COLLECT FOR THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – PROPER 13 – RCL CLet your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMENOur Collect continues the challenge from last week of reconciling the difference between those things eternal and those things temporal that beset us. While last week the focus was on us, this Sunday we concentrate our prayers on the preservation of our church. Looking back over the broad sweep of history, whether it has been the physical onslaughts of ancient barbarians seeking to extirpate us, or today’s fiercely competing theological interpretations that have divided us, the Collect speaks not only to historical tensions but to those of our own time as well. Ultimately, we express our plea for God’s help in bringing us through this time of tension; to be able to hear, in the cacophony of dissent, the quiet still voice of God as our source of guidance and assurance. The Collect has its origins in the Gelasian Sacramentary and was appointed by Cranmer for the 16th Sunday after Trinity where it stayed through the 1928 BCP. Our current version has substituted the word “mercy” for the former word, “pity”, in the opening Address Clause. Pity or mercy? Perhaps we could read “compassion” for both? Or, as Barbee and Zahl suggest, how about; “…tenderly affectioned empathy?” While reflecting, it might also be helpful to ponder how many times Christ demonstrated all those just-mentioned qualities in his ministry as he formed his band of disciples. In the end, are we not His Church? Are we not all the beneficiaries of God’s steadfast love and compassion? Would that the current contentious dialogue within our Communion was framed in those terms! We hear again the words of God to Hosea as God reflects on the compassion and concern for his people whom he intends to return to their homes even though they have strayed from his guidance. The words from the 107th Psalm respond in the spirit of reconciliation, “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever.” Our optional readings focus on the many things that separate us from our God – all of those things are deemed to be vanities! In two trenchant readings we are reminded that all the hyper activity and quest for money and status is but a vanity dismissed in the Psalm as destined for the graves that, “…shall be their homes for ever.” Concluding our readings from Colossians, Paul’s opening words provide us with guidance for our goals; “If you have been raised in Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God! To wrap things up we have the Parable of the Rich Fool with its forceful ending, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” We have certainly heard some compelling counsel and advice regarding our lives. HOSEA 11: 1-11 – God’s Compassion PSALM 107: 1-9, 43 – Thanksgiving for Many Troubles, OR ECCLESIASTES 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23 – The Futility of Wisdom and Success PSALM 49: 1-11 – The Folly of Trust in Riches CO LOSSIANS 3: 1-11 – The New Life in Christ LUKE 13: 13-21 – The Parable of the Rich Fool For background information on the Collects, click here. |