Hand of God

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our

Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News

of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive

the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with

you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This is our collect, prayer of the day, for Sunday, January 24, 2016. It’s been on mind ever since I said it in our liturgy Wednesday evening. To Answer Readily the Call. If, instead of just the Scripture for the day, I’d read the collect when I was typing the Sunday bulletin draft earlier in the week, I’d have stuck in our worship service the hymn “Jesus calls us, o’er the tumult.” 

And “As of old, St. Andrew heard it, by the Galilean Lake,” and mixing up Old St. Andrew and the sea it was personal to me all my growing up years and beyond. One must be mindful of the tune, though. Substituting for the tune Jesus himself sang, our hymnal revisers stuck in two rotgut tunes that raise my wrath and spoil my Sunday. It has to be the correct tune.

But the prayer. Prayer itself, actually. Does prayer “work” and is prayer “efficacious’? I can’t deny it, friends and loved ones raised the roof with prayer when I was at Cleveland Clinic five years ago, and here I am. My sister told me on the phone last night, that she and Walt knew for absolute certain that I was not going to die, never a doubt. Twenty years ago I raised a prayer for help with a temper issue I was having, and it worked beautifully, at least in some measure because I realized I couldn’t just dump it in God’s lap, I had to participate. For the past nearly two years, I’ve been dealing with an emotional issue that has kept me off balance, and last night it occurred to me, imagine that, that I’d not prayed for help with it; so I did, and am; and am dedicated to letting it go. It’s too deep, private, personal to share, so I’m on my own with it, but already sensing better. 

The saying is “God helps those who help themselves,” but I believe it’s helpful, maybe even necessary, to enlist God so as to be sure he’s on board and manning one of the oars. (You should pardon the political incorrectness of my theology of God as He. Father is He, though, nicht wahr, and Son also is He, no?  

I won’t be returning to this blogpost to report back though, because once God and I've worked through it, I’m not going back there.

Friday. Pax. Time to go walkabout.

Thos+