Resurrection Hope in the Burial Office (1928 BCP)

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Resurrection Hope in the Burial Office (1928 BCP) is the doctrine of Christian hope as it is prayed, sung, and enacted in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer order for burial. The office does not treat resurrection as a sentimental afterthought. It opens with Christ's promise, appoints apostolic teaching on the resurrection of the body, commits the body to the ground in hope of the general Resurrection, and prays that the living may be raised from sin to righteousness.

Controlling Theme

The first words spoken in the office are not about death in general, but about Christ himself. The minister meets the body with the words of John 11, Job 19, and Job 1 joined together: Christ is "the resurrection and the life"; the body destroyed in death will yet see God; and bereavement is placed under the Lord's providence.

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.

[1]

That opening controls the whole rite. The burial office allows grief to be real, but it refuses to let grief become the final interpreter of death. Psalm 39 names mortality plainly and then turns hope Godward.

And now, Lord, what is my hope? truly my hope is even in thee.

[2]

Apostolic Lesson

The principal lesson is 1 Corinthians 15. In the 1928 office, resurrection hope is therefore not merely belief in the survival of the soul. It is the apostolic doctrine that Christ's resurrection is the firstfruits of the resurrection of those who belong to him, and that the corruptible body will be changed.

Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

[3]

The climax of the lesson gives the rite its tone of sober victory. It does not deny the grave; it declares that death and the grave are defeated by God through Christ.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[4]

At the Grave

At the grave, the 1928 office places human frailty beside Christ's promise. The older anthem "In the midst of life we are in death" asks for mercy; the alternative sentences answer with John 6, Romans 8, Psalm 16, and Psalm 16's hope of life in God's presence.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He that raised up Jesus from the dead: will also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit which dwelleth in you.

[5]

The committal is the office's most concentrated statement of resurrection hope. It distinguishes soul and body without separating Christian hope from the body. The soul is commended to God, the body is committed to the ground, and the ground is named as the place from which God will raise the dead.

Unto Almighty God we commend the soul of our brother departed, and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[6]

The same sentence continues by linking the promised resurrection to Christ's return, judgment, and transformation of the faithful body.

At whose coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body.

[7]

Prayed Doctrine

The prayers after the committal hold together the intermediate state and final resurrection. The faithful departed are described as living with God in joy, yet the petition still looks forward to the "perfect consummation and bliss" of body and soul.

Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; We give thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labours. And we beseech thee, that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory.

[8]

The following prayer turns the doctrine toward the living. The office does not simply announce comfort over the dead; it asks that mourners be converted from sin and made ready for the last day.

We humbly beseech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight.

[9]

Historical Continuity

The 1928 office stands in continuity with earlier English Prayer Book burial forms, especially in the opening sentences, grave-side words, Revelation anthem, and 1 Corinthians 15 lesson. The first English Prayer Book already connected burial, judgment, and final resurrection in the committal.

I commende thy soule to God the father almighty, and thy body to the grounde, earth to earth, asshes to asshes, dust to dust, in sure and certayne hope of resurreccion to eternall lyfe, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[10]

The 1662 English office kept the same essential pattern, though with different phrasing from the 1928 American book. Its official Church of England text shows the same body-and-resurrection grammar at the grave.

We therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[11]

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe how the Prayer Book burial rite simplified the older Western funeral complex while preserving procession, psalmody, lesson, and grave-side action. Their historical account helps explain why the Prayer Book office is compact but doctrinally dense.

Compared with this the provision made in the Prayer Book is very meagre. A series of three antiphons represents the procession to the Church: the psalms and lesson, as now placed, may represent the Office of the Dead.

[12]

Frederick William Faber, writing as a nineteenth-century High Church interpreter, states the theological center of the burial office directly. His witness is not the authority of the Prayer Book itself, but it accurately identifies what the office repeatedly says: Christian burial is a public confession of the resurrection of the body.

The light in which I want you to view the Burial Service is this;--as containing a great catholic truth, which breathes out in all its prayers, as well as in its psalms and lesson, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, the reverence due to the flesh of Christ's departed members.

[13]

Pastoral Use

In worship, resurrection hope should be heard as the office's structure, not merely as one phrase inside the committal. The sentences proclaim Christ; the psalms teach mortality and trust; the lesson teaches bodily resurrection from Christ's resurrection; the committal speaks over the body; and the prayers turn comfort into repentance, perseverance, and expectation of the last day.

This also guards Anglican burial from two opposite errors. It is not despair, because Christ is risen and the dead in Christ rest in him. It is not vague optimism, because the office names sin, judgment, the grave, and the need to be found acceptable in Christ at the general Resurrection.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," opening sentence from John 11; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 54-60, and research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm; HTML drop-cap and small-cap formatting normalized.
  2. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," Psalm 39 in the appointed psalm selections; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 75-86, and research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  3. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," lesson from 1 Corinthians 15; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 219-226, and checked against research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  4. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," lesson from 1 Corinthians 15; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 259-270, and research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm; the source's OCR hyphenation in "incor-ruption" was not reproduced.
  5. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," alternative sentences at the grave; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 385-393, and research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  6. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," committal at the grave; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 394-405, and research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm; variable pronoun italics normalized.
  7. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," continuation of the committal at the grave; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 400-405, and research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  8. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," prayer after the Lord's Prayer; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 462-471, and research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  9. ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, "The Order for The Burial of the Dead," prayer beginning "O merciful God"; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Burial of the Dead. Quotation compared with local source sources/justus1928/Burial.htm, lines 472-485, and research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1928-burial.htm.
  10. ↑ Church of England, The Book of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (London: Edward Whitchurch, 1549), "The Ordre for the Buriall of the Dead"; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The 1549 Book of Common Prayer: Burial. Quotation checked against research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1549-burial.htm, lines 115-121; original spelling retained and HTML markup removed.
  11. ↑ Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer (1662), Cambridge University Press 2006 online edition, "The Burial of the Dead," committal at the grave; Church of England, The Burial of the Dead. Quotation checked against research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/1662-burial.html, line 8803; conditional pronoun markup normalized.
  12. ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of Its Offices, revised edition (London: Macmillan and Co., 1907), p. 631, section "The Burial of the Dead"; Internet Archive scan/OCR, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer. Quotation checked against research copy tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/procter-frere-new-history-djvu.txt, lines 58780-58785; OCR line breaks normalized.
  13. ↑ Frederick William Faber, The Burial Service, Its Doctrines and Consolations, second edition enlarged (London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1840), "On the Burial Service"; Project Canterbury edition AD 2002, The Burial Service, Its Doctrines and Consolations. Quotation checked against extracted research text tmp/revision-research/resurrection-hope-in-the-burial-office/faber-tract11.txt, lines 110-115; PDF/OCR spacing normalized.

External Links

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