Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (Thursday, December 12, 2024)

Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows.

In Norway and other Scandinavian countries, it is a tradition to light a candle in the evening each of the Sundays of Advent. The Advent candleholder (typically red) is called an adventsstake and has four candles, one for each Sunday of Advent. Each candle represents how Jesus brought light to the world.

Lighting candles not only brighten a room on a dark Scandinavian winter night, but it also creates a more prayerful atmosphere. Even if you don’t have an adventsstake or Advent wreath, you may want to light one or more candles for this evening’s service.

In this evening’s message we take a look at how we may become an obstacle to others hearing the good news and what we can do about it.

EVENING PRAYER

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me
will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 8:12

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

Silence

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins
through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all
goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in
eternal life. Amen.

THE INVITATORY AND PSALTER

O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as
it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Alleluia.

Open this link in a new tab to hear F. Bland Tucker’s translation of the Phos hilaron, “O Gracious Light.”

1 O Gracious Light, Lord Jesus Christ,
In you the Father’s glory shone.
Immortal, holy, blest is he,
And blest are you, his holy Son.

2 Now sunset comes, but light shines forth,
the lamps are lit to pierce the night.
Praise Father, Son, and Spirit: God
Who dwells in the eternal light.

3 Worthy are you of endless praise,
O Son of God, Life-giving Lord;
Wherefore you are through all the earth
And in the highest heaven adored.

Open this link in a new to hear Timothy Dudley-Smith’s “Come Quickly, Lord (Psalm 141).”

1 Come quickly, Lord, and hear the cries
my heart and hands uplifted raise;
and let my prayer as incense rise,
an evening sacrifice of praise.
Guard now the lips that speak your Name,
lest they, and I, be put to shame.

2 And if my steps should go astray
and from the path of truth I move,
restore me to your narrow way
and in your mercy, Lord, reprove;
from love of self my soul defend,
and wound me as a faithful friend.

*3 When at the last, O Lord our God,
we look to you alone to save,
the plough of judgment breaks the clod,
and bones are scattered from the grave:
our Rock, our Refuge and our Tower,
protect us in the final hour.

4 We fix our eyes upon you, Lord,
and tune our ears to hear your voice;
our hearts by faith receive your word
and in your promises rejoice.
Till morning breaks and night is gone,
in God we trust, and journey on.

*Omitted in the video.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Liam Lawson’s adaptation of Psalm 84, “How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place.”

How lovely is your dwelling, O Lord, my God.
How lovely is your dwelling place, is your dwelling place, O God!

1 My soul is thirsting for the Lord,
how it yearns for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and soul ring out for joy
to God, the living God.

How lovely is your dwelling, O Lord, my God.
How lovely is your dwelling place, is your dwelling place, O God!

2 The sparrow finds herself a home
and the swallow a nest for her brood.
She lays her young by your altars,
Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

How lovely is your dwelling, O Lord, my God.
How lovely is your dwelling place, is your dwelling place, O God!

3 One day, O Lord, within your courts
is better than a thousand elsewhere.
The threshold of the house of God
I prefer to the house of the wicked.

How lovely is your dwelling, O Lord, my God.
How lovely is your dwelling place, is your dwelling place, O God!

THE LESSONS

A reading from the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 23, verses 1-36.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for the sake of appearance you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

“Woe to you, blind guides who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.’ How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it, and whoever swears by the sanctuary swears by it and by the one who dwells in it, and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside also may become clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape the judgment of hell? For this reason I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.

The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Silence

The Face in the Mirror

In this evening’s reading taken from Matthew’s Gospel Jesus is sharply critical of the Pharisees and teachers of the religious law. He goes as far as calling them snakes, a brood of vipers. This has led some Christians to regard this passage as precedence for being quick to criticize people and speaking in severe, angry, and hurtful way to them. It is unlikely that was Matthew’s intention in incorporating this passage into his gospel. At the beginning of the passage Jesus is addressing the crowds and his disciples, warning them against doing what the Pharisees and the teachers of the religious law do because they do not practice what they teach. While a number of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law may have been present as Jesus had been speaking to them earlier, he may not have been addressing them directly but rather to the crowds and his disciples in their hearing. What is important about this passage is what Jesus is saying and not any imagined precedence for lambasting everyone with whom we disagree or with whom we otherwise find fault.

In this evening’s reading Jesus warns the crowds and his disciples against the pretentiousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, what they did to make themselves appear more pious and more righteous than they were. What they did was not motivated by love of God or by love of neighbor. It was done for self-promotion, to make other people pay attention to them and to think that they were very pious and very righteous and to get their egos stroked. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law made distinctions in situations where the difference between things were actually minor, unimportant, or irrelevant. While they were scrupulous in some matters, they ignored other matters, those matters which were most important to God. Their real or private character was a far cry from the type of character that they wanted others to believe that they had. They liked to identify themselves with the prophets of the Old Testament, but they actually had more in common with those who persecuted these prophets.

Jesus also drew to the attention of the crowds and his disciples how the Pharisees and the teachers of the law locked people out of the kingdom of heaven, did not enter themselves, and stopped others who were entering. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven in this passage, he is talking about himself. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law discouraged others from recognizing him as the Messiah. They refused to recognize him as the Messiah themselves and anyone who did decide to accept him as the Messiah, they stopped.

If we think about it, we may share a number of these characteristics with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. When we look at them, we may be looking at our own face in a mirror. We may also want people to have a good opinion of us, even to admire us. We may go to great lengths to make a positive impression. We may quibble over small matters. We may have a side of ourselves that we keep hidden from other people.. It is easy to see these characteristics in other people. We may not always recognize them in ourselves.

We may also block people from entering the kingdom of heaven. Through our attitude, way of thinking, and behavior, we ourselves may become an obstacle in their way to hearing the good news, accepting Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and becoming his disciple.

When my nieces were little girls, their parents decided to return to church, something that was very common in my generation but is less common today. They visited a church a short drive from their home, bringing their three young children with them. The church they visited had an aging congregation. The members of the congregation made very clear to my older brother and his wife that small children were not welcome in their church.

I have heard similar stories from other people, and I have regrettably seen it happen in what was at the time my own church. The members of the congregation may not say anything to a visitor, but their body language and their actions do not convey the message that the visitor is welcome.

Research studies have shown that many individuals who are unchurched, that is, they have not attended a church in six months or have never attended a church at all and have no church background, are open to attending a church if they are invited. Their biggest fear is how well they will be received. Unfortunately, people are more likely to share bad experiences than good ones so what they may have heard may have not eased their fears.

Christians may have their work cut out for them, making their church a more welcoming place, and that may require that they spend more time outside the walls of the church building and more time in the community, getting to know unchurched people and unchurched people getting to know them.

One thing that we do need to stop doing is acting as gatekeepers for the kingdom of heaven, deciding who gets to hear the good news and who does not. Our task is to share the good news with everybody, to disciple those who respond to Jesus’ call to follow him, to baptize them, and to teach them what he commanded.

Any sorting, any separation of the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the weeds, is God’s to do. This is not to suggest a church should deemphasize holy living nor is to suggest that a church should not exercise church disciple when it is warranted.

It is to heed the instructions of the farmer to his field hands in the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds not to pull the weeds unless they damaged the young wheat. It is not to let our fears and prejudices keep us from sharing the good news to all and sundry. It is to follow our Lord’s example and to welcome all who need a physician and not to turn them away, to welcome those who think that they are righteous as well as those who recognize their need.

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Timothy Dudley Smith’s “Tell Out, My Soul.”

1 Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord!
Unnumbered blessings give my spirit voice;
Tender to me the promise of his word;
In God my Savior shall my heart rejoice

2 Tell out, my soul, the greatness of his Name!
Make known his might, the deeds his arm has done;
His mercy sure, from age to age to same;
His holy Name--the Lord, the Mighty One

3 Tell out, my soul, the greatness of his might!
Powers and dominions lay their glory by
Proud hearts and stubborn wills are put to flight
The hungry fed, the humble lifted high

4 Tell out, my soul, the glories of his word!
Firm is his promise, and his mercy sure
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord
To children's children and for evermore!

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s 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;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again 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 PRAYERS

The Lord be with you
and also with you.

Let us 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.

That this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and
goodwill,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins
and offenses,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole
world,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That we may depart this life in your faith and fear,
and not be condemned before the great judgment seat
of Christ,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in
the communion of all your saints,
entrusting one another and all our life to Christ.

We entreat you, O Lord.

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to
preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation:
Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins,
that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our
Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy
defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love
of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Walter Russell Bowie’s
“Lord Christ, When First Thou Cam’st to Earth.”

1 Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth,
upon a cross they bound thee,
and mocked thy saving kingship then
by thorns with which they crowned thee;
and still our wrongs may weave thee now
new thorns to pierce that steady brow,
and robe of sorrow round thee.

2 O awful Love, which found no room in life
where sin denied thee,
and, doomed to death, must bring to doom
the powers which crucified thee,
till not a stone was left on stone,
and all those nations’ pride, o’er thrown,
went down to dust beside thee!

3 New advent of the love of Christ,
shall we again refuse thee,
till in the night of hate and war
we perish as we lose thee?
From old unfaith our souls release
to seek the kingdom of thy peace,
by which alone we choose thee.

4 O wounded hands of Jesus, build
in us thy new creation;
our pride is dust, our vaunt is stilled,
we wait thy revelation:
O love that triumphs over loss,
we bring our hearts before thy cross,
to finish thy salvation.

Let us pray for the Church and for the world.

Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may
be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal
your glory in the world.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations, in the
ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another
and serve the common good.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation,
that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others
and to your honor and glory.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours, and grant
that we may serve Christ in them, and love one another as he
loves us.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or
spirit; give them courage and hope in their troubles, and
bring them the joy of your salvation.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

We commend to your mercy all who have died, that your will
for them may be fulfilled; and we pray that we may share
with all your saints in your eternal kingdom.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Almighty and eternal God, ruler of all things in heaven and
earth: Mercifully accept the prayers of your people, and
strengthen us to do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore.
Amen. 2 Corinthians 13:14