Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends,

The collect for today is one of my favorites in the Anglican year. I have cited in my book, blog, and in other places because I think it asks for that thing which the world cannot give - and of which the world so often offers false and fictitious substitutes - true religion.

The collect is, ”Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.”

Note that preceding true religion in the collect is thankfulness for every good gift. Next, preceding true religion, is a love of God’s name. Once those two things, thanks and love, are in our hearts then God may increase in us true religion. What is true religion? It is being nourished with goodness and sharing that goodness through good works. It’s really all quite simple when you lay it out - God sustains, feeds, and equips us that we might be a sign and source of love for those we meet in our daily journeys.

Of course, for each of us, in our daily life and labor the specifics will work differently. Some will be kind parents, some will be firm in resisting petty evils, some will simply hold a hand as breaths labor, some will quietly forgive, others will gently correct, some will pass the peace with a kind eye, some will make great gifts of generosity, others will accept small gifts with grace. Each of our days has a different shape with varied tasks and sundry chances.

No matter the specifics of our days we are always being called to live them with thanks and praise such that people might see true religion - that people might hear and see the Love God has for the world by the way we live out the receiving of Christ in Word and Bread. One of the measures I use to think about whether I am doing a relatively decent job of studying Scripture is a simple one. Is this changing me somehow? Am I letting it change me?

Religion - true religion - is always about change because it is always about the deepening of our awareness of our dependence on God and one another. A changed life - a life of thanks and praise - is the primary evidence of scriptural interpretation. Greeks demanded wisdom of their religion. The Jewish people always wanted signs. We were given a true religion based on one simple truth - the Word became flesh to dwell among us that we might see the Holy possibility of human flourishing and know ourselves as nothing more nor less than the sons and daughters of the same loving Father.

This is why true religion begins with thanks and love which feed and strengthen us for the facing of each hour - for the work of sharing the goodness of God with a world that so often thinks itself trapped by patterns and systems of sin. We have lost the sense that we are brothers and sisters with a shared source and shared destiny in so much of our culture. When we engage Christ in Scripture and in the Sacraments it is not for our sake alone - it is for the sake of our transformation that we might then call others, by our simple daily witness, into closer union with God.

That transformation - this true religion - begins with a simple step. Saying thank you for all that we have received. The next step is throwing ourselves into the work of faithful, holy, transformed living that we might lead others in this way of love.

Yours in Christ,

Robert