All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (July 10, 2022)
PROCLAMATION OF THE LIGHT
One or more candles may be lit. Do to others as you would like them to do to you. Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Luke 6:31, 35
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 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
Luke 10:25-37 Parable of the Good Samaritan
One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”
The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”
The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.
The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
I have heard the Parable of the Good Samaritan since my early childhood. It may have been the first parable of Jesus’ I heard. It was used to reinforce the importance of having feelings of sympathy for the suffering or bad luck of others and a wish to help them as well as the importance of being kind to others and treating them as we would like them to treat us. It is also one of the parables of Jesus and stories of the Bible I know by heart.
Over the years I have learned a number of things about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus’ original audience would not have been surprised that the priest or the temple assistant did not stop to help the injured man who had been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. If the man was dead, touching his corpse would have made them ritually impure and unable to carry out their temple duties. In their minds these duties were far more important than examining the man to see if he showed any signs of life.
A major criticism that Jesus leveled at the Pharisees as recorded in the Gospels is that they put their religious obligations before showing mercy to others. God, on the other, Jesus taught, was more concerned with their willingness to show compassion and mercy to others than he was with their punctilious fulfillment of their religious obligations. He also pointed to their attention that when they saw fit, they ignored those obligations. While the priest and the temple assistant may not have been Pharisees, they acted like them. To them fulfilling their religious obligations was more important than showing compassion and mercy to others.
Jesus’ original audience would have not been surprised if the Samaritan had also ignored the injured man. After all, he was a Samaritan. In the eyes of the Jews, he was a half-breed, a member of a mongrel race. He was not a member of God’s chosen people, the people of the Covenant, the descendants of Abraham. It did not matter if his people worshipped the same God as the Jews and lived in accordance with the laws that God had given Moses on Mount Sinai. This included the two commandments which Jesus identified as the most important of all—to love God with every atom of our being and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
To their shock and dismay, the Samaritan, the half-breed whom the Jews hated, stopped to examine the injured man, tended his wounds, put him on his donkey, took him to an inn, cared for him overnight, and then paid he innkeeper to care for the man until he recovered. This must have particularly disconcerted the man who tried to justify himself.
The man’s question was, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus does not give him the kind of answer that he may have been expecting. After telling him the parable, he asks the man—
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?”
I suspect that the man was expecting Jesus to reel off a list of people whom he should consider his neighbor.” Instead, he was told a parable and then asked a question.
What was his answer and Jesus’ response?
“The man replied, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’”
“Then Jesus said, ‘Yes, now go and do the same.’”
The man did not get the answer to his question, which he was expecting. Jesus put him in a position in which, if he genuinely believed the two great commandments, there was only one possible answer. You might say Jesus pulled a switch on the man, but I don’t believe that Jesus was being devious. He wanted the man to come to the right conclusion on his own.
What was the most important difference between the three men was not their race or ethnicity, their religious heritage, their piety, or their station or walk in life. It was their mercifulness—their ability to show compassion and mercy to others. It was what counted the most.
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic a number of churches claimed that fulfilling their religious obligations was far more important than implementing recommended measures to contain the spread of the virus. Several churches became the epicenter of significant outbreaks of the virus.
One is prompted to ask what Jesus would have thought of their claims in light of what he taught about showing compassion and mercy to others.
It is interesting that when it came to keep one’s religious obligations and showing compassion and mercy to others, Jesus put showing compassion and mercy first. He also put forgiving others and pursuing reconciliation with them before fulfilling religious obligations.
While it is tempting to interpret the parable of the Good Samaritan as a reason for being more tolerant of groups that are on the margins of society or whose members are “not like us,” not our tribe, I don’t think that this is the main thrust of the parable.
Jesus in his teaching and his actions reveals that God’s grace does not extend to one people. God’s goodwill and favor extends to Samaritans and Gentiles, non-Jews, as well as to Jews.
Jesus taught that we are to imitate God’s character as children imitates their parents’ good qualities. God is merciful; therefore, we should be merciful, that is, kind and forgiving. If God shows grace toward all people, we should show grace to them too.
Being merciful is not the same as being tolerant. When we are tolerant, we exhibit a willingness to accept behavior and beliefs that are different from our own, although we might not agree with them or approve of them. We do not expect any kind of change in those whom we are tolerating. We put up with them as they are.
God meets us where we are, but God does not leave us where we are. God works in us to transform us, to make us more like Jesus, to make us more like God himself. God pours his love into our hearts so that we become more loving, kinder, more forgiving, more willing to show others our favor and goodwill with no strings attached. In other words, so that we become our better self, not a better self that is lurking unrealized within us, but a better self which is the work of what John Wesley called God’s sanctifying and perfecting grace.
This is not to suggest that we should be unsympathetic, unloving, unkind, and unforgiving toward groups that are on the margins of society or whose members are “not like us,” not our tribe. We should extend to them the compassion and mercy that God extends to us. For in showing them such compassion and mercy, we show that we are indeed the children of the Most High.
Jesus taught his disciples that they should love even those who had no love for them and who wished them ill and do good to them. God, he told them, is merciful even to the unthankful and the wicked. The Samaritan of the parable exhibits such love. If we have faith in our Lord and love for him, we will follow his teaching and example. We will go and do what the Samaritan did. We will be true neighbors to our fellow human beings and show them compassion and mercy.
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
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.
One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”
The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”
The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.
The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
True Neighbors
I have heard the Parable of the Good Samaritan since my early childhood. It may have been the first parable of Jesus’ I heard. It was used to reinforce the importance of having feelings of sympathy for the suffering or bad luck of others and a wish to help them as well as the importance of being kind to others and treating them as we would like them to treat us. It is also one of the parables of Jesus and stories of the Bible I know by heart.
Over the years I have learned a number of things about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus’ original audience would not have been surprised that the priest or the temple assistant did not stop to help the injured man who had been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. If the man was dead, touching his corpse would have made them ritually impure and unable to carry out their temple duties. In their minds these duties were far more important than examining the man to see if he showed any signs of life.
A major criticism that Jesus leveled at the Pharisees as recorded in the Gospels is that they put their religious obligations before showing mercy to others. God, on the other, Jesus taught, was more concerned with their willingness to show compassion and mercy to others than he was with their punctilious fulfillment of their religious obligations. He also pointed to their attention that when they saw fit, they ignored those obligations. While the priest and the temple assistant may not have been Pharisees, they acted like them. To them fulfilling their religious obligations was more important than showing compassion and mercy to others.
Jesus’ original audience would have not been surprised if the Samaritan had also ignored the injured man. After all, he was a Samaritan. In the eyes of the Jews, he was a half-breed, a member of a mongrel race. He was not a member of God’s chosen people, the people of the Covenant, the descendants of Abraham. It did not matter if his people worshipped the same God as the Jews and lived in accordance with the laws that God had given Moses on Mount Sinai. This included the two commandments which Jesus identified as the most important of all—to love God with every atom of our being and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
To their shock and dismay, the Samaritan, the half-breed whom the Jews hated, stopped to examine the injured man, tended his wounds, put him on his donkey, took him to an inn, cared for him overnight, and then paid he innkeeper to care for the man until he recovered. This must have particularly disconcerted the man who tried to justify himself.
The man’s question was, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus does not give him the kind of answer that he may have been expecting. After telling him the parable, he asks the man—
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?”
I suspect that the man was expecting Jesus to reel off a list of people whom he should consider his neighbor.” Instead, he was told a parable and then asked a question.
What was his answer and Jesus’ response?
“The man replied, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’”
“Then Jesus said, ‘Yes, now go and do the same.’”
The man did not get the answer to his question, which he was expecting. Jesus put him in a position in which, if he genuinely believed the two great commandments, there was only one possible answer. You might say Jesus pulled a switch on the man, but I don’t believe that Jesus was being devious. He wanted the man to come to the right conclusion on his own.
What was the most important difference between the three men was not their race or ethnicity, their religious heritage, their piety, or their station or walk in life. It was their mercifulness—their ability to show compassion and mercy to others. It was what counted the most.
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic a number of churches claimed that fulfilling their religious obligations was far more important than implementing recommended measures to contain the spread of the virus. Several churches became the epicenter of significant outbreaks of the virus.
One is prompted to ask what Jesus would have thought of their claims in light of what he taught about showing compassion and mercy to others.
It is interesting that when it came to keep one’s religious obligations and showing compassion and mercy to others, Jesus put showing compassion and mercy first. He also put forgiving others and pursuing reconciliation with them before fulfilling religious obligations.
While it is tempting to interpret the parable of the Good Samaritan as a reason for being more tolerant of groups that are on the margins of society or whose members are “not like us,” not our tribe, I don’t think that this is the main thrust of the parable.
Jesus in his teaching and his actions reveals that God’s grace does not extend to one people. God’s goodwill and favor extends to Samaritans and Gentiles, non-Jews, as well as to Jews.
Jesus taught that we are to imitate God’s character as children imitates their parents’ good qualities. God is merciful; therefore, we should be merciful, that is, kind and forgiving. If God shows grace toward all people, we should show grace to them too.
Being merciful is not the same as being tolerant. When we are tolerant, we exhibit a willingness to accept behavior and beliefs that are different from our own, although we might not agree with them or approve of them. We do not expect any kind of change in those whom we are tolerating. We put up with them as they are.
God meets us where we are, but God does not leave us where we are. God works in us to transform us, to make us more like Jesus, to make us more like God himself. God pours his love into our hearts so that we become more loving, kinder, more forgiving, more willing to show others our favor and goodwill with no strings attached. In other words, so that we become our better self, not a better self that is lurking unrealized within us, but a better self which is the work of what John Wesley called God’s sanctifying and perfecting grace.
This is not to suggest that we should be unsympathetic, unloving, unkind, and unforgiving toward groups that are on the margins of society or whose members are “not like us,” not our tribe. We should extend to them the compassion and mercy that God extends to us. For in showing them such compassion and mercy, we show that we are indeed the children of the Most High.
Jesus taught his disciples that they should love even those who had no love for them and who wished them ill and do good to them. God, he told them, is merciful even to the unthankful and the wicked. The Samaritan of the parable exhibits such love. If we have faith in our Lord and love for him, we will follow his teaching and example. We will go and do what the Samaritan did. We will be true neighbors to our fellow human beings and show them compassion and mercy.
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
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
Save us, Jesus, from hurrying away,
because we do not wish to help,
because we know not how to help,
because we dare not.
Inspire us to use our lives
serving one another.
Hear this prayer for your name’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.
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
Save us, Jesus, from hurrying away,
because we do not wish to help,
because we know not how to help,
because we dare not.
Inspire us to use our lives
serving one another.
Hear this prayer for your name’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.
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