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

Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows.

After Jesus and the disciples had eaten the Last Supper and Judas had left to betray him, Jesus gave his remaining disciples a new commandment to love one another as he had loved them. Their love for one another would be how the world would know that they were his disciples. In this evening’s message we take a look at the challenges of loving one another.

GATHERING IN GOD’S NAME

The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.

Gracious God,
Grant us hearts, minds, and lives always open to your grace.
Enable us to grow continually
in our love of you, our God and Father,
in our faith in your Son Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
in our love for others, for our neighbors near and far,
and in our love for each other, for our church family,
and for all who love the Lord Jesus Christ.
This we ask through the same Jesus Christ, ,
our Redeemer, Lord, and Friend.
Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Keith Duke’s “Sun of Our Night.”

Light of the world in grace and beauty
Mirror of God’s eternal face
Transparent flame of love’s free duty
You bring salvation to our race
Now as we see the lights of evening
We raise our voice in hymns of praise
Worthy are you of endless blessing
Sun of our night, lamp of our day

[Instrumental interlude]

Light of the world in grace and beauty
Mirror of God’s eternal face
Transparent flame of love’s free duty
You bring salvation to our race
Now as we see the lights of evening
We raise our voice in hymns of praise
Worthy are you of endless blessing
Sun of our night, lamp of our day

Open this link in a new tab to hear Laura Woodley Osman’s “Wisdom Song.”

The fear of the Lord
Is where wisdom starts
Above all else please guard your heart
For out of your heart flow the issues of life
It matters how you spend your time

There is a path that leads to life
A narrow way only few find
Meditate on God's word in the day in the night
You'll know blessings of every kind

Like a tree planted by water
Shall you be son, daughter
You'll bear fruit in season
You'll prosper, like a tree planted by water

Remember to pray
In everything
Holy Spirit is here
Only believe
Supernatural life is yours everyday
Miracles in Jesus name

Do what is good
Do what is right
Flee from evil with all your might
Guard your ears
Guard your eyes
You have the mind of Christ

Like a tree planted by water
Shall you be son, daughter
You'll bear fruit in season
You'll prosper, like a tree planted by water

Forgive yourself
Forgive your family
Forgive your friends
Forgive your enemies
Do justice, love mercy
Walk humbly with your God
Remove offense
Make peace
Do not judge

Forgive yourself
Forgive your family
Forgive your friends
Forgive your enemies
Do justice, love mercy
Walk humbly with your God
Remove offense
Make peace
Do not judge

Like a tree planted by water
Shall you be son, daughter
You'll bear fruit in season
You'll prosper, like a tree planted by water

THE MINISTRY OF THE 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 Gospel according to John, Chapter 13, Verses 34-35.

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Silence

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

The Challenges of Loving One Another.

What did Jesus mean when he commanded his disciples to love one another as he had loved them?

To understand what Jesus meant, we must look at how he acted as well as what he taught. What stand out in the New Testament narrative is Jesus’ humility, his compassion, his truthfulness, and his self-sacrifice for the good or welfare of others. These qualities characterize Jesus’ attitude toward not only his disciples but all people, non-Jews as well as the descendants of the people of Israel.

Jesus also displayed a willingness to meet people where they are, no matter who they were or their walk of life, including the outcasts of first century Judean society and its untouchables—those afflicted with leprosy, on the very fringes of society. He did not expect people to come to him even though they flocked to him in great numbers. Rather he went to them.

The disciples that Jesus called to him were not from the Judean elite. They were common fishermen, a tax collector, a former member of the political party, the Zealots, and a thief.

What else is notable is that those who had some kind of interaction with Jesus did not go away unaffected. Jesus had an impact upon people, even those who opposed him and sought his life. They became more determined in their resolve to kill him. In most instances, however, the effect that he had on people was a positive one. He would have a positive effect on his disciples with the exception of Judas who betrayed him.

Jesus invested his disciples. He not only taught them but demonstrated what he was teaching for them. He prayed for them too. He forgave Peter who denied him three times on the night of his arrest.

In his teaching Jesus not only explain what is taught in the Old Testament but he also expands upon that teaching and adds to it. Most importantly, he embodied what he taught. I am not going to summarize his teachings as it would take up too much time, but I do recommend that you read the Gospels and thoroughly acquaint yourself with what he taught. Immerse yourself in his teaching. Soak in it and internalize it, make it part of yourself and live it. Jesus had a lot to say how about his disciples and others who came to hear him should treat their fellow human beings as well as each other.

What does it mean for modern-day Christians?

The commandment that Jesus gave to the first disciples was intended not just for them but for subsequent generations of his disciples. It was a key principle by which his disciples were to live. It would identify them as his disciples.

The first disciples experienced Jesus first-hand. Jesus taught them personally and modeled for them his teaching in his interactions with them and with others while they were present. They got to witness him practicing what he preached. They also received an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a way that has never been repeated—with the sound of rushing wind and tongues of fire. Even so, they would face their share of challenges in living the kind of life that would set them apart as Jesus’ disciples.

Modern-day disciples do not have a first-hand experience of Jesus. They typically receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in a far less dramatic way. While they face some challenges like those the first disciples faced, they also face challenges that are unique to the twenty-first century. One of the challenges that they face and which the first disciples also faced is that every human being carries with them what psychologists sometimes call “baggage,” attitudes, prejudices, ways of thinking, and adaptive behaviors that they have acquired through interaction with people in their environment—parents, grandparents, other family members, peers, teachers, coworkers, and others. This baggage influences how they see themselves, how they see other people and how they relate to other people.

Unlike the first disciples, modern-day disciples do not live in a culture which to certain extent affirms and reinforces what Jesus taught and practiced. When I was a boy, teachings of Jesus such as loving your neighbor, forgiving others, not returning evil for evil, and treating others as we would wish to be treated ourselves were affirmed and reinforced at home, in church, and at school. I cannot say that is true today.

A number of practices that conflict with what Jesus taught and which psychologists have identified as forms of emotional and psychological abuse have become widespread on social media. These practices have become so pervasive that they are accepted and used by individuals who identify themselves as Christians and churchgoers. Among these practices are cancelling, breadcrumbing, and ghosting, as well as cyber-bullying. Accompanying the growing influence of social media has been a decline in civility, the treatment of others in a polite and respectful manner, which shows understanding of and care for their feelings, and an absence of any commitment to telling the truth, the real facts about a situation, event, or person.

A recent survey revealed that lying, saying or writing something that is not true to deceive someone, and deception, hiding the truth, especially to get an advantage, are considered acceptable ways of behaving among the younger generations. Regrettably my generation has not always set a good example for the younger generations.

The twenty-first century has also seen the rise of the “me” culture in the United States and Canada. Self has been put on a pedestal and acting in one’s own interests regardless of how it may affect others has become the guiding principle of the time. The obsession with “selfies,” photographs of ourselves taken by us, usually with a cell phone, and often published on social media, has become emblematic of the age. If we lose interest in a friend or partner, no longer find our relationship with them to be satisfying, making us feel pleased by providing us what we want or need, we are encouraged to abandon the friend or partner and move onto someone else, someone who is more interesting, more exciting or otherwise more pleasing to us. Surround yourself with people who make you happy is popular advice. Making a commitment, investing in a relationship, working through relationship difficulties is not regarded as worthwhile unless the friend or partner is a “keeper,” someone who has good qualities, with whom you can have a long relationship. This attitude does not see any other reason to put any time and effort into trying to make a relationship work. It is not an attitude which is congruent with Jesus’ commandment to love one another.

I am not suggesting that we should not extricate ourselves from a toxic relationship in which we are experiencing physical and/or emotional and psychological abuse. What I am talking about is the increasingly common tendency to treat relationships as disposable. Like paper plates we throw relationships into the trash when we have gotten what we want from them. We give little or no thought to the other person’s feelings.

We cannot do what Jesus commanded, “Love one another as I have loved you,” unless we see each other as Jesus saw the first disciples and as he sees us. Jesus saw humankind a being of such great worth that he willingly set aside his divine nature, humbled himself, and became a human being. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, restored mobility to the paralyzed, cleansed lepers, raised the dead, drove out evil spirits, forgave sins, and fed the hungry. He taught his disciples and the crowds who flocked to hear him not only how to treat their fellow human beings in a way that was pleasing to God but also how to have a better relationship with God. He also equipped his disciples to make more disciples and to carry on his teaching ministry when he was gone. He would of his own free will suffer and die on the cross to bring about the reconciliation of God and humankind.

He did not do these things because of who we are but because of who he is. He and God are one and God is love.

If human beings are precious to God, we have no right to devalue them. Indeed, Jesus taught that we should treat other people as God treats us.

These are the challenges that modern-day Christians face in obeying Jesus’ commandment to love one another as he has loved us. You may think of others.

These challenges are not insurmountable. They are not so great that they cannot be dealt with successfully. Dealing with them will, however, require time and effort on our part.

The first step to overcoming these challenges is to ask the Holy Spirit to show us what is holding us back from loving our fellow Christians. This may require us taking a hard look at ourselves—our attitudes, prejudices, ways of thinking, and adaptive behaviors, the extent that we have been influenced by the way people treat each other on social media, how much today’s “me” culture affects the way we think and behave, the pattern of our relationships. 

Do we see people who do not look like us, speak like us, live like we do, come from a similar walk of life to ours differently from people who do and as a consequence treat them differently? 

Do we shut down communication when someone says or does something that angers or upsets us and give them the silent treatment, not speaking to them or speaking to them very little? Do we deliberately ignore them and walk away when they try to speak to us? 

Are we too quick to form opinions of people on social media, without much thought or good reason, and to express dislike or disapproval of them, using offensive language? 

 Do we always put ourselves and our needs and wants first in every situation? 

In our relationships do we say and do just enough to maintain a semblance of a relationship and to keep the interest of the other person, only to disappear without explanation when we no longer feel a need for them or meet someone else? 

Do we keep people at arm’s length and push them away if they become too close? 

If we are going to grow as Christians, we need to engage in this kind of rigorous self-examination often.

Once we identify a hindrance to loving our fellow Christians, something that makes it more difficult to love them, then we do something about it. Now I am talking about things that we discover in ourselves and not what we may see in a fellow Christian. We remove the log in our own eye before offering to help remove a speck of sawdust from the eye of a fellow Christian, a principle which Jesus taught his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. We deal with our own shortcomings before we offer to help someone else deal with theirs.

Our next step is to ask the Holy Spirit to enable us to do whatever we need to do differently from what we have been doing. We may need to invest more in our relationships with our fellow Christians, to be more understanding and caring, to pursue reconciliation with them when we have something against them, to imagine what it would be like to be in their situation and to try to understand what they are feeling or experience what they are experiencing, to keep open communication with them when problems arise and to work to resolve these problems, and to not let anger or fear get the better of us. Most importantly of all, we need to see in the other person someone who is precious in the eyes of God, someone for whom Jesus laid down his life.

After we decide what we need to do, we take the next step. We do it! We do not sit around, waiting for a sign from the Holy Spirit. We act! We step forward in faith. As the apostle Paul wrote the church at Philippi, God is always at work in our lives, enabling us to will and to do what is pleasing to God (Philippians 2:13). If we make a mistake, we learn from it. We persevere. Loving our fellow Christians takes work. We do not beat ourselves up when things do not go as well as we hoped. We cover everything we do with prayer.

How can Christians put this teaching to work for the good of others?

As we learn how to love our fellow Christians, we will also be learning how to love others. The church might be described as a lab in which we learn how to love as Jesus loves. We will become channels of grace to those around us. We also set an example for them as well as represent Jesus to them. God will use us in various ways to impact the lives of others, to enable them to experience God’s grace. We will not only declare God’s love for them but demonstrate God’s love to them. Through our words and actions the Holy Spirit may bring about a profound change in their lives, one that will affect their relationship with God in this life and throughout eternity.

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 join in prayer with God’s faithful people throughout the
world, saying “God of Love: hear our prayer.”

We pray for the unity of your church, that our life may reflect the
love you have shown us.
God of love: Hear our prayer.

We ask your grace for N our pastor and for all who
minister in word and in action, that we may bear faithful witness
to your good news.
God of love: Hear our prayer.

We seek your peace and justice in our world, our country, and our
community, that the needy may never be forgotten.
God of love: Hear our prayer.

We ask your blessing on our homes, our friends and family, and
on those who live alone, that we may know your presence ever
near us.
God of love: Hear our prayer.

We name before you all whom you have given us to pray for
[especially….], knowing that you are doing for them better things
than we can ask or imagine.
God of love: Hear our prayer.

We commend to you all who have died [especially….], that our
trust in you may deepen as you keep them safe in your care.
God of love: Hear our prayer.

We offer our thanks and praise for all you have done for us,
rejoicing in the knowledge that you are with us always.
God of love: Hear our prayer.

We look for your purposes to be accomplished, and ask you to fill
us with the strength and vision to further your reign.
God of love: Hear our prayer.

Accept our prayers 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,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Christy Nockels’ “By Our Love.”

Verse 1
Brothers, let us come together
Walking in the Spirit, there's much to be done
We will come reaching, out from our comforts
And they will know us by our love

Verse 2
Sisters, we were made for kindness
We can pierce the darkness as He shines through us
We will come reaching, with a song of healing
And they will know us by our love

Chorus
The time is now
Come Church arise
Love with His hands
See with His eyes
Bind it around you,
Let it never leave you,
And they will know us by our love

Verse 3
Children, You are hope for justice,
Stand firm in the Truth now, set your hearts above
You will be reaching, long after we're gone,
And they will know you by your love

Chorus
The time is now
Come Church arise
Love with His hands
See with His eyes
Bind it around you,
Let it never leave you,
And they will know us by our love

The time is now
Come Church arise
Love with His hands
See with His eyes
Bind it around you,
Let it never leave you,
And they will know us by our love

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.

The love of the Father enfold us,
the wisdom of the Son enlighten us,
the fire of the Spirit enflame us;
and the blessing of God, the Three in One,
be upon us and abide with us now and for ever. Amen.

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

Those present may exchange a gesture of peace with these or similar words:
Peace be with you.