kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth

Increase your grace within us

With this Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity we’re touching on a familiar subject. Regular readers of this blog will know that I don’t need much of an excuse to talk about God’s love for us. And praying for God’s grace to be increased within us gives me all the excuse I need. I think we learn about God’s grace because we experience his love; and in many ways the two terms are virtually interchangeable.

I believe there is one way in particular that we can experience an increase within us of God’s grace, of God’s love. And that is to give it away. Give it all away, and keep on giving it all away, it won’t diminish the amount of grace or love you yourself receive. In fact it will increase it. That’s an amazing thought, the more you give God’s love away, the more you experience it. And what’s even more incredible is that by giving it all away it will change and beautify you too.

The picture I’ve chosen to illustrate this post is a relatively mundane scene — it’s just some rooftops in silhouette, some clouds, and you can see the sunlight. But put them altogether and the scene is transformed into something quite beautiful by the sunlight spilling out from behind, and through, the clouds.

God’s grace and love are like that, and can transform our mundane lives into something amazing. When we allow God’s love to shine through us like the sunlight is shining through those clouds, our lives are transformed. We allow God’s love to shine through us like that by giving it away, by sharing it with all who we meet. Then, just as the cloud cannot hold all of the sunlight, God’s love will fill us to the point of overflowing, it will shine through us, it will transform us into the people God always meant us to be. That’s an ideal we should all be aiming for in our lives.

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace

Unexpected coincidences often amaze me, and leave me wondering if it’s God’s timing at work. I experienced one of those moments when I was reading the Additional Collect for this Sunday, The Fifth Sunday after Trinity. I looked at it soon after being tagged for the meme in my last blog post: Meme: what has God been teaching me? I was tagged by ElShaddai Edwards, and it was his response to the meme on his blog, “He is Sufficient”, that made me sit up and take notice when taken together with this Collect, or, at least, the phrase I’ve picked out to reflect on, “Kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace”.

ElShaddai talks about his conscience being pricked beyond the bounds of legalism. It sounds to me as though the Holy Spirit is moving him in a positive direction. I remarked in the comments on ElShaddai’s post about how easy I can find it to slip back into legalism, almost like a comfort blanket. When, really, the love and grace of God should be fulfilling that role for us.

And that’s really where I think the phrase, “Kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace”, comes in. Regular readers will probably not be surprised to see me thinking about “Love” again, I do it quite a lot. Whenever I’m preaching I always try to consider whether what I’m going to say fits with a God that loves each and every one of us as though we are the only to love. And if it doesn’t, then I have to wonder if it’s the right thing to be saying. I would be pretty hopeless as a “Fire and Brimstone” Preacher.

As ministers of the gospel I don’t think it’s a bad gauge for us to be measuring ourselves against, the Love of God. And even though I know I will frequently fall woefully short, it doesn’t mean I should stop striving towards that goal. All too often, though, I find myself clutching that comfort blanket of legalism.

You can probably tell from all this, that I’m a pretty mixed-up character at times. So this Collect will be a heartfelt prayer for me — especially when I’m preaching this Sunday.

Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Fifth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council