Sundays at All Hallows (Sunday, July 13, 2025)

 

Welcome to Sundays at All Hallows.

The order of service for this Sunday is the order of service for Morning Prayer from the Anglican Church of Canada’s The Book of Alternative Services (1985). It is one of several different patterns of worship that have been used for Sundays at All Hallows.

The topic of this Sunday’s message is Jesus’ response to a teacher of the Law’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” and its implications for us.

GATHER IN GOD’S NAME

Open this link in a new tab to hear James Clemens’s arrangement of HOLY MANNA from Simple Gifts-American Folk Hymns for Violin and Piano.

Silence

The words you have spoken are spirit and life, O Lord; you have the words of eternal life. John 6:63, 68

Lord, open our lips,
And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

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 The Corner Room’s rendition of Psalm 100.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

It is he who made us, and we are his;
We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
And his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
And his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
And his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;
His steadfast love endures forever,
And his faithfulness to all generations.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from the Book of Amos.
Amos 7:7-17

I had another vision from the Lord. In it I saw him standing beside a wall that had been built with the use of a plumb line, and there was a plumb line in his hand. He asked me, “Amos, what do you see?”

“A plumb line,” I answered.

Then he said, “I am using it to show that my people are like a wall that is out of line. I will not change my mind again about punishing them. The places where Isaac's descendants worship will be destroyed. The holy places of Israel will be left in ruins. I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to an end.”

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, then sent a report to King Jeroboam of Israel: “Amos is plotting against you among the people. His speeches will destroy the country. This is what he says: ‘Jeroboam will die in battle, and the people of Israel will be taken away from their land into exile.’”

Amaziah then said to Amos, “That's enough, prophet! Go on back to Judah and do your preaching there. Let them pay you for it. Don't prophesy here at Bethel any more. This is the king's place of worship, the national temple.”

Amos answered, “I am not the kind of prophet who prophesies for pay. I am a herdsman, and I take care of fig trees. But the Lord took me from my work as a shepherd and ordered me to come and prophesy to his people Israel. So now listen to what the Lord says. You tell me to stop prophesying, to stop raving against the people of Israel. And so, Amaziah, the Lord says to you, ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your children will be killed in war. Your land will be divided up and given to others, and you yourself will die in a heathen country. And the people of Israel will certainly be taken away from their own land into exile.’”

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Henry C. Haffner’s arrangement of Psalm 82 from The Psalter of the United Presbyterian Church (1887).

Arise, O God, set forth Thy rights, pronounce Thy just decree;
The heritage of Earth by right belongs, O Lord, to Thee.

Among assembled men of might the mighty God doth stand:
He stands to order judgment right to judges of the land.
“How long will ye, with wrongful aid, the tyrant’s cause protect ?
How long, by gift and favor swayed, the wicked man respect?”

Arise, O God, set forth Thy rights, pronounce Thy just decree;
The heritage of Earth by right belongs, O Lord, to Thee.

“Give justice to the fatherless, defend the poor distressed;
And give deliv'rance to the weak by lawless power oppressed.
All ye are gods, ye kings," I said, "and sons of God Most High;
Yet as the sons of men ye fade, and as the princes die."

Arise, O God, set forth Thy rights, pronounce Thy just decree;
The heritage of Earth by right belongs, O Lord, to Thee.

A reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians
Colossians 1:1-14

From Paul, who by God's will is an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy—

To God's people in Colossae, who are our faithful friends in union with Christ:

May God our Father give you grace and peace.

We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God's people. When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven. The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is. You learned of God's grace from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is Christ's faithful worker on our behalf. He has told us of the love that the Spirit has given you.

For this reason we have always prayed for you, ever since we heard about you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power, so that you may be able to endure everything with patience. And with joy give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to have your share of what God has reserved for his people in the kingdom of light. He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear Son, by whom we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven.

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Michael Perry’s metrical version of the Benedictus Dominus Deus, “Blessed Be the God of Israel.”

1 Blessed be the God of Israel
who comes to set us free;
who visits and redeems us,
who grants us liberty.
The prophets spoke of mercy,
of rescue and release:
God shall fulfill the promise
to bring our people peace.

2 Now from the house of David
a child of grace is given;
a Savior who comes among us
to raise us up to heaven
Before him goes the herald,
forerunner in the way,
the prophet of salvation,
the harbinger of day.

3 On prisoners of darkness
the sun begins to rise,
the dawning of forgiveness
upon the sinner's eyes;
to guide the feet of pilgrims
along the paths of peace:
O bless our God and Savior,
with songs that never cease!

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to Luke.
Luke 10:25-37
Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

A teacher of the Law came up and tried to trap Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to receive eternal life?”

Jesus answered him, “What do the Scriptures say? How do you interpret them?”

The man answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind’; and ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’”

“You are right,” Jesus replied; “do this and you will live.”

But the teacher of the Law wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

Jesus answered, “There was once a man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when robbers attacked him, stripped him, and beat him up, leaving him half dead. It so happened that a priest was going down that road; but when he saw the man, he walked on by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also came there, went over and looked at the man, and then walked on by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was traveling that way came upon the man, and when he saw him, his heart was filled with pity. He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them; then he put the man on his own animal and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he told the innkeeper, ‘and when I come back this way, I will pay you whatever else you spend on him.’”

And Jesus concluded, “In your opinion, which one of these three acted like a neighbor toward the man attacked by the robbers?”

The teacher of the Law answered, “The one who was kind to him.”

Jesus replied, “You go, then, and do the same.”

The Gospel of Christ.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

True Neighbors

I have heard the Parable of the Good Samaritan since my early childhood. It may have been the first parable of Jesus’ I heard. It was used to reinforce the importance of having feelings of sympathy for the suffering or bad luck of others and a wish to help them as well as the importance of being kind to others and treating them as we would like them to treat us. It is also one of the parables of Jesus and stories of the Bible I know by heart.

Over the years I have learned a number of things about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus’ original audience would not have been surprised that the priest or the Levite did not stop to help the injured man who had been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. If the man was dead, touching his corpse would have made them ritually impure and unable to carry out their temple duties. In their minds these duties were far more important than examining the man to see if he showed any signs of life.

A major criticism that Jesus leveled at the Pharisees as recorded in the Gospels is that they put their religious obligations before showing mercy to others. God, on the other, Jesus taught, was more concerned with their willingness to show compassion and mercy to others than he was with their punctilious fulfillment of their religious obligations. He also pointed to their attention that when they saw fit, they ignored those obligations. While the priest and the temple assistant may not have been Pharisees, they acted like them. To them fulfilling their religious obligations was more important than showing compassion and mercy to others.

Jesus’ original audience would have not been surprised if the Samaritan had also ignored the injured man. After all, he was a Samaritan. In the eyes of the Jews, he was a half-breed, a member of a mongrel race. He was not a member of God’s chosen people, the people of the Covenant, the descendants of Abraham. It did not matter if his people worshipped the same God as the Jews and lived in accordance with the laws that God had given Moses on Mount Sinai. This included the two commandments which Jesus identified as the most important of all—to love God with every atom of our being and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

To their shock and dismay, the Samaritan, the half-breed whom the Jews hated, stopped to examine the injured man, tended his wounds, put him on his donkey, took him to an inn, cared for him overnight, and then paid the innkeeper to care for the man until he recovered. This must have particularly disconcerted the man who tried to justify himself.

The teacher of the Law’s question was, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus does not give him the kind of answer that he may have been expecting. After telling him the parable, he asks the teacher of the Law—

“In your opinion, which one of these three acted like a neighbor toward the man attacked by the robbers?”

I suspect that the teacher of the Law was expecting Jesus to reel off a list of people whom he should consider his neighbor.” Instead, he was told a parable and then asked a question.

What was his answer and Jesus’ response?

“The teacher of the Law answered, ‘The one who was kind to him.’”

“Jesus replied, ‘You go, then, and do the same.’”

The teacher of the Law did not get the answer to his question, which he was expecting. Jesus put him in a position in which, if he genuinely believed the two great commandments, there was only one possible answer. You might say Jesus pulled a switch on the teacher of the Law, but I don’t believe that Jesus was being devious. He wanted the teacher of the Law to come to the right conclusion on his own.

What was the most important difference between the three men was not their race or ethnicity, their religious heritage, their piety, or their station or walk in life. It was their mercifulness—their ability to show compassion and mercy to others. It was what counted the most.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic a number of churches claimed that fulfilling their religious obligations was far more important than implementing recommended measures to contain the spread of the virus. Several churches became the epicenter of significant outbreaks of the virus.

One is prompted to ask what Jesus would have thought of their claims in light of what he taught about showing compassion and mercy to others.

It is interesting that when it came to keep one’s religious obligations and showing compassion and mercy to others, Jesus put showing compassion and mercy first. He also put forgiving others and pursuing reconciliation with them before fulfilling religious obligations.

While it is tempting to interpret the parable of the Good Samaritan as a reason for being more tolerant of groups that are on the margins of society or whose members are “not like us,” not our tribe, I don’t think that this is the main thrust of the parable.

Jesus in his teaching and his actions reveals that God’s grace does not extend to one people. God’s goodwill and favor extends to Samaritans and Gentiles, non-Jews, as well as to Jews.

When Jesus pointed this truth to the attention of the synagogue congregation of his hometown of Bethlehem, its members were so enraged by his words that they tried to kill him. They believed that God’s grace was solely theirs.

Jesus taught that we are to imitate God’s character as children imitates their parents’ good qualities. God is merciful; therefore, we should be merciful, that is, kind and forgiving. If God shows grace toward all people, we should show grace to them too.

Being merciful is not the same as being tolerant. When we are tolerant, we exhibit a willingness to accept behavior and beliefs that are different from our own, although we might not agree with them or approve of them. We do not expect any kind of change in those whom we are tolerating. We put up with them as they are.

God meets us where we are, but God does not leave us where we are. God works in us to transform us, to make us more like Jesus, to make us more like God himself. God pours his love into our hearts so that we become more loving, kinder, more forgiving, more willing to show others our favor and goodwill with no strings attached. In other words, so that we become our better self, not a better self that is lurking unrealized within us, but a better self which is the work of what John Wesley called God’s sanctifying and perfecting grace.

This is not to suggest that we should be unsympathetic, unloving, unkind, and unforgiving toward groups that are on the margins of society or whose members are “not like us,” not our tribe. We should extend to them the compassion and mercy that God extends to us. For in showing them such compassion and mercy, we show that we are indeed the children of the Most High.

Jesus taught his disciples that they should love even those who had no love for them and who wished them ill and do good to them. God, he told them, is merciful even to the unthankful and the wicked. The Samaritan of the parable exhibits such love. If we have faith in our Lord and love for him, we will follow his teaching and example. We will go and do what the Samaritan did. We will be true neighbors to our fellow human beings and show them compassion and mercy.

Silence

Let us confess our faith, as we say,

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He 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,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
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.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Isaac Watt’s “Oh, That the Lord Would Guide My Ways.”

1 Oh, that the Lord would guide my ways
To keep His statutes still!
Oh, that my God would grant me grace
To know and do His will!

2 Order my footsteps by Thy Word
And make my heart sincere;
Let sin have no dominion, Lord,
But keep my conscience clear.

3 Assist my soul, too apt to stray,
A stricter watch to keep;
And should I e'er forget Thy way,
Restore Thy wand'ring sheep.

4 Make me to walk in Thy commands--
'Tis a delightful road--
Nor let my head or heart or hands
Offend against my God.

THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

When two or more people are present, one of them may serve as the leader, and the leader and the others present then pray responsively.

Rather than add lists of the people and concerns after one or more of the intentions in this form, it is suggested that such lists be read before the prayers begin as this practice has the advantage of informing those present about particular needs before they join in the prayers. At the appropriate points in the form those present should be given ample opportunity to add their own petitions and thanksgivings.

In peace, we pray to you, Lord God.

Silence

For all people in their daily life and work;
For our families, friends, and neighbours, and for all those
who are alone.

For this community, our country, and the world;
For all who work for justice, freedom, and peace.

For the just and proper use of your creation;
For the victims of hunger, fear, injustice, and oppression.

For all who are in danger, sorrow, or any kind of trouble;
For those who minister to the sick, the friendless, and the
needy.

For the peace and unity of the Church of God;
For all who proclaim the gospel, and all who seek the truth.

For N our bishop, and for all bishops and other ministers;
For all who serve God in his Church.

For our own needs and those of others.

Silence. 

The people may add their own petitions.

Hear us, Lord;
For your mercy is great.

We thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of this life.

Silence. 

The people may add their own thanksgivings.

We will exalt you, O God our king;
And praise your name for ever and ever.

We pray for all those who have died in the peace of Christ,
and for those whose faith is known to you alone,
that they may have a place in your eternal kingdom.

Silence. 

The people may add their own petitions.

Lord, let your loving kindness be upon them;
Who put their trust in you.

We pray to you also for the forgiveness of our sins.

Silence may be kept.

Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;
in your compassion, forgive us our sins,
known and unknown,
things done and left undone;
and so uphold us by your Spirit
that we may live and serve you in newness of life,
to the honour and glory of your name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Gracious God,
you have heard the prayers of your faithful people;
you know our needs before we ask,
and our ignorance in asking.
Grant our requests as may be best for us.
This we ask in the name of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless
until they find their rest in you.
May we find peace in your service,
and in the world to come, see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us,
we are bold to say,

All 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

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine
on us and be gracious to us. The Lord look upon us with favour
and grant us peace. Amen.