In the Church of England our readings and Collects, today, encourage us to think about the Creation; and today, The Second Sunday before Lent, is sometimes referred to as Creation Sunday.

I don’t really think, at least in my experience, that enough is made of Creation Sunday. It would be good for all of us to think more about creation sometimes. And that doesn’t always have to encompass the thorny theological issues surrounding a literal six-day creation, or intelligent design, or evolution. We pray in this collect that we’ll be given reverence for all creation, not just the big issues.

God has created a world which is, in many places, of outstanding beauty. And yet he has shared the work of creation with us human beings. And having done so, he relies on us to bring his creative work to completion.

Art, music, and drama are the most obviously creative human activities. But many of the day-to-day things we do, and the relationships we build, show that we’re made in the image of God the Creator. Plant flowers in a garden, or arrange them in your house; wrestle to find the right words to say or write; cook an imaginative meal; teach unruly children to behave in a civilised manner; these, and numerous others, are all creative acts, acts through which we share with God in creating the world as he wants it to be.

When we behave creatively, we’re acting on God’s behalf, as his hands. We should concentrate on the many different chances God gives us to be creative. Enjoy them, and do them as well as we can, for in these ways we are acting as agents of God the Creator; in these ways we will give reverence for all creation.

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Second Sunday before Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

The love our God gives to each one of us, as witnessed to in the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a truly wonderful thing. Today’s Collect, for The Third Sunday before Lent, reminds us that, amazing as that love is, and as much as we might want to hang on to it, we are not to keep it for ourselves. But we’re to allow that love to transform each of us into the image of Christ, and then to show that same love to those around us. Sadly, that isn’t always the image individual Christians project to those around them.

And that isn’t something we should only be doing on a personal level. We should also, as a corporate body, that is the Church, be absorbing God’s love, and then passing it on to others too. Sadly, that isn’t always the image the Church projects to those around it.

The amazing thing is, the more we can become a channel for God’s love to others, the more we will appreciate it, and gain from it ourselves. Not that we will actually receive more, God already loves each and every one of us as much as if we were the only ones to love. But we will gain more from the love we are already receiving.

So let us, personally and corporately, become channels for God’s love to flow out to the world. That may mean letting go of the crutches of prejudice, judgementalism, and too many other negative viewpoints. And that may well be quite a scary place to go to. But our Lord Jesus Christ will walk that journey with us, and God’s love will sustain us, if we’ll let it.

Eternal God,
whose Son went among the crowds
and brought healing with his touch:
help us to show his love,
in your Church as we gather together,
and by our lives transformed
     into the image of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Third Sunday before Lent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Sometime around the middle of the nineteenth century, Frederick Faber wrote the hymn, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy”. That would have been soon after he converted from Anglicism to Catholicism, and founded what was to become the Brompton Oratory in Kensington. Before that he’d spent a couple of years as Rector of the Parish of Elton, in Huntingdonshire, which isn’t far from where I live.

It’s a wonderful hymn. When you read the words you can understand the sentiment of William Wordsworth, when he wrote to Faber after he’d decided to take Holy Orders, “I do not say you are wrong, but England loses a poet”. It’s thought that he wrote this, along with others he wrote, to try and increase the importance of hymn singing in the Catholic Church; he’d always been impressed by the power of hymns in the Protestant tradition.

This hymn says, far better than I ever could, what I would want to say about today’s Collect — The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. Please, read the words, take them to heart, and trust in their truth.

You can discover much more about Frederick William Faber on the Diocese of Ely website.

Merciful God,
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
now and in all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

I really like the psalms. When we read them, and especially when we worship with them, we are connecting with people who have done the same since well before the time of Jesus. In fact, Jesus himself, would’ve used the psalms as a part of his worship experience in the synagogues. I have many favourites amongst the psalms, they’ll vary according to how I’m feeling at the time. But one that is always close to the top of the list, is Psalm 139. Here are the first six verses:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
   O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
   and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
   it is so high that I cannot attain it.

In some ways it can be quite a disconcerting thought, to think that God knows each of us so intimately. We can’t lie to God; he already knows the truth. He does, in fact, know us far better than we will ever know ourselves. He knows all about our daily lives, when we sit, and when we rise. He knows all our ways, our mannerisms and character traits, our motives and goals. He even knows what we’re going to say and think, even before we do. That can be a disconcerting thought indeed.

But it can be a comforting thought too. We don’t have to put on airs and graces or pretend with God; he already knows us. We don’t have to try and be the person we think others want us to be; he already knows who we really are. It’s the real person deep down inside that God wants, and calls into his service.

Despite him knowing us so intimately, knowing all the bad things in our lives and character as well as the good, already knowing the things about us that we’re ashamed of, as well as those we’re proud of, he still loves us. God loves the real us, the real me — warts and all!

It’s because of that love that we can rely on him in strength, and rest on him in weakness.

Almighty God,
you search us and know us:
may we rely on you in strength
and rest on you in weakness,
now and in all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

Today is the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. The phrase I want to reflect on this week is, “Increase your grace within us”. I tend to think the terms, “God’s grace” and “God’s love”, are more or less interchangeable. So when I pray for God’s grace to be increased within me, I’m praying for God’s love to be increased within me.

I think there’s one particularly special way we can all experience an increase of God’s grace, his love, within each one of us. Give it away! Give it all away! And keep on giving as much of it away as you possibly can. And the amazing thing is, it won’t diminish what you yourself receive. Just the opposite in fact, it will increase it. The more you give God’s love away, the more you yourself will experience it. And the more you experience it, the more it will change you into the person God calls each of us to be.

The picture above is one that used to be in the header of the blog, so some of you may recognize it. It’s a picture taken of what is usually quite a mundane scene, looking out over the rooftops of the Oxmoor Estate in Huntingdon, where I live — I took it in our back garden. That mundane scene of a few rooftops, a few trees, some clouds and a bit of sunlight, have been transformed by coming together in just the right conditions into something really quite staggering. I’d never seen colours so vibrant in the sky before.

God’s grace and love are a little like those “just right” conditions, and can transform our lives from the mundane into something really quite amazing. When we allow God’s love to shine in our lives, like the sun is shining in that picture, it can transform them into something amazing. And one of the best, and easiest, ways to allow God’s love to shine in and through us is by giving it away, sharing it with everyone we meet. In that way, God’s love and grace will transform us into the amazing people he always meant us to be … even me. Not a bad ideal to be aiming for.

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.

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

There are, it seems, many people today who are searching for something, yet not really knowing what it is they seek — something spiritual, outside of themselves. It may not always seem so, but it looks to me as though we live in a very spiritual world, possibly more so than it has been for many years.

But that spirituality is largely unfocussed. Many people know they want and need something greater than themselves, but fail to find it. We don’t hear quite so much about it nowadays, but I think that’s what much of the New Age movement was all about. It’s still visible in many a High Street though. In lots of larger towns, and even some smaller ones, it’s easier to buy New Age crystals and the like, than it is to buy a Bible.

I must admit that I don’t really understand a great deal about the New Age movement. And the last thing I would want to do in this post is to criticize or denigrate anyone’s sincerely held beliefs; and hope that isn’t how this is coming across. I’m really only using the New Age movement as an example of people’s searching for a spirituality outside of themselves.

Our Collect for today, the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, shows where my own searching has taken me. I’ve been lucky enough that my search should be fulfilled so close to where I started. For me, the God of glory is the end of my searching; the God of glory is the pearl beyond all price. And even more importantly, it’s the Church I grew up attending that has helped me discover that.

The Church, as a whole, hasn’t been especially good at self-promotion over the years. Had it been, maybe many who are still searching, or not found fulfilment where they have finished up — whether that be within the New Age movement, or anywhere else — would have been less quick to dismiss it as a possibility.

But there is a responsibility for each of us who carry God in our hearts to build bridges, or at least begin to, between ourselves and those searching. Not necessarily to convert everyone to our own particular brand of theology, but to open the channels for God’s love to flow through — and who knows what might happen then. And I think it’s important that we build those bridges, open those channels, between ourselves too, across the various denominations within the Church.

I wish I could say that I always take every opportunity that presents itself to start building bridges myself, but I fall far short of that ideal. I am trying though, and will keep on trying. I really do want other people to find what I’ve found.

God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.

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

Today is The Tenth Sunday after Trinity, ten weeks into the main block of Ordinary Time in the Church’s liturgical calendar. In the great Seasons, Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter, we focus on the key Christian events. In Ordinary Time we explore the richness of Christ and Christianity in all their aspects. And today, I think this Collect touches on one of the most important aspects — hope.

But what is this hope, the Christian hope, we’re praying that we’ll never lose?

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.

In the face of an ever more sceptical secular society it will take patience and courage to truly live that life, to truly live the Christian hope. Patience to wait for the seeds of renewal to appear and to germinate. And courage to live differently, and opt out of the thirst for possessions. But that is, I believe, where our true calling as Christians leads us — to live the Christian hope in today’s world.

Lord of heaven and earth,
as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer,
give us patience and courage never to lose hope,
but always to bring our prayers before you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

Today is the Ninth Sunday after Trinity. The phrase I want to pick up on from today’s Collect is, “Revive your Church in our day”. I wonder how “revival” might come to today’s Church, and especially to the Church of England.

The Church of England has, for some years now, been attempting to encourage a revival, or new growth. Along with the Methodist Church, they set up Fresh Expressions, which encourages new forms of church for a fast changing world, working with Christians from a variety of denominations and traditions. It was initiated by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the Methodist Council. As I understand what Fresh Expressions is about, I think it’s an incredibly important initiative, and is doing great work in bringing people into the Church.

But what about revival for those already in the Church? I’m sure there are many in the Church who are benefiting from the Fresh Expressions movement, but I don’t think they’re who it’s primarily aimed at. It would appear, from the various statistics published, there are as many, if not more, leaving the Church as there are new people coming in. Should we be looking to change, or should we stay the same?

The answer seems quite obvious at first, we should change. If things were right as they are, people wouldn’t be leaving. But I’m not so sure the answer is as clear-cut as that. I’m not against Fresh Expressions or change in general, but I do like to think that change is being made for the right reasons, not just for the sake of it. I’m not like some Anglicans:

I particularly like a Book of Common Prayer Evensong, and think there is space within our Churches for more services from that part of our heritage. I love the timeless nature of the Book of Common Prayer, and the feeling it gives of joining with Christians in prayer over many centuries. However, as much as I love and value the Book of Common Prayer, I wouldn’t want it for all services. I would cope if it were all we had, but there has been a great deal of excellent work done in recent years on our liturgy, culminating in Common Worship; though I’m still most comfortable with a relatively traditional service.

There are many Church congregations around who, like me, are more comfortable with the relatively traditional styles of worship. There are also many Church congregations around who find the traditional tedious, and want their worship to be lively and modern. One of the big strengths of the Church of England, and Anglicanism in general, is that it can, and does, support both extremes of that, and much more in between.

Revival might mean learning to do what we already do better. We need to be open for, and willing to, change, when that change is right for that particular congregation. But we also need to be open to, and willing to, stay the same, or even revert to former ways, when that is right for a particular congregation.

Revival amongst our current congregations will make them vibrant and far more appealing to those from outside. Revival may come through what we have already that is good, as well as that which is new, from the likes of Fresh Expressions. We need to learn to embrace it, however it comes, and however we’re led into by God.

Gracious Father,
revive your Church in our day,
and make her holy, strong and faithful,
for your glory’s sake
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

I don’t think of myself as being prosperous, far from it in fact. On a continuum with “prosperous” at one end and “needy” at the other, I would generally put myself closer to the “needy” end — closer to, “when we are needy save us from despair” than, “when we prosper save us from pride” from this Collect for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity.

But, in reality, that would be comparing myself with the society I live in — a society that would be considered prosperous in comparison to many other societies around the world. Comparing myself to many millions of people from all around the world, I would find myself in a very different place on that continuum — much closer to the “prosperous” end.

I’m sitting here in front of a reasonably good computer, accessing the internet and writing a blog post on a website on my own domain name. All of this costs money. There are far too many people around the world that would be grateful just for the chair.

I drive a nice car, not very old — being able to lease a car at favourable rates is one of the very few advantages to the health problems I have. But, nevertheless, it still costs money. There are far too many people around the world who would be grateful just for one of the tyres, to turn into makeshift footwear.

I haven’t decided yet what I’ll be having for dinner later, but I have plenty to choose from, and it’ll be reasonably easy to prepare. This does, of course, cost money. There are far too many people around the world who would be grateful just for a piece of bread to assuage their hunger.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. If you’re reading this you must, like me, be much closer to the “prosperous” end of the continuum than you are to the “needy” end.

It’s all too easy to only concern ourselves with how things are in our immediate vicinity, and despair because of our neediness can overtake us. I know that is something I’m guilty of. So I would generally be much closer to “despair” than “pride”. But this Collect reminds us that both are wrong; and that we should put our trust in God alone. It’s a great “ideal” to aim for, but not so easy to achieve in practise.

In amongst the Additional Collects, that I reflect on each week here, there are one or two prayers in each season that are designated to be suitable for use instead of one that’s set for the day. This week’s is one of those Collects. I guess that helps to highlight the importance of what we’re praying for — learning to trust more in God, and his providence.

A good prayer to be praying methinks.

Lord God,
your Son left the riches of heaven
and became poor for our sake:
when we prosper save us from pride,
when we are needy save us from despair,
that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

Today’s Collect, for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, gets me thinking about the spiritual gifts. I must admit to being somewhat sceptical of some of the big outpourings of the “gifts of the spirit” and have tended to avoid them. I guess, in this particular thing, I’m a little like Thomas, and need to see things for myself. But I do know that there are some very sincere people who have been affected by these events, and set great store by them.

However, I do at least try to keep an open mind; and certainly don’t want to limit God by keeping him in my particular box. Who knows, one day something may happen that turns my scepticism around completely; in which case I would want to celebrate those new insights.

My own, somewhat more conservative, thoughts on the spiritual gifts go something like this:

There are several instances recorded in the book of Acts in which the apostles were involved in healing and casting out demons (3:2-16; 5:12-16; 9:36-42; 20:6-12; 28:1-6). These miracles helped to give validity to the apostles’ teaching. Only two people who weren’t apostles were said to have performed miracles: both specially commissioned “deacons” (Acts 6:5), Stephen (Acts 6:8) and Philip (Acts 8:5-13).

The apostles had a unique function to play in the establishment of the early church. Ephesians 2:20 tells us that the church was “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone”. Paul spoke of miracles being the mark of a true apostle. Describing his own ministry he wrote, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, signs and wonders and mighty works” (2 Corinthians 12:12).

Nowhere in the New Testament do we find believers in general performing the same types of dramatic miracles as the apostles do. The apostles were commissioned especially for the founding stage of the church.

I don’t think we need dramatic “signs and wonders” to mature or minister, we can do both without the drama.

Despite all the protests to the contrary, those who promote the use of “spiritual gifts” — such as: speaking in tongues; healing; words of knowledge; prophetic utterances; and ecstatic feelings — do exert an intimidating force on those who don’t share their experiences, or question their validity. I’ve been on the receiving end of that intimidation, and the urge to conform was immense, and, I believe, not from God.

Paul warned the Corinthian believers against false teachers who were trying to force them into submission with incredible claims of spiritual authority (2 Corinthians 11:1-15). These “super-apostles” even claimed to be superior to Paul. He was concerned that the believers may be led astray from the simple truth of the gospel.

We would be naive to think that we don’t face the same threat today. That’s why we must carefully examine our faith, evaluate what we’re being told, and test all things by what God has said in the Bible.

As I said in my opening paragraph, I do know people who have been affected by these “spiritual gifts”, and wouldn’t really want to question their validity, or limit God by putting him into my particular box. I’m just not totally convinced myself, and tend towards this far more conservative stance. But I am open to other ideas, and will listen to, and respect, the position of others.

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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