This is the fourth week of Gospel readings from John chapter 6, where Jesus is mostly talking about bread. That he is the bread of life or the bread from heaven. And you’ve got more from John 6 next week as well… So, rather than risk indigestion from all that bread, I’m going to look instead at the Collect which we read earlier.
We say them every week but what is a Collect? Well, Collects comprise a form of prayer which concisely bring together or “collect” our thoughts on a matter and do so in a structured way. Those prayers might be about forgiveness or peace, about guidance or being fruitful. Perhaps a thanksgiving for the life of a saint.
There’s also the sense that the minister says the prayer on the collective behalf of the congregation. The prayers aim to concentrate our minds on a particular desire or intention. And they do it in one sentence – albeit often a long one.
Ancient
Many of these Collects are very ancient. For the most part, those that we use in church each week are modernized versions of Collects from the Book of Common Prayer. The BCP was first published in 1549. In it, Thomas Cranmer would sometimes write his own Collects but usually he would take the existing Latin prayers used on Sundays in the monasteries and translate them into English. A few of those monastic prayers date back to the 6th century and even earlier.
There’s a rhythm and flow to what Cranmer produced. Here’s the Collect for today in the BCP version: Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen
So, when we say these prayers each Sunday, we’re tapping into a rich church heritage which goes back very many centuries. And, at the same time, in theory at least, every Anglican and Catholic church around the world will be using the same Collect. It’s the one common point in every service, even if the rest of the worship differs. So, when we use them here in this church, we’re both reaching back in time and linking into the global network of churches and their worship of God that’s happening this very day.
Structure
In form, the Collects always follow the same structure. Firstly, they address God by calling to mind some aspect of His Being. They then offer a petition for a particular need. And they end by acknowledging the role of Jesus Christ as mediator, who is known through the eternal activity of the Trinity.
So, if you get your service sheet and look at today’s Collect:
- Today’s aspect of God is that he is always more ready to hear than we are to pray and to give more than either we desire or deserve.
- Our petition, our request, is that God pours down on us the abundance of his mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask.
- And then we finish by acknowledging the role of Jesus through his merits and mediation, by being alive and reigning with God in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
Hit and miss
As you may know, with the Book of Common Worship, we have a 3-year cycle of readings – but it’s always the same Collect for a given Sunday in the church calendar. So, every twelfth Sunday after Trinity has the same Collect as today, regardless of the readings – and therefore the connection between the two might be a bit hit and miss.
In the Book of Common Prayer, the original Gospel reading for today was from Mark 7. It’s where Jesus brought healing to the man who was deaf and who had a speech impediment. You can perhaps see an obvious link between that Bible story and the thought in the Collect of God pouring down his abundance and giving good things.
In today’s Gospel reading from John, we have Jesus incarnate, Jesus made flesh. What comes down to us is Jesus himself, the living bread from heaven. The good thing which we are given, the gift, is again, Jesus. By abiding with him, by living our life with him, partaking of the true food and the true drink, we have eternal life – something of which we’re not worthy to ask.
There’s a similar thought at the end of our reading from Proverbs: “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live…”
Abundantly pardon
So, the Collect can act as a lens with which to view or interpret the readings for the day. But the Collects can also be looked at in isolation in their own right. Our Collect for today draws heavily from the Book of Isaiah:
- “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (65: 24).
- “Let him return…, to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (55: 7).
Often, we consider our own individual circumstances and think of ourselves as the primary movers waiting on God to catch up. But our Collect reminds us that this perception could not be further from the truth.
Virtual reality
To use some technology terminology, it reminds us that we spend most of our time in a virtual reality, as if we permanently had one of those fancy headsets on. Those things that seem most immediate and substantial in our lives are in fact no more vivid than strings of ones and zeroes.
If once we took the headset off and saw things as they truly were, we would find that the God that we imagined as being so far off was actually so near to us that we had all but stumbled into Him without realizing. We would find Him more present, “more ready to hear, and to give” than we ever imagined.
To understand the abundance of God’s mercy is at once to have our desires reoriented and our fears redirected. In a sense, our Collect tells us that our desires and our fears are intertwined. When we truly see reality, we desire only God’s presence and we fear only that, because of our sin, we will be unable to stand that same presence.
Merits and mediation
That mingled desire and fear come together in the person of Jesus, whose “merits and mediation” were lived out not in some mystical plane of existence, but in the real world of flesh and blood. The life that he offers is the abundance only cheaply promised by our old pursuits. The forgiveness that he offers frees us to confess those sins that had held us locked and bound.
We ought to remember and repeat this Collect often, both as a plea to God and as a reminder to ourselves. Seamus Heaney once wrote that ‘there are times… when we want the poem to be not only pleasurably right but also compellingly wise’. I think that’s true of this Collect too. It’s both pleasurably right and compellingly wise. Despite the virtual reality that our senses and our reason present to us, we live in a world in which God is more near, more present, more active than we ever dared to hope or to dream.
Ramble on
Finally, the format of the Collect is a good one to hold onto if you find that you ramble on a bit in your own personal prayers. I’m sure that God answers them anyway, but, if you want to be more concise, then you could do worse than imitate the Collects and try to condense your prayer into one sentence with an easy, rhythmical flow.
So, think about the character of God and his actions in the world on our behalf. Then think about what you’re really asking for – and lastly remember the basis on which that request is made. Because that basis is Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
‘Pleasurably right and compellingly wise’ was delivered by Ian Banks at St John and St Mark’s Bury on Sunday 18th August 2024. It was based on the Collect for the Twelfth Sunday of Trinity.
References:
- Williams, H. (2009). Great Speeches Of Our Time. Quercus.
- https://anglicancompass.com/week-of-the-sunday-from-july-24-to-july-30-a-collect-reflection/
- https://www.lectionarycentral.com/trinity12/CommonPrayer.html