All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (June 29, 2022)

 

PROCLAMATION OF THE LIGHT

One or more candles may be lit.

Grace, mercy and peace to us
from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

You are in the midst of us, O Lord;
and we are called by your name.

EVENING HYMN

Open this link in a new tab to hear the Liturgical Folk’s setting of the Phos hilaron, “O Gracious Light.”

O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
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 thy praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Thou art worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
thou art worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe!
Your word brings on the dusk of evening,
your wisdom creates both night and day.
You determine the cycles of time,
arrange the succession of seasons,
and establish the stars in their heavenly courses.
Lord of the starry hosts is your name.
Living and eternal God, rule over us always.
Blessed be the Lord, whose word makes evening fall.
Amen.

HYMN OF THE DAY

Open this link in a new tab to hear Ernest Sands’ “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness.”

Sing of the Lord's goodness,
Father of all wisdom,
come to him and bless his name.
Mercy he has shown us,
his love is for ever,
faithful to the end of days.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord's goodness,
melodies of praise and thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord's glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name.

Power he has wielded,
honour is his garment,
risen from the snares of death.
His word he has spoken,
one bread he has broken,
new life he now gives to all.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord's goodness,
melodies of praise and thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord's glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name.

Courage in our darkness,
comfort in our sorrows,
Spirit of our God most high;
solace for the weary,
pardon for the sinner,
splendour of the living God.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord's goodness,
melodies of praise and thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord's glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name.

[Instrumental interlude]

Praise him with your singing,
praise him with the trumpet,
praise God with the lute and harp;
praise him with the cymbals,
praise him with your dancing,
praise God till the end of days.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord's goodness,
melodies of praise and thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord's glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name,
bless his name,
bless his name,
bless his name,
bless his name.

SCRIPTURE

Galatians 6: 1-10 We harvest What We Plant

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them.

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Silence is kept.

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

HOMILY

Instruments of God’s Love

Like his first General Rule, John Wesley’s second General Rule is often abbreviated. It is reduced to “do good.” Such abbreviations, however, leave to modern-day Methodists to define for themselves what is “good.” But as can be seen from the original second General Rule, Wesley had some clear ideas what doing good meant.

"It is expected of all who desire to continue in these societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

Secondly: By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men:

To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.

To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that "we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it."

By doing good, especially to them that are of the household of faith or groaning so to be; employing them preferably to others; buying one of another, helping each other in business, and so much the more because the world will love its own and them only.

By all possible diligence and frugality, that the gospel be not blamed.

By running with patience the race which is set before them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ, to be as the filth and offscouring of the world; and looking that men should say all manner of evil of them falsely, for the Lord's sake."

Wesley understood that membership requirements in a church or religious organization need to be specific, not vague like “do good,” something that Thom Rainer and other more recent writers have pointed out. If we set a low bar, we should not be surprised when people do not commit.

According to Rainer, “One of the most glaring errors churches make is not to communicate the expectations of church membership on the front end of the membership process. We get what we expect and how we communicate those expectations matter,” Why Your Church Membership Stinks: An Interview with Thom Rainer (Christianity Today, 7/29/2014) Rainer concluded from his research that “the low levels of commitment in most churches can be traced to poorly crafted and communicated membership models.” Most churches also do not do a very good job of conveying what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Wesley drew similar conclusions from his observation of the early Methodist societies that he formed. Without a clear idea of what was expected of them, the newly spiritually-awakened made little progress in growing and maturing as followers of Jeus and even fell back asleep again.

A major problem that besets the church today, particularly but not exclusively in North America, is that a large proportion of members and attendees of local churches are consumers, not disciples. They are under the impression that the church exists to serve them, not that they have been called to serve God and that God established the church to carry out God’s mission to the world. As we carry out that mission, God transforms our lives, makes us over into the likeness of his Son, and through us transforms the lives of others and the life of the community in which we live and work or where we attend school.

In one of his parables Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to leaven, or yeast. Since ancient times we have used leaven to raise bread dough. The yeast grows and multiplies, giving off carbon dioxide in the process and the carbon dioxide causes the dough to expand. Once the dough has risen sufficiently, it is baked in an oven or on an iron or stone griddle into bread. The Kingdom of God expands in a similar way through the growth and multiplication of followers of Jesus, people in whose lives God reigns in the person of his Son, Jesus; in whom God dwells in the person of the Holy Spirit; and who live their lives according to Jesus’ teaching and example.

Wesley’s second General Rule is fairly self-explanatory. Notice that Wesley expected those who joined the early Methodist societies to engage in spiritual conversations with all with whom they had any contact. They were not to be content as has become commonplace in our day and time to treat spiritual matters as private and not something that we should talk about with other people. How we go about it may differ from the way they went about in Wesley’s day, but we should not shy away from having spiritual conversations with others.

What Wesley describes as “the enthusiastic doctrine that ‘we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it’ is a belief that enjoyed currency in eighteenth century England that Christians need not show charity to others or do good of any kind to them unless they felt so inclined. Wesley pointed out that Jesus taught that we should be generous and kind to others and do good to them regardless of how we felt toward them. Jesus did not tie our acts of mercy to our feelings toward the recipients of our mercy. Rather he taught that we are to emulate God who was merciful even toward the ungrateful and the wicked. We are to love our enemies and to do good to them.

As Jesus drew to the attention of would-be disciples, Wesley also points to the attention of those joining the early Methodist societies that they could expect to be misunderstood and maligned, that false and unpleasant things would be said about them, and that they would be criticized unfairly because they had chosen to respond to Jesus’ call and to follow him. Wesley is not talking about the negative reactions which we ourselves provoke when we behave in ways that are inconsistent with what Jesus taught and exemplified, such as when we are hypocritical, judgmental, overbearing, self-righteous, or unkind. When we act in these ways, we open ourselves to reproach.

When we read Wesley’s second general Rule, it becomes evident that we could be doing a whole lot more than we are doing to do good to others. A principle that I find helpful in this regard is “See a need. Meet a need.” It is a principle that we can apply as individuals, as a small group, as a Sunday school class, and as a church. It may be a short-term need or a long-term need. The actions that we take to meet a particular need may be time-limited or ongoing. They may involve using existing resources or finding or creating new resources.

While we are apt to focus upon people’s physical needs, we should also give attention to their psychological and spiritual needs. For example, the United States and other Western countries are experiencing a pandemic of loneliness. Local churches can come up with various ways of helping people find the companionship that they need. Members of local churches can visit nursing homes and sing hymns and pray with the residents. They can offer words of encouragement. The more that we think about it, the more we will realize that there are many opportunities to do good to others, which we are presently overlooking.

There are three things to keep in mind as we go about doing good to others. The first is that we are acting as channels of grace to those to whom we are doing good. The second is that we are making known God’s goodness and kindness. It is God working in us that enables us to do what we are doing. The third is that whatever we are doing, no matter how small, will have an impact upon someone. It may affect more people and have a larger impact than we expect. It may make a significant difference in a particular individual’s life. One simple act of kindness can bear fruit in unimaginable ways.

Rather than growing weary in doing good, let us rejoice at being able to do all the good deeds that God has prepared for us to do, at being chosen to be instruments of God’s love to our community and to the world.

Silence is kept.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

Open this link to hear the Liturgical Folk’s setting of our Lord’s Summary of the Law, “Jesus Creed.”

Jesus said
The first commandment is this:
Hear O Israel
The Lord our God is the only Lord.
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.
Amen.

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

Let us pray.

God, most gracious and most holy,
grant us the help of your Spirit
as we pray for the Church and the world.

We pray for the Church in every land . . .
for this church and for other local churches . . .
that we may worship and serve you
with reverence and joy.

Silence

Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.

We pray for the peoples of the world . . .
and for the leaders of the nations . . .
that all may work together for justice and peace.

Silence

Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.

We pray for those who are ill or distressed . . .
for the lonely and the bereaved . . .
and for those in any other need or trouble . . .
that they may be comforted and sustained.

Silence

Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.

Father, we remember before you
all your servants who have died in the faith of Christ . . .
We pray that we too may lead faithful and godly lives in this world,
and finally share with all the saints in everlasting joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Collect

O God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
Pour into our hearts such love towards you,
that, loving you above all things,
we may obtain your promises
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

RESPONSE

Open this link in a new tab to hear Joh L. Bell’s “Kyrie (Columbia)”

Lord, have mercy upon is.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon is.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.

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

The blessing of God,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
remain with us always. Amen.