For the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, both the Epistle and the Gospel are relevant passages for our Christian faith and life. In the Epistle from Galatians 6:11-18, St. Paul emphasizes the need to look beyond legalism to faith in the crucified Christ. In the Gospel from Matthew 6:24-34, our Lord stresses the importance of right priorities. He warns that we must put God and His kingdom first. Earthly material matters must not dominate our lives; spiritual concerns for God give human life its only real meaning.
On other occasions, I have focused on the details of each of these passages, but this week, it struck me how both these concerns are held together and illuminated by the Collect of the Day. The text of the Collect for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity dates at least to the Gelasian Sacramentary compiled in the 700s, but it may be more ancient. This thematic prayer for the day highlights the overwhelming importance of divine mercy and grace.
Both the Church and individual Christians are beset by many frailties. On our own, we would not have faith in the crucified Christ or make God and His kingdom our first priority. We all fall in thought, word, and deed. Therefore, we pray that the Lord God may keep us in his perpetual mercy, protect us from all things that hurt us (especially our souls), and lead us to everything that brings His salvation into our lives. We do seek right beliefs about God and good Christian living, but both the Church and the individual believer are totally dependent on divine mercy and grace!
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