All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (May 15, 2022)
One or more candles may be lit.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you also should love one another. John 13:34
EVENING HYMN
Open this link in a new tab to hear Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, and Ed Cash’s “How Great Is Our God.”
The splendor of a King,
Clothed in majesty
Let all the Earth rejoice
All the Earth rejoice
He wraps himself in light
And darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice
Trembles at His voice
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
Age to age He stands
And time is in His hands
Beginning and the end
Beginning and the end
The Godhead Three in One
Father Spirit Son
The Lion and the Lamb
The Lion and the Lamb
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
He’s the name above all names
He is worthy to be praised
And my heart will sing
How great is our God
He’s the name above all names
He is worthy to be praised
And my heart will sing
How great is our God
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
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 “A New Commandment I Give Unto You.”
A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another
as I have loved you,
that you love one another
as I have loved you.
By this the world shall know that you are my disciples,
that you have love one for another;
by this the world shall know that you are my disciples:
that you have love one for another
A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another
as I have loved you,
that you love one another
as I have loved you.
By this the world shall know that you are my disciples,
that you have love one for another;
by this the world shall know that you are my disciples:
that you have love one for another
SCRIPTURE
John 13: 31-35 Jesus Gives a New Commandment
As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. And since God receives glory because of the Son,[b] he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once. Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going. So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
A New Commandment
Loving one another. Piece of cake, right? We have had plenty of practice loving other like Jesus taught us, loving our neighbors just like we love ourselves, loving our enemies and doing good to them, treating people as we would want them to treat us, forgiving people’s faults and mistakes and not holding their mistakes and faults against them. We are good to go, right?
If only that was true….!! There is a good chance, human nature being what it is, that we have made at best a half-hearted attempt to do any of these things. There is also a good chance that we thought up some reason not to do them. “Jesus could not have meant for us to love those folks. They do not look like us! They do not live like we do! They do not talk like us! They act weird! Spooky!!”
Human beings are very adept at thinking up excuses not to do the right thing. We then convince ourselves that not doing the right thing is the right thing to do!!
It is a lot easier to prepare a meal for strangers or distribute food to strangers than it is to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. There is nothing wrong with doing these things. We are doing a kind deed and we can feel good about what we are doing. However, loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is far more difficult than showing kindness to a stranger.
We spend more time with our brothers and sisters in Christ than we do the strangers who receive our generosity. We see them on Sundays and at other times and we interact with them more often than we do strangers. The kind of relationship that we experience with them is different psychologically and emotionally from the kind of relationship that we experience with a stranger.
We do things like transferring the thoughts and feelings we are having about one person on to someone else. We may wrongly imagine that someone else is feeling a particular emotion or desire when in fact it is ourselves who feel this way. We may feel a dislike for someone without them having done anything to trigger our dislike. We may relate to them as we did to someone in our past because we associate them with that person without realizing it.
This sort of thing happens when people have regular contact with each other. It is a part of the human experience.
John in his gospel from which is taken today’s reading, John 13: 31-35, tell us that Jesus knew the human heart. John Is not talking about the organ in our chest, which sends blood around our body. He is referring to a person’s character or to the place within a person from where feelings or emotions are considered to come. He is also referring to our innermost self, the self which others usually do not see and which we may even hide from ourselves.
John in his gospel from which is taken today’s reading, John 13: 31-35, tell us that Jesus knew the human heart. John Is not talking about the organ in our chest, which sends blood around our body. He is referring to a person’s character or to the place within a person from where feelings or emotions are considered to come. He is also referring to our innermost self, the self which others usually do not see and which we may even hide from ourselves.
I believe that we can safely assume from what John says, Jesus had more than a passing knowledge of these psychological and emotional transactions between people. It is clear from Jesus’ discourses in John’s gospel that Jesus recognized what was motivating particular individuals and knew what were their real intentions.
When Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment to love one another, he did so with full knowledge of the human heart. He commanded us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ despite the psychological and emotional baggage that we are carrying with us. Whatever we may feel toward a fellow Jesus follower, we are to set our hearts on loving them.
Loving one another is not a feeling or an emotion, which we summons, but an act of the will. We determine to love our brothers and sisters in Christ whoever they are. We do so out of a desire to obey Jesus and in obeying him show our love for him.
When Jesus told the disciples to love one another, he did not say, “Hey, guys, I’ve got a great suggestion. If you love each other really good, people will know you are my followers.” He gave them a commandment, an order. Elsewhere in John’s Gospel he tells them that those who love him obey his commandments. They keep his words. Their obedience is a measure of their love for him.
We may struggle with loving a particular brother or sister in Christ. For one reason or another we may not find them particularly loveable. They may have triggered negative feelings in us with their words or actions and we have not fully processed these feelings. While we may need time to work through them to the point that we can let go of them, Jesus would nonetheless have us treat such a brother or sister with grace, kindness, and respect.
This includes interacting with them as we would our other brothers and sisters in Christ and not intentionally avoiding them or refusing to give them any attention. Our attitudes, beliefs, and behavior are connected to each other. Behaving toward someone in a pleasant, kind, and respectful manner may help us to process our negative feelings toward them and lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. Loving our fellow Jesus followers is an act of will, an attitude, and a belief, which are expressed in our behavior toward each other.
We do not love our brothers and sisters in Christ solely in our own strength. We have the help of the Holy Spirit, the means of grace, and our fellow Jesus followers. Using this help may be difficult for the more self-reliant of us but one of the lessons that we learn in loving each other is to depend on the help which God gives us, to be open to the grace that God supplies us.
Silence is kept.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Ruth Duck’s adaptation of Psalm 98, “To God Compose a Song of Joy.”
To God compose a song of joy;
To God make melody,
Whose arm of strength does wondrous things,
Whose hand brings victory!
Before the nations God reveals
A just and righteous will,
Remembering in faithful love
The house of Israel.
In every corner of the earth,
God comes to save and free;
Break forth with shouts of holy joy;
All lands, make melody.
With trumpet, with the sound of horns,
With strings, yes, with the lyre,
With voices praise the sovereign God,
A lusty, joyous choir.
Let seas in all their fullness roar,
And people of all lands,
Let mountains join and shout for joy,
Let rivers clap their hands.
The God of justice comes to save;
Let earth make melody!
For God will judge with righteousness
And rule with equity.
To God compose a song of joy;
To God make melody,
Whose arm of strength does wondrous things,
Whose hand brings victory!
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
In the power of the resurrection
we offer our prayers to God.
Let us pray.
Remember, O Lord, in your love
the Church throughout the world . . .
those recently baptized and confirmed . . .
those who minister to others . . .
Silence
May your whole Church know your power
and be a sign that Christ is risen.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love the world you have made . . .
those who seek a fair and proper use of the
world’s resources . . .
those who strive for justice and peace
among the nations . . .
Silence
May the whole earth be transformed by mercy and rejoice in hope.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love those who suffer . . .
the victims of violence and injustice . . .
those who mourn . . .
Silence
May all in need find comfort, strength and freedom in the living Christ.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love those who have died:
those who have confessed the faith
and those whose faith is known to you
alone.
Silence
May all your children receive grace and light according to their needs and come at last to share with all the saints in life eternal.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Gracious God, we ask these prayers through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Saviour. Amen.
The Collect
Make us glad we pray you, gentle God,
to give each other your loving care;
make us happy to receive it.
May there daily grow within us
a generous, trusting spirit.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
RESPONSE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Michael Forster’s "Let Love Be Real."
Let love be real, in giving and receiving,
without the need to manage and to own;
a haven free from posing and pretending,
where every weakness may be safely known.
Give me your hand, along the desert pathway,
give me your love wherever we may go:
as God loves us, so let us love each other,
with no demands, just open hands and space to grow.
Let love be real, not grasping or confining,
that strange embrace that holds yet sets us free;
that helps us face the risk of truly living,
and makes us brave to be what we might be.
Give me your strength when all my words are weakness,
give me your love in spite of all you know:
as God loves us, so let us love each other,
with no demands, just open hands and space to grow.
Let love be real, with no manipulation,
no secret wish to harness or control;
let us accept each other's incompleteness,
and share the joy of learning to be whole.
Give me your hope through dreams and disappointments,
give me your trust when all my failings show:
as God loves us, so let us love each other,
with no demands, just open hands and space to grow
THE LORD’S PRAYER
As our Saviour taught his disciples,
we pray:
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.
When Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment to love one another, he did so with full knowledge of the human heart. He commanded us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ despite the psychological and emotional baggage that we are carrying with us. Whatever we may feel toward a fellow Jesus follower, we are to set our hearts on loving them.
Loving one another is not a feeling or an emotion, which we summons, but an act of the will. We determine to love our brothers and sisters in Christ whoever they are. We do so out of a desire to obey Jesus and in obeying him show our love for him.
When Jesus told the disciples to love one another, he did not say, “Hey, guys, I’ve got a great suggestion. If you love each other really good, people will know you are my followers.” He gave them a commandment, an order. Elsewhere in John’s Gospel he tells them that those who love him obey his commandments. They keep his words. Their obedience is a measure of their love for him.
We may struggle with loving a particular brother or sister in Christ. For one reason or another we may not find them particularly loveable. They may have triggered negative feelings in us with their words or actions and we have not fully processed these feelings. While we may need time to work through them to the point that we can let go of them, Jesus would nonetheless have us treat such a brother or sister with grace, kindness, and respect.
This includes interacting with them as we would our other brothers and sisters in Christ and not intentionally avoiding them or refusing to give them any attention. Our attitudes, beliefs, and behavior are connected to each other. Behaving toward someone in a pleasant, kind, and respectful manner may help us to process our negative feelings toward them and lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. Loving our fellow Jesus followers is an act of will, an attitude, and a belief, which are expressed in our behavior toward each other.
We do not love our brothers and sisters in Christ solely in our own strength. We have the help of the Holy Spirit, the means of grace, and our fellow Jesus followers. Using this help may be difficult for the more self-reliant of us but one of the lessons that we learn in loving each other is to depend on the help which God gives us, to be open to the grace that God supplies us.
Silence is kept.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Ruth Duck’s adaptation of Psalm 98, “To God Compose a Song of Joy.”
To God compose a song of joy;
To God make melody,
Whose arm of strength does wondrous things,
Whose hand brings victory!
Before the nations God reveals
A just and righteous will,
Remembering in faithful love
The house of Israel.
In every corner of the earth,
God comes to save and free;
Break forth with shouts of holy joy;
All lands, make melody.
With trumpet, with the sound of horns,
With strings, yes, with the lyre,
With voices praise the sovereign God,
A lusty, joyous choir.
Let seas in all their fullness roar,
And people of all lands,
Let mountains join and shout for joy,
Let rivers clap their hands.
The God of justice comes to save;
Let earth make melody!
For God will judge with righteousness
And rule with equity.
To God compose a song of joy;
To God make melody,
Whose arm of strength does wondrous things,
Whose hand brings victory!
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
In the power of the resurrection
we offer our prayers to God.
Let us pray.
Remember, O Lord, in your love
the Church throughout the world . . .
those recently baptized and confirmed . . .
those who minister to others . . .
Silence
May your whole Church know your power
and be a sign that Christ is risen.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love the world you have made . . .
those who seek a fair and proper use of the
world’s resources . . .
those who strive for justice and peace
among the nations . . .
Silence
May the whole earth be transformed by mercy and rejoice in hope.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love those who suffer . . .
the victims of violence and injustice . . .
those who mourn . . .
Silence
May all in need find comfort, strength and freedom in the living Christ.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love those who have died:
those who have confessed the faith
and those whose faith is known to you
alone.
Silence
May all your children receive grace and light according to their needs and come at last to share with all the saints in life eternal.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Gracious God, we ask these prayers through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Saviour. Amen.
The Collect
Make us glad we pray you, gentle God,
to give each other your loving care;
make us happy to receive it.
May there daily grow within us
a generous, trusting spirit.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
RESPONSE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Michael Forster’s "Let Love Be Real."
Let love be real, in giving and receiving,
without the need to manage and to own;
a haven free from posing and pretending,
where every weakness may be safely known.
Give me your hand, along the desert pathway,
give me your love wherever we may go:
as God loves us, so let us love each other,
with no demands, just open hands and space to grow.
Let love be real, not grasping or confining,
that strange embrace that holds yet sets us free;
that helps us face the risk of truly living,
and makes us brave to be what we might be.
Give me your strength when all my words are weakness,
give me your love in spite of all you know:
as God loves us, so let us love each other,
with no demands, just open hands and space to grow.
Let love be real, with no manipulation,
no secret wish to harness or control;
let us accept each other's incompleteness,
and share the joy of learning to be whole.
Give me your hope through dreams and disappointments,
give me your trust when all my failings show:
as God loves us, so let us love each other,
with no demands, just open hands and space to grow
THE LORD’S PRAYER
As our Saviour taught his disciples,
we pray:
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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