Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (July 23, 2026)
Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows.
This evening’s variable psalm is a metrical version of Psalm 34, “Tell His Praise in Song and Story,” written by the late Bishop Timothy Dudley Smith, one of the most prolific hymn writers of the Church of England in recent years. The tune is ABBOT’S LEIGH, composed by Cyril Taylor and named after the village and civil parish of Abbot’s Leigh in North Somerset, England, about 3 miles west of the centre of Bristol. If you are not familiar with the tune, read the lyrics as you would a prayer rather than attempt to sing them. You may wish to play the accompaniment softly in the background.
The topic of this evening’s message is miracles.
GATHER IN GOD’S NAME
Open this link in a new tab to hear Timothy Seaman’s arrangement of the Appalachian folk hymn tune LANCASTER for hammered dulcimer.
Silence
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth
stand in awe of him. Psalm 96:9
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 Christopher Idle’s “Light of Gladness, Lord of Glory.”
1 Light of gladness, Lord of glory,
Jesus Christ our king most holy,
shine among us in your mercy:
earth and heaven join their hymn.
2 Let us sing at sun's descending
as we see the lights of evening,
Father, Son, and Spirit praising
with the holy seraphim.
3 Son of God, through all the ages
worthy of our holiest praises,
yours the life that never ceases,
light which never shall grow dim.
Open this link in a new tab to hear Noel Rawsthorne’s arrangement of Timothy Dudley Smith’s “Tell His Praise in Song and Story” (Psalm 34).
Organ accompaniment. No vocals.
1 Tell His praise in song and story,
Bless the LORD with heart and voice;
In my God is all my glory,
Come before Him and rejoice.
Join to praise His name together,
He who hears His people’s cry;
Tell His praise, come wind or weather,
Shining faces lifted high.
2 To the LORD whose love has found them
Cry the poor in their distress;
Swift His angels, camped around them,
Prove Him sure to save and bless;
God it is who hears our crying
Though the spark of faith be dim;
Taste and see! Beyond denying,
Blest are those who trust in Him.
3 Taste and see! In faith draw near Him,
Trust the LORD with all your pow’rs;
Seek and serve Him, love and fear Him;
Life and all its joys are ours:
True delight in holy living,
Peace and plenty, length of days.
Come, my children, with thanksgiving
Bless the LORD in songs of praise.
4 In our need He walks beside us,
Ears alert to every cry,
Watchful eyes to guard and guide us,
Love that whispers, “It is I.”
Good shall triumph, wrong be righted,
God has pledged His promised word;
So with ransomed saints united,
Join to praise our living Lord!
Silence
Send your holy angels to watch over us,
O loving God,
that on our lips will be found your truth
and in our hearts your love;
for his sake who died for love of our love,
even Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD
A reading from the First Book of Kings.
1 Kings 17: 8-16
Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have instructed a widow there to supply you with food.’ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, ‘Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?’ As she was going to get it, he called, ‘And bring me, please, a piece of bread.’
‘As surely as the Lord your God lives,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die.’
Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.”’
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.
Silence
Opens this link in a new tab to hear Timothy Dudley Smith’s “Tell Out, My Soul” (Magnificat).
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 the 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 forevermore!
A reading from the Gospel according to Mark.
Mark 8: 1-10a
During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.’
His disciples answered, ‘But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?’
‘How many loaves do you have?’ Jesus asked.
‘Seven,’ they replied.
He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterwards the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand were present. After he had sent them away, he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.
Silence
Open this link in a new tab to hear Timothy Dudley Smith’s "Faithful Vigil Ended" (Nunc dimittis).
1 Faithful vigil ended,
watching, waiting cease
Master, grant your servant
his discharge in peace.
2 All the Spirit promised,
all the Father willed
now these eyes behold it
perfectly fulfilled.
3 This your great deliverance
sets your people free
Christ their light uplifted
all the nations see.
4 Christ, your people's glory!
Watching, doubting cease
grant to us your servants
our discharge in peace.
Miracles
The Cambridge Dictionary lists as one of its definitions of a miracle “an unusual and mysterious event that is thought to have been caused by God.” It is an event which typically does not follow what are described as “the laws of nature,” the theoretical human understanding of how things work. They are theoretical because the more we study what we believe is the natural order of things, the more we realize how much we do not know or understand. Even Artificial Intelligence cannot help us. It can only process the information that we give it.
This evening’s Old Testament reading and New Testament reading are the biblical accounts of two miracles, the first account from the First Book of Kings and the second account from the Gospel according to Mark. Pastors and theologians of a modernist mindset are characteristically skeptical of supernatural explanations of such events and are apt to dismiss them as myths or to offer naturalistic explanations of what happened. We may have been influenced by their thinking.
This evening let us follow a recommendation which the late Sam Shoemaker, a 20th century Episcopal priest, evangelist, and cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, made to university students reading the Bible for the first time. His recommendation was they suspend their disbelief and consider what they read as having actually happened as it was written in Bible. Let us consider what is first notable about these accounts and then what they reveal about God’s character.
What is notable about these two miracle accounts and other such accounts in the Bible is their stickiness. Like the parables of Jesus, they stick in your mind. They are memorable. They also serve as evidence of God’s character. As the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” They are demonstrations of the particular combination of qualities in God that make God different from the other gods of the ancient world, the idols that ancient peoples worshipped and the rulers who declared themselves gods and demanded their people’s worship.
The Old Testament reading is an account of how God miraculously fed the prophet Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and her son for an unspecified number of days with a handful of flour and a little oil, all the ingredients for bread that the widow had left. When the widow encountered the prophet, she was gathering sticks to make a fire and to prepare one last meal for her son and herself. She was expecting to starve to death after that as drought and famine gripped the land. However, she believed Elijah and did what he instructed. God replaced the flour in her jar and the oil in her jug, feeding the three of them until the rains came and the drought ended. Note how God sends Elijah to a widow who is on the verge of starvation. She is in dire straits.
Widows in ancient times were forced to fend for themselves the best that they could if they had no kin willing to provide for them. Younger widows might remarry but older widows did not have that option. Older widows often lived a hand to mouth existence.
The Mosaic Code did make some provision for widows. Farmers were enjoined not to harvest their barley and wheat fields to the corners, something farmers in my region of Kentucky still do to this day, and the poor, including widows, were permitted to glean the fields for the ripened grain in the corners as well as any ripened grain that had fallen to the ground during the harvest. During a drought, however, crops failed and grain stores ran low. Things were really bad when a farmer and his family had nothing to eat but the seeds that they set aside for next year’s planting.
God sends Elijah to a widow who has barely enough flour and oil for one last meal for her son and herself. There must have been other widows in similar circumstances. Why this particular widow? What stands out in the account of what happened is that the widow believed Elijah and followed his instructions. She did not know Elijah. Elijah could have been deceiving her, trying to trick her into giving him her last morsel of food. She chose to trust him and to trust that what he was telling her was indeed from God. She took a risk but taking that risk turned out to be the right thing to do. What Elijah told her was indeed true.
The widow understood God to be both faithful and merciful. God did what he had promised through Elijah and confirmed that the widow was right in her understanding of God’s character. The Bible does not tell us what happened to the widow of Zarephath and her son after Elijah went his way. They disappear from the narrative. We are left to reflect on the widow’s faith and the faithfulness and mercifulness that God showed her and her son.
The New Testament reading is an account of how Jesus, moved by compassion, miraculously feeds a crowd of about four thousand with seven loaves of bread and several fish. On a previous occasion he miraculously fed a crowd of five thousand, not counting women and children. These miracles are a reminder of God’s faithfulness and mercifulness. In his Gospel John tells us that when Phillip asked Jesus to show him and the other disciples the Father, Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-21). In so many words God has revealed himself in Jesus and the qualities of character Jesus exhibited are God’s. In his miracles Jesus displays the faithfulness and mercifulness of God.
Do miracles still occur today? Put another way, do events occur for which the only explanation for them is God’s doing? I believe so. More than two decades ago I was a participant in a weeknight Bible study group that met in the home of a couple who were also participants. One of the other participants was diagnosed with a lump on her thyroid and was scheduled to undergo surgery the next day. We laid hands on her and prayed over her. At our next meeting she reported that when she was X-rayed before the surgery, the lump was gone! This is not the only kind of miracle that we may encounter today. God will work through individuals and groups in ways that can be described as miraculous. I recall listening to a radio interview with an elderly gentleman, a resident of New Orleans and a member of the city’s Black community, who had raised an amazingly large sum of money for toys for poor children for Christmas. He took no credit for raising the money but attributed it to God’s doing.
Do I personally believe in miracles? My answer is emphatically yes! I have survived two serious automobile wrecks. I swerved to avoid what I thought was a human being or animal in the highway, flipped my car, and rolled over and over down a steep embankment. I was hit head on by another car whose driver was digging between the front seats for cigarette lighter and drifted into my lane. I was the victim of physical assault by an assailant who masqueraded as a local constable with a borrowed police light bar and pulled me off the road late at night. When I rolled down the window, whoever stopped me struck me in the face and knocked me unconscious. When I regained conscience, I was slumped over my steering wheel covered with blood. The assailant stood well back in the darkness so I could not see his face. The suspected assailant was someone who was known for his impulsive violent temper and who blamed me without cause for a scolding a local woman gave him for harming her reputation by spreading rumors about her. Neither he nor I were the guilty party, but we all had the same last name, and I was the only other person whom he knew with same last name. According to the woman, he swore to get even with me for making trouble for him. I was also present when an armed robber entered the restaurant where I was eating and robbed the cashier. I was the only customer in the restaurant at that time.
Miracles do happen. We may be so distracted by what else is happening in the world that we do not notice them. Or we do not recognize them for what they are. We may ignore the small miracles that happen every day because they do fit what we expect a miracle to be. They are not big enough, unusual enough, mysterious enough.
The former coordinator of my church’s food distribution ministry tells this story. It is true story. Funds for her ministry were running low while the number of families needing emergency food assistance was growing. She prayed to God about the situation. Not long afterwards she received a large donation to the ministry. She had not talked to anybody other than God. Coincidence? God-incidence? A miracle? What do you think?
Silence
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
And 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.
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
Graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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.
Open this link in a new tab to hear William Cowper’s "God Moves in a Mysterious Way."
1 God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
2 Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.
3 Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
4 Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
5 His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
6 Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
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 this link to hear James Quinn’s “Day Is Done.”
1 Day is done, but love unfailing
Dwells ever here;
Shadows fall, but hope prevailing,
Calms ev'ry fear.
Loving Father, none forsaking,
Take our hearts, of love's own making,
Watch our sleeping, guard our waking,
Be always near.
2 Dark descends, but light unending
Shines through our night;
You are with us, ever lending
New strength to sight:
One in love, your truth confessing,
One in hope of heaven's blessing,
May we see, in love's possessing,
Love's endless light!
3 Eyes will close, but you, unsleeping,
Watch by our side;
Death may come, in love's safekeeping
Still we abide.
God of love, all evil quelling,
Sin forgiving, fear dispelling,
Stay with us, our hearts indwelling,
This eventide.
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 John A. Behnke’s “Benediction.”
The Lord bless you
The Lord keep you
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
And be gracious
And be gracious
The Lord look upon you with favor
And give you peace.
The Lord bless you
The Lord keep you
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
And be gracious
And be gracious
The Lord look upon you with favor
And give you peace.
Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen.
What is notable about these two miracle accounts and other such accounts in the Bible is their stickiness. Like the parables of Jesus, they stick in your mind. They are memorable. They also serve as evidence of God’s character. As the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” They are demonstrations of the particular combination of qualities in God that make God different from the other gods of the ancient world, the idols that ancient peoples worshipped and the rulers who declared themselves gods and demanded their people’s worship.
The Old Testament reading is an account of how God miraculously fed the prophet Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and her son for an unspecified number of days with a handful of flour and a little oil, all the ingredients for bread that the widow had left. When the widow encountered the prophet, she was gathering sticks to make a fire and to prepare one last meal for her son and herself. She was expecting to starve to death after that as drought and famine gripped the land. However, she believed Elijah and did what he instructed. God replaced the flour in her jar and the oil in her jug, feeding the three of them until the rains came and the drought ended. Note how God sends Elijah to a widow who is on the verge of starvation. She is in dire straits.
Widows in ancient times were forced to fend for themselves the best that they could if they had no kin willing to provide for them. Younger widows might remarry but older widows did not have that option. Older widows often lived a hand to mouth existence.
The Mosaic Code did make some provision for widows. Farmers were enjoined not to harvest their barley and wheat fields to the corners, something farmers in my region of Kentucky still do to this day, and the poor, including widows, were permitted to glean the fields for the ripened grain in the corners as well as any ripened grain that had fallen to the ground during the harvest. During a drought, however, crops failed and grain stores ran low. Things were really bad when a farmer and his family had nothing to eat but the seeds that they set aside for next year’s planting.
God sends Elijah to a widow who has barely enough flour and oil for one last meal for her son and herself. There must have been other widows in similar circumstances. Why this particular widow? What stands out in the account of what happened is that the widow believed Elijah and followed his instructions. She did not know Elijah. Elijah could have been deceiving her, trying to trick her into giving him her last morsel of food. She chose to trust him and to trust that what he was telling her was indeed from God. She took a risk but taking that risk turned out to be the right thing to do. What Elijah told her was indeed true.
The widow understood God to be both faithful and merciful. God did what he had promised through Elijah and confirmed that the widow was right in her understanding of God’s character. The Bible does not tell us what happened to the widow of Zarephath and her son after Elijah went his way. They disappear from the narrative. We are left to reflect on the widow’s faith and the faithfulness and mercifulness that God showed her and her son.
The New Testament reading is an account of how Jesus, moved by compassion, miraculously feeds a crowd of about four thousand with seven loaves of bread and several fish. On a previous occasion he miraculously fed a crowd of five thousand, not counting women and children. These miracles are a reminder of God’s faithfulness and mercifulness. In his Gospel John tells us that when Phillip asked Jesus to show him and the other disciples the Father, Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-21). In so many words God has revealed himself in Jesus and the qualities of character Jesus exhibited are God’s. In his miracles Jesus displays the faithfulness and mercifulness of God.
Do miracles still occur today? Put another way, do events occur for which the only explanation for them is God’s doing? I believe so. More than two decades ago I was a participant in a weeknight Bible study group that met in the home of a couple who were also participants. One of the other participants was diagnosed with a lump on her thyroid and was scheduled to undergo surgery the next day. We laid hands on her and prayed over her. At our next meeting she reported that when she was X-rayed before the surgery, the lump was gone! This is not the only kind of miracle that we may encounter today. God will work through individuals and groups in ways that can be described as miraculous. I recall listening to a radio interview with an elderly gentleman, a resident of New Orleans and a member of the city’s Black community, who had raised an amazingly large sum of money for toys for poor children for Christmas. He took no credit for raising the money but attributed it to God’s doing.
Do I personally believe in miracles? My answer is emphatically yes! I have survived two serious automobile wrecks. I swerved to avoid what I thought was a human being or animal in the highway, flipped my car, and rolled over and over down a steep embankment. I was hit head on by another car whose driver was digging between the front seats for cigarette lighter and drifted into my lane. I was the victim of physical assault by an assailant who masqueraded as a local constable with a borrowed police light bar and pulled me off the road late at night. When I rolled down the window, whoever stopped me struck me in the face and knocked me unconscious. When I regained conscience, I was slumped over my steering wheel covered with blood. The assailant stood well back in the darkness so I could not see his face. The suspected assailant was someone who was known for his impulsive violent temper and who blamed me without cause for a scolding a local woman gave him for harming her reputation by spreading rumors about her. Neither he nor I were the guilty party, but we all had the same last name, and I was the only other person whom he knew with same last name. According to the woman, he swore to get even with me for making trouble for him. I was also present when an armed robber entered the restaurant where I was eating and robbed the cashier. I was the only customer in the restaurant at that time.
Miracles do happen. We may be so distracted by what else is happening in the world that we do not notice them. Or we do not recognize them for what they are. We may ignore the small miracles that happen every day because they do fit what we expect a miracle to be. They are not big enough, unusual enough, mysterious enough.
The former coordinator of my church’s food distribution ministry tells this story. It is true story. Funds for her ministry were running low while the number of families needing emergency food assistance was growing. She prayed to God about the situation. Not long afterwards she received a large donation to the ministry. She had not talked to anybody other than God. Coincidence? God-incidence? A miracle? What do you think?
Silence
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
And 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.
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
Graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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.
Open this link in a new tab to hear William Cowper’s "God Moves in a Mysterious Way."
1 God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
2 Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.
3 Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
4 Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
5 His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
6 Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
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 this link to hear James Quinn’s “Day Is Done.”
1 Day is done, but love unfailing
Dwells ever here;
Shadows fall, but hope prevailing,
Calms ev'ry fear.
Loving Father, none forsaking,
Take our hearts, of love's own making,
Watch our sleeping, guard our waking,
Be always near.
2 Dark descends, but light unending
Shines through our night;
You are with us, ever lending
New strength to sight:
One in love, your truth confessing,
One in hope of heaven's blessing,
May we see, in love's possessing,
Love's endless light!
3 Eyes will close, but you, unsleeping,
Watch by our side;
Death may come, in love's safekeeping
Still we abide.
God of love, all evil quelling,
Sin forgiving, fear dispelling,
Stay with us, our hearts indwelling,
This eventide.
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 John A. Behnke’s “Benediction.”
The Lord bless you
The Lord keep you
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
And be gracious
And be gracious
The Lord look upon you with favor
And give you peace.
The Lord bless you
The Lord keep you
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
And be gracious
And be gracious
The Lord look upon you with favor
And give you peace.
Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen.
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