Trinity XII

In looking over the "propers" for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, I was struck by the distinctive but meaningful themes of the Collect. Epistle and Gospel. The Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity comes from the early Latin church and was found in the Leonine and Gelasian Sacramentaries of the seventh and eighth centuries. The present English phraseology dates from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The words emphasize that God is the center of prayer. Sometimes we discuss prayer like it is all about us, but we are inconsistent and weak in prayer as in other areas. So we need to focus more on God. He is always ready to hear, extend His mercy, and give good gifts which He determines through Jesus Christ.

The Epistle for this Sunday is from 2 Corinthians 3:4-9 and includes some of the Apostle Paul's insights about ministry. Of course, he has his own apostolic ministry in mind, but much of what he says can apply to the service of any Christian, from the saintliest bishop to the simplest struggling believer. In particular, let us notice verse 5: "...not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God...." Regardless of any natural gifts or lack of them, our service for the Gospel must not be focused upon ourselves; rather we must focus upon God's grace that can empower us to do what is needed.

The Gospel from St. Mark 7:31-37 is about the healing of a deaf-mute. This miracle takes place in the Decapolis, a region east of the Jordan that had both Jewish and pagan Greek-speaking inhabitants in the first century. This location suggests the universal significance of Christ's ministry for all people, and healing a deaf-mute of unspecified origin points to the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies (Isaiah 35:5 and Ezekiel 24:27). In a different way, the Gospel passage, like the Collect and Epistle, underlines the importance of divine mercy and grace through Jesus Christ.

Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Of course, the traditional Gospel for this Sunday is the famous passage generally known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. One can emphasize any of the three central characters in the story: 1) the ungrateful and wasteful son who repents and returns home, 2) the merciful, gracious, and forgiving father who celebrates the prodigal's return, or 3) the legalistic and resentful older brother who is jealous and hurt. All three approaches can provide much food for thought.

This year, however, I would like to focus briefly on the parable from the perspective of the Collect of the Day. This collect which goes back at least to the early 600s reads as follows:
Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This short prayer is a reminder that we all need the gracious guidance of the Lord. Only He can grant us the spirit to think as well as to do the right things. Apart from His grace, we cannot live according to His will. We might be more like wandering prodigals who need to come to ourselves, repent and return to the heavenly Father, or we might be more like dutiful but resentful and self-righteous sons who need to be more understanding, merciful, and loving. In either case, we need the Lord's help. Only He can give us the transforming grace to think and to do such things as are right. Only He can change our attitudes as well as our actions.