O God,
by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence,
where we may see your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
(BCP 214)
Historical Introduction
This version of the Collect, based upon Captain Howard E. Galley’s translation from the 7th-century Gregorian Sacramentary, restores the contrast between faith and sight that was lost in the version of the Collect used from 1549 until our current Prayer Book.[1] This translation of the Collect also replaces “Gentiles” with the more inclusive “the peoples of the earth.”[2]
The Octave of Epiphany, the eight-day celebration of the Epiphany, was restored in the 1928 Prayer Book, only to be removed from the calendar of the Church Year in our 1979 BCP. According to Marion Hatchett, the reason for omitting this octave from the Church calendar is to “giv[e] greater prominence to the primary emphasis of Epiphany, the baptism of our Lord.”[3] While this statement may seem strange to some of us, Hatchett is referring to the origin of the Feast of the Epiphany, which, from the 3rd century in the Eastern Church, has been and continues to be a celebration of the baptism of our Lord.[4] In the 4th century, when this Feast was introduced into the Western Church, the theme of the feast shifted to a focus on the magi’s visit. In 1955, the Roman Catholic Church kept the feast of the Epiphany, abolished the octave that had set it apart as a particularly significant holy day, and established the Sunday after the Epiphany as the Feast of Our Lord’s Baptism.[5]
Typically, the Collect of a feast day that is at the beginning of a liturgical season sets the theological theme and tone of the season. While the revisers of our 1979 BCP may have desired to shift our focus from the mystery of how we come to see God face to face through the Incarnation to one event in salvation history, Jesus’ baptism and all that it signifies for us, our present set of seasonal Collects weave together a theme that is captured by this Collect – the desire to know that we are in the presence of God and to, together, see the glory of God, face to face.
The Preamble
The Preamble, “O God” does not provide us with additional information about the One to whom we pray.
The Acknowledgement
The Acknowledgement, “by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth” refers to the journey of the non-Jewish (Gentile) wise men to Bethlehem to see Jesus, whom they acknowledged as the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-12, which is the Gospel reading for this Feast). This event is the fulfillment of Isaiah 60:1-6 (the Old Testament reading for today), and Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6, which are verses from two of the four passages referred to as Servant Songs in Isaiah (42:1-9, 49:1-13, 50:4-11, and 52:13-53:12). Plenty of astronomers, historians, and theologians ponder which astronomical event the wise men followed; some wonder if this is pious fiction. While the speculation about the astronomical event is fascinating, the theological truth central to this Collect does not depend upon identifying the historical event. The theological connection is stated beautifully by Hatchett: “As the wise men were led by a star, so we are led by faith to His presence.”[6]
Christ as the Light of the world is a theme throughout the Gospel of John (see John 1:1-9 and John 8:12). We regularly confess Christ as “a Light to enlighten the nations” in our daily prayers: The Song of Simeon, Luke 2:29-32, is said daily in Compline (BCP 135) and is the recommended Canticle after the New Testament reading in Evening Prayer on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as well as Feasts of our Lord and other Major Feasts (BCP 120, 124). The scriptural statement that Jesus is the Light of the world, and that his coming was for the sake of all persons, is a foundational claim of Christianity.
That Jesus Christ is the only Son of the Father (John 1:1-14; John 3:15-18; 1 John 4:9) refers to the unique relationship between God the Father and the Son within the Trinity. While we are children of God (Galatians 3:26-29, 1 John 3:1-3), we are children by adoption (Romans 8:14-17, Ephesians 1:3-6) through baptism into Christ (Galatians 3:26-29; “sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever,” Holy Baptism, BCP 308), who is the Son of God by nature.
The Petition
In the Petition, “Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face,” we ask that our vision of God’s glory, which we now see “in a mirror, dimly,” to be unobscured. This request for clarity of vision of God’s glory is more than just asking for spiritual or physical sight, but for knowledge of God (1 Corinthians 13:12). We, while blessed with grace to live by faith rather than by sight (John 20:24-29, Hebrews 11:1, 2 Corinthians 5:7), are invited to long for the day when we will know God as we are known by God. Through this restoration of our spiritual sight we will be transformed by our seeing God’s glory (1 John 3:2).
This desire to see God’s glory is a desire to experience an epiphany (or, more precisely, a theophany), which, beginning in the Season of Christmas and continuing through the Season after the Epiphany, focuses on a revelatory manifestation of God’s presence. This season of the Church Year, is, like the Season of Christmas, liberally sprinkled with petitions for our enlightenment. This particular season begins with remembering the revelation of the person of Jesus to the wise men (the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6); continues with the First Sunday after the Epiphany when we celebrate Jesus’ baptism, in which God reveals to John the Baptizer who Jesus is (John 1:29-33); includes the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord at the Temple (February 2) in which we hear about Anna and Simeon recognizing Jesus for who he is (Luke 2:22-38); and concludes with a celebration of the Transfiguration of our Lord on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany (also celebrated on August 6), in which we remember that three of the disciples saw Jesus’ glory revealed.
The Pleading
The Pleading, “through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen,” while a standard closing to our Collects, calls attention to these moments of enlightenment that we celebrate during this season of the Church Year. In each of these celebrations, through being in the presence of Jesus, the people were able to see his divine glory. When we are in the presence of one person of the Trinity, we are in the presence of the other two as well, even if our perception doesn’t register this reality. When we experience the glory of the Son, we experience the glory of the Father (John 14:9), which is what we pray for in this Collect.
For your consideration:
Where and when do you most easily experience the presence of God? How might conversations in the parish and in the diocese about our personal experiences of being in God’s presence illuminate our worship and our ministry?
O God,
by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the Peoples of the earth:
Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence,
where we may see your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
[1] Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book, (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 170.
[2] Paul V. Marshall, Prayer Book Parallels (New York: Church Publishing, 1990) II.82-3
[3] Hatchett, 170.
[4] “Epiphany” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (third edition revised), edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 557.
[5] “Epiphany,” 557.
[6] Hatchett, 170.