New Year's Eve at All Hallows (Sunday, December 31, 2023)

Welcome to New Year's Eve at All Hallows. 

This Sunday, the First Sunday after Christmas, is the last Sunday of 2023. It is also New Year’s Eve.

GATHER IN GOD’S NAME

Open this link in a new tab to hear Marty Haugen’s setting of Psalm 100, “O Be Joyful.”

O be joyful in God, all you people
O be joyful in God all you lands
Serve God with gladness
and enter in with the song
O be joyful in God.

Make a joyful noise to God.
Sing out, O people
Enter in rejoicing
O be joyful in God

Praise the One who made us all
Sing out, O people
Praise the One who named all
O be joyful in God

O be joyful in God, all you people
O be joyful in God all you lands
Serve God with gladness
and enter in with the song
O be joyful in God

Loving Shepherd of us all
Sing out, O people
Tending and protecting
O be joyful in God

Praise the God of steadfast love
Sing out, O people
Merciful forever
O be joyful in God

O be joyful in God, all you people
O be joyful in God all you lands
Serve God with gladness
and enter in with the song
O be joyful in God

O be joyful in God all you lands
Serve God with gladness
and enter in with the song
O be joyful in God

The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.

Let us pray.

Almighty and eternal God,
with you one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day:
Give us grace, as we remember the way
by which you have led us,
to offer you the worship of adoring hearts,
and to rest our hopes for the time to come
on your unchanging love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Adam M. L. Tice’s “The Church of Christ Cannot Be Bound.”

1 The Church of Christ cannot be bound
by walls of wood or stone.
Where charity and love can be found,
there can the church be known.

2 Truth faith will open up the door
and step into the street.
True service will seek out the poor
and ask to wash their feet.

3 True love will not sit idly by
when justice is denied.
True mercy hears the homeless cry
and welcomes them inside.

4 If what we have we freely share
to meet our neighbor’s need
then we extend the Spirit’s care
through ev’ry selfless deed.

5 The Church of Christ cannot be bound
by walls of wood or stone.
Where charity and love can be found,
there can the church be known.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Pau Inwood’s “Holy Is God (Psalm 117).”

Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.

Sing the Lord’s praise, ev’ry nation,
Give him all honor and glory.
Strong is his love for his people,
His faithfulness is eternal.

Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)

Praise to the Father almighty,
Praise to his Son, Christ the Lord;
Praise to the life giving Spirit;
Both now and forever, Amen
(Praise to the Father almighty,
Praise to his son, Christ the Lord;
Praise to the life giving Spirit;
Both now and forever, Amen)

Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from the New Testament (Galatians 6:1-10)

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them.

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Silence

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

A New Year

What does the new year hold for us? You will not be alone if your thoughts keep turning to the coming year. A lot of bad things happened in 2023.

The best thing that we can do, I believe, is wait and see what happens in 2024. The new year may turn out worse than we expect. It may turn out better. It is too early to tell. We can make ourselves sick worrying about it. The human mind has a knack for imagining worse case scenarios.

God is not going to go away. God is not going to take a break during the new year. God will be present regardless of whether we enter our own personal dark night of the soul and are unable to sense his presence.

What we can do, whatever happens in the new year, is be faithful reflections of our Lord; to lean into what he taught and showed us; to live our lives as he would have us live them.

We can be merciful like God, love God, love our neighbors as ourselves, love our enemies, do good to them, treat other people exactly as we would wish to be treated, measure other people with the measure that we would wish to be measured, make allowances for them, forgive their faults and not keeping count of the times that we do, and love one another. We can do all the things that our Lord would have us do; and make full use of the grace that God gives us.

We can be bright lights in our neck of the woods and make a difference in other people’s lives. We can grow in maturity of character and in our love of God. We will not become flawless, but we will become closer to the kind of person that God would have each of us become.

In loving God more, we will also love others more because loving God and loving others are inseparably intertwined. God himself will live in us and God’s love will be made perfect in us.

We can do these things even if we are unable to actively participate in the life, ministry, and worship of a church for one reason or another. While it is highly desirable to take an active part in a church’s life, ministry, and worship, circumstances may prevent us from doing so. We can, however, still follow Christ within the limits of our circumstances.

Christians are connected to each other in the family of faith even when they live considerable distance from each other and if they are able to attend a church, attend different churches. They are connected by their faith and by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that knits us together into the Body of Christ and which unites us to Christ. “The Church of Christ cannot be bound by walls of wood or stone,” the song tells us. Those walls are just the walls of the “house” of the church, its meeting place. They do not form the church itself.

We also need to be careful not to confuse the church with the gatherings of church people that meet in a church building. The church exists outside the walls of the building as well as within them.

I am not suggesting that a Christian does not need other Christians to grow to spiritual maturity. We are like garden plants which grow best in the same bed with companion plants. When believers grow near each other, they mutually benefit each other. On the other hand, garden plants which are planted in the same bed as plants which are not good companion plants for them do not grow as well. They may not grow at all.

Churches which have members or attendees who are housebound or otherwise prevented them from actively participating it life, ministry, and worship have a responsibility to maintain contact with these members and attendees and to do what they can to involve them in the life, ministry, and worship of the church as much as practicable. They also have a responsibility to reach out to non-members and non-attendees in similar circumstances.

As Paul wrote the Galatians, we should do good to everyone when we have the opportunity. John Wesley made doing good to all the second general rule of the early Methodist Societies.

The new year will present us with plenty of opportunities to do good. What we need to do is keep our eyes open for them. We can also ask the Holy Spirit to show them to us. We can be a force for good in our part of thee world in the new year.

Silence


Open this link in a new tab to hear Richard K Avery and DonaldS March’s “We Are the Church Together.”

I am the church!
You are the church!
We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we're the church together!

The church is not a building,
the church is not a steeple,
the church is not a resting place,
the church is a people.

I am the church!
You are the church!
We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we're the church together!

We're many kinds of people,
with many kinds of faces,
all colors and all ages, too,
from all times and places.

I am the church!
You are the church!
We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we're the church together!

Sometimes the church is marching,
sometimes it's bravely burning,
sometimes it's riding, sometimes hiding,
always it's learning.

I am the church!
You are the church!
We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we're the church together!

And when the people gather,
there's singing and there's praying,
there's laughing and there's crying sometimes,
all of it saying:

I am the church!
You are the church!
We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we're the church together!

At Pentecost some people
received the Holy Spirit
and told the Good News through the world
to all who would hear it.

I am the church!
You are the church!
We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we're the church together!

THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

As we bid farewell to the old year and welcome in the new year, let us pray for the Church and for the world.

Loving God, hear us as we pray for your holy catholic Church:
make us all one, that the world may believe.

Inspire and lead all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world:
establish justice and peace among all people.

Have compassion on all who suffer from any sickness, grief or trouble:
deliver them from their distress.

We praise you for all your saints who have entered your eternal glory:
bring us all to share in your heavenly kingdom.

Let us pray in silence for our own needs and for those of others…

Heavenly Father,
you have promised to hear
what we ask in the name of your Son:
we pray you to accept and answer our prayers,
not as we ask in our ignorance,
nor as we deserve in our sinfulness,
but as you know and love us in your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Eternal God,
you make all things new,
and remain for ever the same:
Grant us to begin the new year in your faith,
and to continue it in your favor;
that, being guided in all our doings,
and guarded all our days,
we may spend our lives in your service,
and finally, by your grace,
attain the glory of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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.

THE SENDING FORTH OF GOD’S PEOPLE

Let us praise the Lord
Thanks be to God

Christ the Son of God, born of Mary,
fill us with his grace to trust his promises;
and the blessing of God,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be upon us and remain with us for ever. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Sydney Carter’s “One More Step.”

One more step along the world I go,
one more step along the world I go,
from the old things to the new,
keep me traveling a long with you:
And it's from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.

Round the corner of the world I turn,
more and more about the world I learn;
all the new things that I see,
you'll be looking at along with me:
And it's from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.

As I travel through the bad and good,
keep me traveling the way I should;
Where I see no way to go
you'll be telling me the way I know:
And it's from the old I travel to the new;

keep me traveling along with you.

Give me courage when the world is rough,
keep me loving though the world is tough,
leap and sing in all I do,
keep me traveling along with you:
And it's from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.

You are older than the world can be,
you are younger than the life in me,
ever old and ever new,
keep me traveling along with you:
And it's from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.

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

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