Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (Thursday, September 26, 2024)

Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows.

The message for this Thursday evening is the first in a series on Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. We will be unpacking what Paul wrote in this letter and considering what lessons it offers for Christians living in the twenty-first century.

GATHERING IN GOD’S NAME

God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. John 4:24

Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4: 16

Let us now confess our sins to almighty God.

Silence

God of all mercy,
we humbly admit that we need your help.
We have wandered from your ways.
We have sinned in thought, word, and deed,
and have failed to do what is right.
You alone can save us.
Have mercy on us,
wipe out our sins and teach us to forgive others.
Bring forth in us the fruit of your Spirit that
we may live the new life to your glory.
This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

Merciful Lord, grant to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that we may be cleansed from all our sins,
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can extinguish.

One or more candles may be lit.

Open this link in a new tab to hear y Sharon Dennis and Doris Au MacDonald’s setting of the Phos Hilaron. “Joyous Light of Glory of the Immortal Father.”

Joyous light of glory of the immortal Father.
Heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ.
You are worth of being praised with pure voices
forever.
You are worth of being praised with pure voices
forever.

O Son of God, O Giver of life,
The universe declares your glory.
We have come to the setting of the sun
And we look to the evening light.
We sing to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You are worth of being praised with pure voices
forever.
You are worth of being praised with pure voices
forever.

O Son of God, O Giver of life,
The universe declares your glory.
The universe declares your glory.

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Sharon Dennis and Doris Au MacDonald’s setting of Psalm 141 “Let My Prayer Rise Before You as Incense.”

Let my prayer rise before you as incense
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice

Let my prayer rise before you as incense
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice

1 O Lord I call to you come to me quickly; hear my voice when I cry to you

Let my prayer rise before you as incense
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice

2 Set a watch before my mouth O Lord and guard the door of my lips
Let not my heart incline to any evil thing
Let me not be occupied in wickedness with evil doers

Let my prayer rise before you as incense
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice

3 But my eyes are turned to you
Yes, my eyes are turned to you,
O my eyes are turned to you, Lord God
in you I take refuge strip me not of my life

Let my prayer rise before you as incense

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Isaac Watts and Rachel Simpson’s “My Shepherd Will Supply My Needs” (Psalm 23)

1 My Shepherd will supply my need:
And Jesus is His Name;
In pastures fresh He makes me feed,
Beside the living stream.
He brings my wandering spirit back
When I forsake His ways,
He leads me, for His mercy's sake,
In paths of truth and grace.

2 When I walk through the shades of death,
His presence is my stay;
A word of his supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.
His hand, in sight of all my foes,
Each day my table spreads;
My cup with blessings overflows,
His oil anoints my head.

3 The sure provisions of my Lord
Attend me all my days;
O may his house be my abode,
And all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest,
While others come and go;
No more a stranger, nor a guest,
But like a child at home

Coda
There would I find a settled rest,
While others come and go;
No more a stranger, nor a guest,
But like a child at home

Silence

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from the New Testament: Colossians 1:3-14

We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Silence

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

Open this link in a new tab to hear Sharon Dennis and Doris Au MacDonald’s setting of the Magnificat, “My Soul Proclaims the Greatness of the Lord.”


My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

1 He has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

2 God has mercy on those who fear him
from generation to generation.
The Lord has shown strength with his arm,
and scattered the proud in their conceit,
casting down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifting up the lowly.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

[Instrumental interlude]

3 God has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
to remember the promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

Prayer

In his letter to the Colossians, after the initial greeting, the apostle Paul provides us with an example of how we can pray not only for new believers and maturing believers but also for those exploring the Christian faith and way of life and ourselves. Having heard about the faith of the Christians at Colossae and their love of God’s people, Paul writes that he aways gives thanks in his prayers for what God is doing in their lives. He attributes this transformation to their hearing the message of the gospel and understanding the truth about God’s grace.

Paul goes on to tell them that he continues to pray for them and explains what he is praying. He is asking God to give them all the wisdom and spiritual understanding that they need to know with certainty what God wants from them, enabling them to live in a way that brings honor to the Lord and pleases him in every way, to live a life that produces good works of every kind, and to grow in their knowledge of God. Further, he is asking God to strengthen them with his own great power, so that they will be patient ad persevere when troubles come.

As well as affirm our trust and confidence in God and his loving kindness toward humankind, prayer is one of the ways that we are able to express our love for others. We share with God our affection for them, our concerns for their wellbeing, our hopes for them, and our good wishes, or kind feelings, for them.

In his book, The Church at Prayer and the World Outside (James Clark, 1923), the Rev. Percy Dearmer, an Anglican minister, author, hymn writer, and hymnal editor, theorized that prayer at least in part may be a form of divine-assisted telepathy, the ability to communicate to someone mentally, without using words or other physical signals. With God’s help, our thoughts about the person such as our concerns for their wellbeing and our good wishes for whom we are praying are conveyed to that person. While the theory has a certain appeal to it, Dearmer acknowledged that he had nothing to support this theory beyond the feeling that we sometime have that someone else is praying for us.

While we may not always know how God is working in a particular individual’s life, it is right to give thanks and praise for how he is transferring people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, for how the power of the Holy Spirit is working in people’s lives, giving them the will and the power to accomplish God’s good purposes. It is right to give thanks and praise for the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ, and the salvation that is ours by God’s merciful kindness through faith in his Son. This is what many churches do when they celebrate the Lord’s Supper each week and share the bread and cup of Holy Communion. They are not only recalling Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave and proclaiming the part these events played in our salvation but also offering thanks ad praise for all that God has done for us and continues to do for us. The meal itself not only gives expression to our love for each other but also is a means of grace, giving fresh vigor and strength to our faith and fostering in us a deeper commitment to our Lord.

What Paul wrote that he was asking for the Christians at Colossae are things that we all need whatever stage we are at in our faith journey. We may be just beginning that journey, gingerly dipping our toes into the water, or we may be well on our way. We may have strayed from the path and need to retrace our steps and get back on track. We may need to have an honest conversation with God, sharing with him our struggles and our failures and humbly asking God to forgive us for what we have done or left undone.

Prayer is not a one-way street: We do the talking and God does the listening. God also speaks to us. It may not be an audible voice. It may be a mental image. God may speak through the people around us. God may speak from the pages of the Bible. One reason that it is important to have more than a passing acquaintance with Jesus’ teaching is that God is not going to contradict what he gave his Son to say.

While you may want to set aside a particular time in the day to pray for others and yourself, I recommend a spiritual practice in which you are mindful of God’s presence with you throughout the day and the night and you pray for others and yourself as you go about doing what you usually do during your waking hours. Whatever we are doing, God is always present with us. While there is nothing wrong with making a daily appointment to meet with God, this spiritual practice recognizes that God will hear us no matter what time of day we pray, whatever we are doing when we pray,

Silence

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 world and the Church.

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.

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 bishops, elders, deacons, and licensed lay pastors
that they may be faithful ministers of your word and sacraments.

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 silently or aloud.

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.

Lord, we implore you
that your grace may always go before us
and follow after us.
and enable us continually to do such good deeds
as are pleasing to you’
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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 Abi Marthinet-Glover, Jake Marthinet-Glover and Alanna Glover’s “You Have Called a People.”

1 You have called a people to be your hands and feet
You have called a people and healed our unbelief
From every tribe and nation, all corners of the earth
You have called a people to sing your endless worth

2 Called to be made like you, in Christ to be made whole
Called to be a witness to the hope we hold
Before the powers in heaven your wisdom is made known
That you have built a people on Christ the cornerstone\

We sing, “Holy, holy”
Yours is glory, glory
With myriads and myriads declaring round your throne
We sing, “Worthy is the lamb!”

3 How will all men know us, oh saints of God above?
How will all men know us, if not by our great love?
Not hungry for dominion, but servants of the least
Our treasure is in heaven: there waits a wedding feast!

And we sing, “Holy, holy”
Yours is glory, glory
With myriads and myriads declaring round your throne
We sing, “Worthy is the lamb!”

We sing, “Holy, holy”
Yours is glory, glory
With myriads and myriads declaring round your throne
We sing, “Worthy is the lamb!”
We sing, “Worthy is the lamb!”
“Worthy! Worthy is the lamb!”

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.

Gracious God,
you have given us much today;
grant us also a thankful spirit.
Into your hands we commend ourselves
and those we love.
Keep us always in your care and protection,
and when we take our rest,
renew us for the service of your Son Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Those present may extend their palms toward each other in a gesture of blessing.

May God, Creator, bless us and keep us,
may Christ be ever light for our lives,
may the Spirit of Love be our guide and path,
for all our days. 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.