Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light,
now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ
came to visit us in great humility;
that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.
(BCP 211)
Historical introduction
This Collect, new for the first English BCP of 1549,[1] combines the New Testament reading for the first Sunday of Advent from the old Sarum (Salisbury) lectionary, Romans 13:11-14, (now expanded by a few verses in our Year A) with the theme of the Aspiration from an Advent post-communion prayer from the 8th-century Gelasian sacramentary, which reads as:
“that they who rejoice at the advent of your only-begotten according to the flesh, may at the second advent, when he shall come in his majesty, receive the reward of eternal life.”[2]
Marion Hatchett notes that the combination of three “remarkable antitheses” with the use of the temporal marker “now” sets the tone not only for this Collect, but also for the season of Advent. These antitheses are:
- “cast away the works of darkness” in contrast with “put on the armor of light”,
- mortal life in contrast with life immortal, and
- great humility in contrast with glorious majesty.[3]
The Preamble
The Preamble, “Almighty God,” alerts us to listen for what mighty act we ask our all-powerful God to do in our lives.
The Petition
The Petition:“give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility,” is the mighty act we ask God to do in us. This Petition also orients us in our current time within the story of humanity and asks God to empower us to do what we need to be doing in this time. The Petition contains the first of the three antitheses and half of the other two.
With respect to the first antithesis, the Petition leads us to respond to the imperative in the second half of Romans 13:12 with a cry for God’s grace to empower us to do what we can do only through God’s almighty power: to “cast away the works of darkness” and to “put on the armor of light.” To cast away the works of darkness is to turn away from all that draws us from the love of God, from all that corrupts and destroys God’s creatures, and from all wickedness (Holy Baptism, BCP 302). To put on the armor of light is explained two verses later, in Romans 13:14: the armor of light is Christ himself. Through baptism we are united to Christ in his death and resurrection so that as members of Christ’s body, the Church, we are alive in him (Romans 6:3-8). Putting on the armor of light—putting on Christ, the Light (John 8:12)—can be described as putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). (See the Note below regarding why I will often refer to “baptism” rather than “baptisms” when referring to our personal experiences of the sacrament.)
The “now” that Hatchett called to our attention is the time of this mortal life, the time between our first parents’ departure from the Garden of Eden and Christ’s return. The phrase “the night is far gone, the day is near” can refer to two different moments in time: Christ’s first advent, which has already happened,[4] and Christ’s second advent, which is yet to come (Acts 1:11). This time between the two advents is the “now” that we proclaim in our Eucharistic Prayers in slightly different ways:
- Prayer A and EOW Prayer 1: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” (BCP 363, EOW1 59)
- Prayer B: “We remember his death, We proclaim his resurrection, We await his coming in glory” (BCP 368)
- Prayer C: “We celebrate his death and resurrection, as we await the day of his coming” (BCP 371)
- Prayer D: “Recalling Christ’s death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory …” (BCP 374)
- EOW Prayer 3: “Dying, you destroyed our death. Rising, you restored our life. Christ Jesus, come in glory!” (EOW1 64)
The Aspiration
The Aspiration, “that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal,” contains the second halves of the remaining antitheses.
Christ’s first coming was in great humility; he cloaked his divinity with human nature, not just in appearance, but fully participating in what it means to be human (Philippians 2:5-8). His second visitation, in antithesis, will be in “glorious majesty” (Matthew 25:31-46).
Our own lives are described in an antithesis that parallels Christ’s two comings. We are currently in the age of mortal life, as we await Christ’s second advent, the last day of this age in which we are raised to judgment (The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, BCP 96, 120, 304, 358). The death of our bodies is part of this age of mortal life. When Christ returns in glory, we enter into the next stage of human life, life immortal.[5] Trusting in the transformative work of the Holy Spirit through the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, we ask that we continue in the eternal life of fellowship with our Triune God.[6] Living into our baptism is another way of describing how God’s grace of casting away the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light is experienced.
The Pleading
The Pleading: “through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen” invites us to ask all three persons of the Trinity to be active in granting us grace to live into our baptism.
For your consideration
As we enter into a new Church year, what bits of darkness is God calling you to cast off? Are there bits of darkness that are weighing us down, as a parish, that we need to cast off in order to live more fully into our baptism?
What does putting on the armor of light mean to you? How have you experienced the parish living into our baptism and being protected by the armor of light (Christ)? That is, what parts of our common life as a parish, as a diocese, and as a denomination has God protected and nurtured since the last time we prayed this Collect?
Note
In Ephesians 4:1-7, which is quoted in our baptismal liturgy (BCP 299), there is one baptism. Through our individual, personal experiences of being baptized, the Holy Spirit sacramentally unites us to Jesus’ baptism at the Jordan River. Christ’s baptism prefigured his death and resurrection; by being baptized, we mysteriously yet really are united with him in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-11, Holy Baptism, BCP 306). All members of the Church participate in the one baptism, which is Christ’s baptism.
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility;
that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.
© 2022 Donna Hawk-Reinhard, edited by Kate McCormick
[1] Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book, (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 165. Between 1662 and 1979, this Collect was used daily during the season of Advent. While our 1979 BCP invites us to use the Sunday Collect in the Daily Office (“the Collect of the Day”) so that we keep the Sunday Eucharist in mind throughout the week, the practice before 1979 was to pray this Collect throughout the season. This practice continues in our present BCP for those who use “An Order of Worship for the Evening” (BCP 109-114). This short service can be used as either a stand-alone prayer service at sunset or as the beginning of Evening Prayer.
[2] Quoted by Hatchett, 165.
[3] Hatchett, 165-6.
[4] With respect to the first advent, by reading John 1:1-5 and Matthew 4:12-17 together, we have the statement that Christ, the Light of the world, has fulfilled the prophecy found in Isaiah 9:1-2.
[5] The Collect for Proper 27 (BCP 236) provides insights into what life immortal entails.
[6] The concept, stated differently, is also found in The Collect for Proper 28 (BCP 236).