BUT ABOVE ALL

In what is known as “A General Thanksgiving” in “The Book of Common Prayer” there is a definite and chosen order of that for which “Almighty God, Father of all mercies” is thanked by his covenant people. That which belongs to this life is separated from that which belongs to the life of the age to come by the words “BUT ABOVE ALL.”

For our creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life “we bless Thee, O GOD.”

BUT ABOVE ALL “we bless Thee for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace [Sacraments, Preaching, Bible study etc.] and for the hope of glory [in the life of the age to come].

The way of the Bible and the classic “Book of Common Prayer” is to evaluate the blessings that come through the Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, Exaltation and Session of the Son of God differently – and on a higher plane – than those which flow from the fact that we are creatures and God is the good Creator and Sustainer of life.

Certainly the blessings that are ours merely as creatures are and can be precious; and if in God’s providence we have good health, sufficient food, good lodging and civil liberties then we can think that we live in a kind of heaven on earth.

But, for those who are “born from above” the blessings that come through GRACE are so much more profound and precious, are not merely temporal but everlasting, and completely satisfy for ever the desires and longings of spirit, soul and body.

So it is most appropriate that baptized and committed Christians say “BUT ABOVE ALL” – above all else, above everything in the visible creation that is ours to use and enjoy.

What concerns me and worries me is that much modern western piety and prayer, be it in the charismatic-evangelical or the Lesbigay movements or in the middle of the way churches, seems to have reversed for all practical purposes the divine order of the Bible and the classic BCP.

We bless God for the hope of eternal life and then say “but above all” and go on to bless God for our liberties in “the land of the free.”

Certainly, in comparison with the refugees in Afghanistan & Pakistan we have very much, exceedingly much, to bless God for in terms of food, lodging, health and civil liberty. Yet the authentic Christians in these poor countries whose hearts are set on things above where Christ is (Colossians 3:1ff) and who are living in the faith of “but above all” as they experience “the hope of glory” know more of Christ and Christianity that do we who tend in our materialism and secularism to reverse the order of the blessings of the Father of all mercies.

Authentic Christian piety, Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, normally and habitually lives in the spirit of “But above all…”

The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon October 11, 2001