All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (May 8, 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 Rusty Edward’s hymn, “Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness.”
Praise the One who break the darkness
with a liberating light.
Praise the One who frees the prisoners
turning blindness into sight.
Praise the One who preached the Gospel
healing every dread disease.
Calming storms and feeding thousands
with the very bread of peace.
Praise the One who blessed the children
with a strong yet gentle word.
Praise the One who drove out demons
with a piercing two-edged sword.
Praise the one who brings cool water
to the desert's burning sand.
From this well comes living water
quenching thirst in every land.
Let us praise the Word incarnate:
Christ who suffered in our place.
Jesus died and rose victorious
that we may know God by grace.
Let us sing for joy and gladness
seeing what our God has done.
Let us praise the true Redeemer,
praise the One who makes us one.
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 Isaac Watts’ “My Shepherd Will Supply My Needs.”
My Shepherd will supply my need,
Jehovah is his name;
in pastures fresh he makes me feed,
beside the living stream.
He brings my wand'ring spirit back.
when I forsake his ways;
he leads me, for his mercy's sake,
in paths of truth and grace.
When I walk thru the shades of death,
thy presence is my stay;
one word of thy supporting breath
drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes,
doth still my table spread;
my cup with blessings overflows,
thine oil anoints my head.
The sure provisions of my God
attends me all my days;
O may thy house be mine abode,
and all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest,
while others go and come;
no more a stranger, nor a guest,
but like a child at home.
SCRIPTURE
John 10: 22-30 Jesus Claims to Be the Son of God
It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon’s Colonnade. The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
Searching the Scriptures
It has been my observation that our Bible reading and study is apt to become detached from our lives. We may read one or more passages from the Bible everyday and study a particular book of the Bible with our Sunday school class, but there is no connection between what we read and study and how we live. While it is a good thing to have more than a passing acquaintance with the whole Bible, we can focus too much on accumulating knowledge of the Bible and not enough on applying and putting into practice what we have read. As a consequence, we are not experiencing the greatest effect of our Bible reading and study. We are not benefiting from the Bible as an important means of grace.
In the 1990s I was a participant in a small Bible study group that met in the home of another participant on a weeknight. The participant in whose home we met on several occasions told us about a video or TV Bible study in which she was engaging. The Bible study was conducted by a then popular charismatic televangelist. The focus of the Bible study was the tabernacle which, according to the Old Testament, God instructed the people of Israel to construct. The televangelist conducting the study assigned various symbolic meanings to different parts of the tabernacle and the things that it contained such as the Table of Shew Bread. There was, however, no connection between what he was teaching and being a disciple of Jesus. Whether his interpretation of the meaning of the tabernacle’s different parts and its equipment was the result of careful scholarly research or simply his imagination was open to debate.
Around that time, I read a book written by the late J. I. Packer, an Anglican minister and theologian, and titled Hot Tub Religion. In that book Packer compared Christians who read and study the Bible but do not make use of what they have learned in their daily walk with Jesus with people sitting in a hot tub and soaking in the hot water. They get out of the hot tub feeling good, but they do not get any benefit from it. He also compared them to a sponge which keeps absorbing more and more water but never gets squeezed.
Packer’s point was that our Bible reading and study should have as its goal more than the accumulation of knowledge of the Bible. Our goal should be life transformation. We should be experiencing a complete change in our character so that we become more and more like Jesus in obedience, love, and holiness.
John Wesley, an Anglican minister, a prominent leader in the eighteenth century Evangelical Revival, and the founder of Methodism, set great store in what he called “searching the Scriptures,” reading and studying the Bible for life transformation. In his book John Wesley’s Message for Today, Steve Harper, a retired seminary professor who taught for more than thirty years in the disciplines of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies, explains:
"…he believed that one should carefully apply and immediately put into practice what was read. He had little use for a detached reading of the Bible. Instead, he wanted readers to ask, ‘What does this mean for me?’ and ‘How can I put the truth of Scripture to work for the good of others?’ In this way, the Bible served as an important means of grace.”
Wesley believed that while a passage of Scripture might have several applications, it had a specific meaning. In asking “What does this mean for me?” we are not reading our own meaning into the text as if the text has a different meaning for everyone who reads it. What we are asking is “What are the implications of this particular text for me, what are the effects of the truth or principle contained in the text or underlying it as they affect or relate to myself?”
If this is not immediately clear, we may wish to ask additional questions such as “What does this text tell me about God? about Jesus? about humanity? about myself?”
After we have considered the text’s implications for ourselves, we then ask, “How can I put the truth of Scripture to work for the good of others.” In other words, how can I live out the implications of this text so that they benefit others beside myself? In interpreting and applying Scripture, we should always consider others as well as ourselves.
Let us take a look at today’s reading, John 10:22-30, asking the two questions that Wesley would have those “searching the Scriptures” ask.
In the reading Jesus reiterates what he said in an earlier discourse before the Festival of Dedication. In that discourse he had identified himself as the good shepherd and those whom God had given him as his sheep who would recognize his voice and would follow him where he led. In the Mid-East in ancient times and today sheep follow their shepherd, going wherever he leads them. They know their shepherd’s voice and respond to his call.
If we are a follower of Jesus, believe in Jesus, and are doing our best, with God’s help, to live our lives according to his teaching and example, Jesus’ words are very reassuring. We are the real deal, the genuine article! If we are not yet a disciple of Jesus but find ourselves drawn to him and his words tug at our hearts, they should be reassuring too.
There are a lot of voices clamoring for our attention in the world, but his voice is the one that we hear the strongest or keeps pulling at us or we find ourselves thinking about Jesus over and over again, then we are experiencing his call.
Now Jesus does not call everyone the same way so if what we are experiencing is different from what a friend or acquaintance experienced, we should not let that trouble us. What matters is that our thoughts keep returning to Jesus over and over again and his influence upon us grows.
What can we do put the truth of this passage to work for the good of others? In whatever way Jesus’ call manifests itself in those who are not yet followers of Jesus, we can help them to recognize it for what it is and encourage them to respond to it. We can pray that they will experience Jesus’ call more strongly.
As you read the Gospel of John, you will discover that on several occasions Jesus questions the motivations of those who are following him. Some have chosen to follow him because of the miracles that he performed; others seek a personal advantage. But those who are his true disciples follow him for himself, for who he is, for what he teaches. They say with Simon Peter, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”
Silence is kept.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Ruth Duck’s adaptation of the Magnificat, “My Heart Sings Out with Joyful Praise.”
My heart sings out with joyful praise
to God who raises me,
Who came to me when I was low
and changed my destiny.
The Holy One, the Living God,
is always full of grace
To those who seek their Maker’s will
in every time and place.
The arm of God is strong and just
to scatter all the proud.
The tyrants tumble from their thrones
and vanish like a cloud.
The hungry all are satisfied;
the rich are sent away.
The poor of earth who suffer long
will welcome God’s new day.
[Instrumental interlude]
The promise made in ages past
at last has come to be,
for God has come in power to save,
to set all people free.
Remembering those who wait to see
salvation’s dawning day,
Our Savior comes to all who weep
to wipe their tears away.
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.
John Wesley, an Anglican minister, a prominent leader in the eighteenth century Evangelical Revival, and the founder of Methodism, set great store in what he called “searching the Scriptures,” reading and studying the Bible for life transformation. In his book John Wesley’s Message for Today, Steve Harper, a retired seminary professor who taught for more than thirty years in the disciplines of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies, explains:
"…he believed that one should carefully apply and immediately put into practice what was read. He had little use for a detached reading of the Bible. Instead, he wanted readers to ask, ‘What does this mean for me?’ and ‘How can I put the truth of Scripture to work for the good of others?’ In this way, the Bible served as an important means of grace.”
Wesley believed that while a passage of Scripture might have several applications, it had a specific meaning. In asking “What does this mean for me?” we are not reading our own meaning into the text as if the text has a different meaning for everyone who reads it. What we are asking is “What are the implications of this particular text for me, what are the effects of the truth or principle contained in the text or underlying it as they affect or relate to myself?”
If this is not immediately clear, we may wish to ask additional questions such as “What does this text tell me about God? about Jesus? about humanity? about myself?”
After we have considered the text’s implications for ourselves, we then ask, “How can I put the truth of Scripture to work for the good of others.” In other words, how can I live out the implications of this text so that they benefit others beside myself? In interpreting and applying Scripture, we should always consider others as well as ourselves.
Let us take a look at today’s reading, John 10:22-30, asking the two questions that Wesley would have those “searching the Scriptures” ask.
In the reading Jesus reiterates what he said in an earlier discourse before the Festival of Dedication. In that discourse he had identified himself as the good shepherd and those whom God had given him as his sheep who would recognize his voice and would follow him where he led. In the Mid-East in ancient times and today sheep follow their shepherd, going wherever he leads them. They know their shepherd’s voice and respond to his call.
If we are a follower of Jesus, believe in Jesus, and are doing our best, with God’s help, to live our lives according to his teaching and example, Jesus’ words are very reassuring. We are the real deal, the genuine article! If we are not yet a disciple of Jesus but find ourselves drawn to him and his words tug at our hearts, they should be reassuring too.
There are a lot of voices clamoring for our attention in the world, but his voice is the one that we hear the strongest or keeps pulling at us or we find ourselves thinking about Jesus over and over again, then we are experiencing his call.
Now Jesus does not call everyone the same way so if what we are experiencing is different from what a friend or acquaintance experienced, we should not let that trouble us. What matters is that our thoughts keep returning to Jesus over and over again and his influence upon us grows.
What can we do put the truth of this passage to work for the good of others? In whatever way Jesus’ call manifests itself in those who are not yet followers of Jesus, we can help them to recognize it for what it is and encourage them to respond to it. We can pray that they will experience Jesus’ call more strongly.
As you read the Gospel of John, you will discover that on several occasions Jesus questions the motivations of those who are following him. Some have chosen to follow him because of the miracles that he performed; others seek a personal advantage. But those who are his true disciples follow him for himself, for who he is, for what he teaches. They say with Simon Peter, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”
Silence is kept.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Ruth Duck’s adaptation of the Magnificat, “My Heart Sings Out with Joyful Praise.”
My heart sings out with joyful praise
to God who raises me,
Who came to me when I was low
and changed my destiny.
The Holy One, the Living God,
is always full of grace
To those who seek their Maker’s will
in every time and place.
The arm of God is strong and just
to scatter all the proud.
The tyrants tumble from their thrones
and vanish like a cloud.
The hungry all are satisfied;
the rich are sent away.
The poor of earth who suffer long
will welcome God’s new day.
[Instrumental interlude]
The promise made in ages past
at last has come to be,
for God has come in power to save,
to set all people free.
Remembering those who wait to see
salvation’s dawning day,
Our Savior comes to all who weep
to wipe their tears away.
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.
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
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
God of peace,
by the blood of the eternal covenant
you brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep;
make us perfect in every good work,
and work in us that which is pleasing and good;
through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
RESPONSE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Jacqueline G. Jones’ “Have You Heard God’s Voice.”
Have you heard God's voice; has your heart been stirred?
Are you still prepared to follow?
Have you made a choice to remain and serve,
though the way be rough and narrow?
Will you walk the path that will cost you much
and embrace the pain and sorrow?
Will you trust in One who entrusts to you
the disciples of tomorrow?
Will you use your voice; will you not sit down
when the multitudes are silent?
Will you make a choice to stand your ground
when the crowds are turning violent?
Will you walk the path that will cost you much
and embrace the pain and sorrow?
Will you trust in One who entrusts to you
the disciples of tomorrow?
In your city streets will you be God's heart?
Will you listen to the voiceless?
Will you stop and eat, and when friendships start,
will you share your faith with the faithless?
Will you walk the path that will cost you much
and embrace the pain and sorrow?
Will you trust in One who entrusts to you
the disciples of tomorrow?
Will you watch the news with the eyes of faith
and believe it could be different?
Will you share your views using words of grace?
Will you leave a thoughtful imprint?
We will walk the path that will cost us much
and embrace the pain and sorrow?
We will trust in One who entrusts to us
the disciples of tomorrow.
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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