Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness and minister your justice with compassion Amen. (BCP, p. 230)
What
an absolutely wonderful prayer: a prayer asking God to be with us always, to
give us faith, and to love us always. A prayer that not only ask God’s presence
but reminds us that God is present with us, even when we do not remember to ask
for that presence. God’s steadfast faith and love is the firm foundation for
our lives that Jesus tells us about in the parable of the wise man who built
his house, not on sand, but on solid rock.
Through
this promise God gives us the strength and courage to live into His plan for
us. God’s plan and desire for us is two-fold. First, God desires for us to
“Proclaim his truth with boldness. Secondly and just as important, God desires
for us to minister his justice with compassion. Boldness and compassion! Two
foundational characteristics of God and for God’s People.
According to St. Paul, it is “the love of
Christ that urges us on, so that those who live might live no longer for
themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. So, if anyone is in
Christ, he or she is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see,
everything has become new! (2 Corinthians
5:14-17) Being made new, we pray that
we see the world and other people through the eyes of Christ: that even though different in knowledge and skills, in
background and opportunity, we see that we
are all God’s children and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ.
As new creations in Jesus
Christ, we proclaim God’s truth with boldness, not only when we affirm “Christ
has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again, but also when we give “one
of these, God’s Children, a cup of water in Jesus’ name, thus proclaiming by
world and example the good news of God in Christ.” Truth, proclamation, and
ministry cannot be separated: As James the brother of Jesus proclaims in his
New Testament letter, “what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if
you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a
brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to
them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply
their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So, faith by itself, if it
has no works, is dead. Some will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ I say,
‘Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.’”
(James 2:14-18)
I leave you with two questions that all of us who
follow just must ask ourselves:
“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons,
loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among
all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
I pray that God will give us all the grace to answer:
“I will with God’s help!”
