Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (Thursday, May 25, 2023)

Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows. This Thursday is the last Thursday in the Season of Easter. This upcoming Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost on which we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and the birth of the Church. In many local churches Christians will, in addition to thanking God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, be praying for the renewal of the Church, for the reinvigoration of its witness,  and for a fresh spiritual awakening in our land and throughout the world. 


DRAWING NEAR TO GOD

Choral Prelude:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Lindy Thompson’s “Show Us How to Love.”

1 Hearts open,
minds awake.
Change us now,
for heaven’s sake.
Leave us not alone
in hatred’s wake.
Show us how to love,
show us how to love
show us how
show us how to love.

2 Eyes open,
souls awake.
Rules we made
we now must break.
With our very own
lives at stake,
we must learn to love
we must learn to love
we must learn
we must learn to love.

3 Hearts open,
shocked awake.
Much to learn
from our mistakes.
Draw us close
in our heartache.
Show us how to love,
show us how to love
show us how
show us how to love.
Show us how to love,
show us how to love
show us how
show us how to love,
to love.

Gathering Song:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Natalie Sleeth's "God of Great and God of Small."


God of great and God of small,
God of one and God of all,
God of weak and God of strong,
God to whom all things belong,
Alleluia, alleluia, praise be to your name.

God of land and sky and sea,
God of life and destiny,
God of never ending power,
yet beside me every hour,
Alleluia, alleluia, praise be to your name.

God of silence, God of sound,
God in whom the lost are found,
God of day and darkest night,
God whose love turns wrong to right.
Alleluia, alleluia, praise be to your name.

God of heaven and God of earth,
God of death and God of birth,
God of now and days before,
God who reigns forevermore,
Alleluia, alleluia, praise be to your name.
Praise be to your name.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with you.
The risen Christ is with us.
Praise the Lord!

Let us pray.

God of boundless grace,
you call us to drink freely of the well of life
and to share the love of your holy being.
May the glory of your love,
made known in the victory of Jesus Christ, our Saviour,
transform our lives and the world he lived and died to save.
We ask this in his name and for his sake. Amen.


Hymn of Praise:
Open this link in a new tab to hear the traditional Peruvian “Glory to God (Gloria a Dios).”

1 Glory to God, glory to God,
glory in the highest!
Glory to God, glory to God,
glory in the highest!
To God be glory forever!
To God be glory forever!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!


2 Glory to God, glory to God,
glory to Christ Jesus!
Glory to God, glory to God,
glory to Christ Jesus!
To God be glory forever!
To God be glory forever!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!


3 Glory to God, glory to God,
glory to the Spirit!
Glory to God, glory to God,
glory to the Spirit!
To God be glory forever!
To God be glory forever!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!
Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Amen!


HEARING GOD’S WORD

Lord, open our hearts and minds
by the power of your Holy Spirit,
that, as the Scriptures are read
and your Word proclaimed,
we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.


A reading from the New Testament (John 17: 20-26)

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!

“O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”

Silence

Holy Words, Holy Wisdom.
Thanks be to God.

Will Christians Ever Enjoy Perfect Unity?

Jesus’ prayer that his followers experience perfect unity so that the world knows God sent Jesus and that God loves Jesus’ followers as much as God loves Jesus may be one of the greatest tests of faith in Jesus. If one thing characterizes Christianity, it is not its perfect unity, but numerous, growing divisions in every branch of Christianity—Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism, and Roman Catholicism. 

Divisions over authority. Divisions over the canon of the Bible. Divisions over the translation of the Bible. Divisions over beliefs. Divisions over practices. Divisions over the language used in services of public worship. Divisions over the form of these services. Divisions over the kinds of music used in these services. Divisions over race and ethnicity. Divisions over the place of women in the local church. Divisions over the place of members of the LGBTQ community. Divisions over immigration and immigrants. Divisions over public health measures. Divisions over politics and politicians. Divisions over pronouns.

We are prompted to ask ourselves, “Does God really exist? Does God answer prayer? Was Jesus whom he claimed to be or whom his followers claimed him to be? If Jesus was the Son of God, wouldn’t God have answered Jesus’ prayer and united not just the apostles, his first disciples, but also all who believed in him through their message, the message handed down through the ages to succeeding generations of Jesus’ followers, to us? It is certainly something to give us pause, to cause us to stop and think about it with the care that it deserves. Why does Jesus’ prayer appear to have gone unanswered?

If God is indeed all-powerful, we think, then shouldn’t he be able to resolve all our differences in less than a blink of an eye, put everyone firmly on the same page. Why then doesn’t God put an end to our divisions?

Rather than conclude that God does not exist, and Jesus is not who he claimed to be or whom the apostles and subsequent generations of believers thought that he was because God does not act the way that we think that he ought to act, let us consider a different explanation. This explanation is suggested by what the Scriptures tell us about God.

The Scriptures tell us that God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. While God is not capricious, changing mood or behavior suddenly and unexpectedly, God does not act and think like we do. God, after all, is God.

The Scriptures tell us that God has given us free will. The freedom that we have to exercise our own will is a gift from God. God desires that we align our wills with his own and gives us the ability to do so. Free will, however, is not something that we can exercise unassisted. We cannot put things right between God and ourselves by our own effort or unaided. God’s grace, the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, enables us to turn away from sin in repentance and to turn to Jesus Christ in faith. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

Once we have come to faith in Jesus Christ, God enables us by the power of the Holy Spirit to align our wills more closely to God’s own. In the process we grow more and more like Jesus Christ himself. We increase in our love of God and our love of our fellow human beings and in our faith in Jesus Christ and our conformity to his teaching and example. We exhibit those qualities of character that the apostle Paul called the fruit of the Spirit, qualities of character that our Lord himself exhibited. John Wesley called this process, “Christian perfection.”

Although God is at work in us, perfecting us, the Scriptures also tell us that we are not entirely free from our old self. Our old self may be compared to a willful child who is determined to do exactly what it wants, even if it knows what it is doing is wrong. Our old self has no desire to please God, much less the ability to do so. One way or another our old self is the culprit behind our growing, numerous divisions.

The internet, smart phones, and social media appear to have exacerbated some of the worst tendencies of our old self. Among these tendencies is the tendency to demonize those with whom we disagree, representing them as profoundly evil; to bully those to whom we have taken a dislike; and to organize ourselves into tribes of like-minded people and give unqualified support to our tribe whatever it does. 

We are apt to bristle when someone disagrees with us, to take a completely opposing position to theirs, and to make no room for compromise or agreement to disagree. 

We are also prone to demand the recognition of our opinions as only acceptable opinions rather than allowing for a diversity of opinions; to show little or no tolerance for views beside our own; and to completely reject those who have said or done something that offends us no matter how slight it may have been. 

We indulge in all kinds of wrongheaded thinking such as giving more attention and weight to negative information than positive information, making a slight difficulty seem like a serious problem, and considering a situation much worse or more serious than it really is.

The Scriptures further tell us that God expects us to extend to our fellow human beings the grace that God extends to us. We are expected to show to others the same undeserved kindness that God shows to us. We find this expectation in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, in the code of laws which God gave Moses and in the teaching and example of Jesus.

When we extend grace to others whether they are a friend or a stranger or a brother or sister in Christ, we treat them as we ourselves would want to be treated. When we extend grace to others, we choose to interact with the world with a friendly and helpful attitude, an attitude in which we wish good things to happen to people, as well as with kindness. When we extend grace to others, we give them the benefit of the doubt. We choose to believe something good about them, rather than something bad, when we have the possibility of either. We do not judge them too severely. We make allowances for them. We are not quick to jump to negative conclusions about them or to think the worst of them.

When we extend grace to others, we forgive them even those to our mind do not deserve forgiveness. We do not hang on to anger or bitterness. We let them go. We give people slack, recognizing that all human beings are imperfect and fallible and make mistakes. We monitor our minds for negative or unkind thoughts. When we catch ourselves thinking these things, we replace them with kinder, more supportive thoughts.

When we extend grace to others, we remember that we are no better than everyone else. We do not over-personalize, treat everything as if it is about us. We choose to see every situation with a broader vision. We do our best to listen to others and to understand their words and actions. We try to put ourselves in their place and to understand how they feel. We keep from attacking or yelling at others because of their faults. We think twice before speaking.

When we are intentional in listening to someone else, we are less likely to act or react and in turn we are less likely to criticize them or blame them. When we listen with grace, we do not listen to gather ammunition that we can use against them. Rather we listen to better understand from where they are coming and to respond to them with grace.

We are realistic, assessing our thoughts and our motives, the situation and the environment. If we are experiencing strong feelings, we pause. We do not act or react until we have thoroughly assessed each element of the situation. We do not let ourselves be carried away by our feelings or let our feelings do our thinking for us. We also learn to recognize the distortions in our thinking and do what we can to correct these distortions. We maintain a sense of humor.

Like Jesus, we have the mindset of a servant. Rather than thinking about ourselves all the time, we think about others. We humble ourselves and put others first.

We recognize that everyone is different. They have different thoughts, feelings, desires, experiences, and aspirations. Recognizing and understanding that people are different enables us to be less reactive when they disagree with us.

As we can see, being able to extend grace to others means developing habits of mind that are different from our existing ways of looking at people and situations, thinking, and acting. It means living into the teaching and example of Jesus to the point that they become second nature to us. We are so familiar with Jesus’ teaching and example that we can follow them easily without thinking much about it. We have internalized them so that they have become a part of our own character. This, if we honest with ourselves, take not only time but persistent attention to what Jesus taught and how he acted.

We, however, are prone to distraction. We let other things prevent us from giving our full attention to Jesus’ teaching and example. Many of the things that divide Christians are in reality such distractions.

God could unify all Christians in less than a blink of the eye, putting an end to all our divisions. As Jesus pointed out to his original disciples, “What is humanly impossible is not impossible for God.” But God does always do things that way. 

The way that God appears to have chosen to unify believers is through their transformation into Jesus’ likeness. We are most likely to witness this transformation in the local church, in the lives of ordinary believers. It is in the local church that the world is also most likely to take notice of what is happening and to acknowledge that God did indeed send Jesus and God loves believers as much as he loves Jesus. 

Human beings pay more attention to what is close at hand than to what is far off. Believers extending grace to others and to each other in a particular community will have a much greater impact than an agreement entered into by two or more denominations. Believers working together to show and share the love of Jesus in a particular community will go further toward the perfect unity for which Jesus prayed. 

God has a way of working through the nobodies of this world, the unimportant people of this world, to accomplish his purposes.

Of one thing we can be assured. God will in his time heal all our divisions and unite his people. God will do what Jesus asked in his prayer. But God will do it his way and not ours.

Silence

Hymn of Response:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Ruth Duck’s “Spirit, Open My Heart.”

Spirit, open my heart
To the joy and pain of living
As you love may I love
In receiving and in giving
Spirit, open my heart

1 God, replace my stony heart
with a heart that's kind and tender.
All my coldness and fear
to your grace I now surrender.

Spirit, open my heart
To the joy and pain of living
As you love may I love
In receiving and in giving
Spirit, open my heart

2 Write your love upon my heart
as my law, my goal, my story.
In each thought, word, and deed,
may my living bring you glory.

Spirit, open my heart
To the joy and pain of living
As you love may I love
In receiving and in giving
Spirit, open my heart

3 May I weep with those who weep,
share the joy of sister, brother.
In the welcome of Christ,
may we welcome one another.

Spirit, open my heart
To the joy and pain of living
As you love may I love
In receiving and in giving
Spirit, open my heart
Spirit, open my heart
Spirit, open my heart


PRAYING FOR GOD’S WORLD

Concerns and Prayers:
Any person may offer a brief prayer of intercession, petition, or thanksgiving after each bidding.

After each prayer, the leader may conclude: God of mercy and all may respond: Hear our prayer.

Let us pray for all people and the Church throughout the world.

Let us pray for the preservation of the earth…

Let us pray for peace and shared prosperity…

Let us pray for our nation…

Let us pray for the Church and its mission…

Let us pray for ourselves and our community…

Let us pray for those in need…

Let us give thanks for the faithfully departed…

Other biddings may be added.

Eternal God and Father,
you have promised to hear those who pray
in the name of your Son.
Grant that what we have asked in faith
we may obtain according your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.


GOING OUT TO SERVE

Loving God, we thank you for hearing our prayers,
feeding us with your word,
and encouraging us in meeting together.
Take us and use us
to love and serve you
and all people,
in the power of your Spirit
and in the name of your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Closing Song:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Christopher Idle’s “Eternal Light, Shine in My Heart.”

1 Eternal light, shine in my heart;
eternal hope, lift up my eyes:
eternal power, be my support;
eternal wisdom, make me wise.

2 Eternal life, raise me from death;
eternal brightness, help me see:
eternal Spirit, give me breath;
eternal Saviour, come to me:

3 Until by your most costly grace,
invited by your holy word,
at last I come before your face
to know you, my eternal God,
to know you, my eternal God.


Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

May we grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;
to whom be glory both now and for ever.
Alleluia, Amen.

Choral Benediction:
Open this link to hear Lee Fisher’s Go in Peace, Go in Love.”

Go in peace, go in love
May the Lord be at your side
Go in peace, go in love
May he ever be your guide
May his grace overflow
And his mercy be upon you
Go in peace, go in love
Now and evermore

Go in peace, go in love
May the Lord be at your side
Go in peace, go in love
May he ever be your guide
May his grace overflow
And his mercy be upon you
Go in peace, go in love
Now and evermore

Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen

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