All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (September 11, 2022)

 

PROCLAMATION OF THE LIGHT

One or more candles may be lit.

I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:10

EVENING HYMN

Open this link in a new tab to hear William George Storey’s translation of the Phos hilaron, “O Radiant Light, O Sun Divine.”

1 O radiant light, O sun divine,
Of God the Father's deathless face,
O image of the light sublime
That fills the heav'nly dwelling place.

2 O Son of God, the source of life,
Praise is your due by night and day.
Our happy lips must raise the strain
of your esteem'd and splendid name.

3 Lord Jesus Christ, as daylight fades,
As shine the lights of eventide,
We praise the Father with the Son,
The Spirit blest and with them one.

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 the 18th century English carol, “As Jacob with Travel Was Weary One Day.”

1 As Jacob with travel was weary one day,
at night on a stone for a pillow he lay;
he saw in a vision a ladder so high
that its foot was on earth and its top in the sky:

Alleluia to Jesus, who died on the tree
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me,
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me.

2 This ladder is long, it is strong and well-made,
has stood hundreds of years and is not yet decayed;
many millions have climbed it and reached Sion's hill;
many millions by faith are climbing it still:

Alleluia to Jesus, who died on the tree
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me,
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me.

3 Come let us ascend! All may climb it who will;
for the angels of Jacob are guarding it still:
and remember, each step that by faith we pass o'er,
some prophet or martyr has trod it before:

Alleluia to Jesus, who died on the tree
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me,
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me.

4 And when we arrive at the haven of rest
we shall hear the glad words, 'Come up hither, ye blest,
here are regions of light, here are mansions of bliss'.
O who would not climb such a ladder as this?

Alleluia to Jesus, who died on the tree
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me,
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me.

SCRIPTURE

Luke 15: 1-10 Jesus speaks of the love of God for “the lost”

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

Silence

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

HOMILY

The Truth Behind a Stray Sheep and a Missing Coin

I am in the habit of “losing” things—keys, books, important papers, and other similar things. It may be more accurate to say that I mislay things: I put things down without paying attention to what I am doing and forget where I have put them. I then spend minutes, even hours, searching for the missing item only to discover that it is right under my nose

You may have done the same thing. If you have, you can imagine the flood of relief that I feel when I find the missing item. You can also imagine the flood of relief that shepherd felt when he found the lost sheep and the women felt when she found the lost coin. I suspect those who were listening when Jesus told these two parables recalled a time when they lost something valuable and how they felt when they found it. I don’t believe that I would be far wrong in thinking that Jesus realized that the two stories he told would affect listeners in that way.

Preachers may be tempted to talk about the ninety-nine sheep that the shepherd left in the wilderness, but they may be missing the point of the Parable of the Lost Sheep. I believe that I am safe in concluding that Jesus did not intend his listeners to think that the shepherd abandoned his flock to look for one missing sheep without taking steps to ensure their safety while he searched for the one that was lost. In telling his parables Jesus leaves out some details because they are not necessary to the purpose for which he is using a story. He provides just enough details to achieve that purpose.

While the Jews had a written literature in the form of what we call the Old Testament and other writings, the population of ancient Palestine was largely illiterate. Word of mouth continued to play an important part in the transmission of values, attitudes, and beliefs. Folk tales, myths, parables, and proverbial sayings were the most common media by which values, attitudes, and beliefs were transmitted. To serve this purpose, they had to be short, simple, and easy-to-remember. They contained those details necessary to their telling. While storytellers might embroider a story a little to make more interesting, they generally stuck to the story that had been passed on to them.

When Jesus told a parable, he appears to have wanted his listeners to remember what he was saying and the truth or principle to which it pointed. Consequently, he did not overload them with unnecessary details. We may wish that they contained more details, but additional details are not necessary for us to understand them or to give thought to what Jesus wanted his listeners to think about when he told a parable.

We must also remember that Jesus in his parables often referred to common life experiences with which his listeners could identify. They could fill in more details from their own life experiences. Living two millennia later, we may not be able to identify with these experiences. During the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry wealth was measured in terms of arable farmland, vineyards, olive groves, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and goats, and coins, jewelry, and other items made from precious metals. A sheep and a silver coin were things of great value. Jesus’ listeners could appreciate how the shepherd felt when he recovered his lost sheep and the woman when she recovered her lost coin. It was indeed a cause for celebration.

Jesus draws his listeners’ attention to the similarity between how the shepherd and the woman felt and how heaven reacts to the turning of someone away from what has come between them and God back to God. The stray sheep was precious to the shepherd, the missing coin to the woman, and sinners are precious to God.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the religious law may grumble about Jesus’ association with sinners and his eating with them, but sinners have very great worth in God’s eyes. This is the point that Jesus is making with these two parables. They were not worthless and past redemption as the Pharisees and teachers of the law saw them. Rather the contrary was true.

Have we ourselves fully grasped this point? I do not believe that we have, based upon the way that we act, not only towards people who are not believers like us but also to each other. We do not go out of our way to reach and engage non-believers, nor do we make much effort to reconcile with other believers with whom for one reason or another we are no longer friendly. We do, on the other hand, go to great lengths to convince ourselves and others that we are doing the right thing when in actuality we are not.

The God who came to us in the person of Jesus is a God who seeks not only to restore our broken relationships with him but also our broken relationships with each other. Just as things can come between us and God so can they come between us and our fellow Christians.

A broken relationship between two or more Christians can manifest itself in a variety of ways. We are not always quick to recognize the symptoms of a broken relationship for what they are, and we may mistake them for something else entirely.

When a rift does develop between one of his followers and someone else, Jesus has given us clear instructions on what we are to do: We are to drop everything and to do all that is within our power to be reconciled to that person, to make peace with them and to be on friendly terms with them again (Matthew 5: 23-24).. We are to make allowances for them, and we are to forgive their failings. We are not to harbor ill-will against them.

While we may never be bosom buddies, friends who are very close to each other, we will be on speaking terms, friendly enough to talk; will have open and honest communication with each other; and will do our best to resolve any differences. If the other person is a Christian like us, I do not see how we can even pretend to be fulfilling Jesus’ commandment to love one another if we settle for less.

It is important to keep in mind that among the things that can come between God and us is bad feelings and unforgiveness between us and someone else because of things that happened in the past. Among the things over which heaven rejoices is when two or more people patch things up and are reconciled to each other.

Jesus tied our relationship to God to our relationship to other people. The two are interconnected. If we have a strained relationship with someone else or a rift has developed in our relationship with that person, our relationship with God is affected. We are also exposing ourselves to all kinds of spiritual dangers.

Jesus recognized the spiritual dangers to which we were exposing ourselves as did the apostles.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus equates anger with murder—

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!” (Matthew 5: 21-22)

Paul wrote the church at Ephesus—

“And ‘don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil” (Ephesians 4: 26-27, NLT).

When we hang onto anger, we open a Pandora’s box of things that are harmful to others and ourselves. Anger can distort the way that we perceive others, ourselves, and world, and can cause us to judge people and situations wrongly.

We teach our children that God treasures them, that God treasures everybody. But then we turn around and act like some people have less worth than others. They do not deserve to be treated with respect or kindness or fairness or patience, in any of the ways that Jesus told his disciples to treat others.

We may need to relearn the lesson that we are teaching our children. We may need to hear Jesus’ parables through believing ears and put it into practice what we hear. It is not enough to talk about loving God and loving others. We must do what we say and thereby show that we really believe what we are saying. Guiding principles like doing no harm, avoiding all kinds of evil, and doing as much good as we can to as many people as we can while we can are all well and good only if we practice them.

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.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s 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 to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and 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 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 favor and goodwill to all.
Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for those who are in any kind of trouble or need 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

Loving God,
in Jesus you gather us into your family;
confidently we call you Father;
may your Spirit bring us to share
the glorious liberty of your children.
Hear this prayer for your love’s sake.
Amen.

RESPONSE

Open this link in a new tab to hear Josh Blakesley's Mass of Restoration setting of the Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy).

Kyrie eleison
Kyrie eleison

Christe eleison
Christe eleison

Kyrie eleison
Kyrie eleison

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 almighty and merciful God bless us
and keep us now and for ever. Amen.