Sundays at All Hallows (Sunday, December 17, 2023)

Welcome to Sundays at All Hallows.

This year the fourth Sunday of Advent, next Sunday, falls on Christmas Eve. Strictly speaking, the eve of the Feast of the Nativity, commonly known as Christmas, does not begin until the sun has set. However, it is customary to refer to the day before Christmas Day as Christmas Eve. Since All Hallows will not be offering a Christmas Day Service, Christmas Eve at All Hallows, an early celebration of our Savior’s birth, will replace Sundays at All Hallows on the last Sunday of Advent.

GATHERING GOD’S PEOPLE

Open this link in a new tab to hear Eleanor Farjeon’ translation of the Basque Advent carol, “People, Look East.”

1 People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.

2 Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.

3 Birds, though you long have ceased to build,
Guard the nest that must be filled.
Even the hour when wings are frozen
God for fledging time has chosen.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the bird, is on the way.

4 Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the star, is on the way.

5 Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.

The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.

Let us pray.

Silence

O Loving Lord,
be near us in this time of worship.
Open our ears to hear your voice;
open our eyes to behold your glory;
open our hearts to receive your grace;
open our lips to declare your praise;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior.
Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Adam M. L. Tice’s “In the Morning, In the Evening.”

In the morning, in the evening, God is holding you, holding you.
In the daytime, in the nighttime, God is holding you still.
Anywhere you may go, God will go with you.
Anywhere you may go, you are God's child.

In the mountains, in the ocean, God will carry you, carry you.
In the forest, in the cities, God will carry you still.
Anywhere you may go, God will go with you.
Anywhere you may go, you are God's child.

In the good times, in the hard times, God will stay with you, stay with you.
In your waking, in your sleeping, God will stay with you still.
Anywhere you may go, God will go with you.
Anywhere you may go, you are God's child.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Fred Kaan’s “Help Us to Accept Each Other.”

1 Help us accept each other
As Christ accepted us
Teach us as sister, brother
Each person to embrace
Be present, Lord, among us
And bring us to believe
We are ourselves accepted
And meant to love and live

2 Teach us, O Lord, Your lessons
As in our daily life
We struggle to be human
And search for hope and faith
Teach us to care for people
For all, not just for some
To love them as we find them
Or as they may become

3 Let Your acceptance change us
So that we may be moved
In living situations
To do the truth in love
To practice Your acceptance
Until we know by heart
The table of forgiveness
And laughter's healing art

4 Lord, for today's encounters
With all who are in need
Who hunger for acceptance
For righteousness and bread
We need new eyes for seeing
New hands for holding on
Renew us with Your Spirit
Lord, free us, make us one

Coda:
Renew us with Your Spirit
Lord, free us, make us one.

[Let us pray.]

O Eternal God,
you teach us in your holy Word
that love is the fulfilling of the law:
Grant us that best of all your gifts,
that loving our neighbors as ourselves
we may live as children of the light
and of the day; for the glory of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from the New Testament (Romans 15: 4-13)

Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us. And may God, the source of patience and encouragement, enable you to have the same point of view among yourselves by following the example of Christ Jesus, so that all of you together may praise with one voice the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Accept one another, then, for the glory of God, as Christ has accepted you. For I tell you that Christ's life of service was on behalf of the Jews, to show that God is faithful, to make his promises to their ancestors come true, and to enable even the Gentiles to praise God for his mercy. As the scripture says,

“And so I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing praises to you.”
Again it says,
“Rejoice, Gentiles, with God's people!”
And again,
“Praise the Lord, all Gentiles;
praise him, all peoples!”
And again, Isaiah says,
“A descendant of Jesse will appear;
he will come to rule the Gentiles,
and they will put their hope in him.”

May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Silence

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

“Accept One Another … as Christ Has Accepted You.”

Today’s reading follows several passages in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans in which he counsels those to whom he is writing that in matters like the consumption of meat from pagan sacrifices and the observance of special days to respect the feelings of those who think that it is wrong to eat such meat or who are uncertain about it. He also urges them to respect the feelings of those who observe special days. He advises them to welcome such individuals and not argue with them about personal opinions. God has accepted them and therefore it is not our place to pass judgment on them, much less to feel a strong dislike for them, because their opinions differ from ours.

In today’s reading Paul urges those to whom the letter is written to live in harmony with each other as they seek to follow Christ together, to accept one another as Christ has accepted them, and by implication not to keep looking for faults in each other and not to keep thinking and talking about these faults so that it creates divisions between them.

The harmony that Paul is urging them to pursue is the opposite of what we see happening in churches and larger society in the United States the twenty-first century. Churches and larger society are becoming increasingly polarized, divided into opposing groups who have no tolerance for opinions different from their own and who view as evil anyone who do not agree with them and who is therefore justifiably the object of their hatred and ill-will. Polarization brings out the worst in human nature. In a number of churches, its negative influence has come to overshadow and displace Jesus and the apostles’ teaching of loving others as one loves oneself. It has led some individuals who profess to be Christians not only countenance physical violence against those who hold different opinions from their own but also to commit acts of violence. It is having a harmful effect upon the public image of Christian and Christian churches, reinforcing negative stereotypes ad encouraging hard feelings.

Regrettably human beings tend to pay more attention to the bad things that others, including Christians and Christian churches, do than they do the good things. They are also apt to conclude what may be true of some Christians and Christians churches is true of all Christians and Christian churches.

The way of thinking that underlies the polarization of churches and larger society in the United States is at odds with teaching of Jesus and the apostles. Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies, to do good to them, and to bless them. He taught them to treat others as they themselves would wish to be treated. He emphasized being compassionate, forgiving, generous, helpful, and kind not just to individuals in a particular group of people but to all people.

While we may sometimes hear the argument that what Jesus taught is unrealistic in today’s harsh world, this argument ignores the fact, that life was very harsh in the ancient Roman world of the time of Jesus and the apostles. Jesus was executed as a common criminal, flogged and then nailed to a cross and left to die a slow painful death from suffocation, hanging from the cross. Yet he breathed his last, he forgave his executioners and the mob who had called for his crucifixion.

Jesus does not call us to imitate the world. He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. This means living Jesus’ way and not our own, not the world’s way. Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another as he had loved them. Living in harmony with our fellow Christians, accepting them as Christ has accepted us, is doing just that—loving one another.

The ancient Roman world of Paul’s time had all kinds of divisions—Jew and non-Jew, citizen and non-citizen, poor and rich, slave and free, male and female. None of these divisions mattered, Paul tells us in his letters. All who believe are one in Christ. In the words of the Swedish pastor Anders Frostenson’s paraphrase of De Unitat ellesiae of Cyprian, third century Bishop of Carthage—

Many are the members, the body is one,
Members all of Jesus.
Many are the members, the body is one;
We are one in Christ.

(Open this link in a new tab to hear the entire song).

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Shirley Erena Murray’s “Who Is My Mother, Who Is My Brother?”

1 Who is my mother,
who is my brother?
all those who gather round Jesus Christ:
Spirit-blown people
born from the Gospel
sit at the table, round Jesus Christ.

2 Differently abled,
differently labeled,
widen the circle round Jesus Christ,
crutches and stigmas,
culture's enigmas,
all come together round Jesus Christ.

3 Love will relate us --
color or status
can't segregate us, round Jesus Christ:
family failings,
human derailings --
all are accepted, round Jesus Christ.

4 Bound by one vision,
met for one mission
we claim each other, round Jesus Christ:
here is my mother,
here is my brother,
kindred in Spirit, through Jesus Christ.

THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

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 u 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 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, and 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.

May the almighty and most merciful God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless and keep us now and forever more. Amen

Open this link in a new tab to hear Delores Dufner’s “Go Forth in Peace.”

1 Go forth in peace, for Christ is your peace,
and God gives you peace in Christ.
Go forth in joy, for Christ goes with you;
wherever you go, Christ goes.
Daughters and sons of God in Christ Jesus,
share with the world the gift of God’s peace.
Go forth in peace, for Christ is your peace;
and God gives you peace in Christ.

2 Go forth to love as Christ loved the world,
as God has loved us in Christ.
Love all you meet, for love is of God,
and where love is, there is God.
When on the cross Christ died for all people,
he showed the depth and breadth of God’s love.
Go forth to love as Christ loved the world,
as God has loved us in Christ.

3 Go forth to serve as Christ served the world,
as God has served us in Christ.
Not to be served but to serve,
Christ came to teach us God’s way of life.
On that last night, with basin and towel,
Jesus knelt down and washed his friends’ feet.
Go forth to serve as Christ served the world,
as God has served us in Christ.

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

All may share a sign of peace.