Jordan Paul

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal: through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Dear Friends,

This week’s collect reminds me of a sermon that I heard when I was in London last November. It was at St Bartholomew the Great on the Feast of Christ the King. I’ll link the sermon below because it’s far better than anything that I will write, but I’ll do my best.

As a society, we do a lot of wrong things. I’ve raised many of them in my previous Daily Breads—condemning innocent people to death row, falling prey to Christian Nationalism, developing nuclear weapons—the list goes on. There’s a two-part response to this.

First, just because we often do wrong things does not mean that we should stop advocating for right ones. If there is an innocent person on death row, then no one is safe, and we should fight it. If one person twists the gospel into advocating Christian Nationalism, we should not rest until they see what they truly advocate for. And, as Fr Philip Berrigan wrote about nuclear weapons: “Nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself.” We must resist the nihilism and complacency that can accompany the assurance that one day we will see Heaven and forget the rest of the world.

Yet, we must also realize that it is unlikely that our efforts will ever be wholly successful. It is easy to fall into sin. No matter what we accomplish, no matter what utopian society we build, one person will use it to their advantage. One person will push someone down in order to get themselves up. We will exclude and diminish and demean. But that is not a reason to quit. If we accept that we will always fall short, if, in the words of the collect, increase and multiply God’s mercy, we can still make progress. We can make progress so that when we eventually fail, we can pick back up and continue on with the work of building God’s kingdom. 

The sermon starts here at about 24:30.

In Christ,

—Jordan