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

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Collect for Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (1928 BCP) is the collect appointed in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity. It asks the merciful Lord for "pardon and peace," so that forgiven sinners may be cleansed and made able to serve God with a quiet mind. In the 1928 propers it stands with Ephesians 6:10-20, the Epistle on the armour of God, and John 4:46-54, the Gospel of the nobleman's son healed by Christ's word.

Text of the Collect

GRANT, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]

Clause-by-Clause Meaning

The collect opens with petition rather than explanation: "Grant, we beseech thee." The congregation does not claim pardon and peace as a natural possession, but asks for them from the "merciful Lord." That address matters. The prayer is not first a technique for inward calm; it is an appeal to God's mercy in Christ.

"To thy faithful people" does not mean sinless people. It names the baptized congregation as a people living by faith, still needing pardon and cleansing. The prayer therefore holds together justification and sanctification: pardon answers guilt, peace quiets the conscience, and cleansing prepares the will for obedient service.

"That they may be cleansed from all their sins" makes the collect more searching than a request for relief from anxiety. The quiet mind sought here is not escape from duty, but freedom for duty. The final clause, "serve thee with a quiet mind," describes conscience at peace under God, no longer disabled by unresolved guilt or unbelieving fear.

Appointed Epistle

The Epistle explains why pardon and peace are needed within the Christian life. The forgiven person is not removed from spiritual conflict; he is equipped to stand within it. The Prayer Book appoints Ephesians 6 immediately after the collect:

MY brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

[2]

The collect's "peace" is thus not passivity. Ephesians describes truth, righteousness, faith, salvation, the word of God, and prayer as the armour by which the Christian stands. The phrase "the gospel of peace" is especially close to the collect's petition:

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

[3]

The collect asks for a conscience made quiet by mercy; the Epistle directs that quieted conscience into watchfulness, prayer, and perseverance.

Appointed Gospel

The Gospel from John 4 connects the collect's pardon and peace to faith in Christ's spoken promise. The nobleman comes to Jesus in urgent need, but he must go home trusting the word before he sees the healing:

Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way: thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.

[4]

The collect's order is therefore evangelical: mercy is asked of God; the promise is believed; peace follows faith; service follows peace. The conclusion of the Gospel also extends the blessing beyond the isolated individual:

So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.

[5]

In Prayer Book use, this Gospel keeps the collect from becoming merely inward. The nobleman's peace is founded on Christ's word, and that believed word bears fruit in his household.

Historical Reception

The collect is older than the American 1928 book. The Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer preserves the same traditional proper for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity:

Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace; that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[6]

An older Anglican commentary by Thomas T. Biddulph treats the collect as brief but doctrinally dense:

Our present collect, though very concise, is very weighty and comprehensive. It consists of an earnest prayer for "pardon and peace."

[7]

Biddulph's exposition is valuable because it connects the collect to the conscience before God. He distinguishes pardon from the felt enjoyment of peace, while refusing to separate them in Christian prayer:

Purification from sin is twofold--from its guilt by absolution, and from its pollution by sanctification.

[8]

Charles Kingsley later preached on this collect under the title "Pardon and Peace." His sermon receives the prayer as daily pastoral medicine for ordinary Christians, not only for notorious offenders:

That is a noble prayer; and a prayer for each and every one of us, every day.

[9]

A modern lectionary commentary makes the same connection between the collect and the appointed Epistle:

The theme of this Sunday is pardon and peace.

[10]

Theological Themes

The collect is concise, but its theology is complete. It begins with divine mercy, asks for pardon, seeks the peace that follows forgiveness, and directs that peace toward service. Its doctrine is therefore neither antinomian nor anxious. Forgiveness is not requested so that the faithful may remain unchanged; it is requested "that they may be cleansed." Service is not imagined as the anxious attempt to earn mercy; it is the fruit of a conscience quieted by mercy.

The collect also belongs naturally to late Trinitytide. In this long season after Pentecost, the Prayer Book repeatedly teaches the life of grace in the Church: faith working by love, temptation resisted, obedience renewed, and holiness pursued. The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity gives that pattern a penitential and pastoral focus. The Church asks not merely for strength to fight, but for the pardon and peace without which the armour of God is not rightly worn.

Use in Worship and Devotion

In the 1928 BCP, the collect functions as the Collect of the Day at Holy Communion and is also used with the Sunday propers in the Daily Office where appointed. It is especially useful devotionally where the conscience is burdened: it gives worshippers words to ask for pardon without despair, peace without presumption, cleansing without self-trust, and service without inward tumult.

The prayer may also be read alongside the Comfortable Words in Holy Communion, the General Confession and Absolution in Morning and Evening Prayer, and the wider Prayer Book pattern in which repentance leads to restored praise and obedience.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Collect for Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, "The Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity," pp. 218-219 in the standard pagination; wording compared with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, and with NTSLibrary's PDF of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  2. ↑ Epistle for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, Ephesians 6:10-11, Authorized Version text as appointed in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, pp. 218-219; compared with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, and with NTSLibrary's PDF of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  3. ↑ Epistle for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, Ephesians 6:14-15, Authorized Version text as appointed in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, pp. 218-219; compared with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, and with NTSLibrary's PDF of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  4. ↑ Gospel for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, John 4:50, Authorized Version text as appointed in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, pp. 219-220; compared with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, and with NTSLibrary's PDF of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  5. ↑ Gospel for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, John 4:53, Authorized Version text as appointed in The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, p. 220; compared with the Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, and with NTSLibrary's PDF of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
  6. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer: The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, Cambridge University Press 2006 edition of the 1662 BCP, "The Collect," in The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity.
  7. ↑ Thomas T. Biddulph, Practical Essays on the Morning and Evening Services, and on the Collects, in the Liturgy of the Church of England, 3rd ed., vol. 3 (London: John Hatchard and Son, 1822), p. 182, in Practical Essays..., Vol. III.
  8. ↑ Thomas T. Biddulph, Practical Essays on the Morning and Evening Services, and on the Collects, in the Liturgy of the Church of England, 3rd ed., vol. 3 (London: John Hatchard and Son, 1822), p. 191, in Practical Essays..., Vol. III.
  9. ↑ Charles Kingsley, "Sermon XXIX. Pardon and Peace," in Town and Country Sermons (Project Gutenberg eBook #11536, released March 10, 2004, from the public-domain printed sermon collection), in Town and Country Sermons.
  10. ↑ 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), excerpted with permission in The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity.
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