O God, our refuge and strength, who are the author of all
godliness: Be ready, we beseech thee, to hear the devout prayers of thy
Church; and grant that those things which we ask faithfully we may obtain
effectually; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The themes of this Sunday (heavenly-mindedness) and next Sunday (final
deliverance) fittingly draw the Trinity season to its close. The thought
and teaching of this whole season of the Church year is “holiness” and
our growth in that holiness which is the distinguishing mark of a Christian.
God has placed us by his grace into his Holy Catholic Church. We are to
be “crucified to the world.” We do not grow in holiness through a determined
effort of our own strength and will, but rather we submit our will to his,
rely on his grace, and discover his strength in our weakness. Each Collect
of this season has stressed the necessity of depending upon his grace for
our Christian growth and progress.
Today the Epistle and Gospel teach us that our true home is not on earth
but in heaven. We are exiles here, refugees waiting to be delivered to
our native country where we will discover who we truly are. As St. Augustine
said, “Our hearts, 0 Lord, are restless, until they may find their rest
in you.”
The Epistle makes it clear that “heaven” is not just something in the
distant future which has no bearing on us, but that the true Christian
life (which we have been trying to foster this Trinity season) now has
its citizenship in heaven. Our lifestyle is very different from the non-Christian’s,
“whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is
in their shame, who mind earthly things” (from the Epistle), because our
hope in the return of our Saviour Jesus Christ changes our very perception
of the world. It is as if the Holy City has come down from Heaven to meet
us on our way and we become “heavenly-minded” while still living on this
earth.
The Gospel has been chosen for this Sunday to remind us how our citizenship
in Heaven is related to our citizenship on earth. The Christian has a duty
to the world and community in which he lives, and to the powers by which
that world is governed. It is a great sin to make religion an excuse for
being careless in respect to any earthly duty, in regard to one’s family,
business, city, country, or regal authority. We do not mock these earthly
responsibilities, but return to them what we receive from them. Likewise
it is with God. God demands the return of everything we are to him, for
we ourselves are his.
The Collect addresses God alone as our refuge and strength and the author
of all godliness. This urges us to remember that earthly concerns and matters
can have no final satisfaction for us, bringing together the themes of
the Epistle (“our citizenship is in heaven”) and the Gospel (“render...unto
God the things that are God’s”). We then pray that God will hear the devout
prayers of his Church and that he would grant us those things that are
in accordance with his will for us. But how do we come to know what we
ought to ask for, and where do we learn to pray devoutly and ask faithfully?
The more we grow in holiness, the greater the knowledge we have of God’s
will for us, and we learn to submit our will cheerfully to his will for
our lives.
