Collect for First Sunday after Easter (1928 BCP)

Collect for First Sunday after Easter (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for the First Sunday after Easter, the Sunday traditionally called Low Sunday or the Octave of Easter. It prays from the accomplished work of Christ: the only Son has died "for our sins" and risen "for our justification," and the Church asks to put away "the leaven of malice and wickedness" so as to serve God "in pureness of living and truth."

Text of the Collect

ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The collect is not a general Easter meditation. Its clauses move from atonement and resurrection to moral renewal. "Die for our sins" names the cross as saving sacrifice. "Rise again for our justification" connects the Resurrection with acquittal, reconciliation, and restored life before God. The petition then applies Easter to conduct: malice and wickedness must be put away, and service to God must be marked by purity and truth.

The same collect appears in the older American comparative propers for 1789 and 1892, with the Society of Archbishop Justus apparatus showing the 1928 text in the same Eastertide place. Its stability is important: the 1928 book receives a familiar Anglican Easter collect and prints it with the appointed 1 John 5 Epistle and John 20 Gospel.

Liturgical Setting

The First Sunday after Easter stands at the close of the Easter octave. Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the older Prayer Book pattern:

The following Sunday, called in England traditionally Low Sunday, is counted as the Octave of Easter. Throughout the week the newly-baptized wore their white baptismal robes and processions were made to the font: with this Sunday these ceremonies were brought to a close.

The 1928 BCP marks the whole Easter week with repeated proclamation before it reaches this Sunday. The Easter Day Morning Prayer anthems give the scriptural source of the collect's "leaven" language:

CHRIST our Passover is sacrificed for us : therefore let us keep the feast, Not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness : but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The Holy Communion Proper Preface for Easter gives the same paschal doctrine in eucharistic thanksgiving:

But chiefly are we bound to praise thee for the glorious Resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord: for he is the very Paschal Lamb, which was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world; who by his death hath destroyed death, and by his rising to life again hath restored to us everlasting life.

Together these texts explain the collect's logic. The Church does not put away malice in order to create Easter joy. It puts away malice because Christ the Passover has been sacrificed, risen, and given as everlasting life.

Clause-by-Clause Meaning

"Almighty Father" names God as the giver of the Son. The collect is therefore both Easter prayer and Trinitarian prayer: the Father gives, the Son dies and rises, and the Church serves in the new life given by God.

"Who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins" speaks in the language of gift and atonement. Easter does not lessen Good Friday; it reveals what the cross has accomplished. The phrase "for our sins" prevents the Resurrection from being treated as bare triumph. It is the vindication of the Son who was given for sinners.

"And to rise again for our justification" joins the Resurrection to the believer's standing before God. The petition that follows is therefore not moralism. It asks for a life that answers a verdict already grounded in Christ's death and Resurrection.

"Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness" turns 1 Corinthians 5 into prayer. Leaven functions as an image of corrupting old life; malice and wickedness are not compatible with the Paschal feast. The Church asks for grace to remove what contradicts the life of the risen Christ.

"That we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth" gives the positive form of Easter holiness. The aim is not merely the avoidance of vice, but continual service. "Pureness of living" addresses conduct, and "truth" addresses fidelity of faith and witness.

"Through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord" keeps the whole petition dependent on Christ. The collect asks for holiness through the merits of the one whose death and Resurrection it has just confessed.

Appointed Epistle

The appointed Epistle is 1 John 5:4-12. It begins with victory over the world through faith:

WHATSOEVER is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Read with the collect, this Epistle guards the prayer's moral language from becoming self-reliance. Victory over the world is "even our faith," and that faith is specifically faith that Jesus is the Son of God.

The Epistle then joins Easter faith to the witness of water, blood, and Spirit:

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

The phrase "the Spirit is truth" is especially close to the collect's "pureness of living and truth." The truth in which the Church serves is not merely accurate religious speech. It is the Spirit-borne witness to the Son who came by water and blood.

The appointed lesson closes by locating life in the Son:

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

This gives the collect its final confidence. Pureness, truth, and service are possible because eternal life is God's gift in his Son.

Appointed Gospel

The appointed Gospel is John 20:19-23. It is set on Easter evening, with the disciples shut in for fear:

THE same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

The risen Christ answers fear with peace. That peace is not detached from the cross; he shows the marks of his Passion:

And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.

The Gospel then moves from peace to mission:

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Finally, the Lord breathes on the disciples and gives the Holy Ghost in connection with remission and retention of sins:

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.

This Gospel gives the collect a distinctly ecclesial setting. The Church that asks to serve in pureness and truth is the Church addressed by the risen Lord, given peace, sent by him, and made minister of the forgiveness grounded in his death and Resurrection.

Historical and Anglican Interpretation

Percy Dearmer notes that this collect belongs to the Prayer Book's own sixteenth-century English composition rather than to the older body of translated Latin Sunday collects:

The Collect of the Day is generally, as we have seen, an ancient Latin prayer translated from the Sarum Missal by Cranmer or another. Most are from the Communion Service of S. Leo (c. 450), or of Gelasius (c. 480), or of S. Gregory (c. 580). But nineteen [6/7] (including the First and Second Sundays in Advent, Christmas Day, Quinquagesima Sunday, and the First and Second Sundays after Easter) were specially written for the Prayer Book of 1549; and three, as we have seen, were added when our Prayer Book took its present form in 1662.

Procter and Frere summarize the wider Eastertide lectionary pattern:

The joyful commemoration of our Saviour's resurrection, and the promise of the Comforter, are the principal subjects of the Gospels from Easter to Ascension Day; while the Epistles exhort to the practice of those duties which are answerable to the Christian profession.

They also state the source-history point directly:

The only deviations from the Latin services are in the Collects of the first and second Sundays, which come from 1549.

This historical note helps explain the collect's direct biblical texture. It sounds like 1 Corinthians 5 because it was composed within the reformed Prayer Book habit of making Scripture audible in the Church's common prayer. In the 1928 American book, that same inherited collect is read with an Epistle on faith, witness, and life in the Son, and a Gospel on the risen Christ's peace, mission, Spirit, and forgiveness.

Anglican Theological Use

The collect is useful for teaching Easter as both accomplished redemption and present sanctification. It does not ask God to make Christ victorious; it begins from the Father's gift of the Son, his death for sins, and his Resurrection for justification. The petition asks that this Easter gospel take form in the Church's life.

For catechesis, the collect can be read in four movements: gift, atonement, justification, and sanctified service. For preaching, the appointed Epistle emphasizes faith's victory and life in the Son, while the Gospel emphasizes the risen Lord's peace and mission. For devotional use, the prayer searches ordinary Christian conduct: resentment, bitterness, falsehood, and malicious speech are forms of old leaven that do not belong to the Paschal feast.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Eastertide in the 1928 BCP
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Easter Day (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Tuesday in Easter Week (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Second Sunday after Easter (1928 BCP)

External Links

• EpiscopalNet: 1st Sunday after Easter Prayers (1928 BCP)
• EpiscopalNet: Easter Propers (1928 BCP)
• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer Standard Book PDF
• Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, Internet Archive text
• Percy Dearmer, The Prayer Book