Help us to hear the call of Christ
Help us to hear the call of Christ
When I read this phrase, “Help us to hear the call of Christ”, from the Additional Collect for the feast of Christ the King, I’m reminded of that great Old Testament story of the call of Samuel — 1 Samuel 3. This is perhaps one of the best-known stories in the Old Testament.
Samuel was serving in the Temple in the time of Eli. He was confused when he heard God calling him, thinking it was the aged and frail Eli. Twice he ran to Eli on hearing God’s call in the night, before Eli realized that it was God himself calling Samuel. The third time he heard the call he followed Eli’s advice and answered God.
It’s a lovely story, with the frail old mentor guiding the young and willing Samuel to hear and understand that it was God calling him to his service.
If only we all had an Eli around to help and guide us. Discerning Christ’s call on our lives can be such a difficult process. And so, because we don’t have Eli sleeping in the next room to us, we turn to prayer.
When we pray for guidance, though, we need to remember to listen for an answer. It’s all too easy to find ourselves praying a shopping list and leaving no space to hear an answer. I catch myself doing it much more than I would really want too, and am sure there are many occasions I don’t even realize that’s what I’ve done. By allowing space to hear an answer we may just hear the call of Christ, and then be able to follow in his service, no matter what else is happening in our lives at the time.
God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory. Amen.Additional Collect for Christ the King
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council
I’m sure the astute amongst you will have spotted that I shortened the phrase from the Collect, and have, probably, missed an opportunity by not writing about this being the feast of Christ the King, and the last Sunday in the Church’s liturgical calendar. When I write these short reflections on a phrase from the Collect, I tend to pick on just that, a phrase, and don’t necessarily feel bound by the lectionary. Also, I write what I need to hear — much the same as I do when I preach, when I do need to stick much more closely to the lectionary.
Revive in us new hope
In the last week or so we’ve spent much time remembering the past, and remembering specifically some pretty horrific aspects of that past. We do need to remember those things, and to learn from those mistakes. Alongside those memories there has been a lot happening in the present that isn’t so good, particularly the economic problems we’re all facing. But it’s all too easy to get so caught up in remembering the bad things, and the current problems, that we begin to lose sight of the Christian hope. The memories of the past, and the problems we face in the present, can depress us, and rob us of our futures — the future that people fought to give us.
Christian hope doesn’t mean living in the clouds while we dream of a better life. It isn’t just a projection of what we would like to be, or what we’d like to do. Because of the identity of our God, and because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Christian hope leads us to discover seeds of a new world already present today. It’s a source of energy to live differently, not according to the values of a society based on the thirst for possession and competition.
Hoping means first of all discovering in the depths of the present a life that leads forward and that nothing is able to stop. It also means welcoming this life by a “yes” spoken by our whole being. As we embark on this life, we’re lead to create signs of a different future here and now, in the midst of the difficulties of the world, seeds of renewal that will bear fruit when the time comes.
That’s the hope we pray will be revived in us in this week’s Collect, on this Second Sunday before Advent. With that hope flowing through humanity the whole of creation can be healed.
Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Additional Collect for The Second Sunday before Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council