Evening Prayer at the End of a Troubled Year

Evening Prayer at the End of a Troubled Year

 

Opening

Officiant:      Be still and know that I am God.

People:          Be still and know that I am God.

Officiant:      Be still and know that I am

People:          Be still and know that I am

Officiant:      Be still and know

People:          Be still and know

Officiant:      Be still

People:          Be still

Officiant:      Be

People:          Be

People of God, we come to this service of Evening Prayer at the end of a long, troubled year. It has been a year of sickness, a year of strife at our polling places, in our streets and conflict within our families and friendships. We have endured a year of natural disasters which have beset a world thus far unwilling to deal with its own behaviors in the causing of climate change. We have arrived at the end of this troubled year tired, bruised, frightened and angry. And we watch in no small amount of apprehension as a new year approaches.

But we are a people of faith. We are a people of hope. We place our trust in a God who is always present with us in all things. And so we come to this time of prayer tonight to give thanks for that loving presence as the light begins to return to our darkened world.

May we be mindful of the difficulties of this year which is passing as we pray this night. Let us remember those we have lost, the struggles we have lived through, the dreams left unrealized. Let us mourn our losses and lick our wounds. And then may we let go of this troubled year, leaving it at the foot of the altar of God and beginning anew with the coming of a new year.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we give you thanks for surrounding us, as daylight fades, with the brightness of the vesper light; and we implore you of your great mercy that, as you enfold us with the radiance of this light, so you would shine into our hearts the brightness of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Invitatory and Psalter

 

Officiant:       O God, make speed to save us.

People:          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.

 

[Here the candles of the Christmas Season are lit]

O Gracious Light    Phos hilaron

O gracious light,

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

 Now as we come to the setting of the sun,

and our eyes behold the vesper light,

we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of Life,

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

 

 The Lessons

 Psalm 34, Benedicam Dominum

 1 I will bless the Lord at all times; *

his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

2 I will glory in the Lord; *

            let the humble hear and rejoice.

3 Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; *

            let us exalt his Name together.

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me *

            and delivered me out of all my terror.

5 Look upon him and be radiant, *

            and let not your faces be ashamed.

 6 I called in my affliction and the Lord heard me *

            and saved me from all my troubles.

7 The angel of the Lord encompasses those who fear him, *

            and he will deliver them.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; *

            happy are they who trust in him!

9 Fear the Lord, you that are his saints, *

            for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger, *

            but those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good.

11 Come, children, and listen to me; *

            I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

12 Who among you loves life *

            and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?

13 Keep your tongue from evil-speaking *

            and your lips from lying words.

14 Turn from evil and do good; *

            seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, *

            and his ears are open to their cry.

16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, *

            to root out the remembrance of them from the earth.

17 The righteous cry, and the Lord hears them *

            and delivers them from all their troubles.

18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted *

            and will save those whose spirits are crushed.

19 Many are the troubles of the righteous, *

            but the Lord will deliver him out of them all.

20 He will keep safe all his bones; *

            not one of them shall be broken.

21 Evil shall slay the wicked, *

            and those who hate the righteous will be punished.

22 The Lord ransoms the life of his servants, *

            and none will be punished who trust in him.

 

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

 

Matthew 1:18-25

 

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22 All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23  ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’ 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

 

Officiant:      The Word of the Lord.

People:          Thanks be to God.

 

Response

 

Magnificat, The Song of Mary      Luke 1:46-55

 My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;*

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:*

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him*

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,*

he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,*

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,*

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel,*

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

The promise he made to our fathers,*

to Abraham and his children for ever.

 

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. 

 

Meditation: Letting Go

 

Brothers and Sisters, I now invite us to consider the year that has passed. May we remember first the joys we have experienced, the accomplishments we have achieved, the milestones we have passed. Let us be grateful for those moments when all seemed right with our world.

 

Silence

 

Now let us acknowledge the hardships. Let us hold those memories in our consciousness for just a moment without repressing them from our minds. May we acknowledge the suffering of this very trying year even as we remember that God was present with us through all those challenging moments.  And may we give thanks that we have made it through, painful as it might have been, grateful for our passage through troubled times.

 

Silence

 

Now let us gather up the pains, the fears and the anger in our hearts and the troubled memories stored in our minds that we may let go of them.  This past year is over. The future is not yet in our hands. Only the present remains available to us. So let us hold out our hands, unclenching them to release all the suffering they have held this year. And as we extend our now empty hands out to God, may they be filled with the work we have been given to do in the coming year and the assurance of God’s loving presence.

 

Silence

 

For the year just completed and for the year about to begin, let us give thanks to God. Amen.

 

 The Prayers

 

Litany for the End of the Year  

 

God, with your help we have come here,

To the end of another year,

Some bearing smiles,

Others bearing scars.

We reflect upon your goodness now

Your constant Presence,

Your unfailing love,

Your kind regard.

You offer peace.

We accept.

You offer nearness.

We accept.

You offer a new life.

We accept.

You offer transformed hearts.

We accept.

Heal us where we are wounded.

Sort us where we are confused.

Sweeten us where we are bitter.

Open us where we are shut-down.

For all the ways you’ve revolutionized our hearts and minds this year

We give thanks.

For the improvements to our character,

We give thanks.

For challenges tackled and trials endured,

We give thanks.

For disappointments that have re-oriented us,

We give thanks.

For pain that has disciplined us,

We give thanks.

For love that has soothed us,

We give thanks.

For the light of Christ, whose life has illumined the path of peace,

We give thanks.

Amen

 

[Litany for End-of-year Reflection, Fran Pratt, 2016)

http://www.franpratt.com/litanies/2016/12/28/litany-for-end-of-year-reflection

 

Prayers for a New Year

 

O God, our lives are made of days and nights, of seasons and years,

for we are part of a universe of suns and moons and planets.

We mark ends and we make beginnings and, in all,

we praise you for your grace and mercy that fill our days.

 

Remember us, 0 God;

who from age to age have been our comforter.

 

You have given us the wonder of time,

blessings in days and nights, seasons and years.

Bless all your children at the turning of the year

and fill the months ahead with the bright hope

that is ours in the coming of the Christ child,

light coming into a darkened world.

 

For you are our God, living and reigning, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

[Prayer for Blessing of a New Year, Catholic Culture]

 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=971

  

A Prayer of St. Chrysostom

 Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

 

Benediction

 

Officiant:       Let us bless the Lord.

 People:          Thanks be to God.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, [+] and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.

[2 Corinthians 13:14]

 

 

Notes:

 

The service in which this liturgy was used can be found at this site:

 

https://www.facebook.com/StRichardsWinterPark/videos/204073614759498

 

Most content used herein came from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. The portions added to this service are offered with gratitude and attributions of sources. This liturgy is freely offered to the public for use in communal worship and  individual prayer.

 

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Harry Scott Coverston

Orlando, Florida

 frharry@cfl.rr.com

hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

   © Harry Coverston, 2020

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Conjunction: Light Comes to a Darkened World

 

We were seeking a place away from the omnipresent light pollution that we take for granted living in the heart of a city of 2.5 million. The map app promised us an isolated location, Leroy Watkins Park on the St. John’s River. I’d been by there many times enroute to or from the coast but never entered the park.

Upon arrival, we saw there were no lights for as far as one could see. Perfect.

 

We walked down the boardwalk which ended at the south bank of the St. Johns. From there we had a perfect view of the horizon as well as the river which meanders and splits into several smaller branches as it crosses this marshland in the heart of our state.

 

One of the few rivers in the northern hemisphere to flow north (much like the Nile which is on the same latitude), by the time the St. Johns reaches Jacksonville, it will be much more impressive and more than a mile wide. .  

 

 

Across the river a herd of cattle were grazing. Sloshing through mud to eat the grass and aquatic plants along the river’s edge, the black Angus and red Hereford cows would periodically moo to remind the human animals across the river that we weren’t the only ones here. They were accompanied by herons whose periodic shrieks pierced the air and flocks of chattering birds overhead. 

 It was a joyous evensong announcing that this shortest day of the year was nearly over. Light was returning to this darkened world.

We had come to see the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the famed Christmas Star. Rumor had it that perhaps a previous such convening of these planets had occurred at the time of Jesus’ birth some 2020 years ago. Was it true? Who knows. At any rate, the conjunction was worth seeing. And it would be a long wait. But we were not disappointed.

   

About a half hour after sunset, as promised, on the horizon the two planets appeared, Jupiter the larger and brighter body, Saturn smaller and a bit dimmer set off to the top right. The planets were visibly separate but nearly conjoined in perspective, just above the topmost line of clouds shrouding the horizon. In the midst of a crystal blue background, their tiny point of light was unmistakable.

 It was breathtaking.

By now there were four of us sharing the boardwalk, most of us masked, all preserving safe distancing. It was a self-selected audience enjoying a command performance.

As we stood in reverie, talking with the woman who had come equipped with telescope and camera, the first wave of mosquitoes arrived. Noisily buzzing in our ears, we bobbed and wove amidst a phalanx of hungry insects for about ten minutes.

Shortly thereafter, the second wave arrived. Clear indication that it was time to go.

 

We would return to our light filled, noisy city with happy hearts. We had shared in an astronomical experience seen by our fellow human beings round the world this night. We had recaptured a scene from history that wouldn’t be available again to our fellow human beings for another 800 years.

Upon our arrival, I lit the four Advent candles on our front porch. It was a gesture from my Celtic soul in part to offer gratitude for a beautiful evening and in part to welcome the new solar year on this Feast Day of Yule, light returning to a darkened world.

It had not been an easy trip. We had been required to leave for the park right at rush hour. And my bare legs came home with more than a few mosquito bites. But in the end, it was well worth the trouble. For we had experienced something truly wonderful this night. My soul had come home singing. And for that I grateful.   

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Harry Scott Coverston

Orlando, Florida

 frharry@cfl.rr.com

hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

   © Harry Coverston, 2020

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A Voice in the Wilderness

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord….”

 

Today is the second Sunday of the season of Advent. Advent is the beginning of our church year. So it is fitting that we begin our annual reading of the lectionary, the ordered set of lessons we read each Sunday, with a reading from the Gospel of Mark.

 

Mark was the first of the four gospels to be transcribed from oral tradition, probably sometime around 70 CE. That is the time frame in which the Romans were busy destroying the Jewish Temple, driving all Judeans from Jerusalem. There is a sense of urgency in Mark that may well reflect the fear of its authors that the people who carried the stories about Jesus in their memories were rapidly being dispersed or killed. If these stories were not preserved in writing now, they would be lost.

Mark is the briefest of the four gospels, the most likely to be historical and the least overtly theological. The next two gospels, Matthew and Luke, will build on Mark’s beginning. They will add both the virgin birth accounts at their beginnings and their resurrection accounts will be added to Mark’s account which ends in an empty tomb. Mark’s gospel presents us with a bare bones account of Jesus that begins with this simple assertion: 

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

 It is particularly important to note where this account of Jesus’ life begins - in the wilderness. Its setting is the shores of the Jordan River where a wild-looking man who is harshly critical of his own Hebrew tradition has drawn hordes of people to the desert to hear him. 

Here he leads them in a ritual adopted from Jewish practice that involves a literal washing of their bodies as a sign of their willingness to repent of their sins. Their immersion into and reemergence out of the muddy waters of the Jordan will signify their rebirth, new life and new beginnings.  Among those who have been drawn from their daily lives to come to the desert to hear this wild man clothed in camel hide, subsisting only on a diet of insects and honey, is one Jesus of Nazareth. 

 

Prophet Isaiah, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel

The writers of Mark’s Gospel were very intentional in their use of Hebrew Scripture to describe this event. Isaiah is the favorite literary inkpot of Hebrew Scripture that Gospel writers will dip into to create their portrayals of Jesus. The words of Isaiah are put into the mouth of the Baptizer here who becomes the “voice crying out in the wilderness.” This has been literally taken from the third set of writings that compose this book of Isaiah, passages that scholars believe probably were written after the return of the Hebrew people from captivity in Babylon.

 There are several themes in the writings of this Third Isaiah that we should note in today’s lessons beginning with words designed to console a people who have endured tragedy. 

“Comfort, comfort, ye my people…” 

These words will eventually be immortalized in the masterful works of Handel’s Messiah. If you are like me, you probably have a hard time even reading these words from Isaiah without hearing that beautiful rendition.

 

James Tissot, Flight of the Prisoners (1902)

Isaiah’s comfortable words continue with a message that the Hebrew people are to be given a reprieve from their failings as a nation that resulted in the fall of Judea and their subsequent captivity:

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid….

 

Clearly, better times are coming for a people who have languished 7 decades in exile. These words are intended for a people returning from captivity to rebuild their land. But the prophet is clear that whatever good is to come for them, the people must recognize the major role that G_d is playing in this event.

 

“[S]urely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.”

 

The restoration of Israel will require a responsible people to rebuild their nation from the ruins. But they must never forget their need for G-d’s presence in their lives in doing so.  

 

 

 

In our gospel lesson, John the Baptizer is clear in offering his ritual baptism to his disciples that their willingness to repent, to rethink their lives, change their attitudes and behaviors, is but the first step. They, too, will need G-d’s empowering presence. And on this first day of Jesus’ life recorded by the first of the Gospels, that help comes in the person of Jesus himself. As John the Baptizer tells them, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.... I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 

The themes of today’s lessons are powerful:         

• the wilderness
•  the prophetic voice which cries out
•  the consolation of suffering people       
• the need to reflect upon and reconsider life paths
• the calling to rebuild from the ruins
• the need for divine guidance

 If those themes sound familiar, they should. All we have to do is look around ourselves to see that these themes readily apply to our own lives here and now. Truth be told, this season of Advent could not have come at a more timely moment in our lives together.  

 

If there has ever been a time when the season of Advent with all of these relevant themes was badly needed, it is right now.

Like the Hebrew people to whom Isaiah offered his words of comfort, we come to a new church calendar at the end of what can only be described as a trying year at best, a tribulation on its worst days. We have lost members of our families of birth and families of choice to a pestilence. 

The reactions to the pandemic range from outrage to denial, evidencing the deep polarization of our countrymen and women from one another. We have just lived through a bruising election in which some of the worst behaviors of any in our 200+ year electoral history were exhibited. And we have lived through the increasingly evident results of human caused climate change in a fire season that took no prisoners and a hurricane season that seemed it would never end.

 

We are tired. We are bruised. We are lonely. We are heartbroken. And we all know that there is more tumult to come.

How badly we need this season of Advent.

     

This is a time of waiting and watching, of listening for the voice crying out in the wilderness. It is a time of reflection, reconsideration, and, yes, repentance. And it comes at a time when we, like the Hebrew people, are being called to rebuild our land. We will need to discern the valuable aspects of our lives before COVID that we must preserve as well as those aspects of which we must let go. We must determine those ways of living which bring health and wholeness to all of us, those which no longer serve us and repent of those places where our individual lives and our lives together have simply gone off the tracks altogether.

 As the days grow shorter, we watch with a fervent hope that a new light will soon come into our world. Our prayers will speak of second chances, new hopes, new directions to come in a new year that has just begun. We dare to hope that deep within the womb of the universe, a new reality is waiting to be given birth and we await divine guidance for discerning our roles in that new life together.

 It will come.

 

There will be much to do in a new year whose beginnings are already appearing as the light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. But for now, for these next 20 days of Advent, let us rest and reflect. Let us intentionally and undistractedly be present with the Holy One who seeks to make all things new, beginning with our hearts of stone. For the moment, let us observe some holy silence in our very noisy world, meditating on who we are, who we have been, what we could become and where we need to go. 

 

 Let us remember that it was in the wilderness that G-d forged a people called Israel. And it was the wilderness to which Jesus turned after his baptism at the Jordan to come to grips with the realization of who he was and what he had been called to do. Awareness of the presence of G-d in the wilderness is assured for those who seek it. Indeed, perhaps it is in the wilderness that G-d’s voice can be heard most clearly.

 May the presence of the Holy One be so near to us as to be palpable in these days ahead. May we light candles of hope to dispel the darkness of despair. May the angels hover round us, holding us in their arms. May we cherish the memories of those we have lost even as we grieve their passing. And may we soon once again be able to hold our loved ones in our arms. 

 

 

Blessed Second Week of Advent dear people of G-d. AMEN.

 

A sermon preached on December 6, 2020, the Second Sunday of Advent, 2020, St. Richard’s Episcopal Church, Winter Park, Florida.

The live delivery of this sermon can be seen here beginning at 37:00 minutes into the video. 

https://www.facebook.com/StRichardsWinterPark/videos/392493285529956

 

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Harry Scott Coverston

Orlando, Florida

 frharry@cfl.rr.com

hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

   © Harry Coverston, 2020

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