The Collect of the Day

I have been puzzling over the collect appointed for this Sunday. The collect is an important part of our worship this day. Each Sunday, the collect and the Scripture readings are appointed for that particular day. They form the landscape of our corporate worship on a specific Sunday, complementing those things we say and do every week. As we journey along the highway of the church year, exploring and experiencing different aspects of our relationship with God and our place in God’s kingdom, today’s collect and readings provide the view out the window… the site to be explored… on this Third Sunday after Pentecost. So they merit our attention.

"Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever."

Especially in this long summer span of ordinary time after Pentecost, the collect doesn’t always fit with the theme of the readings, which does make interpretation more difficult. And there does not seem to be any connection today between the collect and the readings. Today’s Scripture readings are all about forgiveness… God’s forgiveness of sinners. God’s forgiveness of King David’s unconscionable sin of adultery and murder to acquire the woman Bathsheba whom he coveted. God put away David’s sin. And in the epistle we hear Paul’s autobiographical account of his ministry to the Gentiles, a ministry based upon God’s radical forgiveness of Saul the persecutor of God’s church. The psalm talks about forgiving those who transgress. And in the Gospel we hear of Jesus’ forgiveness of the woman of the city whose sins were many. All are forgiven. And in that forgiveness they find profound new beginnings in their lives with God. God’s forgiveness is the beginning of new life in God.

But today’s collect doesn’t mention forgiveness at all, or even sin. It talks about the church. "Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love…" And what does that phrase even mean? Are we praying that God will keep the Church in God’s faith and love… that God will continue to be faithful and loving towards us, the Church? Or are we praying that God will keep us, the Church, faithful and loving towards God? Both are good things to pray for… that we may be faithful and loving towards God and that God may be faithful and loving towards us.

Which does it mean? Do you care? Are you ready to move on? Whether or not the puzzlement over the correct interpretation of the words of this morning’s collect is significant, the prayer itself is very significant and worth every second of time, every ounce of energy we put into it. It is about the church… about our life as God’s church. Nothing is more important. Today or any other time. Nothing in our lives is more important than how we understand and how we live our lives as Christians.

And part of what this collect reminds us is that we cannot live our lives as Christians apart from the church. To be a Christian is to be a part of the household of God… the community, the family, the interdependent household of God.

The most recent Christian Century includes an article by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, excerpted from a new book entitled Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief. The excerpt presented in the article is about the church. It is titled In God’s Company: What is the church?

In God’s Company. And in the company of others in the household of God. Christian life is about being in the company of the household of God. Williams touches upon several points: the church as community, and the importance of diversity within that community… the church is not a herd, but a community of diverse individuals each dedicated to offering his or her own unique gifts in order to release the gifts of others. He talks about baptism and eucharist as ways the church lives as a community of holy people sharing life with one another in Christ.

And Williams talks about the role of the Bible within the life of the church. And especially bearing in mind this morning’s Scripture readings, it is this piece of Williams’ article that I want to quote. He talks about the importance of the Bible within the life of the gathered community.

Quoting: "When Christians meet for worship, they don’t just share bread and wine; they gather to be told who they are not only in action but in word, in story and song and above all in the story and song that is the Bible. The church shows itself what it truly is as it listens to the Bible. It is gathered so that it can listen to what is now its own story, not just the record of people long ago. The sharing of holy things in Holy Communion takes place in the context of listening to this story, the story of God’s dealings with the world in which God shows who God is; and as that story is read and reflected on, the community recognizes that it belongs in the same frame of reference. It lives here and now in fellowship with all those whom God has invited and inspired. In the Sunday congregation Abraham, Moses, Ezekiel [David, Paul] and all the rest stand invisibly alongside us; we are part of a covenant people whose origins go right back to the invisible distance, barely known outside legend and epic, yet absolutely real and continuous. The life we now share, the sharing between holy people, is a life shared with those whom God called in the unimaginable past, the obscure and shadowy history of Middle Eastern nomads in the Bronze Age and before.

"This is why Christians say that the Bible is "the Word of God" here and now. A word is spoken and heard; when the Bible is read to us in the midst of the congregation, it is God who is telling us our history and our identity. Martin Luther said of the Bible, de te loquitur, "it’s talking about you." In that sense, scripture always stands alongside sacrament as the measure of who we are. The listening church is the church being what it is, just as the church sharing bread and wine is the church as it truly is."

Williams continues with an aside that is relevant to us. "Christians of the Protestant tradition…" and that is him and us… "have tended to think about the Bible as if it were first and foremost a book that people read in private." The leaders of the Reformation would be surprised by this. For them the Reformation itself was all about making the Bible once again "a text to be struggled with in the context of prayer and shared reflection…. What badly needs to be recovered now is the sense that the Bible is to be read in company. It is not just a book that can be opened and read anywhere; it has a unique role in representing to the gathered group as it meets for worship the acts of God in making a people for himself. Private and individual reading follows on from that, and is informed by it. Even when I read the Bible on my own, I must remember that I read it in the company of readers across the ages, and I have to be ready to learn from them as from my contemporaries."

So, as we gather as a community in worship, listen to the stories and songs of the Bible. Study and discuss the Bible within the company of God’s household. Listen, study, discuss the Bible with others in the congregation. "When the Bible is read in the community of believers, it is used by the Spirit to bring God’s calling alive for us." That’s the really crucial part. When the Bible is read in the community of believers, the Spirit uses it to bring God’s calling for us to life. More so than when we read it privately as we might read any book for our own interest or enjoyment. When the Bible is read within the community of believers, it is used by the Spirit to bring our calling alive.

These stories about forgiven sinners… about David and Saul and the woman with many sins and the Pharisee whom Jesus took aside to teach about love and forgiveness. In worship, we hear these stories as God’s Word speaking to us. These stories about God’s loving forgiveness and the gift of new life are about us. If we, as a community hear them that way, as forgiven sinners, maybe we can live into the second part of this morning’s collect, which is the most important part. The beginning is just preamble. It is the second clause that really matters. "Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness and minister your justice with compassion." That is our calling. To proclaim God’s truth with boldness and minister God’s justice with compassion. Understanding, owning, living that mission begins with our coming together to listen to the Bible. We are forgiven sinners, offered new life in relationship with God. A new life in which we, as the household of God, can proclaim God’s truth with boldness and minister God’s justice with compassion.