All Hallows Evening Prayer for Saturday Evening (July 2, 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 Singing the Faith’s version of John Newton’s hymn, “Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound.”

1. Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
was blind, but now I see.

2. God’s grace has taught my heart to fear,
his grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed.

3. Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
God’s grace has brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

4. The Lord has promised good to me,
his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be,
as long as life endures.

5. And, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.

6. When we've been there ten thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we've no less days to sing God's praise
than when we first begun.

SCRIPTURE

2 Kings 5:1-14 The Healing of Naaman

The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.

At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”

So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. “Go and visit the prophet,” the king of Aram told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out, carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. The letter to the king of Israel said: “With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”

When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and said, “Am I God, that I can give life and take it away? Why is this man asking me to heal someone with leprosy? I can see that he’s just trying to pick a fight with me.”

But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes in dismay, he sent this message to him: “Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel.”

So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.”

But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.

But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!

Silence is kept.

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

HOMILY

It’s About Grace

Whoa! Hold on a minute! How does the story of the miraculous healing of Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, have anything to do with John Wesley’s three General Rules for Methodist societies? Weren’t you going to talk about Wesley’s third General Rule in tonight’s homily?

Jesus, when he announced the year of jubilee, the year of God’s favor, at the synagogue in Nazareth referred to Naaman’s healing. Indeed, it was one of the things that so infuriated the congregation of the synagogue that they tried to kill Jesus, to throw him from the brow of the hill on which Nazareth stood. In his announcement Jesus declared that God would be showing his favor, his grace, to those who were outside of the covenant that God made with the people of Israel, Gentiles and foreigners like Naaman, and not to his chosen people. The congregation became incensed upon hearing Jesus’ words. In their minds they were intolerable, blasphemous!

In the Gospels we read that Jesus taught that God’s grace was not confined to the Jews or even to the righteous. Indeed, if it had been limited to the righteous, it would not have been grace! God shows mercy—kindness and forgiveness—even to ungrateful and the wicked. Jesus healed the servant of a Roman officer. He delivered the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman from an evil spirit. He healed a Samaritan leper as well as several Jewish lepers.

Wesley’s third General Rule is about grace. Yes, it’s about grace.

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

Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God; 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.

Fasting or abstinence.”

It is self-evident that Bishop Rueben P. Job’s substitution of “Stay in love with God” for Wesley’s third General Rule does not convey the same meaning as Wesley’s original Third General Rule. There is an unfortunate tendency in contemporary Methodism to reinterpret Wesley’s thinking in ways that are no consistent with his thought, Wesley recognized that we could not do no harm, avoid all forms of evil, and do good to others in our own strength. We needed the help of God’s grace. It was God’s grace that enable us to do these things. It was God’s grace that sanctifies and perfects us.

What Wesley describes as “ordinances” are the most common means of grace. They serve as channels or conduits of God’s grace to us. Through them God supplies us with the grace we need to live our lives in accordance with Jesus’ teaching and example, the grace we need to keep from doing harm, to avoid all forms of evil, and to do good at every opportunity.

They are not the only means of grace, but they are important ones.

Wesley encouraged the members of the early Methodist societies to attend the services of the local parish church as well as the meetings of the local Methodist society. He encouraged them to regularly receive communion. He himself received communion every week when he was able and more frequently during the Christmas and Easter seasons.

For Wesley the Lord’s Supper was more than a bare memorial. Through the Lord’s Supper God invigorated, strengthened, and confirmed the faith of the believer. The risen Jesus was present at the meal and the communicants feed upon him spiritually by faith with thanksgiving. How this occurred, Wesley like many Anglicans of the time regarded as a mystery which we do not need to explain. The contemporary practice of monthly communion in some Methodist churches falls far short of Wesley’s own practice.

Wesley rose every morning at 4 o’clock to pray and searched the Scriptures, that is, read and studied the Bible and mediated on words, verses, and passages of the Bible from 5 o’clock to 7 o’clock.

Wesley also fasted every Friday, beginning his fast on Thursday evening and ending it late on Friday afternoon.

As well as the means of grace listed in his third General Rule, Wesley recognized what he called Christian conferencing, or holy conferencing, as a means of grace. Christian conferencing, or holy conferencing, as Wesley used the phrase, are spiritual conversations intended to help the participants to grow and mature as followers of Jesus. In these conversations they are formed and shaped as disciples. They also learn how to make use of the means of grace and are given the accountability, encouragement, and support for making these practices a part of their life. Christian conferencing took place not in the local Methodist society’s large group meetings but in its small group meetings, in its class and band meetings.

Why does it matter? Wat difference does it make?

Wesley championed a disciplined and intentional approach to growth and maturation in our love of God and others and in holiness of life. Methodism derives its name from the methodical nature of this approach, something that is lacking today in many local churches, including Methodist churches. Consequently, many people who identify themselves as Christians are indistinguishable from their non-Christian neighbors except for their church attendance and a taste for contemporary Christian and praise and worship music. They are poor witnesses to and for Christ. This and their preoccupation with worldly matters—politics, power, and prosperity—may account at least in part for the waning influence of Christianity in our culture. It may also account for declining church attendance. Research into why young people are leaving our churches point to these developments as a contributing factor.

We ourselves cannot expect to grow and mature as Christians and become genuine disciples of Christ if we neglect these important means of grace. Yet survey after survey shows that many self-identified Christians do not take advantage of the means of grace God provides us. Their spiritual lives are stunted. They are not growing and maturing in their character and their love of God as they should. If they were infants, we would say that they are suffering from arrested development.

God provides us with an abundant supply of grace. The extent of that grace is beyond our imagination. When we respond to Jesus’ call and open our hearts and minds to God’s grace and make use of that grace, God transforms us into the likeness of his Son. We become true disciples of God’s Christ, God’s Anointed. Our heart of stone is replaced with a heart of flesh. Our minds are renewed. God’s image in us, marred by sin, is restored. We don the beauty of holiness, and we walk in the good works that God has prepared for us. We show ourselves to indeed be the children of the Most High.

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,
God, you are working still,
breaking down and building up;
open our eyes to discern your hands
so that we may take our place
as labourers together with you.
Hear this prayer for your love’s sake.
Amen.

RESPONSE

Open this link in a new tab to hear Liturgical Folk’s setting of the Trisagion, "Holy God."

Holy God
holy and mighty
holy immortal one
have mercy
mercy
mercy upon us

Repeat 5 more times.

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.