Farmers, Gardeners & Christians
Proper 17 The Sunday closest to August 31
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good
things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in
us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth
in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.
things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in
us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth
in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.
This lovely collect from the Gelasian (c.a. 750 AD) and Gregorian Sacramentaries and our early prayerbooks has been called an image of the gardener or farmer: the fruit of good works brought forth by God who plants, nourishes and continues to care. Marion J. Hatchett (Commentary on the American Prayer Book) says that the address might better be translated (from the Latin) “God of virtue whose is all that is best,” and the next to last phrase “nourish what is good in us.” Both of those seem better theologically. Cranmer apparently added “true” before “religion,” reflecting religious controversies of the sixteenth century.
The term “true religion” brings guardedly to mind the controversies of our own day, both religious, and secular that are religiously based; also brings to mind the paragraph in our earlier Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church --
We beseech thee also, so to direct and dispose the hearts of all Christian Rulers, that they may truly and impartially administer justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion, and virtue. --
-- wisely deleted and reflecting an established state religion with a power and authority in government that we should in no wise wish to have laid on us in America today. And of which the electorate might well be wary in an era of creeping political/religious certitude and extremism, when the notion of “true religion” is frightening, threatening, ominous: the specter of any religious extremist rising from his knees with set jaw to go forth and do the will of God. Some of which can be discerned as the nation moves toward November 6, 2012. Even in America the religious source and certitude of political leaders does, can and may make a difference in a nation founded on something about unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Religious extremism does not see those Rights as all that unalienable.
In any event, the collect heralds the gospel of lovingkindness and good works that we shall hear from the Letter of James over the next five Sundays.
May the Lord nourish what is good in us.
TW+