Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (Thursday, April 18, 2024)

Welcome to Thursday evenings at All Hallows.

Christians are called to make a difference in the world, in their community and in the wider world. They are called to be salt, light, and yeast. 

GATHER IN GOD’S NAME

Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth;
serve God with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Songs for the Masses Songs from the Scriptures’ “Who Will Not Fear You – Revelation 15.”

Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.

Who will not fear you?
Who will not fear you,
O Lord?

And bring glory to your name
You alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you
your judgments made known.

Who will not fear you?
Who will not fear you,
O Lord?

Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.

Who will not fear you?
Who will not fear you,
O Lord?

Who will not fear you?
Who will not fear you,
O Lord?

Christ is with us!
He is with us indeed!
In penitence and faith we come before God.
Let us confess our sins.

Gracious God, Creator and Father,
we come before you a rebellious people.
we have denied your intentions for us;
we have preferred our way to Christ’s way;
we have disobeyed your commandments;
And we have worshiped ourselves and th things we have made.
Forgive us,
restore us in the knowledge of who we are,
and make us alive to serve you in faith, obedience, and joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hear the promises of God: “Ask and it will be given to you;
Seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins.”

Praise the Lord.
The Lord be praised.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Alanna Glover and Liv Chapman’s “Who Is Ike You.”

Verse 1
Son of Man and Son of God
Perfect life and perfect love
Jesus Jesus
The God of life who takes on death
Triumphs with a final breath
Jesus Jesus

Chorus
Who is like you? Who beside you
Gives their life to save the sinner?
Jesus
Who can fathom love that ransoms?
Pays the debt to give us freedom?
Jesus

Verse 2
Reigning now and lifted high
Seated at the Father’s side
Jesus Jesus
One day coming back again
When your kingdom will not end
Jesus Jesus

Chorus
Who is like you? Who beside you
Gives their life to save the sinner?
Jesus
Who can fathom love that ransoms?
Pays the debt to give us freedom?
Jesus

There is no one like you
There is no one beside you….

Bridge
You conquered the grave and you rescued us
The Son of God, you reign
The victory of your eternal love
The Son of Man, you save
You conquered the grave and you rescued us
The Son of God, you reign
The victory of your eternal love
The Son of Man, you save

Chorus
Who is like you? Who beside you
Gives their life to save the sinner?
Jesus
Who can fathom love that ransoms?
Pays the debt to give us freedom?
Jesus

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

Eternal God,
In the reading of the scripture, may your word be heard;
In the meditations of our hearts, may your word be known;
In the faithfulness of our lives, may your word be shown. Amen.

A reading from the New Testament (1 Thessalonians 5:11-18)

And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.

We beg you, our friends, to pay proper respect to those who work among you, who guide and instruct you in the Christian life. Treat them with the greatest respect and love because of the work they do. Be at peace among yourselves.

We urge you, our friends, to warn the idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but at all times make it your aim to do good to one another and to all people.

Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.

Silence

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.

Are Christians known by their love for one another?

How do we go about keeping the new commandment that Jesus gave the disciples on the night of his arrest, “…love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34)? It is by their love for each other, he tells them, everyone will know that they are his disciples. It is to be the number one distinguishing characteristic of his followers. It is by our love for our fellow Christians, everyone is supposed to know that we are followers of Jesus too.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Christians don’t do a very sterling job of loving each other. We may talk a lot about loving each other but in practice we miss the mark. We do not accomplish what we may aspire to do. We don’t even come close to achieving it.

Among the reasons we fall flat on our faces is that we have confused ideas about what Jesus meant. May be we remember a time at church, in Sunday school, or in in the youth group when everyone was smiling and crying at the same time, happy and sad, hugging each other, and as they say, “you could see the love.” Such times, however, are not what Jesus was referring to when he talked about loving each other. Or the emotions we feel toward each other at those times.

What then did Jesus mean when he commanded the disciples to love one another. To better understand what Jesus meant, we must turn to the four gospels and the writings of the apostles with the intention of not just increasing our knowledge of what to means to love each other but also to put what we learn to use. I cannot overemphasize the importance of applying what we learn. Any knowledge we collect from reading and studying the Scriptures will do us little good if we do not act upon what we have learned. We are more likely to remember the things we learn and use and they in turn are more likely to shape our attitudes, way of thinking, and behavior.

The way the human brain works is that new knowledge does not automatically displace old knowledge. Unless the new knowledge we have acquired, is repeatedly put to use, the old knowledge will continue to influence our attitudes, our way of thinking, and our behavior. The old knowledge will have less influence upon us, the more we turn to the new knowledge.

However, if we do not put the new knowledge to use, we will fall back on the old knowledge, which may not be completely correct or exact and may even be something that we think happened or is true although in fact it never happened or is not true. This is one of the reasons that we may hang onto an earlier opinion of someone that we formed even though we receive new information about that person, which shows that our earlier opinion of them is mistaken. As a consequence, we may continue to relate to that person as we have related to them in the past rather than treating them differently, based upon the new information that we have received.

Add to this relationship dynamic the human proclivity to give more attention and more credence to negative information about a person than positive information even though the negative information may prove to be inaccurate or invented and untrue and we have another reason that we fall flat on our faces when it comes to loving our fellow Christians.

The human brain is a great storyteller. When it does not have enough details, it will invent details of its own, details that have no basis in fact and which are created and exist only in the mind. If a particular individual is prone to catastrophizing, thinking about worst things that could possibly happen in a situation, or to considering a situation as much worse or more serious than it really is, their brain will produce imaginary details to support their catastrophic view of the situation.

With these things in mind, let us see what the apostle Paul can tell us about loving one another in this evening’s reading from his first lesson to the Thessalonians. The reading is taken from the closing passages of the letter and contains Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonians on how to live as followers of Jesus.

As well as instructing the members of the church at Thessalonica to encourage one another and help one another, Paul urges them to maintain peaceful relations with each other, not to quarrel and fight with each other. Paul goes on to instruct them to respect their teachers and urges them to warn the idle, to encourage the timid, to help the weak, and to be patient with everyone. He goes on to urge them to make certain that no one intentionally does something to punish someone else because that person has done something unpleasant to oneself or is perceived to have done so. He further urges them to pursue what is good for one another and for all.

The Greek word rendered “the idle” in the translation of the Bible from which this evening’s reading is taken also refers to those who are irresponsible, disorderly, or undisciplined. The early Christians may have attracted hangers-on, individuals who sought to take advantage of their generosity and freeload off them. Elsewhere in Paul’s writings we learn that some believed that the Parousia, or Jesus’ second coming, had already occurred and that they no longer needed to work. Paul pointed to his own example of working to support himself and not relying upon the support of those whom he taught although he believed that he was entitled to their support as their teacher.

We also gather from Paul’s writings, a number of those who had embraced the Christian faith and way of life had lived dissolute lives before they became Christians and a number of them persisted in their old ways or fell back into these ways. It is an expression of love for such peope not to turn a blind eye to what they are doing but to admonish them, to tell them what they may be doing wrong and to advise them how they can do better. This is one of the ways that Christians help each other. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, recognized this when he adopted the practice of forming the early Methodists into small groups after he saw how the formation of these groups had benefited the advance of the Methodist movement in Bristol.

As for “the timid,” Paul may have had in mind those who are exploring the Christian faith and way of life as well as those new to that faith and way of life and other Christians who struggle with misperceptions of what being a Christian means and need encouragement and support to help them overcome their fears and misapprehensions.

The prevailing culture in the United States tells people to look out for oneself and let others look out for themselves. Jesus’ new commandment to love one another is counter cultural. It tells Christians to look out for each other.

It is amazing how much this culture influences the attitudes, way of thinking, and behavior of Christians in the United States. It has become increasingly normalized by our culture to "ghost" someone, to end a relationship with that person by suddenly stopping all communication with them without any explanation. One article I read on the internet advised its readers that if they were no longer interested in maintaining a friendship or relationship or see no advantage for them in continuing it, they should fade out of the other person’s life and move on. Other articles offer similar advice. 

This form of silent treatment has been described by mental health professionals as “emotional cruelty or even emotional abuse” if it is done intentionally. There are only a few circumstances where it is warranted. Yet it has become common for Christians to ghost other Christians, including members and attendees of their own church.

It is important for Christians to recognize what are harmful attitudes, ways of thinking, and behaviors not just in other Christians but also in themselves. Matt Redman, Christian song writer, worship leader, and musician, and his wife have released a documentary in which he describes the mistreatment that he received from Canon Mike Pilavachi, a Church of England pastor, with whom he founded SoulSurvivor, a Christian youth festival in the United Kingdom. Canon Pilavachi is the subject of a safeguarding investigation by the Church of England, an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse and other allegations made against Pilavachi. 

Among the “harmful behaviors,” which Redman describes is that Pilavachi at times cut off conversations with Redman and gave him the silent treatment for extended periods of time when Redman refused to do what he wanted Redman to do. He also froze out Redman, not only being unfriendly toward Redman but stopping him from being included in arrangements and activities. Other alleged victims of Pilavachi report that he alternated between lavishing them with praise and cutting all communication with them, both of which psychologists tell us can be forms of manipulation. 

When Redmen reported what was happening to the leadership of SoulSurvivor, he was ignored, was spoken to as if he did not know what he was talking about, or was told that he was imagining things.

What happened to Redman illustrates the kinds of harmful attitudes, ways of thinking, and behaviors which can be found in churches and other religious organizations but also the need to listen actively and keep an open mind when people draw attention to them. At the same time, it also points to the need for a careful and thorough investigation which separates the facts from the imaginary details. What may initially appear to be a harmful situation may, upon further investigation, prove not as harmful as originally thought once all of the facts are known.

Situations like the one Redman describes in his documentary do happen in churches and religious organizations. On the other hand, situations which are far less serious than it can be treated as worse than they really are.

Among the ways that Christians can keep from overreacting to a situation or treating it far too seriously is to be open and honest in communicating with each other. This includes talking directly to a fellow Christian with whom they have a misunderstanding rather than through a third party. It involves trying to understand each other and to get along with each other.

Both Jesus in the new commandment and the apostle Paul in this evening’s reading are talking about Christians’ working at building and sustaining positive relationships with each other. 

We show our love for one another not with group hugs but by treating each other as we would like to be treated. We value each other and each other’s thoughts and ideas. We are considerate of each other’s feelings and needs. We demonstrate an awareness of how actions affect each other. We treat each other’s property and privacy with care. We forgive each other when each other makes blunders and more serious mistakes. We do not hold each other’s failings against each other and penalize each other for each other’s actions. We make allowances for each other. We look for the positive qualities in each other and not for each other’s faults and blemishes. We are patient, kind, friendly, generous, helpful, and caring and do things for each other without expecting anything in return. 

We live the kind of life that enables us to truly be salt, light, and yeast in this world, to genuinely make a difference.

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to John L. Bell’s “Love One Another.”

Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.
Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.

1 Those who show love are the children of God;
Father and mother is God to them.

Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.
Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.

2 God showed his love in the face of the Son;
Christ live in us so that we might live through him.

Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.
Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.

3 Love has no place for the menace of fear;
Fear is abandoned where love is found.

Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.
Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.

4 Love has its purpose in God’s holy will;
We learn to love from the one who loved us.

Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.
Love one another as love is of God;
Those who live in love, God lives in them.

Let us affirm with Christians across the ages what we believe about God
and his love for us.

We believe in one God,
who made us and loves all that is.
We believe in Jesus Christ,
God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was born, lived, died and rose again,
and is coming to call all to account.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
who calls, equips and sends out God’s people,
and brings all things to their true end.

This is our faith, the faith of the Church:

We believe in one God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

Let us pray for the Church and the world.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
you promised through your Son Jesus Christ
to hear the prayers of those who ask in faith.

Lord of your people:
strengthen your Church in all the world …
renew the life of this [diocese] [annual conference] …
bless .... our bishop, and build us up in faith and love.

Lord of creation:
look with favour on the world you have made,
guide the nations in the ways of justice and of peace,
and bless [ Canada: Charles our King, the leaders of the nations,
and all in authority] [United States: our President, .... .... ,
the leaders of the nations, and all in authority].

Lord of our relationships:
comfort and sustain the communities in which we live and work …
help us to love our neighbours as ourselves,
Enable us to serve our families and friends
and to love one another as you love us.

Lord of all healing:
relieve and protect those who are sick or suffering,
be with those who have any special need …
and deliver all who know danger, violence or oppression.

Lord of eternity:
bind us together by your Holy Spirit,
in communion with .... and all who, having confessed the Faith,
have died in the peace of Christ, that we may entrust ourselves,
and one another, and our whole life to you, Lord God,
and come with all your saints to the joys of your eternal kingdom.
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

In darkness and in light,
in trouble and in joy,
help us, heavenly Father,
to trust your love,
to serve your purpose,
and to praise your name,
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 Ricard Bruxvoort Colligan’s “O Christ, Surround Me.”

1 God be the love to search and keep me
God be the prayer to move my voice
God be the strength to now uphold me
O Christ, surround me
O Christ, surround me

2 Bind to myself the name of Holy
Great cloud of witnesses enfold
Prophets, apostles, angels witness
O Christ, surround me
O Christ, surround me

3 Brightness of sun and glow of moonlight
Flashing of lightning, strength of wind
Depth of the sea to soil of planet
O Christ, surround me
O Christ, surround me

4 Walking behind to hem my journey
Going ahead to light my way
And from beneath, above, and all ways
O Christ, surround me
O Christ, surround me

5 Christ in the eyes of all who see me
Christ in the ears who hear my voice
Christ in the hearts of all who know me
O Christ, surround me
O Christ, surround me

Those present may exchange a sign of peace.

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