Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (April 9, 2026)

Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows.

This Thursday is the Thursday in Easter Week. It forms a part of the Octave of Easter, an eight-day period that begins on Easter Sunday and ends on the Second Sunday of Easter and is an extension of the Feast of the Resurrection as Easter Sunday is also known.

The topic of this Thursday evening’s message is the teaching of Jesus commonly called the Golden Rule.

GATHER IN GOD’S NAME

Opens this link in a new tab to hear Jessica Wells’ arrangement of Elder Joseph Brackett Jr.’s SIMPLE GIFTS for cello.

Silence

Alleluia! Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and
just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:8-9

Let us now confess our sins to almighty God.

Silence

Almighty and most merciful Father,
we have strayed from your ways like lost sheep.
We have followed too much
the devices and the desires of our own hearts.
we have offended against your holy laws,
we have left undone what we ought to have done,
and we have done what we ought not to have done.
Yet, good Lord, have mercy on us;
restore those who are penitent,
according to your promises declared
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Grant, most merciful Father, for his sake,
that we may live a godly, righteous, and sober lives,
to the glory of your holy name. 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.

Open our lips, O Lord;
And we shall declare your praise.
O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory to God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen.
Let us praise the Lord.
The Lord’s name be praised.

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 tab to play Jane Terwilliger’s responsorial setting of Psalm 148: Let All Praise the Name of the Lord.

Let all praise the name of the Lord.
praise the name of the Lord.

Let all praise the name of the Lord.
praise the name of the Lord.

1 Alleluia! Praise the Lord from the heavens,
praise him in the heights;
Praise him, all you his angels,
praise him, all you his hosts.

Let all praise the name of the Lord.
praise the name of the Lord.

2 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens.

Let all praise the name of the Lord.
praise the name of the Lord.

3 You mountains and all you hills,
you fruit trees and all you cedars;
You wild beasts and all tame animals,
you creeping things and you winged fowl.

Let all praise the name of the Lord.
praise the name of the Lord.

4 Let the kings of the earth and all peoples,
the princes and all the judges of the earth,
Young men too, and all maidens,
old men and boys.
Praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted.

Let all praise the name of the Lord.
praise the name of the Lord.

5 His majesty is above earth and heaven,
and he has lifted his horn above the people.

Let all praise the name of the Lord.
praise the name of the Lord.

Open this link in a new tab to hear “Sing to the Lord, Sing a New Song,” Hal Hopson’s adaptation of a paraphrase of Psalm 149 from The Psalter 1912.

Sing to the Lord, sing a new song.
Alleluia! Praise the Lord!

1 Sing praise to the Lord
come sing a new song,
amid all the saints
God’s praises prolong;
let Isreal be glad
in their Maker and sing,
let all Zion’s people
rejoice in their King.

Sing to the Lord, sing a new song.
Alleluia! Praise the Lord!

2 With timbrel and harp
and joyful acclaim,
with dancing and song,
give praise to God’s name;
for God in the faithful
great pleasure will seek,
with robes of salvation
adorning the meek.

Sing to the Lord, sing a new song.
Alleluia! Praise the Lord!

3 In glory exult,
you saints of the Lord;
with songs in the night
high praises accord;
go forth in God’s service
and strong in His might
to conquer all evil
and stand for the right.

Sing to the Lord, sing a new song.
Alleluia! Praise the Lord!

4 For this is God’s word:
the saints shall not fail,
but over the earth
their faith shall prevail;
all kingdoms and nations
shall yield to their sword--
thus God shows great glory,
sing praise to the Lord.

Sing to the Lord, sing a new song.
Alleluia! Praise the Lord!

Open this link in a new tab to hear Randy Ferris’ arrangement of the Gloria Patri.

Glory to the Father!
Glory to the Son!
Glory to the Spirit!
Glory to the Lord!
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever,
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever.
Amen!

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from the Gospel according to Luke.
Luke 6: 27-36

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

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

Whatever Happened to the Golden Rule?

The version of the Golden Rule that I was taught as a child was “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The version is not the King James Version of the Golden Rule. “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12 KJV). Nor is the Prayer Book version. "My duty towards my neighbour, is to love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me…"(The Book of Common Prayer, 1662).

Although the wording is different, the meaning is the same. Treat others as you would have them treat you. I heard this teaching not only at home from my grandparents and my mother but also at school from my teachers and at church from my pastor.

I do not hear this teaching as much today as I did then. In fact, I cannot recall hearing it for more than two decades. Indeed, it appears to have fallen into desuetude. I do still hear the Great Commandment but not the Golden Rule. Its absence is evident in how Christians treat each other and other people on and off the internet.

Being labelled a rule may account for its disappearance. No one likes to keep rules nowadays. There is a tendency to disregard anything that resembles a rule, rules being seen as restraints on doing what some would have us believe is their God-given right to do as they please. This view has no support in Scripture. Nor does Jesus affirm it.

While the Christian faith is not about rule-keeping as its critics have sometimes described it, Jesus, however, did teach a number of principles by which he expected his disciples to live. The Golden Rule is one of them.

The Christian faith may be described as a set of beliefs and practices as may any religion. It may, however, also be described as a relationship—a relationship between God and us, mediated by Jesus, God in the person of the Son, a relationship in which God in the person of the Holy Spirit indwells the believer. But like all relationships it has boundaries—limits on what attitudes a disciple of Jesus may display and limits on what behavior in which they may engage.

We cannot call ourselves a disciple of Jesus and ignore what he taught or did. This is not to say that people do not call themselves Christians while not following his teachings and example. Regrettably they do and as a consequence Christians have earned the reputation of being dishonest people and hypocrites.

According to Wikipedia—

“The term ‘Golden Rule,’ or ‘Golden law,’ began to be used widely in the early 17th century in Britain by Anglican theologians and preachers. the earliest known usage is that of Anglicans Charles Gibbon and Thomas Jackson in 1604.”

Variations of the Golden Rule, in a positive or negative form appear in a number of religions. They do not convey quite the same meaning as do Matthew 7:12 or Luke 6:31. The latter must be understood within the context of what else Jesus taught and practiced. They can be understood to mean that we chose to behave in a particular manner in hopes that others will reciprocate and behave in the same way. They can also be understood to mean that we treat others in way that we would wish to be treated by them under the best circumstances.

We discern the principle of reciprocity in a number of Jesus’ teachings. If we are unkind or disapproving in our judgment of others, we can expect them to reciprocate and be unkind or disapproving in their judgment of us. If we are not forgiving toward others, God may reciprocate and not be forgiving toward us.

At the same time Jesus puts limits on the situations in which we reciprocate what someone else does. If someone slaps one cheek, we are not to slap him back but turn the other cheek. We are not to return evil for evil, or curses for curses. Rather we are to do good when others do evil to us and bless when others curse us.

It is in this particular regard that the Golden Rule as Jesus uses in his teachings differs from its variations in other religions. We treat others in a way that we would wish them to treat us but with no expectation that they will treat us in the same fashion. We treat them as we would like to be treated if we were in their place. While Jesus may appear to be appealing to self-interest, what he is telling us to do is act toward others in a kind and generous way although we may not get anything by acting this way toward them. We imagine how we would ourselves would like to be treated in their situation and treat them that way. We give thought to their feelings.

Jesus recognized what motivates people. In his dealings with them, he will begin with these motivations, but he works with the intention of causing a shift in their attitudes and beliefs and subsequently their behavior. If we want others to treat us with kindness, we should treat them with kindness. Our kindness may rub off on them. On the other hand, they may not return the kindness. In any case we keep treating them with kindness.

If we do not want someone to speak to us, we may ignore them and even avoid them. We, however, are not acting in the spirit of the Golden Rule as understood in the context of Jesus’ teachings and example.

The passage from the Prayer Book catechism mirrors that spirit. “To hurt nobody by word nor deed: To be true and just in all my dealing: To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart: To keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering: To keep my body in temperance, soberness, and chastity….”

So do the first two of John Wesley’s General Rules. The first rule is “…doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced…” The second rule is “…doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men…” These two rules are often simplified as do no harm and do good. In their simplified form, while they are easier to remember, they do not quite convey what Wesley had in mind.

If we ignore someone and avoid them, we are hurting them by our actions and we are doing them harm. Under extenuating circumstances, it might be allowable. However, in most cases it is not appropriate or acceptable.

Implicit in the Golden Rule is that how we act toward someone, while it may be the way that we wish them to treat us, will not hurt them or be harmful to them. Deliberately ignoring someone, refusing to speak to them or otherwise acknowledge their presence, and staying away from them, can cause injury to that person psychological and emotionally. It can also damage them socially. Others may observe us ignoring them and avoiding them and may do the same thing.

Living by the Golden Rule does require being self-aware and recognizing how our words and actions may affect others, even in unintended ways. It also requires being sensitive to the boundaries of others.

The Prayer Book catechism links doing to others what we would have done to us with loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Wesley’s first General Rule links not doing to others what we would have done to us with the various kinds of evil, which are generally practiced. These associations are ones that we do well to keep in mind.

If we do to others as we would like them to do to us in the spirit with which it was intended, we will treat others with caring, compassion, consideration of their feelings, courtesy, fairness, forgiveness, friendliness, generosity, gentleness, helpfulness, kindness, neighborliness, open-handedness, patience, respect, sympathy, thoughtfulness, trust, and truthfulness. These are the ways, I believe, that we all would like to be treated. This list is not exhaustive.

When we treat others in this way, we are loving others as we love ourselves and in loving them, we are loving God.

Something that we may like to do throughout the season of Easter and beyond is to mediate on each of these qualities in turn, imagining what it would be like to be more caring to others, more compassionate to them, and so on, and then putting into practice what we have imagined. We can ask God to fire our imaginations and to give us the will and the power to live the mental image or idea that we have formed in our minds.

This is one way we can learn to be more deliberate in treating others as we would like to be treated and making our treatment of them in accordance with this principle second nature to ourselves so that we do it easily without thinking much about it. It is also one of the ways that we let God transform us into a new person by changing the way we think. It is one of the ways that we become more like Jesus—our teacher, Lord, and friend.

Silence

Opens this link in a new tab to hear Carl P. Daw, Jr.’s paraphrase of the Magnificat, “My Soul Proclaims with Wonder.”

My soul proclaims with wonder
the greatness of the Lord;
rejoicing in God's goodness,
my spirit is restored.

1 To me God has shown favor,
to one the world though frail;
and every age will echo
the angel's first "All hail."

My soul proclaims with wonder
the greatness of the Lord;
rejoicing in God's goodness,
my spirit is restored.

2 God's mercy shields the faithful
and saves them from defeat
with strength that turns to scatter
the proud in their conceit.

My soul proclaims with wonder
the greatness of the Lord;
rejoicing in God's goodness,
my spirit is restored.

3 The mighty have been vanquished;
the lowly lifted up.
The hungry find abundance;
the rich, an empty cup.

My soul proclaims with wonder
the greatness of the Lord;
rejoicing in God's goodness,
my spirit is restored.

4 To Abraham's descendants
the Lord will steadfast prove,
for God has made with Israel
a covenant of love.

My soul proclaims with wonder
the greatness of the Lord;
rejoicing in God's goodness,
my spirit is restored.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his 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 into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father
almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
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 MINISTRY OF PRAYER

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

Let us pray.

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

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,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

Lord, show us your mercy,
and grant us your salvation.
Keep our nation under your care,
and guide us in justice and truth.
Clothe your ministers with righteousness,
and make your chosen people joyful.
Lord, save your people,
and bless your inheritance.
Give peace in our time, O Lord,
for you are our help and strength.
Create in us dean hearts, O God,
and renew us by your Holy Spirit.

Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly
beloved Son Jesus Christ and. opened to us the gate of everlasting
life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that
by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.

Eternal God, from whom all holy desires, all good purposes,
and all just works proceed: give to your servants that peace
which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to
obey your commandments, and that free from the fear of our
enemies we may pass our time in trust and quietness;
through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen.

Lighten our darkness, Lord, we pray: and in your great
mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;
for the love of your only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Opens this link in a new tab to hear Kevin Siegfried’s arrangement of Sister Polly M. Rupe’s “Gentle Words.”

What the dew is to the flower,
gentle words are to the soul,
and a blessing to the giver,
and so dear to the receiver
we should never withhold.

What the dew is to the flower,
gentle words are to the soul,
and a blessing to the giver,
and so dear to the receiver
we should never withhold.

Gentle words, kindly spoken,
often soothe the troubled mind,
while links of love are broken
by words that are unkind.

Then O, thou gentle spirit,
my constant Guardian be,
"Do to others," be my motto,
"as I'd have them do to me."

What the dew is to the flower,
gentle words are to the soul,
and a blessing to the giver,
and so dear to the receiver
we should never withhold.

Gentle words, kindly spoken,
often soothe the troubled mind,
while links of love are broken
by words that are unkind.

Then O, thou gentle spirit,
my constant Guardian be,
"Do to others," be my motto,
"as I'd have them do to me."

Gentle words, kindly spoken,
often soothe the troubled mind,
while links of love are broken
by words that are unkind.

Then O, thou gentle spirit,
my constant Guardian be,
"Do to others," be my motto,
"as I'd have them do to me."

Silence is kept.

Those present may offer their own prayers and thanksgivings, either silently or aloud.

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.

Open a link in a new tab to hear Lori True’s evening hymn, “Let Evening Fall.”

1 Let evening fall gently around us.
Christ’s love surrounds us, warmth through the night.
Love laid before us, hopes and dreams too.
Prayer now upholds us closer to you.

2 Let evening fall gently within us,
Now sacred silence brings us to you.
Put to rest chaos, crying and pain,
Gently sustain us, speaking our name.

[Instrumental interlude]

3 Let evening fall gently upon us.
Sunlight has faded, day’s work is done.
Now you protect us, held in your sight
In holy darkness till morning’s light.

THE SENDING FORTH OF GOD’S PEOPLE

The Lord be with you.
And also with you
Let us praise the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Open this link in a new tab to hear St. Aidan’s Community’s “The Grace” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God our Father,
and the fellowship, the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with us
for evermore and evermore and evermore. Amen.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God our Father,
and the fellowship, the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with us 

for evermore and evermore and evermore. Amen.