All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (May 11, 2022)

PROCLAMATION OF THE LIGHT

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 Keity Getty and Stuart Townend’s “Speak O Lord.”

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of your holy word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfil in us
All Your purposes, for Your glory.

Teach us Lord full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility.
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise
Cause our eyes to see,
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of power that can never fail;
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us.
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time,
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand on Your promises;
And by faith we’ll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, ’til your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

SCRIPTURE

2 Peter 1: 1-11 Growing in Faith

This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.

I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.

May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

So, dear brothers and sisters work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Silence is kept.

May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory

HOMILY

Best of All

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life” Using the two questions that I introduced in last Sunday’s homily, let us take a look at the implications of this verse from today’s reading from the Peter’s second general epistle, 2 Peter 1: 1-11, for us and for others.

What then do Peter’s words mean for us? When Peter writes about “living a godly life,” he is talking about living a life that respects and honors God in every way. By his own power God has given all the things that we need to live that kind of life.

Among the things that God has given us for that purpose is what Peter describes as God’s promises. They include the promise that Jesus will be with us to the end of the age. God will send us at Jesus’ request the Holy Spirit. God himself will indwell us in the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be our helper and our guide.

God has given us the Holy Scriptures, not only the Old Testament but also the gospels and the apostles’ letters. God reveals his will in these writings. Through the power of the Holy Spirit God makes himself present to us in the Holy Scriptures and God transforms our lives.

God has given us what John Wesley called the “ordinances”—the means of grace. Taken from the “general rules,” which Wesley compiled for Methodist societies, such are “the public worship of God; the ministry of the Word, either read or expounded; the Supper of the Lord; family and private prayer; searching the Scriptures” (what we call Bible reading, study, and meditation); and “fasting or abstinence.” Through our use of these means we receive grace from God.

Wesley himself practiced what he encouraged the members of the Methodist societies to do. He read the Bible and prayed every day. He received communion every four or five days and every day during the octave of Easter. He fasted every Friday, going without food from supper time on Thursdays to teatime on Fridays. He did not follow these practices legalistically. He followed them because he saw great benefit in doing them.

God has given us our fellow disciples of Jesus, our brothers and sisters in Christ. As the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, God puts us just where he wants us. Each of us along with our strengths and limitations are God’s gift to a particular congregation, a particular expression of the Body of Christ. God may put someone whom we do not find particularly agreeable, much less loveable, in our church to teach us to love others.

Mostly importantly, God has shown us his grace and continues to supply us with his grace. God has shown us his grace in giving his only Son that all who believe in him may not perish but have eternal life. God works in us, giving us the desire and the power to do what pleases him. When we will what God wills, God will work with us to fulfill his will. God will enable us to work with him to that end.

We have all those things going for us, a gift from God!

How then can we put the truth of this verse of Scripture to work for the good of others?

Recently I read an article in which a Jewish rabbi was opining how difficult it was for even a devote Jew to live the mitzvah to love your neighbor as yourself. Indeed, it is challenging to fulfill that commandment in our own strength. However, in providing us with an infinite supply of his grace, God enables the believing follower of Jesus to keep that commandment. Loving our neighbor as ourselves will not save us. We are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus alone. Yet living as Jesus taught his disciples to live is pleasing to God.

The knowledge that God has provided everything that we need to live a godly life should be good news to those who hesitate to follow Jesus out of fear that they might not be able to live such a life. God knows what we need and provides what we need. Jesus did not promise his disciples that following him would be easy. At the same time, he told them what is impossible for us is not impossible for God. The King who invites us to the wedding feast will also provide us with a wedding garment, enabling us to clothe ourselves in the beauty of holiness. We, on our part, must accept it from his hand.

I was reminded earlier this evening of John Wesley’s last words on his death bed, “Best of all is God is with us.” In all the ways that God is there for us, those words ring true. “Best of all is God is with us.”

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

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

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 Andrew Pratt’s hymn, “Best of All Is God Is with Us.”

Best of all is God is with us,
God will hold and never fail.
Keep that truth when storms are raging,
God remains though faith is frail.

Best of all is God is with us,
life goes on and needs are met,
God is strongest in our weakness.
Love renews, will not forget.

Best of all is God is with us,
hearts are challenged, strangely warmed,
faith is deepened, courage strengthened,
grace received and hope reformed.

Best of all is God is with us,
in our joy and through our pain,
till that final acclamation:
'life is Christ, and death is gain'.

Best of all is God is with us
as we scale eternal heights,
love grows stronger, undiminished;
earth grows dim by heaven's lights.

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.