This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

May your grace, O Lord, we pray, at all times go before us and follow after and make us always determined to carry out good works. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

As I meditated on this prayer this week, the words that jumped out at me were before and after, that God’s grace would go before us and follow after. Two scripture verses came to me about the before and the after.

In Ephesians 2:10, we read, “For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” 

I am always amazed at this scripture because Christ has already prepared good things for us do and when we do them, they are witnesses to Christ working in us.

In this scripture I also noticed that tense of the verbs. While God prepared (past tense) good things, we live in them (present tense), today, tomorrow, next month, until the end of our lives.

The scripture that came to me about God’s grace following after was Psalm 23:6, “Indeed, goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life.” (NABRE)

In grade school, memorizing Psalm 23 was a requirement for Sunday School. The version of scripture we learned reads, “Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” (KJV)

In Hebrew, the verb follow doesn’t mean that as we walk past, good things fall out behind us, it means that God’s grace is pursuing us, always trying to catch up.

Just imagine standing right where you are and as you look ahead you see God’s grace waiting for you to move. When you look behind you, you see God’s grace pursuing you. You may even wonder, “How did I get in this position?” The answer is that you were made for it. Human nature was created to be good and God has placed in each of us the desire for good.

As we work for the good, it is truly His grace that is at work because His grace keeps us from becoming proud or complacent. It also leads us to a deeper awareness of God’s presence and action in our lives. 

Our input in this life of grace-filled good works, is our determination. It is not about our desire to achieve external acts, it is about our desire to perfectly cooperate with God’s will, bringing good works, or His works to the world around us.

The catch-22 in this prayer is that we can start small, just doing the next good thing in front of us. With that, our faith grows and pretty soon small things become bigger, our faith is growing, and the first prayer we utter every day becomes, “Lord, what amazing things do you have for me to do today?”