All Hallows Evening Prayer for Saturday Evening (July 30, 2022)

 PROCLAMATION OF THE LIGHT

One or more candles may be lit.

If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1

EVENING HYMN

Open this link in a new tab to hear F. Bland Tucker’s translation of the Phos hilaron, “O Gracious Light.”

O Gracious Light, Lord Jesus Christ,
In you the Father’s glory shone.
Immortal, holy, blest is he,
And blest are you, his holy Son.

Now sunset comes, but light shines forth,
the lamps are lit to pierce the night.
Praise Father, Son, and Spirit: God
Who dwells in the eternal light.

Worthy are you of endless praise,
O Son of God, Life-giving Lord;
Wherefore you are through all the earth
And in the highest heaven adored.

O Gracious Light!

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 Carey Landry’s “Abba Father.”

Abba, Abba Father
You are the potter,
We are the clay the work of Your hands.

Mold us, mold us and fashion us
Into the image of Jesus Your Son,
Of Jesus your Son.

Father, may we be one in You,
May we be one in You,
As He is in You and You are in Him.

Glory, Glory and praise to You,
Glory and praise to You,
Forever, Amen, Forever Amen.

Abba…

SCRIPTURE

Colossians 3:1-11 Living the New Life

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming (on all who disobey him). You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Silence

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

HOMILY

A New Life in Christ

When John Wesley, a leading figure in the eighteenth century Evangelical Revival and the founder of the Methodist movement, drafted his three General Rules for Methodist societies, he had today’s reading, Colossian 3: 1-11, and similar passages in Scripture in mind. In their simplest form Wesley’s three General Rules are: do no harm and avoid all forms of evil; do good to all as we are able; and employ the means of grace.

Wesley realized that we cannot drain the life from our sinful, world-loving self and appropriate the new nature that is God’s gift to us without God’s help. It is not something that we can do on our own. We need God’s grace, the power of his Holy Spirit working in us, to enable us, to make it possible. To take advantage of God’s grace, we need to have hearts and minds that are open to his grace. We need to make full use of the means of grace which God has provided. We will not benefit from the means of grace unless we approach them with faith, trusting that God through them will accomplish his purposes and transform us.

The means of grace are not works that we perform to please God. Rather they are ways of connecting us to God and to having a relationship with him. Through them God invigorates and strengthens our faith and shows us that it is true.

In his three General Rules Wesley lists the following means of grace:

“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.”

They are not the only means of grace that Wesley recognized. He recognized that the spiritual conversations that we have with our fellow believers can be a means of grace to us as our spiritual conversations with non-believers and seekers could be a means of grace to them. He also recognized that the people in our lives could be means of grace to us. They could be a good influence on us. He realized that we could not avoid those who might be a bad influence upon us. For this reason and our calling to be witnesses to and for Christ in the world, he organized the early Methodists into class meetings, small groups in which they helped each other to live the Christian life.

The conclusions that Wesley drew in the eighteenth century are as valid today as they were then.

Among the ways that we can help our fellow believers in their walk with Christ is to pray for them daily, to keep bringing them to God’s attention. If we genuinely love our fellow Christians, we will want God to give them the good things that God can give. We will want to pray for their families and relatives, friends, and others in their lives.

There are three areas in their lives in which I believe that it is important to pray for them.

First, we will want to pray for their safety. We will want to pray that God will keep them safe in his care and hedge them around with his protection against the spiritual forces of evil working in the world, from all evil-doers, from all forms of evil, from all forms of temptation, from everything that can harm them in any way. We will particularly want to pray for them if they are traveling, going back to school, relocating to a new community, working in a dangerous occupation, or if they are in the armed forces, have been posted to a trouble spot overseas.

Second, we will want to pray for their health and wellbeing. This includes not only praying for physical healing for them but also emotional healing.

Most of us may suffer from some form of emotional distress at various times in our lives. It may be temporary. We may have made a poor grade on a paper or an exam. We may be laid off from our job due to a plant closure. It may be ongoing. We may be having problems in our marriageor some other relationship or at work. We may be misinterpreting the actions of our spouse or someone else, drawing the wrong conclusions about these actions, thinking too much about them, and making ourselves anxious over them.

The school librarian in my high school once you got to know her was a kind, pleasant woman who genuinely cared about young people. But to the students who did not get to know her, she was an intimidating figure, a tall woman who had black and white hair, tied back in a bun, and who always wore black. The students who did not know her let their imaginations get the better of them and talked about her behind her back. They called her a witch and said other unkind things about her.

We can do that sort of thing in our own minds, stir up negative feelings inside ourselves toward a particular individual, and then let those feelings control how we relate to them. We can provoke responses from those toward whom we have negative feelings, responses which in turn reinforces our negative feelings toward them.

When we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, we will consequently want to pray for their relationship with others and ourselves, for the healing of any rifts that may have developed.

Finally, we will want to pray for their spiritual growth. We can ask God to open their hearts and minds to his grace and enable them to make full use of it. We can ask God to show us how we can encourage and support their spiritual growth, to show us in what ways we can be a means of grace to them.

In his children’s message last Sunday my church’s children’s ministry director explained to the kids that “prayer is an honest talk with God.” He could not have put it better. When we pray for others and ourselves, we have an honest talk with God about them and ourselves. We share with God all the things that we have on our mind. We admit the thoughts and desires we had and the things we did, which may have grieved God and ask God’s forgiveness and his help to change our ways. We thank God for all the good things he has done for us or is doing in our lives. I thank him for the beautiful flowers that I see on my twice-daily walks and for the other ways that he blesses us even in difficult times. We unburden ourselves to God, freeing ourselves of the things that are troubling us by talking about them to him. We make appeals and requests for others and ourselves. We listen in the silence and the stillness for God’s voice.

Early one evening I was praying at the edge of the churchyard where I sometime go to pray when I saw a herd of deer under the trees that line the churchyard. They saw me but they did not flee. I kept praying and they kept grazing. The deer and I moved on when a man drove up in a pickup and began to burn tree branches and brush on the opposite side of the churchyard to the deer.

As I was leaving, I reflected on the presence of the deer. One of the legends associated with Saint Patrick is that God transformed Patrick and his followers into deer so they could escape the druids who were pursuing them to kill them. I thought about how God makes provision for us in the face of danger. Before the man arrived in his truck, I had offered a prayer for the deer and asked God to protect them. As I thought about it, I concluded that the deer may have been God’s way of speaking to me. They reminded me of God’s providential care. It was a much needed reminder.

When we pray for our fellow believers, we are not only expressing our love for them and asking God for good things for them, but we are also opening ourselves to God’s grace, to the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. We are appropriating the new nature that is God’s gift to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Silence is kept

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

Open this link to hear Ryan Flanigan’s setting of the Apostles Creed.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
And born of the virgin Mary

He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried
He descended to the dead, on the third day he rose again
He ascended into heaven, and is seen at the right hand of the father
He will come again to judge the living and the dead

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church
The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting
Amen

SONG OF PRAISE

Open this link in a new tab to hear Stuart Townend’s “My Soul Will Magnify.”

My soul will magnify the Lord
I rejoice in God, my Savior
In the wonder of His favor
For He has done great things for me
He was mindful of His servant
Every age shall call be blessed
The hope of Abraham come
In the giving of the Son
For He who promised is mighty
In remembering His mercy

My soul will magnify the Lord
For His grace to those who fear Him
Through every generation
The proud He scatters to the wind
As the ruler's strength is broken
And the rich are left with nothing
The humble lifted high
And the hungry satisfied
Our portion and our treasure
Our hope and help forever

My soul will magnify the Lord
I rejoice in God, my Savior
In the wonder of His favor

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

During the silence that follows each bidding, the congregation may pray aloud or silently for each concern or need

To our Father in heaven
let us make our requests with thanksgiving,
through our only mediator,
Jesus Christ the Son.

I ask your prayers for peace in the life of the world ...
Pray for God's peace.

Silence

I ask your prayers for all who suffer injury, sickness and loss ...
Pray for all who are afflicted. 

Silence

I ask your prayers for all who wield authority and influence ...
Pray for all who exercise power.

Silence

I ask your prayers for all whom we have wronged ...
Pray for all who hate us.

Silence

I ask your prayers for our bishop(s) ...
and for all whom Christ has appointed to his service ...
Pray for God's people.

Silence

I ask your prayers for ...

During the silence members of the congregation may ask the prayers of the congregation for specific concerns and needs

Silence

Give thanks to God for all
in whom Christ has been honoured,
(especially ... )

Silence

O God, whose will it is
that all should find salvation
and come to know the truth:
receive the prayers and petitions
which we offer in faith and love;
through him who gave proof of your purpose,
and who sacrificed himself
to win freedom for all humankind,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Collect

Loving God, you raise us to new life in Jesus Christ
and renew your image in us.
Teach us to love what is worth loving,
to reject what is offensive to you,
and to treasure what is precious in your sight;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

RESPONSE

Open this link in a new tab to hear Steve Angrisano’ s setting of “Lord have mercy.

Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy
Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy

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.