All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (August 31, 2022)
PROCLAMATION OF THE LIGHT
One or more candles may be lit. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Luke 14:11
EVENING HYMN
Open this link in a new tab to hear Carl P. Daw Jr.’s evening hymn, “O Light Whose Splendor Thrills and Gladdens.”
O Light whose splendor thrills and gladdens
with radiance brighter than the sun,
pure gleam of God's unending glory,
O Jesus, blest Anointed One;
as twilight hovers near at sunset,
and lamps are lit, and children nod,
in evening hymns we lift our voices
to Father, Spirit, Son: one God.
In all life's brilliant, timeless moments,
let faithful voices sing your praise,
O Son of God, our Life-bestower,
whose glory lightens endless days.
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 John L. Bell and Graham Maul’s “God’s Table.”
Since the world was young
there's a song that's been sung
of a promise coming true:
hungry folk will eat
and long‑lost friends will meet
and the Lord will make all things new.
God has a table
where he calls his friends
to a feast that never ends;
God has a table
and one day we'll meet him there.
Jesus saw a crowd
who were hungry, and vowed
that they didn‘t have much food.
So he fed that bunch
with a little boy's lunch
as a sign that God is good
God has a table
where he calls his friends
to a feast that never ends;
God has a table
and one day we'll meet him there.
Jesus told a tale
of how rich people fail
to accept God‘s summons to dine.
Then before their eyes
those without earthly ties
share heaven's finest food and wine.
God has a table
where he calls his friends
to a feast that never ends;
God has a table
and one day we'll meet him there.
Till we hear that word
from the mouth of the Lord
saying, 'Join me at my table',
for the world we'll care
and its good things we will share
as long as we are able.
God has a table
where he calls his friends
to a feast that never ends;
God has a table
and one day we'll meet him there.
SCRIPTURE
Luke 14:15-24 Parable of the Great Feast
Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!”
Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
“The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”
Silence
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
An Invitation to a Feast, An Invitation to a Kingdom
As well as being an astute observer of human behavior with the ability to discern the inner motives and desires of others, Jesus was also a master of the teachable moment. He was quick to recognize an opportunity to teach and to take advantage of that opportunity. A remark a table companion made about eating bread in the Kingdom of God provided him with such an opportunity and Jesus made use of it. He told what is called the Parable of the Great Feast.
We do not know what Jesus’ table companion had in mind when he referred to the Kingdom of God. John Wesley in his Explanatory Notes on the Gospel according to St. Luke assumes that he was talking about a time after the resurrection. But we do not know this for certain. While it is a possibility, he may also have had in mind a time after the Messiah had delivered the people of Judaea and the city of Jerusalem from foreign occupiers like the Romans. In any event it is not important to understanding what Jesus was driving at in the parable, what he was saying.
In the ancient Mid-East rejecting someone’s hospital, particularly after they had gone to the trouble to prepare a great feast, is a serious affront. While their excuses might have had some legitimacy, they were insult to the man who had prepared the feast. Feasts in those days were expensive affairs and might take days to prepare. They were to use a modern phrase “labor-intensive.” One could not phone a catering service and have the catering service do the preparations.
All the excuses had one thing in common: whoever was making the excuse was saying that he was too busy to accept the invitation.
The man’s reaction is not at all surprising. He is extremely angry. Those whom he had invited and who rejected his invitation must have realized how he would react to their rejection of his hospitality. It suggests that they did not hold the man in high estimation. They did not value their relationship with him enough to postpone their plans and attend the feast he had prepared for them.
If the man in question was a king of the ancient Mid-East and they were his subjects, their declining of his invitation was tantamount to an act of disloyalty. A subject who turned down an invitation to a royal banquet would be suspected of planning to rebel against the king. A new field, new livestock, or a new wife would not have been considered sufficient reason to decline a royal invitation. If a subject was seriously ill or on their death bed, they would be expected to send their oldest son and heir or some other important member of their household in their place as a gesture of loyalty to the king.
In the twenty-first century we make not think twice about brushing off someone unless they are our boss or an important client. In the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry giving someone the brush-off could have serious repercussions. Turn down the invitation of the wrong person and you made an enemy of them for life. In that time people who occupied position of influence and power went to great lengths to avenge even the smallest slight. They did it because they were able to do it and had no moral compunctions against doing it.
The man who prepared the great feast is furious, but he chooses a different course of action. He gives his servant instructions to go into the town and to invite all and sundry to the feast—"the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame,” people who were not normally invited to feasts. When the servant has done what his master instructed and reports that there is room for more people, he instructs the servant to go into the countryside and beat the bushes for people to fill the house. He is determined that those whom he originally invited would have no part in the feast. They will never get to taste the good things that he prepared for them. Others will enjoy these good things in their place.
Considering whose home in which Jesus was dining and the company with whom he was eating, the Parable of the Great Feast can be interpreted as a warning to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who were present at the dinner. The Great Feast is the Kingdom of God to which they have been invited, an invitation to which they have chosen not to accept. Having refused to accept God’s invitation, God has chosen others to take their place from the very people on whom they looked down, the people whom they regarded as sinners and incapable of becoming righteous. The Pharisees and the teacher of the Law attributed their condition to sin.
Luke does not tell us how the other dinner guests reacted to Jesus’ words. Rather we are left to give thought to the parable ourselves and how it might apply to us. I believe that we can draw the following conclusions from the parable.
We have been invited to the Kingdom of God and if we choose to turn down the invitation, we, like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, will face the consequences of our decision. We will not get to enjoy the good things that God has prepared for those who do accept his invitation.
How we respond to God’s invitation depends upon our opinion of God. If we have a low estimation of God like the opinion the first guests whom the man invited appear to have had of him, then we may not accept the invitation. If we make that choice, we also choose to suffer the consequences of our decision. For this reason, it is important that we clear up any confusion in our minds about God before we make such a choice. Some things we may have to accept on faith.
God extends his invitation to all kinds of people, including people who may surprise us. To the Pharisees and the teachers of Law "the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” were sinners beyond hope of redemption. They were too bad to be saved by anyone. Yet they are the very people whom the man instructions his servant to invite to the feast.
We are the servant in the parable. We are not the man who prepared the great feast. Like the servant in the parable, we do not get to choose who is invited to the feast. We follow our master’s instructions. We invite everybody—men, women, young, old; people from every walk of life; black, brown, or white, those who live like us and those who don’t; those who speak like us and those who don’t; lesbian, gay, straight, and questioning.
We may be tempted to see ourselves as the man who prepared the feast and to take upon ourselves deciding who gets invited and who doesn’t. When we succumb to that temptation, we are not doing God’s will. We are not to be discriminatory in extending God’s invitation. We are not to treat a person or a particular group of people differently from the way in which we treat other people for any reason. It is God who decides whom he will invite to the feast in his kingdom, not us. It is not our task to vet people for God and to make up the guest list.
The master instructed his servant not only to go into the alleys and streets of the town but also the “highways and byways” of the countryside. We not only don’t get to choose to whom we extend God’s invitation, but we also don’t get to choose where we extend that invitation. God sends us to not only invite all and sundry but also to invite them in every place.
In the twenty-first century we make not think twice about brushing off someone unless they are our boss or an important client. In the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry giving someone the brush-off could have serious repercussions. Turn down the invitation of the wrong person and you made an enemy of them for life. In that time people who occupied position of influence and power went to great lengths to avenge even the smallest slight. They did it because they were able to do it and had no moral compunctions against doing it.
The man who prepared the great feast is furious, but he chooses a different course of action. He gives his servant instructions to go into the town and to invite all and sundry to the feast—"the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame,” people who were not normally invited to feasts. When the servant has done what his master instructed and reports that there is room for more people, he instructs the servant to go into the countryside and beat the bushes for people to fill the house. He is determined that those whom he originally invited would have no part in the feast. They will never get to taste the good things that he prepared for them. Others will enjoy these good things in their place.
Considering whose home in which Jesus was dining and the company with whom he was eating, the Parable of the Great Feast can be interpreted as a warning to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who were present at the dinner. The Great Feast is the Kingdom of God to which they have been invited, an invitation to which they have chosen not to accept. Having refused to accept God’s invitation, God has chosen others to take their place from the very people on whom they looked down, the people whom they regarded as sinners and incapable of becoming righteous. The Pharisees and the teacher of the Law attributed their condition to sin.
Luke does not tell us how the other dinner guests reacted to Jesus’ words. Rather we are left to give thought to the parable ourselves and how it might apply to us. I believe that we can draw the following conclusions from the parable.
We have been invited to the Kingdom of God and if we choose to turn down the invitation, we, like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, will face the consequences of our decision. We will not get to enjoy the good things that God has prepared for those who do accept his invitation.
How we respond to God’s invitation depends upon our opinion of God. If we have a low estimation of God like the opinion the first guests whom the man invited appear to have had of him, then we may not accept the invitation. If we make that choice, we also choose to suffer the consequences of our decision. For this reason, it is important that we clear up any confusion in our minds about God before we make such a choice. Some things we may have to accept on faith.
God extends his invitation to all kinds of people, including people who may surprise us. To the Pharisees and the teachers of Law "the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” were sinners beyond hope of redemption. They were too bad to be saved by anyone. Yet they are the very people whom the man instructions his servant to invite to the feast.
We are the servant in the parable. We are not the man who prepared the great feast. Like the servant in the parable, we do not get to choose who is invited to the feast. We follow our master’s instructions. We invite everybody—men, women, young, old; people from every walk of life; black, brown, or white, those who live like us and those who don’t; those who speak like us and those who don’t; lesbian, gay, straight, and questioning.
We may be tempted to see ourselves as the man who prepared the feast and to take upon ourselves deciding who gets invited and who doesn’t. When we succumb to that temptation, we are not doing God’s will. We are not to be discriminatory in extending God’s invitation. We are not to treat a person or a particular group of people differently from the way in which we treat other people for any reason. It is God who decides whom he will invite to the feast in his kingdom, not us. It is not our task to vet people for God and to make up the guest list.
The master instructed his servant not only to go into the alleys and streets of the town but also the “highways and byways” of the countryside. We not only don’t get to choose to whom we extend God’s invitation, but we also don’t get to choose where we extend that invitation. God sends us to not only invite all and sundry but also to invite them in every place.
The instructions that the master gave his servant were not suggestions. They were commands. We are commanded to invite all people from all four corners of the earth to the Great Feast, to the Kingdom of God (Matthew 28: 19).
The broadness of God’s invitation is typical of the way that God shows us his grace, his favor and his goodwill. As Jesus drew to the attention of the multitude in the sermon on the mount, God “is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked” (Luke 6:35). This does not mean God overlooks wickedness but rather that no one is beyond the power of God to save and redeem.
Silence
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
Let us affirm our faith in the words of the Apostles Creed.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come 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 life everlasting. Amen.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear David Haas’ adaptation of the Magnificat, “Holy Is His Name.”
My soul is filled with joy
as I sing to God my savior;
you have looked upon your servant,
you have visited your people.
And holy is your name.
through all generations!
Everlasting is your mercy
to the people you have chosen,
and holy is your name!
I am lowly as a child,
but I know from this day forward
that my name will be remembered,
for all will call me blessed.
And holy is your name.
through all generations!
Everlasting is your mercy
to the people you have chosen,
and holy is your name!
I proclaim the pow’r of God,
you do marvels for your servants;
though you scatter the proud hearted
and destroy the might of princes.
And holy is your name.
through all generations!
Everlasting is your mercy
to the people you have chosen,
and holy is your name!
To the hungry you give food,
Send the rich away empty;
In your mercy you are mindful
of the people you have chosen.
And holy is your name.
through all generations!
Everlasting is your mercy
to the people you have chosen,
and holy is your name!
In your love you now fulfill
what you promised to your people
I will praise you, Lord my savior
everlasting is your mercy.
And holy is your name.
through all generations!
Everlasting is your mercy
to the people you have chosen,
and holy is your name!
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
(Let us offer our prayers to the source of all love and all life, saying, “Lord, hear our prayer.”)
Merciful Lord, we pray for all who call themselves Christians: that we may be faithful disciples of your Son Jesus Christ.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for N our pastor, for all pastors, and for all who serve Christ in his Church: that they may remain faithful to their calling and rightly proclaim the word of truth. Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for the leaders of the nations, and all in authority: that your people may lead quiet and peaceable lives.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for our community and those who live here, the poor and the rich, the elderly and the young, men and women: that you will show your goodwill to all.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for those in any need or trouble that you will deliver them from their distress.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for_______________________.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We give thanks for all the saints who have found favor in your sight from earliest times, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and those whose names are known to you alone: and we pray that we too may be counted among your faithful witnesses.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Free Prayer
In silent or spontaneous prayer all bring before God the concerns of the day.
The Collect
Author and Giver of all good things,
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us in all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
RESPONSE
Open this link in a new tab Fernado Ortaga’s setting of the Trisagion, “Holy God.”
Holy God,
holy and mighty,
holy immortal one
have mercy
have mercy on us.
Holy God,
holy and mighty,
holy immortal one
have mercy
have mercy on us.
Holy God,
holy and mighty,
holy immortal one
have mercy
have mercy
have mercy
have mercy
have mercy on us.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.
As our Savior 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.
Comments
Post a Comment