Collect for Second Sunday after the Epiphany (1928 BCP)

Collect for Second Sunday after the Epiphany (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for "The Second Sunday after the Epiphany." It asks the God who governs heaven and earth to hear the Church's supplications and grant peace "all the days of our life." In the 1928 propers, that prayer is joined to Romans xii. 6-16 and St. Mark i. 1-11, so the Sunday gathers ordered charity, persevering prayer, repentance, and Christ's baptismal manifestation under a single petition for divine peace.

Text of the Collect

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth; Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The collect has four clauses. "Almighty and everlasting God" confesses that the Church prays before the eternal Lord, not before a local or temporary power. "Who dost govern all things in heaven and earth" grounds the petition in providence: the God addressed is already ruling the whole created order. "Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people" makes the prayer ecclesial and dependent on mercy. "Grant us thy peace all the days of our life" asks not merely for quiet circumstances, but for the peace that belongs to God's own rule and is given through Jesus Christ.

This makes the collect especially direct. It does not ask first for clearer plans, better discipline, or public success. It asks to be heard by the ruler of all things and to receive his peace while life continues in a world that still contains tribulation, persecution, and repentance.

Appointed Epistle

The appointed Epistle is Romans xii. 6-16. It follows immediately after the Epistle for the First Sunday after the Epiphany, continuing St. Paul's account of renewed life in one body. The passage explains the collect's "supplications" by showing the life of a praying people: varied gifts, sincere love, patient endurance, hospitality, blessing of persecutors, and lowliness of mind.

HAVING then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.

The Epistle is not a random list of virtues. It describes the peace for which the collect prays. Peace appears where gifts are received as "grace," where ministry waits on its proper service, where love is without dissimulation, where hope and tribulation do not drive out prayer, and where the Church refuses retaliation even under persecution. In this way the collect's petition for peace becomes a petition for ordered common life.

The phrase "all the days of our life" also matters beside Romans xii. The apostolic exhortations are ordinary and durable: teaching, giving, ruling, mercy, hospitality, patience, and shared joy and grief. The collect therefore prays over the whole span of Christian obedience, not only over the hour of worship.

Appointed Gospel

The 1928 American Gospel for the day is St. Mark i. 1-11. Unlike the 1662 English and earlier American Prayer Books, the 1928 book places the Baptism of Christ here. This gives the collect's prayer for peace a strongly Epiphany-shaped christological center: the Son is manifested by the Father's voice and the descent of the Spirit as John prepares the Lord's way.

THE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judæa, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; and preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

The Gospel deepens the collect's first clause. The God who governs heaven and earth is the God whose messenger prepares the way, whose Spirit descends, and whose voice identifies Jesus as the beloved Son. The collect's "thy peace" is therefore not an undefined inward calm. It is the peace of the Father's kingdom, given through the Son and the Holy Ghost.

The Gospel also explains why repentance and supplication belong together. John preaches repentance and the remission of sins; the collect asks God mercifully to hear "the supplications of thy people." In worship, the Church does not approach the sovereign God by right of possession, but as a repentant people being gathered around the manifested Christ.

Epiphany Manifestation

The same 1928 Prayer Book gives the season a concise Eucharistic interpretation in the Proper Preface for Epiphany. It is appointed "Upon The Epiphany, and seven days after," but its language names the whole seasonal theme: Christ manifests glory in mortal flesh in order to bring his people from darkness into light.

THROUGH Jesus Christ our Lord, who, in substance of our mortal flesh, manifested forth his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness into his own glorious light.

This preface helps keep the collect from being read as merely general providence. The God who governs "all things in heaven and earth" gives peace by manifesting his glory in the incarnate Son. In the 1928 arrangement, Mark's baptismal Gospel shows that manifestation at the Jordan: the heavens open, the Spirit descends, and the Father's voice declares the Son.

The Daily Office makes the same Epiphany theme audible in the invitatory sentence appointed on the feast and through its octave:

The Lord hath manifested forth his glory : O come, let us adore him.

The collect's peace is therefore adoring peace. It is asked from the God who rules all things, but it is received by worshippers who behold Christ's glory and answer with ordered prayer.

Prayer Book Continuity and 1928 Change

The collect itself is inherited from the older English Prayer Book tradition. The Church of England's official 1662 text prints the same collect and the same Romans xii Epistle for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany.

Almighty and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The chief local difference is the Gospel. In 1662, and in the 1786, 1789, and 1892 American columns preserved by the Society of Archbishop Justus comparison page, the Gospel is St. John ii. 1-11, the wedding at Cana.

This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him.

The 1928 American page explicitly sets that older Cana Gospel in the column marked "1786, 1789, 1892" and places St. Mark i. 1-11 in the column marked "1928." That primary comparison is enough to establish the liturgical change. The theological result is that the inherited collect and Romans Epistle remain, while the Gospel emphasis moves from Christ's first miracle at Cana to Christ's baptism and the public identification of the beloved Son.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the older seasonal pattern into which the collect originally stood:

From Christmas to Epiphany the design of the proper services is to set forth the humanity of our Saviour; and from Epiphany to Septuagesima to show the divine nature of the Son of Man by relating in the Gospels some of His first miracles. The Epistles here show signs of being part of a continuous series which apparently began with the Epistles to the Romans and went through the Pauline Epistles in order at least as far as the end of the Colossians.

This is why the Romans Epistle fits the collect so closely. The prayer asks for the peace of God's rule; the continuous Romans series describes the ordered life of grace in the Church. In the older system, Cana displayed Christ's divine power and goodness. In the 1928 system, Mark i displays the same Lord at the beginning of the gospel, with John preparing his way and the Father declaring him beloved.

Anglican Interpretation

Anthony Sparrow's seventeenth-century rationale gives a clear interpretation of the older Prayer Book pairing for the Second Sunday after Epiphany. He connects Cana, Romans xii, and the collect's supplicatory character:

The Gospel mentions Christs turning water into wine, by which, he manifested both his glory by the miracle, and his goodness in ministring to the necessities of others: to which virtue, the Epistle exhorts us, that whatsoever gifts we have, we should use them as Christ did, to the good and benefit of others. The Collect as divers others recommends to God the supplications of the people, &c.

Sparrow is commenting on the older Cana Gospel rather than the 1928 Mark Gospel, but his reading remains useful for the collect and Epistle that the 1928 book retained. He sees the Romans passage as a call to use gifts for the good of others, and he sees the collect as a prayer commending the people's supplications to God. That is exactly where the 1928 article must begin: not with a detached theme of "peace," but with gifts ordered by charity and prayer offered to the sovereign God.

David Curry, writing for the Prayer Book Society of Canada, summarizes the same Epiphanytide principle in lectionary terms:

The epistles exhort us to an imitation and a manifestation of Christ in our lives

That principle is especially apt here. Romans xii names the imitation and manifestation of Christ in congregational life: mercy with cheerfulness, love without dissimulation, patience in tribulation, blessing in persecution, and lowliness. The 1928 Mark Gospel names the source of such life: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, manifested by the Father and the Spirit as the one mightier than John, who baptizes with the Holy Ghost.

Theological Summary

The collect's theology can be summarized clause by clause.

"Almighty and everlasting God" teaches the Church to begin with God's eternal power rather than with anxiety. "Who dost govern all things in heaven and earth" confesses providence over every visible and invisible order. "Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people" joins corporate prayer to mercy, matching Romans xii's command to continue instant in prayer. "Grant us thy peace all the days of our life" asks that the whole Christian life be held under the peace of God's reign, even amid tribulation and persecution.

The appointed Epistle shows what such peace looks like in the Body of Christ. It is not passivity. It is a disciplined charity that uses gifts for service, blesses enemies, practices hospitality, and shares both joy and grief. The appointed 1928 Gospel shows why such peace is possible. The one who comes to Jordan is the beloved Son, the Lord whose way is prepared, and the one who baptizes with the Holy Ghost.

In worship, the collect is used at Holy Communion with the appointed Epistle and Gospel, and as the collect of the day in the Prayer Book's weekly rhythm. It is strongest when read with the whole proper: the governing God hears his people, the Church's gifts are ordered into charity, and Christ's Epiphany manifestation at the Jordan grounds the peace for which the Church prays.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Epiphany in the 1928 BCP
• Collect for First Sunday after the Epiphany (1928 BCP)
• Collect of the Day

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Collects, Epistles and Gospels
• Epiphany 2 Propers (1928 BCP)
• The Second Sunday after the Epiphany in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
• Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XIII
• Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer: Epiphany
• David Curry, "Doctrinal Instrument of Salvation"