1 “The Essentials of Christian Worship: Memorable Prayers – The Collects of the Church” Seventh Sunday After Pentecost June 29, 20081 I Our gospel from Matthew 10 this morning is Jesus‟ teaching on the difficulty of discipleship. How many of us can read comfortably Jesus‟ words that he has not come to bring peace but to bring a sword? Then, he adds that this conflict will exist in the closest of human relationships; members of our families will be in conflict with one another. Jesus says: “For I have come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man‟s foes shall be they of his own household.” (vss. 35-36). We may well say, sure, there are often conflicts in families. We all know they exist whether we admit it or not. But Jesus‟ statement is not an admission that there are problems, he says he comes to „set‟ these members in conflict. Perhaps these family members had not been in conflict before, and they are now in conflict only because of Christ and his teaching. This aspect of the Jesus‟ instruction is what makes his words difficult, even jarring for us. The only way we can understand Jesus‟ words is if we admit that truth is what Christ brings to our lives, and truth does not always, at least in the immediate context, bring peace. The Collect for this Sunday, with which we began our service, helped me to understand the gospel passage better. Notice the words of the Collect actually speak of unity rather than conflict. We prayed: “O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” Notice the Collect says that unity of spirit is achieved by the doctrine of the apostles and prophets. Doctrine is the truth that units us together. That doctrine is taught by the prophets, that is, the writers of the OT, and the apostles, that is, the writers of the NT. Truth and only truth unifies, and Scripture, rightly understood, teaches that truth. That is why we need to be taught regularly in our services from our Sacred Scriptures. I want to focus briefly this morning on one type of prayer that we use in our services each week. These are prayers which we call “Collects”. We do not know exactly the origin of the word to describe certain types of prayers. Collects have been in use in the church for a long time; there are identifiable Collects in the earliest Latin liturgies of the Church. I think the word „Collect‟ has the sense of gathering, a bringing together of the thoughts in a concise way to offer to God. There are manifold doctrines or truths of the Church made concise in our collects. That is why they are a valuable for daily prayer. If you do not know what to pray each day, simply sit or kneel down for a few minutes and pray the collect of the week. Meditate on its richness.
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Readings: Old Testament Lesson – Isaiah 2:10-17, Psalm 89:1-18, Romans 6:3-11, St. Matthew 10:34-42.
2 Collects can be identified because they have a certain arrangement of parts. The four parts are: Address, Petition, Oblation, and Doxology. Whether you knew it or not, each Collect you have said in Church has these four parts. The Address is the One to whom the prayer is addressed. The Collect is addressed to God, and we use one of his names, usually God or Lord. There is often an attribute added to the name. This morning we said “O Almighty God.” Last week and the week before that we said simply “O Lord”, the week before that “O God.” Sometimes we say “Almighty and everlasting God.” These names and attributes identify that we are addressing the Christian God. We do not pray to the Buddha or the Hindu Krishna or the Muslim Allah. The Address thus says it matters to whom we pray. Also, if the Address identifies an attribute rather than a name for God, such as the attribute of being „Mighty‟ or „Merciful‟, we know what particular aspect of the nature of God we are calling on. Sometimes the Address has an additional phrase which further explains the nature of God, so that, for example this morning we said, “O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.” The phrase “who has built thy Church upon the foundation of the apostle and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” further explains the Person and Work of God. It is an extension to the Address. Be always mindful, as we pray Collects, whether there is an addition to the Address. Then comes the Petition. The petition is what we are asking for. Petitions begin with imperative verbs. „Grant‟ is the verb we used this morning. The Collect for Purity with which we begin every service says “Cleanse”. Last week we prayed “Make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy name. When we pray Collects, watch for these verbs – Grant, Cleanse, Make us. Do we really want them? Are we really asking God for these things? Yet what a wondrous love he has for us that he wants us to ask. Next comes the Oblation. Oblation means sacrifice, and it refers to Christ‟s sacrifice. The Oblation is the reason we can ask. Christ has made it possible for us to ask. We can ask because of what he has done. The Oblation this morning and almost every morning is “through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.” The final element is the Doxology. Doxology means to praise. The Doxology in this morning‟s Collect is “who liveth and reineth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.” The Doxology praises God as one who lives and reigns for all eternity. That is a little remarkable too, is it not? We are taught to pray by these Collects. We need to address the right God by his names and attributes. We need to ask or make Petition of what is appropriate. We need to acknowledge that we can only pray because of Christ‟s Oblation. We need to praise him for his beauty and eternity. Address, Petition, Oblation, and Doxology. They are all necessary and essential elements of Christian prayer. You may not have thought about them before, but if you have been praying in an Anglican Church, you have been led through these necessary and essential elements of Christian prayer. You and I have been taught a lot of Christian truth even before we knew it. Let us use these rich prayers of the Church not only each Sunday but each day of the week.