The Twenty Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

The Venerable Ralph Leavitt, Honorary Associate Priest

YouTube recording of the service –Ralph ’s sermon starts at 19:40

This morning I want to talk about perhaps the most famous prayer in the Anglican Church. And that is the Collect we just prayed.

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

This prayer was written by Thomas Cranmer who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1555, but more of him later.

In all the Services in the Anglican Church we always pray the Collect of the Day. Why do we call it a “Collect”? It is from the Latin word “Collecta” – which means collecting up or gathering. This prayer is meant to bring the congregation together into prayer and more recently it is a prayer that connects to the readings of the day.

What form does a “The Collect” take? Usually there are five parts to the prayer:

1. the address – the invocation to God the Father
2. the acknowledgement – it reflects some quality of God related to that which we will be asking him ie. His power, His grace, His mercy
3. the petition – this is the actual prayer concerning some of our basic needs and desires, cleansing, forgiveness, protection guidance, comfort, love.
4. the aspiration – (not in all the Collects) ie. We ask for pardon and peace so that we may be better fitted for God’s service
5. the pleading – we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord

And so, in our Collect today we have

1. the address – Eternal God,
2. the acknowledgement – who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning,
3. the petition – grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
4. the aspiration – that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life
5. the pleading – which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first protestant Archbishop. He was an English Reformer and he served under Henry 8^th, Edward 6^th and Mary 1^st. It was a tumultuous time in the church. Henry rejected the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England began. Edward 6^thcarried it on, but Mary made the country Roman Catholic again. Cranmer was labelled a heretic and burned at the stake.

Cranmer wrote many Collect prayers but I think perhaps the most significant thing that Thomas Cranmer did was to create the first Anglican Prayer Book in 1549. It completely changed the church. Whereas before this time all religious services were in Latin, Cranmer made the Book of Common Prayer in English, in the vernacular, the language of the people, so they could understand it. It also was a book for both the Priests and the people, hence it was called the Book of Common Prayer – for everyone. Finally the Book of Common Prayer emphasized the importance of Scripture. Most of it is drawn directly from Scripture.

Why this emphasis?

• the whole Bible was not being read on a regular basis
• it was being read in Latin and the people could not understand it…
• peoples’ hearts, spirits and minds were not being educated by scripture

For Cranmer wisdom came from “all holy Scripture.” For him it was Scripture that gives the gift of unity in all our diversity. God’s word, learned and felt, and tried by experience, accompanies us through life. Cranmer invites us to love the Bible and to learn from it.

And that brings us back to the Collect for today:

Eternal God,
who caused all holy scriptures
to be written for our learning,
grant us so to hear them,
read,
mark,
learn,
and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

How reassuring that God is eternal.
How reassuring that scripture is holy, is divine, and that it is for us.
How reassuring that we, as congregants, are encouraged to use the Bible, to hear it, to read it, to mark it up, to learn from it, and for it to be part of our very being.
How reassuring that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

One should remember that up until Vatican 2 which was in the early 1960’s, in the Roman Catholic Church lay people were discouraged of reading the Bible on their own. And here was Cranmer, some 400 years earlier telling Protestants to pick up their Bible and read it.

I remember years ago seeing the Bible that the Rev’d. Robin Guiness used. He was the Rector of St. Stephen’s Church in Westmount. His Bible was completely marked up, and even worn out. And I will admit to being slightly jealous, thinking, I hope my Bible looks like that someday. Well, I followed Cranmer’s advice, and Robin’s example and today, some 25 years later, my Bible is getting worn out. What joy!

As a Spiritual Director I often encourage people to use the prayer form of Lectio Divina where we not only read, mark, learn and inwardly digest, but we also ask Jesus to guide us in what we have read, that we might indeed, ourselves, have wisdom to be faithful disciples. To love God and love our neighbours. To build up the kingdom of God. It is yet another way to use your Bible.

So today I encourage you to pick up your Bible. Don’t leave it alone on the shelf.  Pick it up amd mess it up! And as Cranmer says; “ embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life”.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.