Discussion about collect

Dana writes:


Mike:  What do you think of this collect? (We should be having this discussion on the Prairie Anglican.)

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I am not trying to start a fight.  My relationship with you is very important and I treasure our discussions. After all, iron sharpens iron.

-- Dana

Mike responds:

OK, here we are, dusting off Prairie Anglican. Thanks for the nudges to use this forum.

Iron sharpens iron, eh? Who said that? Bismarck? Der Kaiser?

Actually, I'm working very hard this Lent to not be iron but clay molded by You Know Who. It's a work in progress. Which is to say, I am.

You ask what I think of this collect. What's it from? Is it next Sunday's? I'm wary about being drawn in to analyze and even criticize a collect. What do I know?

All week I've been praying the collect that's with the Morning Prayer at the Mission St. Clare site:

"Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."

I'd have to say -- and not by way of misdirection -- that I'm pretty comfortable with this collect from last Sunday. It seems to have all the right ingredients: It's focused on God, and how only He can help us miserable sinners do what He wants us to do, which is the only way we can experience true joy.

In sum: We don't measure up; only God can help us measure up; and only through grace, which helps us walk the line, can we know happiness and be saved.

Now, the collect you asked about has nothing in it to offend. Does it? It's asking God to have mercy on those who are oppressed and need justice. Being against any of those things would be like being against motherhood.

I'm tempted to not take what I perceive, perhaps incorrectly, to be the (friendly) bait and let it go at that. But of course I don't have that kind of self control. (g) One way to read the above would be to assume a subtext that we live in an unjust society and that we need to call on God to fix things. Again, who could disagree with that? Utopia does not exist on earth. All societies are, to some greater or lesser degree, flawed. Things man create can not achieve perfection. That's a given.

Some might detect within the subtext a particular assertion that America is rife with injustice, terror, cruelty and inequality, and that God needs to fix it. If I were a citizen of Haiti and praying this collect, I would assume that's the case. If I were a citizen of the United States and praying this collect, I would tend to have my own subtext of gratefulness we live in a nation where we have so much material wealth and freedom, though some of the conditions the collect lists are no doubt problems in particular instances and to varying degrees.

It is different to be poor and oppressed and sick and afraid in a country where many, even most poor people have homes, cars, color TVs and cell phones and access to at least emergency rooms and public defenders if the police unjustly throw them in jail. There are countries where being poor means, for the great many and not the few, living in hovels or on street, no food, no clean water, no rule of law, being harassed, enslaved or killed by the police, the militia, etc.

There's oppression, fear and sickness, and there's oppression, fear and sickness.

My honest reaction to the collect -- which is subjective and probably completely wrong, and which I wouldn't probably even think to comment on but have because you specifically asked -- is that it seems to have a certain TEC/social justice focus, as opposed to taking aim at asking the Lord to extend grace and salvation to us, as individual miserable sinners trying to in some small, pathetic way live our lives in imitation of Jesus.

Christ was pretty dismissive about Cesar, "that fox" Pilate, and the scribes and Pharisees who ran Israel. Seems to me -- and I claim no authority to say this -- Jesus' message was aimed at the hearts of individual sinners, and not governments for failing to extend "equal protection of the law and equal opportunities." Are those bad things? No. Should we hope and pray all people have them? Yes.

I think there's a basic paradox.

Does Christ care about government, whether laid off people get nine or twenty-four months of unemployment checks, and whether we're "fair and unprejudiced enough" to marry gay people in our churches? Or does Christ want to love God and love our neighbors and try to live according to the Bible's teachings, and thereby bring about the best kind of society to whatever degree we can be good?

Obviously we can't know. My personal sense is Christ wants me to put the emphasis first on God, and then treating everybody the way He would treat them if He were in my place. I don't think that can be teased out to "therefore, the Lord wants me to vote for this candidate," or "therefore, the Lord wants me to do try to enact a law to punish people who spend $80,000 to buy a Mercedes when there is a guy who happens to live in my house in Bettendorf who hasn't gotten one of those invasive back-door cancer exams because his insurance doesn't cover it."


There are some people, probably some people who dress in black and wear those funny collars, who think Jesus wants them to drive to Iowa City to cheer Obama during his visit. And there are probably some who think Jesus wants them to go there to protest him. If so, I would say both are wrong. As Democrats or Republicans? Sure. Because that's what God wants out of Congress? Nay. 

Interviewing Quincy bishop candidates

Father Joe sent out this update from the Diocese: 

“Please continue to keep the Nominating Committee for our next bishop in your prayers. This group of people received applications for the next bishop of Quincy. They are currently reviewing the paper work and will conduct initial interviews very soon. Once the field of candidates is narrowed down to the canonical requirement of at least three, but no more than five people, then a second round of interviews, will be conducted. Watch for more information on the second round of interviews as these will be forums for people from outside the Nominating Committee to submit questions to the candidates. We will also videotape these interviews and make copies available to all churches, so that the congregations can make informed choices for the election of the bishop. The time and place of the election will be announced very soon.”

I’m going to try to find out a little more about the process; I'll post anything pertinent here. 

For example, are people asked to apply? Does a notification go out saying there’s an opening? Is there some kind of ecclesiastical headhunter organization, as there is in business, to find candidates to fill key positions such as this? 

I’m also curious about what qualities the committee is looking for in a new bishop. I know there was a survey earlier seeking input from clergy and laity. It would be interesting to get a look at a summary of skills, talents and experience in the ideal candidate. 

Eighty years and counting

Mom turns eighty Saturday. 

A series of strokes have left her with limited use of her right arm and leg. She spends her days and nights in a La-Z-Boy recliner at Bickford Cottage. She has trouble speaking. But her mind is clear, she still has a great sense of humor, and she continues to be one of the happiest people I know. 

When I start feeling ground down by the world -- as I do this week -- I think about her. 

Snow falling on cedars

It’s a paradox that things can be simple and complex at the same time.

I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to discover it had snowed overnight. Looking out the window at a landscape bright despite the overcast a few nights past full moon, everything was stark black and white. The tree trunks and limbs, the wooden fence, the vertical parts of the iron table and chairs on the patio: black. Everything else was perfect white, sharp lines and edges softened beneath a blanket of new snow. 

I thought about what the snow might represent as a metaphor. Grace coming down from heaven to make everything white and clean and fresh? Mainly, it was just snow. Simple and uncomplicated as snow is -- unless you get down to the granular level of examining individual snowflakes, which are supposed to be infinite in their crystalline variety. 

I spent time yesterday catching up on news from the Anglican communion. 

I read that Bishop Mouneer Anis of Jerusalem has resigned from the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion. The bishop was quoted as saying his presence on the committee had “no value whatsoever” and his voice was “like a useless cry in the wilderness.” 

I’ve always liked Bishop Anis. He speaks his mind and uses plain language.

At the Stand Firm website, where there is always good discussion, Sarah Hey put up a post delving into difficulties with the Anglican Communion Covenant -- details which become increasingly byzantine and problematic the closer you study them. 

It is easy for a lay person to gloss over the difficulties of getting the primates and bishops to settle on a framework that preserves orthodoxy -- especially considering the fact that there are people in authority working hard to do just the opposite. 

Still, it seems to me Christianity is very simple. Love God. Love thy neighbor. Participate with Christ in the suffering of the world. Through Christ come to know God and receive the hope salvation. 

Personal experience has taught me that the simpler things are, the truer they are, although maybe that is because I am simple-minded. The Devil really is always in the details. The simpler things are, the fewer the places for the enemy to hide. 

Maybe sometime things simply are black and white. Even though, looked at from a different perspective, they are also complex.

For God alone my soul in silence waits;

truly, my hope is in him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my stronghold, so that I shall not be broke. 

The Holy Spirit

Sometimes God seems near, sometimes very far away. 

This mystifies me. Since God is always there, how can it seem otherwise? 

Father McClaskey used to talk about the Holy Spirit drawing close to us sometimes but pulling away at others, depending upon what we need. He compared it to a loving parent raising a child: Sometimes the child needs all the help and support the father can provide, but other times the child needs to be made to stand on his or her own two feet. 

Mother Theresa suffered for fifty years, feeling “no presence of God whatsoever” in her life. St. Therese of Lisieux called these spiritual tests the “night of nothingness.” The people considering Mother Theresa for sanctification say the fact she did not feel the presence of God during much of her life did not change the fact that He was working through her in helping Calcutta’s poor, sick and dying. 

For the less saintly among us, maybe it is we who withdraw, not the Holy Spirit. Like stiff-necked Hebrews in the Old Testament, the moment God does something good for us, we decide we’re in charge -- not God -- and turn away. 

When we put ourselves first, things always go wrong. 

Family room angel

No home should be without one! 

What would Jesus sue?

Trinity Church held its annual meeting Sunday, Jan. 24, which included a budget review.

One of the things discussed was the $32,260 expenditure from the Outreach Fund in 2009, with the potential for spending a similar amount in 2010. 

Like a lot of churches, Trinity has several endowment funds. The guiding rule with an endowment is that it’s OK to spend interest the funds generate, but the principal should never be touched. However, in this case, Outreach Fund principal is being spent to help balance the budget. 

Why? 

Last year The Episcopal Church decided the Diocese of Quincy's bank accounts, including the funds it manages for parishes like Trinity, belong in fact to TEC. Once the lawyers got involved, the banks froze the assets pending litigation.  

Trinity’s White/Knobloch fund, which typically generates $20,000 in interest, is among the Quincy-managed endowments caught in the legal squeeze play. 

Pending resolution (or a court’s “status quo” order unfreezing the interest revenue pending a final decision), Trinity and churches like it have little recourse but to dip into the principal of other investments to maintain operations. They’ll also have to hire lawyers to counter TEC’s claims.

In sum:

• TEC is spending money given to the church to pay lawyers to sue dioceses and encumber diocese and parish assets.
• Without interest revenue from the attached endowments, parishes like Trinity are forced to reduce programs and spend down principal on unencumbered investments to maintain operations. 
• These same dioceses and parishes will have to spend additional money on legal expenses to contest the TEC suits. 

Churches shouldn’t sue churches. 

~ ~ ~

But to the wicked God says:

“Why do you recite my statutes,

and take my covenant upon your lips;

Since you refuse discipline,

and toss my words behind your back?

When you see a thief, you make him your friend,

and you cast in your lot with adulterers.

You have loosed your lips for evil,

and harnessed your tongue to a lie. 

Evangelism 2.0

Dana has a good idea:

“So I took the food left over from the annual meeting to the Rescue Mission Sunday afternoon. One of my friends was staying there and we talked for about 45 minutes. He told me about the different church groups that come to the mission in the evenings to serve food and "give a message." He said the most effective ones were the ones where men from the church came and served the meal and then sat down at the tables with the residents. He said just eating with them and asking "how are you doing" or "what do you need" made greater impact than standing up and preaching to them while they eat. Interesting idea isn't it ... get some guys to together, cook something up, take it down there and eat and talk with those men maybe once a month. I wonder if anyone else might be interested in doing that?”

Definitely something we should try to do. 

We need to think and talk a lot more about evangelism at Trinity and in the Diocese. Spreading the Gospel is the Great Commission, but it’s not something a lot of us know how to do very effectively. 

As Dana’s friend suggests, one approach is to forego the hard sell in favor of showing Christian love and concern for others. Sometimes showing works better than telling. 

* * *

Today's collect: Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Faux apocalypses

I woke up today with a whopping head cold. These things happen.The best thing to do is pretend you don’t notice and make sure you have plenty of Kleenex.

I did pause to wonder, during a bout of Wagnerian sneezing, whether I might have the swine flu. Far better to be sick with a mere cold than the dreaded swine flu (or H1N1, as the pork producers prefer it be called). Swine flu is serious stuff. It can kill you.

But wait a minute. Did I know anybody who has gotten the swine flu? No, not personally. Not a single person. 

Remember the dire warnings about the impending pandemic? Millions were going to die. Everybody was supposed to get a vaccine -- especially children, the elderly, and the sick! But there weren’t enough vaccines! Oh, the anxiety! Man the life boats! Women and children first! 

We often are instructed to worry. Sometimes these warnings serve a purpose. For all I know, the swine flu apocalypse failed to materialize because enough people were vaccinated to nip it in the bud. 

Still, we are encouraged to worry about a lot of things that we can’t do anything about, or that might not even exist. 

Global warming. (Formerly, global cooling.) The economy. The health care crisis (which is a crisis for anybody who doesn’t have coverage, but not most people). Earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters. The world coming to an end in 2012, because that’s all the time the Mayans could fit on the rock they were carving. 

We held our breathes as 1999 rolled over into 2000, having been warned of the horrific impact Y2K might wreak on mankind. The grid could go down! Hospitals without power! Jets falling out of the sky! 

Jesus has some pretty straightforward advice on all of this: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ... Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” And: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."

Those of us who are inclined to worry need to bear that in mind. 

A new coat of paint

“Painting things over” is a metaphor for disguising defects to create the false impression things are better than they really are.

Having spent the weekend painting the upstairs and downstairs halls, the foyer, the stairway and half the living room, I know there is something good to be said for a fresh coat of paint (in this case, two gallons of "Oregon Coast" from Lowe's).

Before you can paint, you have to clean up, get rid of the cobwebs in the corner you've been ignoring, and remove the clutter to make space to paint. Pictures hung in sometimes haphazard fashion come down for rehanging later, and the nail holes are patched with spackling.

When you’re finished, everything looks fresh and new, with a splash of color to dress up the former plain-Jane eggshell white.

Your back may hurt a bit, but the sense of accomplishment makes up for that. Instead of continuing to look past the scuff marks from where one of the kids threw shoes up the stairs, the black scrape from when something got banged into the wall, and all the rest of it, we rolled up our sleeves and did something to brighten up the old homestead.

I guess that’s as good an explanation as any for the purpose of this blog.