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The Collect read in church on October 1 O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. These days, Monday Matters offers reflections on the prayers we say in church on Sunday, the collect of the day. We do this based on the conviction that praying shapes our believing, that what we pray forms us. We do this hoping that the prayers we say on Sunday will carry us through the week. |
Holy busyness
Red says to Andy DeFresne: Get busy living or get busy dying. For me, that may be the most memorable line from Shawshank Redemption, a movie I could watch again and again. It is to say that we are all busy with something.
The collect heard in church yesterday (above) suggests that we are all running, in the case of the prayer, running to obtain God’s promises. It presumes that wherever we are in life, we are not standing still. We are on the move. Pope Francis preached a homily in which he said that there was no such thing as a stationary Christian. He said that a Christian is meant to move, that a stationary Christian is sick in his or her identity.
I’m with Red. We’re all busy with something. All running after something, whether it’s a lightning-fast sprint or slogging jog. We live in a culture that seems to regard busyness as measure of worth. I rarely meet anyone who does not describe themselves as busy.
With that in mind, it’s worth channeling the wisdom of Henry David Thoreau who said: It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? This Monday morning, I’m wondering what you are running to obtain. What’s keeping you busy these days?
A colleague used to wear this button in Advent: Jesus is coming. Look busy.
What would it mean to run to obtain God’s promises, to be busy in that way? Do we have role models? Jesus would often steal off by himself to pray. When I read about that in the gospels, my over-functioning self wonders: You had three years to redeem the world. Aren’t you too busy to spend time that way? Martin Luther, who had the modest mission of reforming all of Europe, said: I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer. A favorite book, The Book of Joy, describes the friendship between Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. At one point, they enter a playful competition about who prays the most. Desmond Tutu gets up at 4am for an extended period of prayer. The Dalai Lama outpaces him, getting up at 3am to pray.
All of which is to say that holy busyness is not necessarily about more activity. As one pastor put it: More church activity does not mean more spiritual growth. Exhausted clergy know that.
Back to my question: What are you running to obtain? What are you running for? The call of the collect is to keep our eyes on the prize, a heavenly treasure. What’s involved in that process? It’s about spiritual practice. About spiritual exercise. A rector I admire named Doyt Conn compares his church to a gym, a spiritual gym, where people come to be strengthened, where faith is exercised. That can be a regular commitment to engagement with scripture. It can be daily quiet time, exploring the habits of prayer. It can be convening with others for worship, gaining sustenance from the sacrament. It can be a commitment to service, where we come to see the face of Christ in the faces of people in need, wherever we find them.
There are days when I feel like engaging with these practices. There are days I don’t. Sometimes I’m running on empty, spiritually. I’ve concluded that it doesn’t really matter how I feel. Jay, just do it. In so doing, I have the hope of joining St. Paul who said toward the end of his life: I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. (II Timothy 4.7)
This is not a matter of our superior will power driving us to this spiritual life. This is not teeth-gritting Christianity. As the collect indicates, we ask for the grace to run the race, to obtain God’s promises. That means the God is with us in all these undertakings. God’s power is available to us, available as a sign of his mercy.
As you run around this week, busy being busy, consider what it means to run to obtain God’s promises. What does that road race look like in your life?
-Jay Sidebotham
