Christ is tied to our growth as individual Christians. When we grow as individual Christians, we are better able to care for each other and to surround each other with a community of love and forgiveness, which enables us to better serve God and to better serve others. When each part of the Body of Christ works as it should, as Paul himself points to our attention, “the whole body grows and builds itself up through love” (Ephesians 4:16). We are body-building!
SONG OF PRAISE
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
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
With confidence and trust let us pray to the Lord, saying, “Lord, have mercy.”
For the one holy catholic and apostolic Church throughout the world, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the mission of the Church, that in faithful witness it may preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For those preparing for baptism and for their teachers and sponsors, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For peace in the world, that a spirit of respect and reconciliation may grow among nations and peoples, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer; for refugees, prisoners, and all in danger; that they may be relieved and protected, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy
For all whom we have injured or offended, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For grace to amend our lives and to further the reign of God, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
Free Prayer
In silent or spontaneous prayer all bring before God the concerns of the day.
The Collect
God of patience and humility, in your love you gave your Son to be rejected and raised up on a cross. Gather us under its shadow and open our eyes to its mystery, that we may share even now in the life that is from above; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
RESPONSE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Shirley Erena Murray’s “Go Gently, Go Lightly.”
Go gently, go lightly,
go safe in the Spirit,
live simply, don't carry
much more than you need:
go trusting God's goodness,
go spreading God's kindness,
stay centered on Jesus
and where he will lead.
Go singing, go bringing
the gifts of the Spirit,
go hopefully searching
for things that are true:
in living, in loving,
whatever befalls you,
God keep you, God bless you
in all that you do.
[Instrumental interlude]
Go gently, go lightly,
go safe in the Spirit,
live simply, don't carry
much more than you need:
go trusting God's goodness,
go spreading God's kindness,
stay centered on Jesus
and where he will lead.
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.
SOLEMN PRAYER OVER THE PEOPLE
Look with compassion, O Lord,
upon this your people;
that rightly observing this holy season
they may learn to know you more fully,
and to serve you with a more perfect will;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment