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God’s Great Mercy
“O God, who declarest thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity; Mercifully grant unto us such measure of thy grace, that we running to obtain thy promises, may be partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”
Proper 21 from the Book of Common Prayer, p. 182
Something that you should know about me is that I love Collects. These written prayers often make me pause and reflect upon what that prayer is saying about God and what the Collect is calling us to do. In Proper 21, we find that God is described as a powerful God who shows His power in a particular way, showing mercy and pity. The prayer goes on to ask God to grant us a measure of grace while running to obtain the promises that God has for us.
What gave me pause when praying this Proper is in how our almighty and powerful God is described in ways that are not forceful or usually associated with the powerful: mercy and pity. Considering how we are to model our lives after what we believe God expects of us, it seems that showing mercy and pity are actions of God, and we are to do so as well.
Sometimes mercy seems so hard to show, other times it is easy. I often struggle to show mercy on the highway when there have been miles of signs telling drivers that the right lane is ending and I merge over and then begin to wait in traffic. I find it difficult when I reach the point where the lane ends and someone flies past waiting traffic and cuts in at the last moment, almost buying me a new fender in the process. These are moments where I find showing mercy and pity the most difficult. Maybe you have different moments and times where mercy is hard to show.
“… running to obtain thy promises …” I love this image. We are not praying for a stale and stagnant grace while we are sitting. No, we are praying for grace while we are on the move. This collect captures an action-oriented people who are doing the hard and sometimes exhausting work of showing up for others, praying when we tired and leading and participating in the ministries in which God has called us.
Pray this Collect, ask God to show you where you are being called to run and to whom to show mercy this day.
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