Author(s)Dave Clancey
Date 17 April 2023

Almighty and most merciful God,

protect us, by your bountiful kindness,

from everything that may hurt us,

and make us ready both in body and soul

cheerfully to accomplish those things that you would have us do,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you”.  While we might not use the exact words, I wonder how often we think something similar about God? How often is our knowledge and trust in God’s goodness shaped (or shaken) by our assessment of what he should (or shouldn’t) do in any particular situation. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you”, becomes “God, you shouldn’t have done that to me, because I wouldn’t have if I were God.”

 

This collect is such a blessing to us. As we pray it we are having our hearts and minds shaped by rich truths of his word.  In this prayer we declare that God is almighty — he has full and perfect power. And he is most merciful and full of bountiful kindness — his disposition towards his children is so very very good.

 

In light of this we ask for his protection “from everything that may hurt us.” If we are to assess such a prayer against our experience we may doubt whether God has heard us!  For there is much which we endure which we feel does hurt us.

 

But might we consider two things: the first is that we don’t know what God has protected us from, for the very reason that we haven’t experienced it. What tragedy, what anguish, what horror and hurt we might have endured had God not heard and answered this prayer?

 

The second is that “what may hurt us” needs to be read in light of the rest of the collect. That which may hurt us is that which would stop us from accomplishing “those things that you would have us do”. The Epistle reading for the twentieth Sunday after Trinity is from Ephesians 5, in which the Lord calls on his people to live carefully before the world and corporately within the church — speaking his word and praising his name. Surely that which “may hurt us” is that which would stop us from “understanding what the Lord’s will is,” and doing it (Ephesians 5:17).

 

For there is both a protective, and a proactive, work of God in this collect. Our plea is that our whole lives, body and soul, might be given over to his work. Protected as we are, we long for the Lord to grant that we might cheerfully — with a whole-hearted-given-over-ness — accomplish what he calls us to. Wherever we are, however hard it is, no matter how much “we wouldn’t do it this way”, we can trust our merciful Lord has both permitted what is, and withheld what is not, so that we might serve him as he would have us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So pray this with me:

 

Almighty and most merciful God,

protect us, by your bountiful kindness,

from everything that may hurt us,

and make us ready both in body and soul

cheerfully to accomplish those things that you would have us do,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.