Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, unto Thy Church Thy Holy Spirit and the wisdom which cometh down from above, that Thy Word, as becomes it, may not be bound, but have free course and be preached to the joy and edifying of Christ’s holy people, that in steadfast faith we may serve Thee and in the confession of Thy name abide unto the end; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
There is something called serendipity. It is that thing that happens when you hear a word you have never heard before in your life and then you hear several more times in a day. It is thinking of someone you haven’t heard from for a a while and they call you “out of the blue”.
The Collect for the Church is also listed as one of the prayers for the 1st Sunday in Advent, the first Sunday of a New Church year. Yesterday as we prayed it in church it struck me once again as an interesting prayer. Today in some of the reading that I had set aside I found several old articles in which preachres talk about the way the word can be “bound”.
The prayer alludes to 2 Timothy 2 – 8Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David, as proclaimed by my gospel, 9for which I suffer to the extent of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained! 10For this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.…
If the Word of God cannot be bound or chained why do we pray that it won’t be bound or chained among us? There are some interesting answers and questions we will think about because the answers impact mercy and mission.
