Hoping for the Best

I am sure you have heard the phrase, “Be careful what you wish for.” It is based on the tough lesson that sometimes getting what you want is more troubling than not getting it. The child asks for a pony, and the parent is thinking, “Have you any idea what goes into caring for such an animal?” The novice gardener happily thinks, “Great, I can plant that extra half acre of property I have, edge to edge. What fun that will be!” These are examples you will likely not have to contend with, still, you see the principle. Sometimes what we are hoping for will have an impact we are not fully considering. It might also be, that what we seek is so important, we ask, no matter the radical effect

Consider the request made to God through the prayer for 3 Advent. This Collect, coming up, asks the Holy One, right up front, “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us.” Yikes, are you sure that is what you want? You are addressing the Almighty, and you are asking the Omnipotent to come with might to your life-setting. The follow-up request is to buffer the intensity of divine action with loads of grace and mercy, given we are entirely tangled up in the effects of sin. Take a look at the prayer in its entirety:

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Notice too, the extra request that the help come right away, and it is the means of deliverance. This is different in form from most collects. Most have one request that comes after descriptive addressing of the Divine. Most add results anticipated by the fulfillment of the petition. This prayer begins with a request. It is a sign of an urgently felt need. This has three requests: 1. Come with power, 2. bring grace and mercy—given the mess we are in, and 3. make it snappy with this saving help.

Actually, the boldness of this triple-petition should not surprise us. The desperation of people in the world is pronounced. I may have been shielded from the worst things humans endure; you may have, but billions suffer unimaginably in this big strife-torn world. We should quickly add, even the circumstantially protected find themselves vulnerable, find themselves eventually contending with things that break their hearts, devastate their health, and dismantle their wills to press on. We understandably make desperate and bold pleas to the God of grace and mercy to come help because of the seriousness of our need as human beings.

This is an aside, but the beginning two words of the prayer, “Stir up” was, in the 1662 English prayer book, the opening of the collect for the last Sunday of the “Trinity season,” right before Advent started. Some nick-named the day “Stir-up Sunday” and they used it as the time to start their Christmas baking. Sounds right out of “Downton Abby”, or the “Vicar of Dibley”, doesn’t it? It was extra well-suited for the light-hearted application because it also uses the word “fruit” and it alludes to plenteous work and plenteous rewards. Take a look:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The request here is that people be stirred up, not God. And let’s face it, people do need to be stirred to get going for the good work that is called for. It is not just baking that needs to be done, not merely decking the halls and stringing of lights. As we are all discovering, some of the critical work and diligence called for right now has to do with taking precautions to stay safe. You are protecting yourself and your loved ones and neighbors by staying well in every way you can. We should all be positively stirred up to maintain those efforts.

Back to the main point: The needs of people are pronounced, so we seek out the help of God. We also know the nature of God’s power is beyond what we can fathom, so we do not ask the Savior to come among us with great might and speedily without some trepidation. We stand in awe of the Almighty, knowing that our ways are not God’s ways, nor are our thoughts God’s thoughts. At the same time, we know God is love. Mercy and grace are offered faithfully when we look heavenward. As the Epistle of James puts it, “Make no mistake, my friends. All good giving, every perfect gift, comes from above.” (James1:17) So we are careful about what we ask. In our need, having all respect for the power which the Divine can stir up, we ask God with great might to come among us. It may at length require much from us, but the help of God is the help we need.