In church yesterday, the collect of the day certainly caught my attention. It was First Sunday in Lent – one of the collects on which I wrote for Faith of Followers. This collection of brief reflections on the collects of the Book of Common Prayer is newly published, so this is the first time round through the liturgical year since I finished this piece. The date didn’t particularly resonate with me until Father began the familiar words, “Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit … .”
It’s always a good thing for editors to contribute to publications other than their own, and this one was a particular stretch for me. (I came late to the “Collect Project,” and I have a hunch I got the collects others had already found it too hard to write about.) I felt pretty insecure about the whole thing, actually – hope that is enough to excuse the cramped and rather pompous style – and this is one of the few pieces I’ve ever written that I felt I needed to share with a few others before I was ready to submit. All the same, it was a marvelous experience to engage more closely with Thomas Cranmer’s magnificent prose. Here’s the collect, plus reflection:
First Sunday in Lent
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Clearly, Lent is here. This urgent plea for help begins our worship, and it’s a prayer that does not shy away from uncomfortable, old-fashioned truths. Satan, temptations, weaknesses: some hour-by-hour realities of our human nature that our I’m-okay age prefers not to contemplate.
Luckily, we’re not in this alone. This collect finds us vulnerable amongst our neighbors just as we are brought together in worshipping community with them. For a gathering prayer, though, this feels curiously targeted in its focus. Singularly among the Lenten collects, it is not only mindful of “us who are assaulted by many temptations” but attentive to “our several weaknesses,” as the language of the traditional version has it. “And, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save.” As part of the body of Christ, we celebrate our individual gifts; it is harder to examine the reverse of the coin.
And then there is the God who loves us, and who is mighty to save. His own Son partook of our human frailty, led by the Spirit to be tempted, too. There is compassion, then – a suffering with us in our weakness, an inclination to mercy.
“Mighty to save”: What a marvelous phrase! “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) How secure we are in this all-powerful God who is quick to rescue us even as we are tempted away from Him. Like a watchful parent, he lets us roam only so far before he scoops us up – an errant toddler restored to laughing safety in loving arms.
