Collect for Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP)

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Collect for Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. It asks Almighty and merciful God to give the faithful true and laudable service, to sustain faithful service in this life, and to bring his people finally to the heavenly promises through the merits of Jesus Christ.

Text of the Collect

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service; Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

The collect begins by confessing that true service is God's gift before it becomes the Church's offering. "Of whose only gift it cometh" rules out the idea that the faithful can produce acceptable service by natural strength. Service is "true and laudable" when it is received from God, rendered to God, and offered through Jesus Christ.

The petition has two movements. First, the Church asks to serve God faithfully "in this life." Second, it asks not to fail finally to attain God's "heavenly promises." The collect therefore joins present obedience to promised inheritance: earthly service is not a wage that purchases heaven, but the grace-shaped life of those who seek the promises through Christ's merits.

Historical Source

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere print the Latin original among the Trinitytide collects:

Thirteenth. Omnipotens et misericors Deus, et cujus munere venit ut tibi a fidelibus tuis digne et laudabiliter serviatur; tribue nobis, qæesumus, ut ad promissiones tuas sine offensione curramus.

[2]

A modern Anglican source index identifies the same collect as Sarum in origin:

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sarum

"Almighty and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service..."

[3]

The official Church of England text of the 1662 Prayer Book preserves the same collect in substantially the same form:

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service; Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises, through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[4]

The 1928 American book thus receives an older Western collect through the English Prayer Book tradition. Its governing words are gift, service, promises, and merits: God gives faithful service, the faithful render that service in this life, and the promised end is sought through Christ rather than through merit of their own.

Trinitytide Meaning

The Common Prayer commentary from the Prayer Book Society of Canada places this Sunday at a turning point within Trinitytide:

The second half of Trinity Season begins today. Having considered God's love for us, our responsibilities of duty, and the sufficiency of God's grace to fulfil these duties, we now reflect directly on Christian character and virtue--how a Christian must live.

[5]

The same commentary interprets the collect's central claim:

The Collect for today begins with a declaration that only by God's help can we offer to him a true and praiseworthy service.

[6]

That reading fits the collect clause by clause. "Almighty and merciful God" names both power and compassion. "Of whose only gift" teaches that obedience is grace-enabled. "True and laudable service" describes service that is not merely outwardly religious but rightly directed to God. "In this life" keeps the petition practical and present. "Heavenly promises" keeps the petition eschatological. "Through the merits of Jesus Christ" keeps the whole prayer evangelical.

Appointed Epistle

The appointed Epistle is Galatians 3:16-22. Its first movement grounds the collect's "heavenly promises" in God's promise to Abraham and to Christ:

TO Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

[7]

The collect's request to "attain thy heavenly promises" is therefore not detached from the appointed Scripture. Paul says that the promise is not annulled by the law; the collect asks to reach that promise through Christ's merits. The service for which the Church prays is the fruit of grace, not the legal ground of inheritance.

The Epistle then states why the law cannot be the source of life:

Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

[8]

This is the doctrinal nerve of the collect. The Church does not ask for service so that it may justify itself. It asks for service from the God whose promise is given by faith in Christ. The collect's final phrase, "through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord," answers Paul's insistence that life and righteousness do not arise from law considered apart from promise.

Appointed Gospel

The appointed Gospel is Luke 10:23-37. The lawyer's question turns the collect's final hope into a direct Gospel question:

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

[9]

The collect asks not to fail finally to attain the promises; the Gospel asks, "what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answers through the law of love, but then exposes the lawyer's wish to justify himself. "True and laudable service" is not an abstract piety. In the Gospel it becomes love of God and neighbour, especially where mercy is costly.

The parable's central act is the Samaritan's mercy:

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

[10]

The Gospel concludes by turning the lawyer from boundary-making to mercy:

Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

[11]

The collect makes that command a prayer. The congregation does not merely hear "Go, and do thou likewise" as moral pressure. It asks the Almighty and merciful God for the gift by which faithful people may serve him truly and laudably.

The Good Samaritan and Grace

Robert Crouse, preaching on the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity at the University of King's College Chapel in Halifax, reads the parable christologically:

Who is this but Christ himself, who comes here from outside, as it were; who comes in mercy and forgiveness, and makes provision for our new life in grace, with the two-fold coinage of word and sacrament?

[12]

Crouse also warns against reducing the Gospel to unaided moral exhortation:

We can "go and do likewise" only insofar as we ourselves become good Samaritans, and that is possible only by the Good Samaritan's gift.

[13]

That interpretation is especially apt for this collect. The prayer asks for the gift that makes service possible; the Gospel shows mercy embodied; and the Epistle teaches that the promise is received by faith in Christ. The Good Samaritan does not cancel the collect's doctrine of grace. He shows what grace-enabled service looks like when it crosses the road toward a wounded neighbour.

Liturgical and Theological Use

In the 1928 BCP, this collect belongs to the Communion propers for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity and may shape the ordinary use of the Collect of the Day in Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Holy Communion, and weekly devotion. It is especially useful where Christians are tempted either to self-justification or to discouragement. Against self-justification, it teaches that faithful service is God's gift. Against discouragement, it teaches that God's promise is sought through Christ's merits and not through the worshipper's self-produced worthiness.

The collect also gives a concise Anglican account of good works. Good works are not rejected; the Church prays to serve faithfully in this life. But those works are not isolated from grace, faith, promise, and Christ's merits. In the appointed propers, the prayer, Epistle, and Gospel together teach that love of God and neighbour is the true and laudable service produced by the mercy first received in Christ.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "Collect for Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity," in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," under "The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity," printed p. 207; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF. The collect text was compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription and checked against the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 60. The PDF has spacing artifacts, but confirms the complete collect through "Amen."
  2. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised and rewritten edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), Additional Note to chapter XIII, p. 553, "The following are the originals of the Collects for the Sundays after Trinity"; Project Canterbury transcription by Charles Wohlers. Latin ligature represented with a MediaWiki entity.
  3. ↑ New Every Morning Anglican Fellowship, "Sources of the Seasonal Collects," section VIII, "The Sundays after Trinity," "The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity"; Sources of the Seasonal Collects.
  4. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (Cambridge University Press, 2006 online edition), "The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity," "The Collect"; official Church of England online text.
  5. ↑ St. Peter Publications, Common Prayer: A Commentary on the Prayer Book Lectionary, vol. 5, Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity to Twenty Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Charlottetown, PEI: St. Peter Publications, n.d.), pp. 15-16, excerpt for "The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity"; Lectionary Central transcription, reprinted with permission of the publisher.
  6. ↑ St. Peter Publications, Common Prayer: A Commentary on the Prayer Book Lectionary, vol. 5, Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity to Twenty Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Charlottetown, PEI: St. Peter Publications, n.d.), pp. 15-16, excerpt for "The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity"; Lectionary Central transcription, reprinted with permission of the publisher.
  7. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Epistle. Galatians iii. 16." for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 207; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, and the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 60.
  8. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Epistle. Galatians iii. 16." for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed pp. 207-208; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, and the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page labels 60-61.
  9. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Gospel. St. Luke x. 23." for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 208; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, and the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 61.
  10. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Gospel. St. Luke x. 23." for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed p. 208; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, and the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 61.
  11. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, Standard Book accepted in 1928), "The Gospel. St. Luke x. 23." for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, in "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," printed pp. 208-209; 1928 Common Prayer Standard Book PDF, and the Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 BCP Propers PDF, page label 61.
  12. ↑ Robert D. Crouse, "Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity," sermon at the University of King's College Chapel, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1996, on Luke 10:25ff.; Lectionary Central transcription. Crouse's sermon follows the Canadian 1962 Prayer Book Epistle, Galatians 5:16ff., but its interpretation of the appointed Good Samaritan Gospel directly supports the 1928 BCP Gospel for this Sunday.
  13. ↑ Robert D. Crouse, "Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity," sermon at the University of King's College Chapel, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1996, on Luke 10:25ff.; Lectionary Central transcription.
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