Mar 30 2019
Collect – 3rd Sunday of Lent
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves
One of the things that happens in Morning Prayer is that every morning, we repeat the prayer that ‘collECTS’ (when spoken, emphasis on ECTS) all of the readings themes for the previous Sunday. We call the ‘COLLects’ (when spoken, emphasis on COLL). Experienced once on Sunday morning, the COLLect is brief, and frequently makes me think how succinct and precise the short prayer is in incorporating themes from the day’s readings, given that they’re Old and New testament readings, written over the span of thousands of years.
When I read these brief prayers every day during the practice of Morning Prayer, they take on a different role. The words harken back to Sunday’s lessons and sermon. More important to me, parts of them begin to seep into my soul. I pray something Monday, and my soul takes note of one thing. Tuesday, the same thing. By the time Saturday rolls around, that nugget jumps out at me, something that may have passed by without notice if I heard the Collect Sunday and that’s it.
This morning, I’m struck by the opening of the Collect from last Sunday. Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves. I know lots of people who cannot believe this is true, many competent, wealthy, prestigious, people. Even religious people. Maybe they don’t say they disagree, but it shows up as narcissism, self-aggrandizing, and pride.
Even excluding those folks, lots of normal well-intentioned followers of Christ stumble over the absoluteness of the statement. We have no power. It doesn’t say we sometimes need God, or we have some power. We have no power. That’s hard to fathom and sometimes hard to believe.
Except it’s when we come to believe that, that we can take our personal successes and failures in the right perspective. It’s then, that we can give up our expectations of the way we’re constructing things. It’s exhausting to think and act like I’m the author and savior of my world, and those around me. Turns out, I’m not.
To me, proof of this no power thing is that for me, there are loads of times when I think I know what I should do, and I despite my best intentions, training, purpose, I don’t. It could be something silly like avoiding the chocolate candy jar in the office, or something bigger like engaging in a stupid argument with people I love. Then it’s easy to see and sense that I have no power in myself. That’s not to say that a quick shout-out to God will automatically make me immune from the chocolate or that secretly God wants me to eat chocolate. This is just about me and what power I have in myself.
The Collect continues with the next line: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul.
Today, I want to be mindful the power void in me, and pray that God can fill that void.
No comments:
Post a Comment