All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (May 18, 2022)
One or more candles may be lit.
God is light and there is no darkness at all in him. 1 John 1: 5b
EVENING HYMN
Open this link in a new tab to hear the Liturgical Folk’s setting of the Phos hilaron, “O Gracious Light.”
Oooh gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
Oooh gracious Light,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Oooh gracious Light,
You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
Oooh gracious Light,
O Son of God, O Giver of life, and to be glorified through all the worlds.
Oooh gracious Light,
Oooh gracious Light,
Oooh gracious Light,
Oooh gracious Light.
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 George Currie Martin’s hymn, “Your Words to Me Are Life and Health.”
1 Your words to me are life and health;
pour strength into my soul;
enable, guide, and teach my heart
to reach its perfect goal!
2 Your words to me are light and truth;
from day to day they show
their wisdom, passing earthly lore,
as in their truth I grow.
3 Your words to me are full of joy,
of beauty, peace, and grace;
from them I learn your blessed will,
through them I see your face.
4 Your words are perfected in the One,
yourself, the living Word;
within my heart your image print
in clearest lines, O Lord.
SCRIPTURE
1 John 2: 1-6 Christ Our Helper
I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf—Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone.
If we obey God's commands, then we are sure that we know him. If we say that we know him, but do not obey his commands, we are liars and there is no truth in us. But if we obey his word, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God: if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did.
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
Ever so often someone will announce on Facebook that they are “in relationship” with someone else. They may post an announcement on their Facebook page, proclaiming to all and sundry that they are in relationship with someone else. They may quietly mention it in their profile without fanfare.
In some cases, they make the announcement because they are eager to share with others what they see is a positive development in their life. In other cases, one is prompted to wonder if it may be a one-sided relationship, knowing the person with whom they claim that they are in relationship. The individual in question is not someone who would broadcast to the world what was going on in their personal life.
One wonders if the person who is making the announcement is imagining that they are in relationship with that individual. They were rejected by that individual and are trying to embarrass them. They are jealous of the attention that someone else is showing that person and they are trying to meddle in a budding relationship. They mistakenly believe that by making such an announcement they can somehow win the favor of that individual. In any event one has little confidence that what they are claiming is true.
In today’s reading from his first general epistle, 1 John 2: 1-16, John tells his readers that claiming to have a relationship with God does not always mean that we have what we claim. We may be lying to ourselves, and we may be lying to others. How do we know that we are deceiving ourselves and others? How do they know that thy cannot take our word for it?
We are not living our life as Jesus lived his. We are not living a life of faith, love, and obedience, the kind of life that Jesus lived. We are not obeying God’s word—what Jesus taught and practiced—and we are not doing God’s will.
We may believe in Jesus. We may call him Lord. But we are not living our lives according to his teaching and example. Jesus is not at the center of our lives. Our attention is elsewhere, typically on ourselves. We may not want to hear it, but we do not yet have a full-blown relationship with God.
Only those who are living a life of faith, love, and obedience like Jesus’ can be confident that they are indeed in relationship with God. They are the ones in whom their love for God is being perfected. They are the ones who are making use of the sanctifying, perfecting grace that God provides us and who are truly following Jesus.
When God calls us to follow Jesus, God calls us to continue Jesus’ mission to the world. God calls us to be salt, to be light, to be leaven. He calls us to serve Christ in others. Being put right with God through faith in Jesus and repentance from sin is just the beginning of our life in Christ. God by the power of his grace transforms us so through us, he can transform others and transform the world.
How does God go about transforming others and the world? We live in God’s kingdom when God’s kingdom lives in us. When God rules over our lives, our desires, and our affections, we enter God’s realm. Unlike earthly kingdoms God’s realm has no physical limitations. It exists both in and outside of time. It is seen and felt in the form of God’s influence in people’s lives. God’s kingdom expands with this influence.
God’s kingdom can expand in two ways. God’s influence can increase in us individually as we use the means of grace and emulate Jesus’ teaching and example. Through us God can influence those around us. He can call more people to become followers of Jesus and can transform them as he is transforming us.
While we are agents of God’s kingdom, the expansion of God’s kingdom is not the result of our initiative nor is it our doing. It is solely God’s. Without God we would experience no change in our lives. We would have no effect on others.
God has laid out for us the “pattern of our duty” in the teaching and example of Jesus and has prepared good deeds for us to do. God has also provided us with means through which he supplies us with an infinite abundance of his grace.
Among these means are public services of worship, the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, the Lord’s Supper, the reading and study of Scripture, prayer, and fasting. They are not the only means of grace, and as we grow as followers of Jesus, we will discover more means of grace.
In company with our brothers and sisters in Christ and with their support and encouragement we can confidently embark on the next leg in our spiritual journey, a journey in which we will not only grow in Christian maturity and our love of God but also will be Christ’s ambassadors and representatives in the world.
Silence is kept.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear the Liturgical Folk’s setting of the Magnificat, “Song of Mary.”
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel,
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed.
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 Ian Worsfold and Paul Wood’s “Beyond These Walls of Worship.”
Beyond these walls of worship
In the stress and joy of life,
Can we offer you our bodies
As a living sacrifice?
Will we keep you at the centre
Far beyond the Sunday call?
Will return to you,
Be transformed by you;
Still declare you God of all?
Beyond these walls of worship,
In the times of work and rest,
Will we display your love for all
When are faith's put to the test?
When the people that surround us
Deny that you are there,
Will we display our faith in you
In life, in praise, in prayer?
Beyond the walls of worship
may your Spirit strengthen us
To make the whole of life our worship
As we witness to your love.
From this hour in your presence
Send us out now to proclaim
That will live our life as a sacrifice
To the glory of your name.
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
God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from
the dead,
strengthen us
to walk with him in his risen life;
and may almighty God bless us,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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