Collect for Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP)

Collect for Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) is the traditional "Stir up" collect as received in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. In the 1928 book the proper itself is headed "The Sunday next before Advent," while older English Prayer Book usage and the Society of Archbishop Justus comparative source also preserve the title "The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity." The collect gathers the close of Trinitytide into prayer for God to move the wills of his people, bring forth good works, and reward those works by his own grace.

Text of the Collect

STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The phrase "Stir up" asks God to awaken and move the will, not merely to approve an already-active moral effort. The petition joins divine grace to actual obedience: God's people are to bring forth "the fruit of good works," and even their reward is received "by thee." The 1928 American wording "by thee" is especially apt here, because it keeps the reward under God's agency and mercy rather than treating good works as self-standing merit.

Calendar Setting

The 1928 rubric before this proper explains why the title can be confusing. In years with extra Sundays after Trinity, omitted Epiphany propers fill the gap; the final proper before Advent remains fixed in function.

If in any year there be twenty-six Sundays after Trinity, the service for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany shall be used on the Twenty-fifth Sunday. If there be twenty-seven, the service for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany shall be used on the Twenty-sixth, and the service for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany on the Twenty-fifth. If there be fewer than twenty-five Sundays, the overplus shall be omitted.

The older English rubric, retained in the official Church of England text of the 1662 Prayer Book, makes the same fixed use explicit:

If there be any more Sundays before Advent Sunday, the Service of some of those Sundays that were omitted after the Epiphany shall be taken in to supply so many as are here wanting. And if there be fewer, the overplus may be omitted: Provided that this last Collect, Epistle, and Gospel shall always be used upon the Sunday next before Advent.

For that reason, this article keeps the queue title while explaining the 1928 heading. The proper is not an ordinary late-Trinity Sunday that happens to precede Advent. It is the Prayer Book's last Sunday before Advent, carrying Trinitytide fruitfulness into Advent expectation.

Appointed Readings

The appointed Epistle is Jeremiah's prophecy of the righteous Branch. It gives the day its royal and Advent-facing horizon:

BEHOLD, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

The Gospel is the feeding of the five thousand. Its final confession makes the miracle more than a lesson in generosity; it identifies Jesus as the expected prophet-king:

Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

The collect therefore prays for holy will and fruitful works under the reign of Christ. Jeremiah names him "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS"; John shows him feeding the multitude and being recognized as the prophet who should come. The Church asks that the people who await this King may not be spiritually inert, but stirred into obedient fruitfulness.

Clause by Clause

"STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord" is an appeal for prevenient and assisting grace. The will is not treated as a neutral engine that only needs information. It must be moved by God.

"The wills of thy faithful people" also matters. The collect is corporate: it is prayed by the Church for the Church. The people are already "faithful," yet still need God to stir, direct, and enliven their willing.

"That they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works" gives the petition its practical shape. The collect does not end in inward feeling. It asks for visible obedience, works that proceed from grace as fruit from a living root.

Edward Meyrick Goulburn, in his nineteenth-century exposition of the collects, notices that the English form sharpens the good-works language while still depending on God's action:

"Fruit of the divine work," or "effect of God's working," at once leads our thoughts to the text, "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure," and no doubt was intended by the writer of the original Latin to do so. "Fruit of good works" exhibits our side of the production, but leaves out God's.

"May by thee be plenteously rewarded" guards the theology of reward. The reward is not detached from God. It is asked from him, by him, and through Christ. In this way the collect can pray boldly for works and reward without abandoning the priority of grace.

Goulburn continues by interpreting the "fruit" language through Galatians v:

This "fruit of the Spirit" is beautifully contrasted with "the works of the flesh," part of the contrast being implied in the dissimilar words "works" and "fruit"; works giving the idea of that which is toilsome, laborious, and demanding an effort; fruit of that which is the produce of an inner life, something yielded peaceably, gently, noiselessly, gradually, and in due season.

Historical and Theological Interpretation

John Henry Blunt's annotated Prayer Book commentary explains the old calendar logic behind the day:

In the Salisbury Missal twenty-four Sundays were reckoned as after Trinity, and one as the next before Advent: and there was a Rubric directing that if there were more than twenty-five Sundays between Trinity Sunday and Advent Sunday, the Office for the Twenty-fourth Sunday was to be repeated on each Sunday until the last, when that for the Sunday before Advent was to be said.

Blunt also gives the theological reason the proper feels like a bridge into Advent:

Its tone is that of Advent rather than Trinity, commemorating as it does the first coming of the King Whose Name is "The Lord our Righteousness," and looking forward to that second coming when the true restoration of Israel will be effected.

This interpretation fits the appointed readings. Jeremiah announces the righteous Branch; John vi shows Christ feeding the people and being recognized as the prophet who should come. The collect asks that the people who await this King should be fruitful when he comes. Its works-language is therefore neither moralism nor sentiment. It is Advent readiness expressed as grace-enabled obedience.

Use in Worship and Catechesis

In 1928 Prayer Book worship, the collect is used as the collect of the final Sunday before Advent, with the appointed Epistle and Gospel in the propers. It may also be taught devotionally as a compact summary of late-Trinity formation: God stirs the will, the people bear fruit, and reward comes from God through Christ.

In catechesis, the collect can be taught through four questions. Who acts first? God, who stirs the wills of his faithful people. What is asked? Not feeling alone, but fruitful obedience. What kind of fruit? Good works flowing from grace, not works separated from Christ. What is the hope? That God himself will reward what he has enabled, as the Church turns toward Advent and the coming King.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
• Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
• Holy Communion (1928 BCP)
• Sundays after Trinity
• Trinitytide in the 1928 BCP
• Advent in the 1928 BCP
• Collect for Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (1928 BCP)
• Collect for Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (1928 BCP)
• Stir-up Sunday

External Links

• 1928 Common Prayer: The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book PDF
• Church of England: The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity
• John Henry Blunt, ed., The Annotated Book of Common Prayer
• Edward Meyrick Goulburn, The Collects of the Book of Common Prayer