The brief collect for this Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity is one of my favorites:
LORD, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
As a linguist, I find the archaic use of the verb prevent interesting. Here this word is used in the original Latin sense, "come before"- a sense that still exists in modern Romance languages. Aside from that tidbit, the real reason that I appreciate this collect is that it reminds us that we are surrounded by grace and that it is only through such divine grace that we can do good works.
Today's Epistle from Ephesians 4:1-6 continues the discussion from the selection last week about the interplay of Christian doctrine and ethics. In 4:1, the Ephesians are exhorted "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." The Christian walk or way of life is based on the divine call to believe in and follow Jesus Christ. In verses 2-3, this way of life is presented both as an individual embodiment of virtues such as humility, patience, and loving forbearance and as a communal way of life that holds on to the unity given by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:4-6 develops the theme of true Christian unity. Such unity is not some human achievement or organizational structure. While greater cooperation among Christian organizations is often desirable, the unity presented in this portion of Scripture is of a different nature. It is rooted in the unity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Christians are already members of "one body" empowered by "one Spirit." They share "one hope..., one Lord, one faith." They have been grafted into the Body of Christ by "one baptism." And above all these aspects of oneness, there is "one God and Father of all." He is the ultimate source of any good unity. True unity is awareness of a common faith in God through Jesus Christ, and it exists despite external human differences of race, language, culture, or church background.
No comments:
Post a Comment