This past week we started our new sermon series on “Measuring UP” for Lent. The idea of the series is that we would measure ourselves against God, and finding ourselves unable to measure up to God, going to Him for His immeasurable mercy.
One of the things that I’m playing around with this Lent is a new sermon format based on the “collect” prayer. The history of the collect prayer goes back to the 5th century AD as an easy to replicate form of prayer. This collect prayer comes in 5 parts, and for the sake of our sermon series asks five questions.
The five parts of the collect prayer are:
Address – A short naming of God, e.g. “Father of the Prince of Peace,…”
Rationale or Acknowledgement – A longer explanation of why we feel God would be able and inclined to answer our prayer, usually from Scripture. e.g. “…as Isaiah foretold of Your Kingdom being one in which swords were beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks…”
Petition – The thing that we are asking God for, laid out in simple and concise terms e.g. “…we humbly ask that you would bring peace to our world, especially in the embattled nation of the Ukriane…”
Aspiration – The desired result if God answers the prayer affirmatively. e.g. “…so that in peace, people may flourish and Your Name may be shared with people by missionaries…”
Conclusion – Ending the prayer with the mediation of Jesus Christ, e.g. “…we ask this in the Name of Christ, our Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”
As this shows up in our sermons, we’re going to be asking five questions, one for each of these parts: 1. Who is God? What do we know about Him? 2. Where do we see evidence of what we say we know about God in the Scriptures? 3. What are we asking God to do for us? 4. What will we do as a result of God doing something for us? 5. How does this all hang together in Jesus?
We hope that you will join us these next few weeks of Lent as we measure ourselves “up” against God and see His immeasurable grace given to us.