Prayer in Election Season

In the midst of a hotly-contested election in a sharply-divided country, we pray for the guidance of the minds of the voters, in making choice of fit persons to serve in public office, and for wellbeing of our country, whatever the outcome.

For Our Country

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Apocrypha
The Bible you own may not include the books known as the Apocrypha (from the Greek for “hidden books”), but until about 1600 all Christians read them as Scripture. And there is much worth reading there – theological reflection and ethical instruction of wisdom writings like Proverbs or Job (Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom of Solomon), theological histories like Samuel or Kings (Maccabees), and edifying narratives like Ruth and Esther (Tobit, Judith, and additions to Daniel and Esther).

But exactly is the status of the Apocrypha? In his monumental labors in translating the scriptures out of their original languages into Latin, the ancient biblical scholar Jerome noted that they were found in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew original, and concluded that the church must therefore read them, “for the strengthening of the people, (but) not for confirming the authority of ecclesiastical dogmas”. It’s an opinion confirmed by the ancient editorial prologue to the most important book of the Apocrypha itself, known as the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach. (This is a second century BC book that was highly valued for its instruction in faith and virtue, and in the example of godly lives, so much so that it came be known as Ecclesiasticus, i.e. “the church’s book”). In it the ancient editor remarks:

The point of Ecclesiasticus is to help those who want to “profit more in living according to the law”. It is not a claim to extend the revelation of God made in the canonical books of Scripture, but about their explanation and application. Thus the Articles of religion cite the authority of Jerome, and state that they are to be read “for example of life and instruction of manners: but … not to establish any doctrine.” This view was widely held among reformers in the 16th century, and the Prayer Book provided for their reading in the daily services. The Geneva Bible of 1560 took a similar view, and endorsed the Apocryphal books as the writing of “godly men”: “which books declare that at all times God had an especial care of His Church, and left them not utterly destitute of teachers and means to confirm them in the hope of the promised Messiah, and also witness that those calamities that God sent to his Church were according to his providence, who had both so threatened by his prophets, and so brought it to pass, for the destruction of their enemies and for the trial of his children.”

To be continued.