Collect for Third Sunday in Advent (1928 BCP)

Collect for Third Sunday in Advent (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed for the Third Sunday in Advent in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. In the 1928 order of Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, it joins John the Baptist's preparing ministry to the ordained ministry of the Church: Christ sent his messenger before his first coming, and the Church prays that his "ministers and stewards" may prepare his way before his coming to judge the world.

Text of the Collect

O LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

Liturgical Setting

The collect stands between the Second and Fourth Sunday Advent propers and is used with the Advent I collect, which the 1928 Prayer Book directs to be repeated after the other Advent collects until Christmas Day. The Third Sunday proper is therefore heard inside the season's larger pattern of grace, preparation, judgment, and hope.

The appointed Epistle gives the collect its phrase "ministers and stewards":

LET a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by my self; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

The Gospel supplies the "messenger" and "prepare thy way" language. Jesus identifies John as the promised forerunner:

NOW when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

The Gospel then makes the connection explicit:

But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

The collect is thus not a general prayer for clergy detached from the day. It is built from the Epistle and Gospel together: ministers are stewards under judgment, and their work is to prepare Christ's way as John prepared it.

Clause by Clause

"O LORD Jesus Christ" addresses the collect directly to Christ. That address fits both the Gospel and the doxology. The prayer remembers Christ's first coming, asks for present preparation through his ministers, and ends by confessing his reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

"Who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee" identifies John the Baptist as Christ's messenger. The collect does not make John merely a moral example. He is the scriptural forerunner whose ministry of preparation interprets the Church's Advent vocation.

Anthony Sparrow, in his seventeenth-century Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer, explains Advent itself in forerunner terms:

Before Christmas are appointed four Advent-Sundays, so called because they are to prepare us for Christ his Advent or coming in the flesh. These are to Christmas-day, as S. John Baptist to Christ forerunners to prepare for it, and point it out.

"Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries" turns 1 Corinthians iv into intercession. "Ministers" are servants of Christ, not owners of the Church's message. "Stewards" are accountable administrators of what belongs to another. "Mysteries" in this context includes the revealed gospel, the word preached, and the sacramental life committed to the Church's ministry.

Frank Lawrence Vernon, writing from St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia, on the Third Sunday in Advent in 1936, gives a concise Anglican reading of the phrase:

The words "ministers and stewards of mysteries" occur in the Collect and Epistle for today. The word "minister" means a servant. The word "steward" means one who administers under the authority of his master that for which he must render account. The word "mysteries" means, as it is used here, the spiritual truths revealed by God to those who are prepared to receive them.

"May likewise so prepare and make ready thy way" asks that Christ's ministers share in a Baptist-like work. The word "likewise" is important: the Church does not repeat John's unrepeatable place in salvation history, but it does continue a ministry of witness, repentance, and preparation before Christ's appearing.

"By turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just" echoes the angelic prophecy over John in Luke i. The object is not clerical display, but conversion. The people are to be made ready by repentance, instruction, reconciliation, and faithful reception of Christ's gifts.

An Oxford Movement tract on Advent reads the Third Sunday in this way:

But fresh privileges and responsibilities are brought before us in the services of the Third Sunday in Advent. For we have in the Church not merely "Holy Scriptures written for our learning," but "Ministers of CHRIST and Stewards of the mysteries of GOD," sent to prepare and make ready the way for His second coming, that we may then be found an acceptable people in His sight.

The tract immediately connects that ministry with reconciliation, preaching, and sacraments:

The Messengers sent to us are a "Ministry of reconciliation," Ministers and Stewards of the mysteries of redemption, with power and commandment, as ambassadors of CHRIST, to declare and pronounce to GOD'S people, being penitent, the blessed tidings of forgiveness, and in the preaching of His word and the distribution of His sacraments to convey and apply its benefits to each individual member of CHRIST'S Body.

"That at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight" returns to the Epistle's warning that judgment belongs to the Lord, who will bring hidden things to light. The collect's prayer for ministers is therefore also a prayer for the whole congregation. Clergy are accountable stewards; the people are accountable hearers and receivers; both stand before Christ.

Vernon makes this shared responsibility explicit:

The Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church, Bishops, Priests and Deacons, must always remember that they are the subordinate ministrants of gifts beyond their human power to bestow. They are stewards of mysteries beyond their human right to minimize.

The final doxology, "who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end," is strongly Christological and Trinitarian. The ministers are not finally stewards of their own program, and the congregation is not finally preparing for an idea. The Church prays to the living Christ, who reigns and will judge.

Prayer Book History

Unlike the first two Advent collects, the Third Sunday in Advent collect is not a 1549 composition. It entered the English Prayer Book revision of 1661/1662, replacing an older collect translated from the Sarum Missal. Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere place the change within the Advent collect series:

For the Third Sunday, which had not one of this series, as it was the Sunday after Embertide, and therefore exceptional, a new Collect was written in 1661 to supplant the translation of the meagre Latin Collect which had till then occupied the position.

The older collect was brief and visitation-focused:

Before 1662 the collect for the third Sunday in Advent was: Lord, we beseech Thee, give ear to our prayers, and by Thy gracious visitation lighten the darkness of our hearts, by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Cosin's collected works also preserve evidence for the Restoration revision context:

We find in these books the new Collects for the Third Sunday in Advent, the Sixth after Epiphany, and Easter-even, being in that at Durham in the very hand of their author, with alterations of other Collects.

The history clarifies the collect's shape. The older collect asked Christ to lighten the heart's darkness by gracious visitation. The 1661/1662 collect retained the Advent frame of Christ's coming, but gave the Third Sunday a sharper connection to the existing Epistle and Gospel: John the Baptist in Matthew xi, ministers and stewards in 1 Corinthians iv, conversion of the disobedient, and final judgment at Christ's second coming.

Theological Meaning

The collect's doctrine of ministry is both high and restrained. It is high because ministers are "stewards of thy mysteries"; the Church's preaching, absolution, and sacramental administration concern gifts of Christ rather than religious advice. It is restrained because a steward has no independent lordship over what is entrusted to him. The Epistle warns that the Lord, not the steward or the congregation, is the final judge.

The collect also gives Advent a pastoral edge. Preparation is not merely seasonal feeling. The people are prepared when disobedient hearts are turned toward the wisdom of the just. The Third Sunday therefore links Advent with repentance, catechesis, and the faithful use of the means of grace.

The Gospel prevents the Church from making preparation abstract. John points beyond himself to Christ's works: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and the poor receive the gospel. Ministers prepare Christ's way only by directing the people to Christ himself.

In classical Anglican terms, the collect holds together Scripture, ministry, sacrament, and judgment. Scripture supplies the language. Ordained ministry is prayed for because it serves Christ's revealed mysteries. The congregation is included in the petition because it must become "an acceptable people." The final horizon is not clerical order for its own sake, but readiness before the living and reigning Christ.

Use in Worship and Catechesis

In worship, the collect is said as the collect of the Third Sunday in Advent, with the First Sunday in Advent collect repeated after it according to the Advent rubric. At Holy Communion (1928 BCP), the Epistle and Gospel should be heard as direct commentary on the prayer. The day's intercession for ministers also stands near the Advent Ember Days, traditionally associated with prayer for ordinations and the ministry of the Church.

In catechesis, the collect can be taught through four questions. Who prepares the way? Christ first sends John, then gives ministers and stewards to his Church. What do they steward? The mysteries of God: the revealed gospel, the word, and the sacraments. What is the work? Turning disobedient hearts to the wisdom of the just. What is the end? That Christ may find his people acceptable when he comes to judge the world.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Advent in the 1928 BCP
• Ember Days (1928 BCP)
• Collect for First Sunday in Advent (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Second Sunday in Advent (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Collects, Epistles and Gospels
• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer at the Society of Archbishop Justus
• 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: Advent and Christmas
• Tracts for the Times, No. 16, "Advent"
• Frank Lawrence Vernon, Locust Street Letters, Third Sunday in Advent, 1936
• John Cosin, Works, vol. 1