Set Us Free
Collect for Sunday, February 5, 2012: Epiphany Five
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us
the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known
to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns
with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.
the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known
to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns
with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.
That jolting prayer seems more suited to penitential Lent than to Epiphany, doesn't it.
We traditionally open Sunday morning worship with the Collect of the Day, collecting the thoughts of the congregation and uniting us for worship. Many of our collects are quite ancient, dating to early days and liturgies of the Church. However, Marion J. Hatchett’s Commentary on the American Prayer Book reports tomorrow’s collect is a new prayer drafted for the 1979 Prayer Book by Massey H. Shepherd (1913 - 1990). Dr. Shepherd was a brilliant, learned and distinguished priest of the Church who was one of the principal framers of the 1979 Book.
Dr. Shepherd’s collect opens worship startlingly with the assertion of our being in the bondage of sin, and prays God to set us free. But how are we to be set free? We are set free through baptism by water and the Holy Spirit. Tomorrow would be a suitable time to follow this collect with Holy Baptism, or at least to renew our Baptismal Covenant, experiencing spiritually and liturgically the movement from the bondage of sin to being set free by baptism. In this event, Dr. Shepherd’s collect could hardly be more perfect and appropriate.
May Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has given us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and
bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins, keep us in eternal
life by his grace, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
has given us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and
bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins, keep us in eternal
life by his grace, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
TW+