Meditating on Proper 10: Merciful Heavens!

 

Proper 10

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I remember hearing (many years ago) someone arguing that God cannot hear the prayers of a sinner unless the sinner starts off asking God to forgive them. Without that, their prayers will go unanswered. For those who are right with God (sometimes called the “righteous”), God hears their prayers (or is willing and able to hear them), and God will usually answer in one of three ways: Yes, No, or Not Yet.

I don’t know if any of that is true. The wicked seem to prosper just fine, regardless of whether or not their prayers are heard, or whether or not they even pray or believe in God. The righteous seem to suffer, or at least that’s how it looks to the cynic and/or the righteous. We do the right things (did you note which camp I just put myself into?) and yet life still seems more of a struggle than we might want or desire.

In our collect today, we pray God to “mercifully receive the prayers of [their] people who call upon [them]. Why “mercifully”? 

I confess I’m not much for groveling. Yes, I know God is God of the Universe – Almighty, All Powerful, All Knowing, All Present – and it seems one would want (or need) to approach God the way one might approach a beneficent emperor, king, or CEO. One just doesn’t walk off the street into the Oval Office for a quick chat with the one whose finger is always hovering over the nuclear button. There are protocols and aides and people in place to make sure only the right people make it into that special room. 

So this prayer has a sense of humility: “let’s not presume to just saunter up to the Throne of Grace and assume the Divine has time for us.” I would hate to think a basketball bounced off the rim instead of dropping through for a “swish” just because the Almighty got sidetracked or distracted because of some casual encounter with someone brazen enough to waltz in on Them uninvited!

On the other hand, our prayers do not imply that God is limited, or that God can be distracted (and that our favorite teams may have won or lost because we decided to pray at an inopportune time). Rather, our request for mercy is to remind US that we are approaching the Divine. We’re being polite, just as we would be if we stepped up to a triad at coffee hour and wanted to either join in on the conversation or pull one of them aside for a special message. We usually clear our throats or say, “Excuse me,” or “Pardon me,” or some such. It’s a courtesy. If we can be courteous to our fellow conversationalists, how much more courteous should we be when approaching the Judgment Seat of the Almighty? 

Rather than thinking of or addressing God as the Mighty One, Jesus has invited us to call upon God as Father / Mother / Familial Unit. I may have approached my own parents with some fear and trembling when preparing to share bad news (or my childhood report cards!), but mostly I approached them as the loving souls they were. In a similar manner, we don’t approach God hoping (with fingers crossed) that God will allow us to approach them, but knowing they WILL stop what they’re doing to listen, not because they’re not busy, but because we’re their children and loved. As such, we are always welcomed and even “expected” to draw near to make our needs known.

So our “mercifully” is predicated on gratitude. We have a God who is ALWAYS willing to receive our prayers. And what is it we are asking God to help us do? 

“Grant that (we) may know and understand what things we ought to do … and have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them …” 

Oh. We are asking God to help us know and understand what WE are supposed to do. Us? But isn’t prayer asking God to do something about the terrible mess the world is in? Visit the sick and dying? Visit the lonely? Feed the hungry? Give drink to the thirsty? Release to the captives? Isn’t that God’s job? Yes, but God does it through us.

We’re asking God to help us get up off our knees and do the work God has given us to do. Help us to stop standing back waiting for someone else to do something about the things we don’t like. If thoughts and prayers aren’t getting the job done, then write letters to our political leaders. If letters aren’t getting the job done, then get up and march. If marching isn’t getting the job done, then organize and do what you can locally. If you won’t do any of that, then what on earth are you bothering to pray for? 

As Saint Augustine once said, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.” This Collect reminds us that we are in partnership with God, the Merciful One.