Lament your wretched sins
Almighty and eternal God,
you hate nothing that you have made,
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent;
create and make in us new and contrite hearts,
so that we, lamenting our sins,
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
This Collect reminds us that in the penitence and mourning of the forty days of Lent (when this prayer is meant to be said daily), as we focus on our sinfulness and our need of forgiveness, God is on our side. I’ve found four great encouragements:
God does not hate you. This can come as a surprise to us: it’s something that I certainly sometimes forget. Although he is a holy and righteous judge, the everlasting, all powerful God is for us. “God saw all that he had made and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). He hates nothing that he has made, from the beginning of time right until the end — he is our loving creator. He made each and every individual; he made our local churches; and he even made the Church of England. In all our fallenness and brokenness, he loves us and wants us to come to him. So thank him now for his great love for you.
God forgives you when you repent. When Thomas Cranmer wrote this collect he removed all reference to things that we do, because God’s forgiveness cannot be earned. But it’s no cheap offering: as we know, it’s at the supreme cost — the life of the Lord Jesus. But if we come to him in all our mess, with our shame, our disgrace, our inability to choose the good, he is there waiting. He is there to welcome us: “under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:4). Spend some time confessing your sins to him, confident of his forgiveness, freely given in Christ.
God can change your heart. We need new hearts. As Ashley Null summarises it, ‘what the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.’[1] So we ask God for new hearts to love anew so that we may have new wills and renewed minds. We need contrite hearts which will continually turn back as we find ourselves straying once again into sinful paths: “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Let us pray this for ourselves and for the Church of England, and for brothers and sisters in global Anglicanism. Let’s pray that every heart will be broken before God, and made new in Christ.
God in his mercy gives you his grace. As we reflect on our sinfulness, feelings of sadness and despair can easily overwhelm us. We lament, we feel wretched. But the God of all mercy offers us perfect remission and forgiveness — what more can we need or want? Our debts are paid, our offences are forgiven and all through Jesus Christ our Lord, “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14). Praise him for all his mercy towards us. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
So pray this with me:
Almighty and eternal God,
you hate nothing that you have made,
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent;
create and make in us new and contrite hearts,
so that we, lamenting our sins,
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
[1] https://acl.asn.au/resources/dr-ashley-null-on-thomas-cranmer/