Gifts

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Collect for this Sunday, August 7, Proper 14,Year C, is short and to the point … in “collecting” the essence of the readings that follow. Depending on the reading, and there are a lot of them to choose from, they try to point out that God’s people are special because God has chosen them to live with a certain difference in their actions and hopes and dreams and in the values they try to live by and share with others. 

Listen to the first words of the Collect: “Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we who can not exist without you ….” Wait a minute! Just “spirit”! We need  a whole lot more than that to be good people. What about family up-bringing, and an adequate education, and skill training … and just a little good luck?

Of course those things are important, but the Collect wants us to pay attention to another gift: “Grant us the spirit… to think and do…” . All the authors of the readings today ( and on most Sundays,) are clear that we are a people of the Spirit, God’s Spirit, and along with flesh and bones and brains and muscles, we are given a spirit, God’s gift to us all. Granted it is mysterious, hard to explain or describe. This spirit is a kind of spiritual energy, a spiritual curiosity that encourages us to look beyond our selves to find God ever present in our lives.

Many pay no attention to this gift. Many think they do not need it. They think they are self-made individuals. And yet they see it in others, but do not ask for themselves. This Collect gives us all the chance to ask God for the spirit to think and do what is right ….  and to be thoroughly surprised when we thought we could do nothing extraordinary, and a new world of  good things and challenging opportunities and  remarkable people begin to enter our lives.  

- by the Rt. Rev. Don Hart