Not to put you on the spot, but were you listening to the Collect of the Day? Beautiful and reassuring, but with a catch, if you will, in one startling line. Beautiful and reassuring since it all about God mercifully accepting our prayers, about God granting us the gift of his grace, about our seeking to please him in will and deed. Well, though, not all about that, only about that. There is that quiet, heart-breaking admission: "in our weakness we can do nothing good without you."

Nothing good. Nothing! That's pretty sweeping. There are other Collects, of course, similar, but not quite like this one. Other modest admissions of our limitations, like, "Without thee O Lord, we are not able to please thee"; or "Lord thou knowest we have no power in ourselves to help our selves". Similar.

But this one, this morning's admission really goes far beyond those, doesn't it? We can do "nothing good" without God.

I wonder if we believe that, or if we just love the Collect for its poetry, and just let that one part sort-of slide by, managing to ignore that one bit, that extraordinary confession: without him, we are nothing, can do nothing, can offer nothing, have nothing to give - nothing good, at any rate.

I try to remember, and agree with other people that, of course you can do much good and yet never darken the door of a church or synagogue or mosque or temple. I am the first to admit that is true. It is just that that particular loophole does not seem to be there for you and me! Does not work in our case! Today's Collect forcibly reminds us: Christians, at least Christians, can do nothing without God. Nothing good. No matter how sweet or good-natured we may be, no matter how generous our human spirit. The Collect is not judging other people of other faiths, or no faith, but it is calling your and me to account for how we lead our lives, since we've agreed to this vocation of being a Christian.

If we are living by Grace, however imperfectly, we probably admit that God's Grace is a help, even critical. But do we really face facts, as the Collect does, that his Grace is essential, utterly necessary, that we can do nothing without him? Nothing? Do we really admit our utter and absolute and full and final failure: that we can do nothing good without him?

We probably do admit we do not have the wherewithal to do it all, to do it as well as we should. But do we really admit that we can't do anything good without God?

That is an extraordinary admission! Often, to avoid making that admission, we will bring out some fairly pious-sounding stuff to give ourselves some role in all of this that God does not intend us to have, to snatch some responsibility, some activity, some power that belongs to God and God alone, and is not, by divine decision, characteristic of us, his people. We can do nothing good without him.

No, I am not at all sure that we really do believe that. But that is what we are supposed to believe, the Church thinks that is the truth - about God, about ourselves.

I am not sure we are ever, or at least always, as modest about our efforts as we might be if we were really serious about this admission that we, in and of ourselves, can do nothing good - not in this world of ours, not in the lives of those around us. The Collect says with a kind of dismaying honesty: "Forget it! We, on our own, out of our love and compassion and sense of responsibility to others, we can do nothing good - God's grace can make a difference with us, but we, without that grace, cannot make a difference."

God is stunningly gracious enough to let us help, though it is not necessary, and though, I suspect, it makes his activity more complicated, more drawn out, more inconvenient than if we simply sat quietly while all was being prepared for us, done for us, on our behalf.

But we do so feel that we have to lend a hand. And he lets us, and welcomes it. Who knows why?

However, and here is the huge however, in all of this inability to do any good, in our lives and in the lives of others, we are talking about trying to do it alone. All alone. What is being condemned is our intention to regard ourselves and our gifts as sufficient. The Collect does not ridicule our desire to help out, to lend a hand, to make a difference, to do good in this life, to show loving kindness and effective care and concern. The Collect simply says simply: "Fine . . . but not without grace, all right? Not without God. Don't try it, without God. Unless he is the source of the good you are doing, unless he is the real author, unless he is the initiator, and you simply the co-operating helper, then forget it, you are not going to accomplish anything, not going to do anything that is good. Nothing."

The doctrine of Grace is adamant on two points - God can do it - we cannot. We can help, or not, as we choose, but we can't do it, any of it, without him.

We are not going to do anything good without him. But here's the surprising part: he is not going to accomplish all of the good he intends without us. In all our ministry together and our life together, and in our own private lives, if we hold this simple, often over-looked phrase from the Collect in mind we will do no harm, and we just might even do some good - if we admit and accept that alone we can do nothing, alone we can do nothing good. But through God, and by his Grace, and in cooperation with his love, we can do much good. So much good, unimaginable good. Without him - nothing. Nothing good. With him, "all things are possible." The happy ending is that he doesn't even expect us to try doing any of it without him. Neither should we.