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The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
excerpt fromCOMMON PRAYER: A Commentary on the Prayer Book Lectionary
Volume 5: Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity to Twenty Sixth Sunday
after Trinity (p. 56-57)
St. Peter Publications
Inc. Charlottetown, PEI, CanadaReprinted with permission of the publisher.
O Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse
and defend thy Church; and because it cannot continue in safety without
thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
This and the Collect for Trinity XXII are the only two Collects in which
we make no mention of our personal needs specifically, but pray entirely
for the needs of the whole Church.
O Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse
and defend thy Church
We begin by asking God to cleanse the Church from sin and to defend it
against the assaults of external foes. Cleansing implies the pollution
of internal sin in its members. Jesus Christ once for all cleansed his
Church by his atoning death on the cross. By his “one baptism for the remission
of sins” he grants the saving benefits of that atoning death. But our hearts
and wills are continually turning away from the saving and eternal love
of God which is in Christ crucified and, therefore, the congregation of
Christ’s flock is forever in need of cleansing by his Spirit. Today’s Epistle
reminds us that we must be strengthened with might by the Holy Spirit;
Christ must dwell in our hearts; we must be rooted and grounded in love.
We pray first that God would cleanse his Church, and then we pray him
to defend it. If his Spirit does not continually cleanse the Church from
sin, there can be no purpose to defend it. If the Church does not seek
forgiveness, and its members are content rather to remain in their sins,
the union of its members with Christ is broken (see John 15) and the Church
becomes spiritually barren.
...because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour,
preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness
Here we pray that God would govern and guide his Church. The Church must
never be allowed to be guided by the easiest, the most convenient, or the
least dangerous course, but always by the course mapped out by the truth
of Holy Scripture.
The whole Collect is a warning against a spirit of over-confidence and
arrogance in our view of the Church. How often do we make major decisions
in the Church without due prayer, reflection and submission to the will
of God as contained in the Holy Scriptures? It is not our Church,
to do with as we please. We are not fully purified from the defilements
of the world (we must yet be cleansed); we are not safe from the attacks
of the enemy (we must yet be defended); we are not able to guide our own
course wisely (we must yet be governed and preserved). As a Church, pray
that we may recognize our need to turn to God; it is because we are his
Church that we dare lay claim to his cleansing, his defence and his guidance.
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