Collect for Tuesday before Easter (1928 BCP)

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Collect for Tuesday before Easter (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for Tuesday in Holy Week. It is a 1928 American addition to the older Holy Week lectionary pattern, placed with Isaiah 50:5-end and St. Mark 15:1-39. The prayer draws its opening language from Isaiah's suffering servant and teaches the Church to receive present suffering in the light of Christ's shame, crucifixion, and promised glory.

Text of the Collect

O LORD God, whose blessed Son, our Saviour, gave his back to the smiters and hid not his face from shame; Grant us grace to take joyfully the sufferings of the present time, in full assurance of the glory that shall be revealed; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

The collect has two scriptural centers. Its address names the Father's "blessed Son, our Saviour" by the language of Isaiah 50, where the obedient servant gives his back to the smiters. Its petition then draws on Romans 8, asking that the Church may take "the sufferings of the present time" joyfully because future glory is sure. The prayer therefore does not romanticize pain. It asks for grace to endure present suffering because Christ has already borne shame and because the revealed glory belongs to him and to those who are joined to him.

1928 Holy Week Proper

The Society of Archbishop Justus 1928 propers source identifies this collect as an American Prayer Book addition:

Collect added in 1928.

[2]

The collect was added to a day that already had inherited Passion readings. Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere explain the older Holy Week pattern in the English Prayer Book:

The whole week was observed with greater strictness and solemnity than the rest of Lent.

[3]

They also describe the orderly reading of the Passion narratives:

S. Mark's history is read in the Gospels on Monday and Tuesday; S. Luke's on Wednesday and Thursday; and S. John's on Good Friday.

[4]

John Cosin, writing on the Prayer Book calendar, confirms that Monday and Tuesday before Easter already stood among days with appointed propers:

special collects, epistles, and gospels are appointed both for all of them, and some other days, (as Ash-Wednesday, and the Monday and Tuesday before Easter,)

[5]

The 1662 Church of England online text preserves the same Tuesday before Easter lectionary shape by appointing Isaiah 50:5-end and St. Mark 15:1-39, though it does not include the later American collect.[6] The 1928 collect therefore gives explicit prayer to a day already centered on the suffering servant and Mark's account of the trial and crucifixion.

Clause-by-Clause Reading

The address, "O LORD God," is direct and solemn. The collect turns immediately to the Father's Son, not first to the disciple's suffering. "Whose blessed Son, our Saviour" keeps the prayer Christological and soteriological: the one who suffers is not merely an example of courage, but the Saviour.

The phrase "gave his back to the smiters and hid not his face from shame" comes from the appointed Epistle:

The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

[7]

The collect's petition, "Grant us grace," makes endurance a gift, not a natural virtue. The Church asks to take present sufferings "joyfully," but that joy is not cheerfulness detached from the Passion. It rests on "full assurance" because Christ's path through shame is also the path to revealed glory.

The wording closely echoes St. Paul's argument in Romans 8:

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

[8]

The final phrase, "through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord," returns the prayer to the Son named in the address. The same Christ who endured shame is the mediator through whom the Church asks for grace.

Appointed Epistle

Isaiah 50:5-end gives the collect its first image and its theological ground. The servant is obedient because "the Lord GOD hath opened mine ear"; he does not turn away from suffering because his confidence is in divine help. The same lesson says:

For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

[9]

Tuesday before Easter therefore prays for joy without denying darkness. The Epistle's servant "walketh in darkness, and hath no light," yet he is commanded to trust in the name of the Lord. The collect asks for the same grace in Christian form: faithful endurance comes from the Saviour who has already passed through shame.

Appointed Gospel

The Gospel appointed with the collect is St. Mark 15:1-39. It begins with Jesus bound, accused, silent, and delivered to Pilate. Mark then shows the injustice of the exchange:

And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

[10]

The collect's "back to the smiters" is fulfilled in the Gospel's scourging and mockery. Mark continues:

And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.

[11]

The movement from mockery to crucifixion makes clear that the prayer is not about suffering in the abstract. It is tied to Christ's Passion:

And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.

[12]

Mark's Gospel also gives the suffering its revealed identity. The crucified Jesus is confessed at the moment of death:

And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

[13]

Thus the collect's "full assurance of the glory that shall be revealed" is not optimism added to a tragic scene. In the very Passion Gospel, the crucified one is the Son of God, and the veil is torn as he gives up the ghost.

Theological Interpretation

E. J. Rowland's Anglican explanation of Holy Week gives a useful frame for Tuesday before Easter:

the first five days of Holy Week are the preparation of the Lamb of God for his Passover

[14]

This reading fits the 1928 Tuesday collect. The Church is not only recalling an ancient event; it is being taught to stand with Christ in the mystery of his Passion. Rowland states the point more broadly:

The Liturgy is much more than a dramatic representation: it is the means whereby the Church unites us to the mysteries of Christ.

[15]

Tuesday's collect is therefore participatory. It does not ask the worshipper to admire Christ's courage from a distance. It asks for grace to take present suffering joyfully because Christ has joined shame, obedience, death, and glory in his saving Passion.

Anglican Use

In 1928 BCP worship, Tuesday before Easter may be observed at Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Holy Communion when the proper is appointed. Its collect is especially useful for catechesis on the difference between Christian endurance and mere stoicism. The Church does not ask for numbness, self-reliance, or a love of pain. It asks for grace, joy, and assurance through Jesus Christ.

For preaching and teaching, the collect can be read in three movements. First, Isaiah gives the suffering servant's obedient ear, struck back, and unhidden face. Second, Mark gives the historical Passion: trial, mockery, crucifixion, death, torn veil, and confession that Jesus is the Son of God. Third, Romans gives the theological horizon: present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed. The collect gathers all three into one public prayer.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Collect for Tuesday before Easter, in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," Tuesday before Easter, p. 144 in the 1930 Standard Book facsimile of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer; Society of Archbishop Justus PDF: 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Collects, Epistles and Gospels. The wording was compared word for word with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription; PDF spacing artifacts were normalized.
  2. ↑ Society of Archbishop Justus, editorial apparatus to the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," Tuesday before Easter: 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Collects, Epistles and Gospels.
  3. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, revised edition (London: Macmillan, 1902), chapter 13, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," section on Holy Week; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription: A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter 13.
  4. ↑ Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, revised edition (London: Macmillan, 1902), chapter 13, "The Holy Week"; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  5. ↑ John Cosin, The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God John Cosin, vol. 5, Notes and Collections on the Book of Common Prayer (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1855), p. 485; Internet Archive DjVu text: Notes and Collections on the Book of Common Prayer. The OCR line break "holy-days" was normalized.
  6. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," Tuesday before Easter; official Church of England text: Tuesday before Easter.
  7. ↑ Isaiah 50:5-6, appointed "For the Epistle" for Tuesday before Easter in the 1928 BCP, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," p. 144 in the 1930 Standard Book facsimile; Society of Archbishop Justus, 1928 Propers PDF. PDF spacing artifacts were normalized.
  8. ↑ Romans 8:18, Authorized Version; Wikisource transcription: Bible (King James)/Romans. This citation is used to identify the scriptural phrase echoed by the 1928 collect.
  9. ↑ Isaiah 50:7, appointed "For the Epistle" for Tuesday before Easter in the 1928 BCP; Society of Archbishop Justus, 1928 Propers PDF.
  10. ↑ St. Mark 15:15, appointed Gospel for Tuesday before Easter in the 1928 BCP, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels," p. 145 in the 1930 Standard Book facsimile; Society of Archbishop Justus, 1928 Propers PDF.
  11. ↑ St. Mark 15:19, appointed Gospel for Tuesday before Easter in the 1928 BCP; Society of Archbishop Justus, 1928 Propers PDF. The PDF confirms the sequence across page indexes 151-152.
  12. ↑ St. Mark 15:21, appointed Gospel for Tuesday before Easter in the 1928 BCP; Society of Archbishop Justus, 1928 Propers PDF.
  13. ↑ St. Mark 15:37-39, appointed Gospel for Tuesday before Easter in the 1928 BCP; Society of Archbishop Justus, 1928 Propers PDF. The transcription's "vail" was corrected to the Standard Book PDF's "veil."
  14. ↑ E. J. Rowland, Holy Week and Easter: The Services Explained, revised and enlarged 4th ed. (St Leonards on Sea: Christ Church Publications, 1956), introduction; Project Canterbury transcription: Holy Week and Easter: The Services Explained.
  15. ↑ Rowland, Holy Week and Easter: The Services Explained, revised and enlarged 4th ed. (St Leonards on Sea: Christ Church Publications, 1956), introduction; Project Canterbury transcription.

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