Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (July 20, 2023)

Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows. This evening's service is one of two services that All Hallows, an online worship service and digital church ministry, offers each week. The other service is on Sundays. These services are offered for those who are homebound or who unable to attend their local church for any other reason, for those who are traveling, and for anyone who wishes to explore the Christian faith and way of life. 

WE GATHER IN GOD’S NAME

Open this link in a new tab to hear a contemporary arrangement of the Phos hilaron, “O Gracious Light.”

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 your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are 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.

We sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are 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.

Let us pray.

Silence.

O God,
you alone can order our unruly wills and affections:
teach us to love what you command,
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the changes and chances of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Open this link in a new tab to hear Marty Haugen’s “Where Your Treasure Is.”

Where your treasure, there your heart shall be,
all that you possess will never set you free.
Seek the things that last, come and learn from me.
Where your treasure is your heart shall be.

What do you gain from all your worry,
What you should eat or what to wear?
There is no peace in stress or hurry.
Do you not know that you are held
within God’s care?

Where your treasure is, there your heart shall be,
all that you possess will never set you free.
Seek the things that last, come and learn from me.
Where your treasure is your heart shall be.

Look at the ravens high above you,
they do not work their whole life through.
And yet God feeds them and protects them
so how much more will God protect
and care for you.

Where your treasure is, there your heart shall be,
all that you possess will never set you free.
Seek the things that last, come and learn from me.
Where your treasure is your heart shall be.

Behold the lilies in their splendor,
in grace and beauty they are dressed,
And yet all soon their bloom is faded.
So how much more will those
who look to God be blessed?

Where your treasure, there your heart shall be,
all that you possess will never set you free.
Seek the things that last, come and learn from me.
Where your treasure is your heart shall be.

Do not fear, little flock, for God delights
to give you the blessed reign of God.
Give your possessions to the needy,
gain a treasure that will not fade.

Where your treasure, there your heart shall be,
All that you possess will never set you free.
Seek the things that last, come and learn from me.
Where your treasure is your heart shall be.
Where your treasure is your heart shall be.

WE HEAR GOD’S WORD

Heavenly Father,
give us faith to receive your word,
understanding to know what it means,
and the will to put it into practice,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A reading from the New testament (Matthew 6: 19-34)

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

“Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Silence.

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

What Does Jesus Teach about Seeking the Kingdom of God?

When I see the flowers of blue morning glories blooming on the edge of a field of soybeans or the flowers of wild potato vines blooming in the tall grass of a vacant lot or a flock of sparrows pecking crumbs in the Walmart parking lot or a lone mourning dove pecking grass seeds in a neighbor’s driveway, this evening’s reading comes to mind.

This evening’s reading, I expect, will disappoint anyone who listens to the sermons of pastors who preach the prosperity gospel. Nowhere I the passage does Jesus promise his disciples wealth, material possessions, good health, or an easy life.

What Jesus does tell us is to seek the Kingdom of God above all else, live righteously, and God will give us everything we need..

When we seek something, we try to find or get something, usually something that is not a physical object. This is the Cambridge Dictionary’s definition of “seek,” which appears most applicable to what Jesus is saying.

What is most fascinating about what Jesus is telling the disciples is that the ruler of what he is telling them to seek is sitting right in front of them. teaching them. Jesus is the ruler of God’s Kingdom. He is its King.

God’s Kingdom is Jesus’ spiritual rule over our lives, over our attitudes, our thoughts, our feelings, our words, and our actions. It is not a physical territory like earthly kingdoms which have physical boundaries like rivers, oceans, mountain ranges, and deserts and over which someone rules. However, it can occupy a physical territory if the people living In that territory have surrendered their lives to Jesus and accepted him as the Lord of their lives.

To seek God’s Kingdom, one must seek Jesus. One must trust Jesus and trust his words. We show our trust in Jesus and his words by believing that he is who he said he is and that he put things right between us and God by suffering and dying on a cross and rising to new life and by doing what he told his disciples to do.

Jesus taught his disciples to live in a way that shows love for God, for our fellow human beings, and for each other. We show our love for God by honoring ad obeying God and Jesus, and we show our love for our fellow human beings and for each other by treating our fellow human beings and each other the way Jesus taught that they should be treated.

Jesus promised his disciples that they once day will also be raised from the dead to be with him always. The new life that he promised would not begin at a time in the future but began the moment they first believed.

This new life is life in God’s kingdom. It is life with Jesus as our Savior, Lord, King, and yes, friend. It is life in the Holy Spirit. Just as he sent the Holy Spirit to be the counselor and guide of his followers on the Feast of Pentecost, Jesus also sends the Holy Spirit to be the helper of all who believe in him. We will not only receive what are called the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit, the different ways the Holy Spirit manifests himself (or herself, as some theologians claim on the basis that the grammatical gender of Hebrew word “ruath,” or spirit in the phrase “ruach ha-kodesh,” or holy spirit, is feminine) in our lives to build up the Body of Christ, but also the Holy Spirit will produce in us what are called the “fruit” of the Spirit, qualities like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,” transforming our character so that we become more like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit unites us to Jesus and to all who believe in him. We not only become a part of a great cloud of witnesses, those who lived in the past and who followed Jesus but also those like ourselves who follow him in our day and time and those who are not yet born and who will one day follow him too, what is called the church invisible, but we also become a part of a local manifestation of the Body of Christ, a congregation of the faithful, in the community or neighborhood where we live, what is called the church visible.

God working in us to give us the desire and power to do what pleases him enables all of this to happen.

In The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2016, Section 120, offers this rationale for the mission of the United Methodist Church: “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world by proclaiming the good news of God's grace and by exemplifying Jesus' command to love God and neighbor, thus seeking the fulfillment of God's reign and realm in the world.” This statement recognizes that people who have come to faith in Jesus and experienced God’s grace in their lives will have a positive impact upon those around them; upon their kindred, colleagues, friends, and others; upon their community or neighborhood and the larger world. They will make a difference in the lives of other people.

The difference they make may or may not be a lasting one in this life. Whatever the case, they will have done their share to make this world a better place. They will have faithfully represented their Lord in their time here on earth—to have shown and shared his love, and passed on his message and his teaching that a new generation might come to know, love, and serve him.

The difference they make, while it may not be great by worldly standards, however, can have profound eternal consequences for those who were influenced by them. They have offered themselves to be used as an instrument of God’s grace to that person or persons. God will accept that offer and honor it.

Let us then give full heed to Jesus’ words, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need,” take them to heart, and do what he said.

WE RESPOND

Open this link in a new tab to hear Bernadette Farrell’s “Let Nothing Trouble You.”

Let nothing trouble you or frighten you
for the one who has God lacks nothing
Let nothing trouble you or frighten you
God alone, God alone, God alone is enough

If God builds the house
nothing will shake it;
neither the storm nor the raging tide.
For the one who builds lays the foundation;
strong as the earth, deep as the sea.

Let nothing trouble you or frighten you
for the one who has God lacks nothing
Let nothing trouble you or frighten you
God alone, God alone, God alone is enough

Be God's living stones, building God's temple;
shelter of light, with an open door.
Be the dwelling place of God's compassion;
where there is love, God will be there.

Let nothing trouble you or frighten you
for the one who has God lacks nothing
Let nothing trouble you or frighten you
God alone, God alone, God alone is enough

WE PRAY FOR GOD’S WORLD

Let us pray for God’ people throughout the world; for our pastor; for this gathering; and for all ministers and people. Let us pray for the Church.

(Any person may offer a brief spoken prayer of intercession or petition.)

God of grace,
hear our prayer.

Let us pray for peace, for goodwill among nations, and for the well-being of all people. Let us pray for justice and peace.

God of grace,
hear our prayer.

Let us pray for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the oppressed, and those in prison. Let us pray for those in any need or trouble.

God of grace,
hear our prayer.

Let us pray for all who seek God, or a deeper knowledge of God. Let us pray that they may find and be found by God.

God of grace,
hear our prayer.

(Any person may ask the prayers or thanksgivings of those present.)

Let us pray for……….

Let us give thanks for……..

God of grace,
hear our prayer.

Let us praise God for those in every generation in whom Christ has bee honored [especially…….. whom we remember today. Let us pray that we have grace to glorify Christ in our own day.

God of grace,
hear our prayer.

Accept our prayers, most gracious God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us to 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.

WE GO FORTH TO SERVE

May the Lord bless us and keep us,
May the Lord make his face to shine on us and be gracious to us,
May the Lord look on us with kindness and give us peace. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear John L. Bell and Graham Maule’s “Sing Hey to the Carpenter.”

Come with me, come wander,
Come welcome the world,
Where strangers might smile
Or where stones may be hurled;
Come leave what you cling to,
Lay down what you clutch
And find, with hands empty,
That hearts can hold much.

Sing Hey for the carpenter
Leaving his tools!
Sing Hey for the Pharisees
Leaving their rules!
Sing Hey for the fishermen
Leaving their nets!
Sing Hey for the people
Who leave their regrets!

Come walk in my company,
Come sleep by my side,
Come savour a lifestyle
With nothing to hide;
Come sit at my table
And eat with my friends,
Discovering that love
Which the world never ends.

Sing Hey for the carpenter
Leaving his tools!
Sing Hey for the Pharisees
Leaving their rules!
Sing Hey for the fishermen
Leaving their nets!
Sing Hey for the people
Who leave their regrets!

Come share in my laughter,
Come close to my fears,
Come find yourself washed
With the kiss of my tears;
Come stand close at hand
While I suffer and die,
And find in three days
How I never will lie.

Sing Hey for the carpenter
Leaving his tools!
Sing Hey for the Pharisees
Leaving their rules!
Sing Hey for the fishermen
Leaving their nets!
Sing Hey for the people
Who leave their regrets!

Come leave your possessions,
Come share out your treasure,
Come give and receive
Without method or measure;
Come loose every bond
That’s restraining the spirit,
Enabling the earth
To be yours to inherit.

Sing Hey for the carpenter
Leaving his tools!
Sing Hey for the Pharisees
Leaving their rules!
Sing Hey for the fishermen
Leaving their nets!
Sing Hey for the people
Who leave their regrets!

Those present may exchange a sign of peace with these words.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.