Collect discussion

03/25/2010

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.

Posted at 10:37 AM | Permalink

Comments

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This is a test post of Dana's comment from the old blog location...

Mike: I mistakenly labeled that prayer a collect. It was the prayer for the oppressed in the daily liturgy today at the Mission St. Claire site.

As far as the prayer goes I have mixed emotions about it myself. I felt like to had a "TEC/social justice" bent to it also. But praying to "strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all" seems to me no different than praying that the Holy Spirit guide the hands of the surgeon doing the "C" section.

The line that got my attention was the last one. "And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord." At first that struck me as TEC-speak, you know, Santa Claus give us an equal share? But then how is that different than many of Psalms, . . . the ones where David prays for God to favor the those who are faithful to his commandments? But then as Christians aren't we called to try and improve the living standards of our "community"? . . .Taking care of orphans and widows . . . And what that old testament stuff about the year of Jubilee where all land is returned it original owners and all debts are forgiven?

I have really enjoyed the Lenten program. I have actually started writing my own collects to deal with specific issues in my life. It has been a very interesting experience; I incorporate them in my prayer liturgy. Once personal issues start to heal, a spiritual life can really blossom.

As far as the back door exams go, there is a guy in my house who has no insurance at all. Oh, he paid into insurance plans the majority of his working life. But at the end of his marriage he was self employed and had insurance through his wife employment. When she decided she no longer wanted to be married,... well .. the COBRA for a man over 50 with sleep apnea and high blood pressure was cost prohibitive.

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