Trinity 8 - Praying in Light of God's Providence

A Reflection on the Collect (the prayer) for the 8th Sunday after Trinity (Aug 14, 2011)

O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 8:12-17 The Gospel: St. Matthew 7:15-21

After the brief Invocation (O God) we move into the Doctrinal portion of the collect (upon which the following two Petitions are grounded).  We begin with a reference to God’s providence. 

An historical note.  A literal translation of the Latin (as found in the Gelasium Sacramentary and Sarum) would read: “God, whose providence in ordering that which is his own, is not deceived (mistaken).”  Cranmer’s translation in 1549 shortened the clause to “God whose providence is never deceived” (thus dropping the idea of God’s control over events), an omission which Bishop Cosin considered a mistake and thus in 1661 revised the prayer to the form in which we have it today.[1]  The result of Cosin’s revision is that the idea of God’s providential ordering of all things is once again the main idea of the collect. 

What does it mean to say that God’s providence is never-failing?  On the one hand this phrase points to the fact that God’s providence is continually and ceaselessly operative.  He never slumbers or misses a beat.  But in light of the collect’s previous forms, this is probably also an allusion to the goodness of God’s providence.  In other words, even when the circumstances of our lives tempt us to believe that God has either forgotten about us or that he has made a mistake – we are to rest assured that he has not been deceived into misidentifying something bad as being good.  He is incorruptibly good, infinitely wise and cannot make an error.  As Paul tells us, “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Building upon the doctrinal statement just made, in the petitionary portion of the collect we ask two things of God: (1) put away from us all hurtful things and (2) give us those things which are profitable for us.

Put away from us all hurtful things.  This is not a prayer that God would preserve us from every form of pain or suffering.  Such a prayer would be in conflict not only with the teaching of the New Testament – consider, for instance: “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking” (1 Peter 4:1) – but also the witness of the saints through the ages.  Those who live lives which are faithful to Christ (in a world that rejects him) will inevitably experience hardship (1 Peter 4:12-19; cf. Matthew 5:11-12).

In a culture in which pain is often regarded as an enemy to avoided at all costs, it is important to realize how contrary that notion is to a Christian worldview that is shaped by Christ’s Cross.  Put away from us all hurtful things is not a request for a pain free life, it is a prayer that we – enduring faithfully – might be preserved until the end.  The “hurtful things” are those things that do injury to our relationship with God, such as “living after the flesh” and doing the “deeds of the body” (see today’s epistle, especially v.12).  This petition is very similar to our daily prayer that God “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  As Evan Daniel wrote: “. . . while we recognize a never-failing Providence, we also recognize the indispensability of bringing our wills into accord with God’s will.”[2]

give us those things which are profitable for us.  One of the most faith-filled phrases in the BCP (in my opinion) is found towards the end of the second to last prayer in both Morning and Evening Prayer (the prayer is called “A Prayer of St. Chrysostom”).  As we conclude our prayers (and perhaps bring back to mind the petitions which we have just made) we ask God to “fulfil . . . the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them” (BCP, pgs. 20 & 34).  By asking God to grant our requests as may be most expedient for us, we are submitting ourselves and our wills to God.  (This is another way of praying “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”)  This is a confession that we do not claim to know God’s will in every circumstance and neither do we necessarily know what is best for us.  In other words – it is conceivable that to obtain our desires and petitions may in fact hurt us.  The example of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt) shows us that we may truly and honestly cry out to God with the desires of our heart, while at the same time completely submit ourselves to his wisdom and his will for us.  One is reminded of C. S. Lewis’ poem “A Footnote to All Prayers”:

He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow
When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,

And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart

Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art.

Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme

Worshipping with frail images a folk-lore dream,

And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address

The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless

Thou in magnetic mercy to Thyself divert

Our arrows, aimed unskillfully, beyond desert;

And all men are idolators, crying unheard

To a deaf idol, if Thou take them at their word.

Take not, O Lord, our literal sense.  Lord, in thy great

Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.

Thus the phrase “as may be most expedient” is a confession that our trust in God is greater than our trust in ourselves.  We trust not only that he is wiser than we are, but also that he is better than we are (he is perfectly good and we are not).  As Goulburn put it:

The great idea which the whole prayer puts before us, is this, that we are journeying (or making a progress) through life; that in this progress we know not what may befall us, and that, if we conjecture our future, we might grievously err in our calculations; that even if we know what might befall us, we might have no control over it, so as to avert what was really evil.  Feeling, therefore, utterly blind and powerless as to our future career, we throw ourselves down before God’s footstool whose providence or foresight is infinite, and beseech Him that He would summarily remove out of our path all such impediments as really block our progress to the heavenly Canaan, and give us one after another all such things as may really further us on our road thither.[3]

The collect’s Termination is essential – through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Whatever hope and confidence we have that God’s providence is truly for our good is grounded in the love that he has shown by redeeming us through Christ. 

---

[1] See Goulburn, 270.

[2] Daniel, 296.

[3] Goulburn, 271.

Trinity 7 - Graft, Increase, Nourish & Keep us

“It would be difficult to find a prayer of human composition more beautiful than this – spiritual in its petitions; illustrative in its style; and comprehensive in its sentiments.' (James on the Collects, 206)

Lord of all power and might, who are the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 6:19-23
The Gospel: St. Mark 8:1-9

The present form of this collect is a loose Cranmerian translation (made in 1549) of the form of the collect found in the Sacramentary of Gelasius. It begins by making mention of two important attributes of God – He is almighty (having all power and might) and good (all good things being both created by and coming from him). Both are essential characteristics of God. If he were good but not all-powerful he might be unable to accomplish the good things he desires. Likewise, if he were all-powerful but not all good, we would forever live in the fear that he might use his strength for wickedness. As we approach God in prayer, it is important to affirm both that his will is always good and that he has the power to accomplish it (thus we may in sincerity pray “thy will be done”).

We now come to the collect’s Petition, which has four parts. The main verb of each clause helps us to see what we are asking for in each: graft, increase, nourish and keep. Let us consider them each in turn.

Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name. The way in which the Bible describes the heart of mankind leaves little room for the modern notion that all people are basically good. Consider, for example, Jeremiah’s description of the heart of man: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (17:9a). Now consider what the Greatest Commandment requires of us: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5; cf. Matthew 22:37). If the heart is desperately wicked, how is it at all possible to obey the most fundamental commandment of God? The difficulty of this dilemma was not lost upon Israel (nor her prophets), upon whose lips were prayers such as: “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer” and “Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 19:14; 51:10). 

One of the greatest promises that God makes to his people in the Old Testament is based upon his intimate knowledge of the wickedness of their hearts.[ii] He gives his people hope by promising: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Jesus is the means by which this promise was finally fulfilled. Through his atoning death and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, hearts are cleansed (by faith), purified, enlightened and made the dwelling place of Christ himself (see Acts 15:9; Matthew 5:8; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 3:17).

In light of our need for God to remake and cleanse our hearts (if we are to love him), it is both fitting and necessary that this is the first of the four Petitions in this collect.

Increase in us true religion. If some religion is true, it stands to reason that other religion is false. The contrast here is not between Christianity and other religions, but between a Christian faith and practice that is acceptable to God (and thus “true”) and that which is Christian in form, while in reality lacking something which God requires as essential.

Precedent for making a distinction between true and false religion is found in both the Old and the New Testament. For instance: St. James warns us that not all that we may consider true religion is necessarily “pure and undefiled before God” (James 1:27). Likewise, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for having an external form of religion but in fact being blind to what God really desires from his people. And one of the central messages of the prophets may be summed up by this verse: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices (i.e. the external forms of religions devotion), as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice . . .” (1 Samuel 15:22).

Religion that is true is always growing. Recall Jesus’ parable of the sower in which the good soil is that in which the Word of God is “held fast in an honest and good heart” and therefore it bears great fruit.[iii] (Thus at Confirmation the bishop prays that the Holy Spirit would “daily increase” in us his “manifold gifts of grace (etc.)).”[iv]

nourish us with all goodness. If we are to persist in the love of God and in true worship, we shall quickly become aware of how dependent we are upon God’s continued grace towards us. We shall need to be regularly forgiven for our sins and renewed by the strength which his grace provides. In both Morning and Evening Prayer, we ask God (from whom cometh every good and perfect gift) to “pour upon them (the clergy and the congregations committed to their charge) the continual dew of thy blessing.” God himself provides the means by which we may increase in true religion, namely the Church’s ministry of Word and Sacrament. Just as Jesus fed the multitude, lest they lack the nourishment to go on their way, so too has God provided his Church with all the nourishment she needs to love and obey him.

and of thy great mercy keep us in the same . . . This final clause of the Petition re-presents all three of the previous requests. We are praying that we might not only truly love, worship and be nourished by God today but that this might be true of us everyday – so that on the final day (as a result of his grace daily at work within us) we might be found pleasing and acceptable in his sight.

Don't forget Christ's Ascension!

The feast of Christ's Ascension is kept on the 40th day after Easter (this year that's June 2nd).  We will have a Holy Communion service at 6 pm.

Click here to read more about the significance of Christ's Ascension.

What is Rogation Sunday?

Sunday, May 29 is the 5th Sunday after Easter - commonly called "Rogation Sunday."  

What does "Rogation" mean?  "Rogation" means "asking," which is a theme particularly prominent in the Gospel text for this Sunday (St. John 16:23-33). We call this Sunday "Rogation Sunday" because the 3 days which follow it are ancient Rogation Days, these being the 3 days leading up to the great Feast of the Ascension of our Lord (a much neglected holy day!).

Rogations Days have been a part of the Christian year from early days.  There used to be both a Major Rogation (April 25) and 3 Minor Rogation Days (the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday proceeding Ascension Day).  Thus originally, this Sunday was not a Rogation Day – the change being made in 1662, after the Major Rogation had dropped away.

How should we observe these days?  Rogation days are days of prayerful supplication before God.  In the agrarian culture of yesterday, it was common for the church to gather on the Rogation Days to ask God to bless the crops being sown.  We would have asked Him to send rain and to bless us with a good harvest later in the year.  Often the prayers would have been said (or sung) as the church processed around the boundary lines of the parish (see picture).

It is from the rogation day prayers (as found in the Sarum Sacramentary) that Archbishop Cranmer formulated the Litany (1545), which was his first work of liturgical reform.

Book of Common Prayer goes high-tech

A new iPhone application called iPray has been developed by a group from All Souls' Episcopal Church in Nichols Hills and Oklahoma City-based Phase 2 Interactive. The new app presents the traditional Book of Common Prayer in an easy-to-navigate format for daily use

Read more.