Lift high the Cross
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Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
That's our Collect, our Prayer of the Day for tomorrow, June 14th. In it we pray for two things: Truth, and Justice.
God's household the Church is more the crowd gathered in protest against evil racism than any pious assembly of folk inside a building under a Cross. The Church is how we treat those who are different from us outside the church building no matter what we say we believe inside the church building. The way of life we espouse and live is our Creed, not what we stand and say on Sunday mornings.
In the top photo, one of the signs lifted high reads
No JusticeNO PEACE
I'm for that Truth, that creed of life: No justice, no peace by God, seek it and make it so on earth as it is in heaven, come whence it may, cost what it will.
Antiracism is a Gospel imperative.
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Footnote
Our collect for this coming Sunday, June 14th. Because there's always someone there who wasn't there the last time I said it (or who didn't listen), I frequently recite my little mantra about collects. A collect is a short prayer that generally has a single petition. Its purpose is to collect everyone's attention and help us focus. In classic form, (which this collect is not) a collect consists of three parts: an Address to God (which generally has a specific theological assertion that we should take note of), a Petition that may summarize our theme and that also has theological implications, and a Closing that usually is in the Name of the Trinity. We have a specific Collect of (or for) the Day (at my Lutheran seminary it was called the Prayer of the Day) for each Sunday of the church year and for each of many more occasions. Often the collect for the day hints at what the theme is in the lectionary readings for the day. The collect is part of The Propers for the day. The propers include the Collect, the appointed Bible readings, and a Proper Preface for the priest to say during the Eucharistic Prayer.
The collect for Sunday seems to be about God's "household the church", which we like to say is not the building but the community of the faithful, living and dead, the church militant and the church triumphant. We don't necessarily think this way, but I suppose if God is eternal, sees and knows all that has been, all that is, and all that is yet to be, the Church ought to include all future faithful? So maybe Triumphant, Militant, and Prospectant?
So, the church is the people of God, in Christian terms, the Body of Christ. Which is also what we are served when handed the Communion bread. "The Body of Christ" makes good theological sense to me. To add "the Bread of Heaven" not so much, I don't know what it means. Is it what angels in heaven eat? Is it meant to be my ticket into the household of God? if so, I'm already there. Or my pass into heavenly afterlife? That's too speculative. I don't know what Lutherans say in worship these days, but when I was at Gettysburg Seminary, it was "The Body of Christ, broken for you", which is theologically sound.
As I write, I see that none of this rambling is what I want to say about the Church, so likely I'll cut and paste it as a footnote.
Which in fact I have now done.
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