NEXT WEEK’S DAILY PRAYER

Collect for Trinity XIX

“O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

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English-speaking Christians have always found most difficult to accept – mentally and more especially practically – the truth contained in this Collect. That is why Pelagianism began as a British disease and has remained so – spreading wherever the Brits have gone!

The truth that we are not able to please God the Father in thought, word, attitude or deed unless He Himself, through Jesus Christ and by His Holy Spirit, is involved in helping, guiding, purifying and blessing us.

Or, the truth that our best and highest human achievements (for which we may be celebrated and decorated by human authority) are not acceptable to God as good works that please Him unless they are inspired by the Holy Ghost.

By grace are we saved through faith and both the grace and the faith are gifts from God. Only as we are united to the Son of God and in Him to the Father by the Holy Spirit are we in a state of salvation and acceptance with the Father.

Of ourselves we may think that we can truly believe unto salvation. Of ourselves we may think that we can do good works both to please God and to advance our own reputation. But if we so think we are sadly misguided, even though much modern religion may encourage us so to think.

Certainly we are called to believe, trust, be faithful, obey, worship the Holy Trinity in spirit and in truth, love the Lord our God, and love our neighbors. And this must be our daily decision, commitment and consecration. However, what we do has to be done consciously recognizing that we are always dependent on the presence of the Holy Ghost with us (which is another way of saying “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with us”).

The error and spiritual condition that this Collect seeks to keep us from is found in all forms of “orthodox” Christianity – traditional Prayer Book religion, traditional Anglo-Catholic religion, modern evangelical charismatic religion and so on. It is found in all because it is in origin a condition of the human heart/soul -- a state of mind, that is particularly pleased to be in a culture that has much to say about self-worth, self-affirmation, self-determination, self-sufficiency and self-justification. And also pleased to be in a culture that values what we may call “religious experiences in community” and “individual spirituality” that cause one to feel good about oneself and the world and others.

This disease of the soul thus permeates everything from sermons to testimonies, from vocabulary used in church-talk to the words of choruses and hymns, from the hug at the passing of the peace to the hug at the church door, from internet messages to printed tracts, and from evangelistic, missionary work to social service. It may even be declared on the church notice board.

A good place to start to recognize the truth of this Collect, and begin to live by it, is Paul’s Letter to the Romans and the first eight chapters. Careful attention to his delineation of human nature before the holy, righteous God and to the portrayal of the work of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost for our salvation will help us see that before God in our naked humanity “there is none righteous, no not one” (3:10) – no one that is except the Incarnate Son, whose righteousness is reckoned unto those who believe on His Name and repent of their sin.

Certainly a Collect to pray daily….

The Revd Dr Peter Toon, October 19,2001