Sundays at All Hallows (Sunday, January 14, 2024)

Welcome to Sundays at All Hallows.

This Sunday is the second Sunday of the season of Epiphany, also known as Epiphanytide. The season of Epiphany may include anywhere from four to nine Sundays, depending upon the date of Easter. It begins on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 7, and concludes on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

GATHER IN GOD’S NAME

The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.

Let us worship the Lord
All praise to God’s name.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Ephrem Feeley’s arrangement of James Quinn’s “Here in Christ We Gather.”

1 Here in Christ we gather, love of Christ our calling;
Christ, our love, is with us, gladness be his greeting;
let us love and serve him, God of all the ages.
Let us love sincerely, seeing Christ in others.

2 When we Christians gather, members of one Body,
Christ our head is with us, loving and beloved.
Here is sent the Spirit, one with Son and Father,
Fire of love indwelling, bond of peace among us.

3 Grant us love’s fulfilment, joy with all the blessed
when we see your glory, risen Lord and Saviour.
Bathe us in your splendour, Light of all creation,
be our bliss forever as we sing your praises.

Trusting God’s forgiveness and kindness, let us confess
our sins in penitence and faith.

Silence

Merciful God,
our maker and our judge,
we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,
and in what we have failed to do;
we have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves;
we repent, and are sorry for all our sins.
Father, forgive us.
Strengthen us to love and obey you in the newness of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

May almighty God have mercy on us,
forgive us our sins,
and bring us to everlasting life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Paul 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.

1 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.)

2 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.)

Let us pray.

Silence

Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted
and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from the Old Testament (1 Samuel 3:1–20)

Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.

One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God. Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!”

“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did.

Then the Lord called out again, “Samuel!”

Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.”

Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.

And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

Then the Lord said to Samuel, “I am about to do a shocking thing in Israel. I am going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family, from beginning to end. I have warned him that judgement is coming upon his family for ever, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn’t disciplined them. So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by sacrifices or offerings.”

Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then got up and opened the doors of the Tabernacle as usual. He was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him. But Eli called out to him, “Samuel, my son.”

“Here I am,” Samuel replied.

“What did the Lord say to you? Tell me everything. And may God strike you and even kill you if you hide anything from me!” So Samuel told Eli everything; he didn’t hold anything back. “It is the Lord’s will,” Eli replied. “Let him do what he thinks best.”

As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him, and everything Samuel said proved to be reliable. And all Israel, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord.

Silence

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Bernadette Farrell’s paraphrase of Psalm 139, “O God, You Search Me, and You Know Me.”

1 O God, you search me, and you know me
All my thoughts lie open to your gaze
When I walk or lie down, you are before me
Ever the maker and keeper of my days.

2 You know my resting and my rising
You discern my purpose from afar
And with love everlasting, you besiege me
In ev'ry moment of life or death, you are.

3 Before a word is on my tongue, Lord
You have known its meaning through and through
You are with me beyond my understanding
God of my present, my past and future, too.

4 Although your Spirit is upon me
Still I search for shelter from your light
There is nowhere on Earth I can escape you
Even the darkness is radiant in your sight.

5 For you created me and shaped me
Gave me life within my mother’s womb
For the wonder of who I am, I praise you.
Safe in your hands, all creation is made new.

A reading from the New Testament (John 1:43–51)

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s home town.

Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”

“How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”

Silence

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Paul Inwood’s setting of “Isaiah 12: We Shall Draw Water.”

We shall draw water joyfully, singing joyfully, singing joyfully;
We shall draw water joyfully from the well springs of salvation.

Truly God is our salvation,
We trust, we shall not fear.
For the Lord is our strength, the Lord is our song;
He became our Saviour.

We shall draw water joyfully, singing joyfully, singing joyfully;
We shall draw water joyfully from the well springs of salvation.

Give thanks, O give thanks to the Lord;
Give praise to his holy name!
Make his mighty deeds known to all the nations;
Proclaim his greatness.

We shall draw water joyfully, singing joyfully, singing joyfully;
We shall draw water joyfully from the well springs of salvation.

Sing a psalm, sing a psalm to the Lord
For he has done glorious deeds.
Make known his works to all the earth;
People of Zion, sing for joy; for great in your midst,
Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

We shall draw water joyfully, singing joyfully, singing joyfully;
We shall draw water joyfully from the well springs of salvation.
We shall draw water joyfully, singing joyfully, singing joyfully;
We shall draw water joyfully from the well springs of salvation.

Called by God

Unlike young Samuel most of us did not or will not hear God calling us in the night. Just as it was in those days in our time messages from the Lord are very rare and visions are uncommon. You may hear people claiming that they have “a word from the Lord” but typically such individuals are attributing to God something that they themselves thought up. They want other people to think that their pronouncements come from God and therefore carry weight. They may have convinced themselves that their pronouncements do come from God.

This is not to say that God does not speak directly to people but rather it is not the usual way that God calls us. What we do learn from today’s Old Testament reading is God can call us at any age. Like Samuel we may not recognize God’s call for what it is, and we may mistake it for something else. We may need help to recognize it for what it is.

God calls us in a variety of ways. The ways that he calls us may not be direct like how he called Samuel or dramatic like how he called the apostle Paul. You can read about how God called Paul in Acts 9: 1-19.

God may call us as Jesus called Philip and then call others through us. After Jesus called him, Philip went looking for his brother Nathaniel and told him about Jesus. Several details in today’s New Testament reading particularly deserve our attention. The first is that Jesus found Philip. Philip did not hear about Jesus and go looking for him. Philip was also from the same hometown as Andrew and Peter. It is conceivable that the three men knew each other. Nathanel’s reaction to what Jesus said tells us tat he recognized in Jesus attributes which God alone possesses. God sees an individual’s real self. God is all-knowing. As today’s psalm draws to our attention, nothing is hidden from God. God knows our every thought and our every desire. God knows the things that we hide from others. God knows what we hide from ourselves.

In today’s New Testament reading Jesus also employs a image taken from Jacob’s dream at Bethel, “in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (Genesis 28:12). He identifies himself as “the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth” and by implication the means by which humanity will be reconciled to God.

Philip’s looking for his brother Nathaniel to tell him about Jesus anticipates and foreshadows Jesus’ charge to the disciples found in Mattew 28: 18-20 and John 20: 21. It was a charge that was not just meant for them but for all his disciples in succeeding generations. We are to go into the world and tell people about Jesus. We are to be voices for Jesus, calling people to follow him. We are to form into disciples those who respond to Jesus’ call whether voiced by us or by someone else. We are to baptize them and to instruct them in the teachings he gave us and the example he set for us.

There is one element that is not mentioned in this charge, but which is suggested by today’s New Testament reading. When Nathaniel exclaims “Nazareth! Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip replies, “Come and see for yourself.” While we cannot invite people to meet Jesus in person, we can invite them to meet him as represented by the community of faith of which we are a part. To do that, we as a community of faith must faithfully reflect Jesus in our attitudes, our ways of thinking, our words, and our actions. The principles and truths that he taught and which he exemplified must direct and guide our lives.

Like Samual, Philip, and Paul, God calls us for a specific purpose. For Samual it was to be a prophet who conveyed messages from God to the people of Israel. For Philip it was to be a witness to Jesus. For Paul it was to be an apostle to the Gentiles. How do we discern that purpose? In next Sunday’s message we will look at one way we can discern the specific purpose for which we have been called to serve God.

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Joesph Condor and Charles Price’s “In Your Mercy, Lord, You Called Me.”

1 In your mercy, Lord, you called me,
taught my sin-filled heart and mind,
else this world had still enthralled me,
and to glory kept me blind.

2 Lord, I did not freely choose you
till by grace you set me free;
for my heart would still refuse you
had your love not chosen me.

3 Now my heart sets none above you,
for your grace alone I thirst,
knowing well, that if I love you,
you, O Lord, have loved me first.

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,
his 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 from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father;
from there he will come 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.

THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

Let us pray for the Church and the world.

Father, we pray for your holy catholic Church
that we all may be one.

Grant that every member of your Church may truly and humbly serve you:
that your name may be glorified by all people.

We pray for all ministers of your Church
that they may be faithful ministers of your word and sacraments.

We pray for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world
that there may be justice and peace on the earth.

Give us grace to do your will in all that we undertake
that your glory may be proclaimed through our lives.

Have compassion on those who suffer from any grief or trouble
that they may be delivered from their distress.

We praise you for your saints who have entered their eternal joy
may we also come to share in the fulness of your kingdom.

We pray for our own needs and for those of others:

Silence. The people may add their own petitions.

Gracious God, grant that the desires of your people’s hearts
may find favour in your sight,
through the intercession of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us:

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

Holy and everliving God,
by your power we are created
and by your love we are redeemed;
guide and strengthen us by your Spirit,
that we may give ourselves to your service,
and live each day in love to one another and to you,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

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

Open this link in a new tab to hear Joh Fennelly’s “Christ Be Near at ither Hand.”

1 Christ be near at either hand,
Christ behind, before me stand;
Christ with me where'er I go,
Christ around, above, below.

2 Christ be in my heart and mind,
Christ within my soul enshrined;
Christ control my wayward heart;
Christ abide and ne'er depart.

3 Christ my life and only way,
Christ my lantern night and day;
Christ be my unchanging friend,
Guide and shepherd to the end.

Those present may exchange a sign of peace.

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