All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (April 24, 2022)
One or more candles may be lit.
Christ is risen!!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!!
EVENING HYMN
Open this link in a new tab to hear John L. Bell and Graham Maule’s “Jesus Calls Us Here to Meet Him.”
Jesus calls us here to meet him
as, through word and song and prayer,
we affirm God‘s promised presence
where his people live and care.
Praise the God who keeps his promise;
praise the Son who calls us friends;
praise the Spirit who, among us,
to our hopes and fears attends.
Jesus calls us to confess him
Word of Life and Lord of All,
sharer of our flesh and frailness
saving all who fail or fall.
Tell his holy human story;
tell his tales that all may hear;
tell the world that Christ in glory
came to earth to meet us here.
Jesus calls us to each other,
vastly different though we are;
creed and colour, class and gender
Neither limit nor debar.
Join the hand of friend and stranger;
join the hands of age and youth;
join the faithful and the doubter
in their common search for truth.
Jesus calls us to his table
rooted firm in time and space,
where the Church in earth and heaven
finds a common meeting place.
Share the bread and wine, his body;
share the love of which we sing;
share the feast for saints and sinners
hosted by our Lord and King.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
We praise and thank you, O God our Father,
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through him you have enlightened us
by revealing the light that never fades,
for dark death has been destroyed
and radiant life is everywhere restored.
What was promised is fulfilled:
we have been joined to God,
through renewed life in the Spirit of the risen Lord.
Glory and praise to you, our Father,
through Jesus your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Spirit,
in the kingdom of light eternal,
for ever and ever. Amen.
HYMN OF THE DAY
Open this link in a new tab to hear Henry Alford’s hymn, “We Walk by Faith, and Not by Sight.”
1 We walk by faith, and not by sight:
No gracious words we hear
of him who spoke as none e'er spoke,
but we believe him near.
2 We may not touch his hands and side,
nor follow where he trod;
yet in his promise we rejoice,
and cry, "My Lord and God!"
3 Help then, O Lord, our unbelief,
and may our faith abound;
to call on you when you are near.
and seek where you are found:
4 That when our life of faith is done
in realms of clearer light
We may behold you as you are
in full and endless sight.
5 We walk by faith, and not by sight:
No gracious words we hear
of him who spoke as none e'er spoke,
but we believe him near.
SCRIPTURE
John 20: 19-31 Jesus Appears to Thomas
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
Believing What We Have Not Seen
How often have we heard the expression, “Seeing is believing”?
We use this expression in two different ways. We may insist that we need to see something before we will be able or willing to accept that it really exists or occurs. When we witness something which we thought unlikely, we may conclude that we cannot doubt the truth of its existence or occurrence.
The expression has appeared in numerous collections of proverbs in English from 1639 on, but the idea that only proof which is concrete is convincing is far older. It goes back to ancient times, to the Greeks.
How often do we actually practice the underlying principle, insisting upon concrete proof before we will be convinced?
In reality we are more likely to demand a great deal of concrete proof when we are not willing to believe something. Indeed, a mountain of such proof will not satisfy us.
On other hand, when we are willing to believe something, it will not take much to convince us.
The principle itself has limited usefulness. We cannot see everything that exists or occurs.
We cannot see microbes with the naked eye. We have catalogued only a small percentage of living creatures that share this planet with us. They may live around us, but we are oblivious to them.
Dogs hear sounds that we cannot hear. Insects see colors that we cannot see. Cats notice movements that we do not notice.
Until someone recorded them in the twentieth century, no one had heard the song of the whales.
As Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play by same name drew to the attention of the skeptical friend Horatio, “There are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” We are limited by what we imagine can exist or occur. Horatio refused to believe in the existence of the ghost which Hamlet had seen.
The human mind is capable of paradoxical thinking. We have the ability to simultaneously entertain conflicting or contradictory thoughts, opinions, and ideas. We can believe in the existence or occurrence of something while having doubts about its existence or occurrence.
We tend to put people, things, and occurrences into one of two categories—natural and supernatural. We, however, may be drawing an artificial distinction between natural phenomena and supernatural phenomena. What we consider supernatural phenomena due to their unusual or rare occurrence or our inability to discern them may simply be a part of the natural world.
In the first book of his Perelandra science fiction novel series, Out of the Silent Planet, C. S. Lewis introduces this concept to his readers. On Malacandra, the planet that we call Mars, angels are a part of the planet’s natural order and the hnau, its non-angelic inhabitants, are able to discern their presence and to communicate with them. They exist on a different plane from the hnau and move through what we would consider solid substances as we would move through water.
What do these observations have to do with today’s reading, John 20: 19-31? They help us to understand why Thomas initially refused to believe his fellow disciples and demanded more proof of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. He was not going to take their word for it. They explain in part Jesus’ ability to appear in a room to which the doors are locked without being an apparition or specter. He had substance. He bore the wounds from the nails and the spear.
While Thomas may have at first been unwilling to believe his fellow disciples, he could not deny his own eyes when he saw Jesus’ wounds.
Thomas may have wanted to believe, but the news of Jesus’ resurrection may have sounded too good to be true. In that sense Thomas is like many of us. We want to believe but we do not want to experience the disappointment of discovering what we believed is not true. We let our doubts keep us from believing.
Thomas believed when what he may have felt in his heart lined up with what he saw with his eyes. Heart and mind came to the same conclusion. Jesus was not only alive, risen from the dead, but Jesus was also God. Had not Jesus himself said, “Nothing is impossible for God”?
We cannot rule out the possibility that Thomas’ initial reluctance to believe was God’s will. Our ability to believe is God’s doing, a working of God’s grace in our hearts and minds. We are able to believe because God enables us to believe, makes it possible for us to believe.
We would not have heard the story of Thomas’ disbelief if he had believed his fellow disciples, if they had convinced him. We would not have heard Jesus’ encouraging words, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
Those to whom Jesus is referring are ourselves, those who believe that he has risen from the dead and that he is the Messiah, the Son of God. We have not seen the wounds in his hands or his side. Yet we believe.
John reminds us at the end of today’s reading that those who believe in Jesus will have life by the power of his name. As John wrote earlier in his gospel, they will not perish but have everlasting life.
What happened to the apostle Thomas after his encounter with the risen Lord? According to tradition, he traveled to India around 52 AD. He traveled there after his first mission to the Parthian Empire. He established a community of Christians, the Mar Thoma Church, on the Malabar Coast of India. After engaging in missionary work in Kerala, a state on the Malabar Coast, for 30 years, he made his way to India’s east coast where he suffered martyrdom. What evidence that we have supports this tradition. It shows us what can happen when faith in Jesus transforms a man’s life.
It may have been in God’s plan for Thomas to give him an extra boost to his faith before sending him to accomplish great things for God. It may be in God’s plan for us to get an extra boost to our own faith from Thomas' story. God does that sort of thing. God may have great things in mind for us too.
It may not be to travel to a foreign land and to start a church. It may be to point our family, relatives, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and strangers to Jesus. Showing and sharing the love of Jesus is the greatest thing that we can do in our lives. Knowing Jesus and the Father who sent him, John tell us, is eternal life, eternal life that starts here and now the moment that we believe. Being the person through whom God extends that gift to a fellow human being is, to my mind, the greatest accomplishment of all.
Silence is kept.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Rory Cooney’s adaptation of the Magnificat, “My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout.”
1 My soul cries out with a joyful shout
that the God of my heart is great,
and my spirit sings of the wondrous things
that you bring to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight,
and my weakness you did not spurn,
so from east to west shall my name be blest.
Could the world be about to turn?
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
2 Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
and your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
you will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
3 From the halls of pow’r to the fortress tow’r,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
ev’ry tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
there are tables spread, ev’ry mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
4 Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God’s mercy must deliver us
from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard
is the promise which holds us bound,
till the spear and rod can be crushed by God,
who is turning the world around.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Periods of silence may be kept.
Heavenly Father,
you have promised to hear when we pray
in the name of your Son.
Therefore in confidence and trust
we pray for the Church:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
Father, enliven the Church for its mission
that we may be salt of the earth and light to the world.
Breathe fresh life into your people.
The expression has appeared in numerous collections of proverbs in English from 1639 on, but the idea that only proof which is concrete is convincing is far older. It goes back to ancient times, to the Greeks.
How often do we actually practice the underlying principle, insisting upon concrete proof before we will be convinced?
In reality we are more likely to demand a great deal of concrete proof when we are not willing to believe something. Indeed, a mountain of such proof will not satisfy us.
On other hand, when we are willing to believe something, it will not take much to convince us.
The principle itself has limited usefulness. We cannot see everything that exists or occurs.
We cannot see microbes with the naked eye. We have catalogued only a small percentage of living creatures that share this planet with us. They may live around us, but we are oblivious to them.
Dogs hear sounds that we cannot hear. Insects see colors that we cannot see. Cats notice movements that we do not notice.
Until someone recorded them in the twentieth century, no one had heard the song of the whales.
As Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play by same name drew to the attention of the skeptical friend Horatio, “There are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” We are limited by what we imagine can exist or occur. Horatio refused to believe in the existence of the ghost which Hamlet had seen.
The human mind is capable of paradoxical thinking. We have the ability to simultaneously entertain conflicting or contradictory thoughts, opinions, and ideas. We can believe in the existence or occurrence of something while having doubts about its existence or occurrence.
We tend to put people, things, and occurrences into one of two categories—natural and supernatural. We, however, may be drawing an artificial distinction between natural phenomena and supernatural phenomena. What we consider supernatural phenomena due to their unusual or rare occurrence or our inability to discern them may simply be a part of the natural world.
In the first book of his Perelandra science fiction novel series, Out of the Silent Planet, C. S. Lewis introduces this concept to his readers. On Malacandra, the planet that we call Mars, angels are a part of the planet’s natural order and the hnau, its non-angelic inhabitants, are able to discern their presence and to communicate with them. They exist on a different plane from the hnau and move through what we would consider solid substances as we would move through water.
What do these observations have to do with today’s reading, John 20: 19-31? They help us to understand why Thomas initially refused to believe his fellow disciples and demanded more proof of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. He was not going to take their word for it. They explain in part Jesus’ ability to appear in a room to which the doors are locked without being an apparition or specter. He had substance. He bore the wounds from the nails and the spear.
While Thomas may have at first been unwilling to believe his fellow disciples, he could not deny his own eyes when he saw Jesus’ wounds.
Thomas may have wanted to believe, but the news of Jesus’ resurrection may have sounded too good to be true. In that sense Thomas is like many of us. We want to believe but we do not want to experience the disappointment of discovering what we believed is not true. We let our doubts keep us from believing.
Thomas believed when what he may have felt in his heart lined up with what he saw with his eyes. Heart and mind came to the same conclusion. Jesus was not only alive, risen from the dead, but Jesus was also God. Had not Jesus himself said, “Nothing is impossible for God”?
We cannot rule out the possibility that Thomas’ initial reluctance to believe was God’s will. Our ability to believe is God’s doing, a working of God’s grace in our hearts and minds. We are able to believe because God enables us to believe, makes it possible for us to believe.
We would not have heard the story of Thomas’ disbelief if he had believed his fellow disciples, if they had convinced him. We would not have heard Jesus’ encouraging words, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
Those to whom Jesus is referring are ourselves, those who believe that he has risen from the dead and that he is the Messiah, the Son of God. We have not seen the wounds in his hands or his side. Yet we believe.
John reminds us at the end of today’s reading that those who believe in Jesus will have life by the power of his name. As John wrote earlier in his gospel, they will not perish but have everlasting life.
What happened to the apostle Thomas after his encounter with the risen Lord? According to tradition, he traveled to India around 52 AD. He traveled there after his first mission to the Parthian Empire. He established a community of Christians, the Mar Thoma Church, on the Malabar Coast of India. After engaging in missionary work in Kerala, a state on the Malabar Coast, for 30 years, he made his way to India’s east coast where he suffered martyrdom. What evidence that we have supports this tradition. It shows us what can happen when faith in Jesus transforms a man’s life.
It may have been in God’s plan for Thomas to give him an extra boost to his faith before sending him to accomplish great things for God. It may be in God’s plan for us to get an extra boost to our own faith from Thomas' story. God does that sort of thing. God may have great things in mind for us too.
It may not be to travel to a foreign land and to start a church. It may be to point our family, relatives, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and strangers to Jesus. Showing and sharing the love of Jesus is the greatest thing that we can do in our lives. Knowing Jesus and the Father who sent him, John tell us, is eternal life, eternal life that starts here and now the moment that we believe. Being the person through whom God extends that gift to a fellow human being is, to my mind, the greatest accomplishment of all.
Silence is kept.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Rory Cooney’s adaptation of the Magnificat, “My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout.”
1 My soul cries out with a joyful shout
that the God of my heart is great,
and my spirit sings of the wondrous things
that you bring to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight,
and my weakness you did not spurn,
so from east to west shall my name be blest.
Could the world be about to turn?
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
2 Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
and your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
you will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
3 From the halls of pow’r to the fortress tow’r,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
ev’ry tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
there are tables spread, ev’ry mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
4 Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God’s mercy must deliver us
from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard
is the promise which holds us bound,
till the spear and rod can be crushed by God,
who is turning the world around.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Periods of silence may be kept.
Heavenly Father,
you have promised to hear when we pray
in the name of your Son.
Therefore in confidence and trust
we pray for the Church:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
Father, enliven the Church for its mission
that we may be salt of the earth and light to the world.
Breathe fresh life into your people.
Give us power to reveal Christ in word and action.
We pray for the world:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
Creator of all,
lead us and every people into ways of justice and peace.
That we may respect one another in freedom and truth.
Awaken in us a sense of wonder for the earth and all that is in it.
Awaken in us a sense of wonder for the earth and all that is in it.
Teach us to care creatively for its resources.
We pray for the community:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
God of truth, inspire with your wisdom
those whose decisions affect the lives of others
We pray for the community:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
God of truth, inspire with your wisdom
those whose decisions affect the lives of others
that all may act with integrity and courage.
Give grace to all whose lives are linked with ours.
May we serve Christ in one another, and love as he loves us.
We pray for those in need:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
God of hope, comfort and restore
all who suffer in body, mind or spirit.
May they know the power of your healing love.
Make us willing agents of your compassion.
Strengthen us as we share in making people whole.
We remember those who have died and those who mourn:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
We remember with thanksgiving those who have died in the faith
of Christ, and those whose faith is known to you alone.
Father, into your hands we commend them.
Give comfort to those who mourn.
Bring them peace in their time of loss.
We praise you for (N and) all your saints
who have entered your eternal glory.
May their example inspire and encourage us.
We pray for ourselves and our ministries:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered and the prayers
conclude with the following.)
Lord, you have called us to serve you.
Grant that we may walk in your presence:
your love in our hearts,
your truth in our minds,
your strength in our wills;
until, at the end of our journey,
we know the joy of our homecoming
and the welcome of your embrace,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Collect
Almighty God,
by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
you have broken the power of death
and brought life and immortality to light;
grant that we who have been raised with him
may triumph over all temptation
and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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.
BLESSING
May Christ who out of defeat brings new hope and new alternatives, bring us new life
and the blessing of God our Creator, Redeemer and Giver of life be with us always. Amen
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