Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (Thursday, January 23, 2025)

Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows.

Dawn and dusk have traditionally been times of prayer for Christians since earliest times. In the morning, we dedicate the day and ourselves to God; in the evening, we confess to God how we have erred and strayed from God’s ways during the day, ask God’s forgiveness, give thanks for the mercies God has shown us, and pray for God’s protection throughout the night. This daily rhythm of prayer keeps our heart and mind focused upon God as does the spiritual disciple of being mindful of God’s presence with us wherever we are and whatever we are doing and sharing with God either silently or aloud as circumstances permit what is on our heart and mind. We also attentively listen for God’s voice.

In this evening’s message we look at two spiritual dangers Christians face and a way Christians can help each other to grow spiritually.

GATHERING IN GOD’S NAME

Open this link in a new tab to hear Rachel Chapin’s arrangement of TERRA BEATA for piano.

Silence

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth
tremble before him. Psalm 96:9

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.

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 to hear Howard Goodall’s choral arrangement of “The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23).”

The Lord is my Shepherd
I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
He leadeth me besides the still waters

The Lord is my Shepherd
I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
He leadeth me besides the still waters

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil

For you are with me
You will comfort me

You are with me
You will comfort me

Comfort me

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life
And I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever
Forever
Forever
Forever

Silence

O God, our sovereign and shepherd,
who brought again your Son Jesus Christ
from the valley of death,
comfort us with your protecting presence
and your angels of goodness and love,
that we also may come home
and dwell with him in your house for ever.
Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Andrea Sandefur’s setting of Psalm 134, “Come, All Your Servants of the Lord.”

Come all you servants of the Lord (bless the Lord)
Who stand by night in the house of the Lord
Come all you servants of the Lord (bless the Lord)
Who stand by night in the house of the Lord

Lift up your hands to the Holy Place
Lift up your hands, and bless the Lord
Lift up your hands to the Holy Place
Lift up your hands, and bless the Lord, bless the Lord

May the Lord bless you from Zion
He who made heaven and earth (heaven and earth)
May the Lord bless you from Zion
He who made heaven and earth (heaven and earth)

Lift up your hands to the Holy Place
Lift up your hands, and bless the Lord
Lift up your hands to the Holy Place
Lift up your hands, and bless the Lord

Lift up your hands to the Holy Place
Lift up your hands, and bless the Lord
Lift up your hands to the Holy Place
Lift up your hands, and bless the Lord, bless the Lord

Silence

Guard all your household, Lord,
through the dark night of faith,
and purify the hearts of those who wait on you,
until your kingdom dawns with the
rising of your Son,
Christ, the morning star. Amen.

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians.
Galatians 5: 13-26

As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another. For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another.

What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature. For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do. If the Spirit leads you, then you are not subject to the Law.

What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions; in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups; they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.

But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires. The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives. We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Silence

Works In Progress

Christianity has been troubled by frauds and hypocrites since the Christian Church was founded on the Day of Pentecost in the first century AD. They have hurt the witness of the Christian Church in a variety of ways. In our time they have contributed to the negative stereotypes of Christians that a segment of our society entertains. These stereotypes give a false impression of the Christian faith and way of life and discourage people from exploring that faith and way of life.

Frauds have ulterior motives for saying that they are Christians when they are not. They do not share the beliefs of real Christians, but they seek to gain an advantage by pretending that they do. For example, they may be seeking to garner the campaign contributions and votes of Christians in an election. They may wish to claim that they represent the interests of Christians where in reality they represent their own interests. They are identifying with Christians and Christianity to accomplish their own purposes. They view Christians as naive and manipulatable. They recognize weaknesses in Christians, weaknesses that Christians are not aware of, and which they can exploit.

Frauds may be con artists seeking to persuade Christians to participate in money-making schemes from which they only benefit. They may be sexual predators looking for new victims to groom and abuse. They may just be ordinary people seeking to impress an employer or a client or to gain social acceptance in a community in which church attendance is still valued. The latter is less common nowadays than it once was. At one time church attendance was associated with respectability.

Hypocrites, on the other hand, are a different story. They may hold Christian beliefs, but these beliefs have negligible influence upon their actions. As the saying goes, they “talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.” They may be harshly critical of Christians who do not meet a particular set of standards but ignore or rationalize their own departure from these standards. They may be unwilling to make allowances for others while freely making allowances for themselves.

Among the things that account for hypocrisy in Christians is that they may have been poorly discipled (or not discipled at all) and are spiritually immature. They may be strongly influenced by distorted ways of thinking, prejudices, and other similar things. They may have embraced a brand of “Christianity” which does not give full weight to Jesus’ teaching and example as recorded in the Gospels and does not read the Bible through the lens of his teaching and example.

If we are honest with ourselves, we will recognize that we are not entirely free of the tendency to have one rule for ourselves and another rule for everyone else. Christians who have experienced the new birth, made spiritually alive by the Holy Spirit, still must contend with their old nature. They are works in progress.

Where the danger lies is that our hypocrisy can become such an ingrained habit that we are blind to it. This is one of reasons why participation in a accountability group can be very helpful to our spiritual growth. An accountability group is a group of four to six Christians people who meet regularly to “watch over one another in love,” as John Wesley, Anglican priest and Methodism’s founder, put it. The members of the group covenant together to monitor each other’s spiritual progress, encourage each other, and to give each other constructive criticism if and when it is needed. While an accountability group normally meets in person, it can also meet online or by telephone as circumstances require.

Among the ways an accountability group can gauge the spiritual progress of its participants is to give attention to the extent that they are making a sincere effort to frame and fashion their lives upon Jesus’ teaching and example. It can also give attention to the extent that its participants are producing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, to what extent are they becoming more loving, more joyful, more peaceable, more patient, kinder, more good, more faithful, humbler, and more self-controlled.

True disciples of Jesus earnestly seek to become more like the one whom they call Lord. They take to heart what he told his first disciples, Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but you don’t do what I say?” They genuinely love Jesus and do their best to show their love for him by obeying his commands. As God’s dear children, they try to be like God. They endeavor to live a life of love, loving others just as Jesus loved us.

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Owen Alstott’s metrical paraphrase of the Magnificat, “My Soul Proclaims the Greatness of the Lord.”

1 My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
My spirit sings to God, my saving God,
Who on this day above all others favored me
And raised me up, a light for all to see.

2 Through me great deeds will God make manifest,
And all the earth will come to call me blest.
Unbounded love and mercy sure will I proclaim
For all who know and praise God's holy name.

3 God's mighty arm, protector of the just,
Will guard the weak and raise them from the dust.
But mighty kings will swiftly fall from thrones corrupt.
The strong brought low, the lowly lifted up.

4 Soon will the poor and hungry of the earth
Be richly blest, be given greater worth.
And Israel, as once foretold to Abraham,
Will live in peace throughout the promised land.

5 All glory be to God, Creator blest,
To Jesus Christ, God's love made manifest,
And to the Holy Spirit, gentle Comforter,
All glory be, both now and ever more.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Sylvia Dustan’s metrical paraphrase of the Apostles’ Creed.

1 I believe in God almighty, Author of all things that be,
Maker of the earth and heavens, Keeper of the sky and sea.
I believe in God’s Son, Jesus, now for us both Lord and Christ,
of the Spirit and of Mary born to bring abundant life.

2 I believe that Jesus suffered, scourged and scorned and crucified;
taken from the cross, was buried—true Life there had truly died.
I believe that on the third day Christ was raised up from the grave,
then ascended to God’s right hand. He will come to judge and save.

3 I believe in God’s own Spirit, bonding all the saints within
one church, catholic and holy, where forgiveness frees from sin;
in the body’s resurrection, for the breaking of death’s chain
gives the life that’s everlasting. This the faith that I have claimed.

THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

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.

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light
of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word
and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's
glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the
ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with
you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, 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.

O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore:
Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you,
all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women
everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Bazi Baker, Mary Beattie, Andy Campbell, Chloe Williams and Jason Henderson’s “To Be Like You.”

Verse One
Jesus you delight in showing mercy
You have shared a table with a thief
You embrace the orphan and you say “now follow me...
I am fighting for the least of these”

Verse Two
You have graced this world with your forgiveness
You have turned the tables with a kiss
You have laid your life down and you say “now follow me...
You will find me with the least of these”

Chorus
To be like You, full of compassion
To be like You, Jesus
To do as You do, to love without measure
To be like You, Jesus

Verse Three
You are moved to heal the brokenhearted
You have laid a table for a feast
You invite the outcast and you say “now come and eat...
There’s enough to fill your every need”
You're enough to fill our every need

Chorus
To be like You, full of compassion
To be like You, Jesus
To do as You do, to love without measure
To be like You, Jesus

Bridge
And let our lives be a pure reflection of You God
The thoughts of our hearts
And the words of our mouths be of You
And let our lives be a pure reflection of You God
The thoughts of our hearts
And the words of our mouths be of You
And let our lives be a pure reflection of You God
The thoughts of our hearts
And the words of our mouths be of You
And let our lives be a pure reflection of You God
The thoughts of our hearts
And the words of our mouths be of You

Chorus
To be like You, full of compassion
To be like You, Jesus
To do as You do, to love without measure
To be like You, Jesus

Outro
To do as You do, to love without measure
To be like You, Jesus

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. 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.
Be with us still, and when we take our rest
renew us for the service of your Son Jesus Christ.
Amen.

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.

THE SENDING FORTH OF GOD’S PEOPLE

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

The almighty and merciful God bless us
and keep us now and for ever. Amen.