Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us;
and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins,
let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
(BCP 212)
Historical Introduction
Marion Hatchett provides an overview of the various adaptations this early 8th-century Collect for Advent has undergone through the ages; while these changes are intriguing, he states that what we pray is close to what was prayed in the early 8th century.[1] In the 11th-century Sarum missal, this Collect was one of a series of four prayers used during the last four Sundays before Christmas that began with “Stir up.” Hatchett notes that among these four prayers, “this prayer set forth better than the others the themes of the two advents: the first in which He came in humility, and the second in which He comes in power; the first in which He came to save, the second in which He comes to help and relieve.” The biblical foundation for this Collect is found in Psalm 80:2 and Hebrews 12:1.[2]
The Preamble
The address of God, “O Lord,” is not in the usual Preamble position.
In the original Collect, the Preamble addresses Jesus rather than the Father.[3] Since Lord can refer to any of the persons of the Trinity,[4] and since it is the Incarnate Son who physically came among us in his first advent and is coming again in his second, this Collect could be addressing the Son. However, due to the form of the Pleading, and since our BCP 1979 Sunday Collects typically address the Father, the referent of Lord in the Preamble is most likely the Father. Because of the mutual indwelling of the Trinity, each dwelling within the others,[5] (John 14:10-11), it may be best to allow the “to whom” of this prayer to be either the Father or the Son.
The Acknowledgement
The Acknowledgement, “because we are sorely hindered by our sins,” provides the theological statement of why we need this prayer to be answered: our desires and plans to live according to God’s ways are restricted through our sins. Sin, “the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation” (Catechism: Sin and Redemption, BCP, 484), is simultaneously individual, corporate, and societal. In one of the prayers for Compline, we pray that “we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other’s toil” (BCP 134).
Part of remembering our interconnectedness is recognizing that it is not just our personal sins that hinder us. When the church—at the parish, diocesan, provincial, national, or world-wide levels—makes decisions to engage in activities that distort the matrix of relationships that form our common life, we are each affected, even if we are not actively participating in these activities.
Likewise, as citizens of the Earth, we are hindered by decisions that businesses, governments, and other social structures make when these decisions result in activities or policies that do not align with God’s will for peace and unity between God and every creature. This hindrance can be described as “every weight and the sin that clings so closely” (Hebrews 12:1). This hindrance by sin distracts us from living fully into the Baptismal Covenant (BCP 304-5). In Enriching Our Worship 1, we name this societal sin as “the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf” (EOW1 19, 56).
The Petition
The Petition is spread out in this Collect rather than being all in one place. When it is read as a single unit, the Petition, “Stir up your power … and with great might come among us; and … let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us,” is an expansion of Psalm 80:2.
A second Acknowledgement is implied in the Petition: God’s grace and mercy are bountiful. Through this grace-filled mercy, God directs power and might for our help and deliverance. This help comes to us in a relational way, through the Son of God becoming human and living among us to save us in his first coming, through the indwelling Holy Spirit who incorporates us into the Church through our baptism (Holy Baptism, Concerning the Service, BCP 298) and sanctifies us through the Eucharist (Holy Eucharist Rite II, BCP 363, 369, 372, 375)[6] in this time between Christ’s first and second comings, and eventually through the second coming of Christ.
The Pleading
The Pleading, “through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen,” connects our prayer to be unhindered by sins to the ultimate goal of our freedom, which is for our Triune God to be honored and glorified in and through us. The use of Lord in the Pleading clearly refers to Jesus and invites us to continue this reflection on the use of Lord—in what way is Jesus Lord to us?
For your consideration
How does hindrance from sin, either your own or the sin of others, affect your daily life? How have you experienced God delivering you from a hindrance due to sin? How have we, as a parish, a diocese, and as a denomination, experienced being delivered from a hindrance of sin? In our telling of these mighty acts of deliverance, how are God’s glory and honor revealed?
In what ways do we, as a parish, need to experience God’s bountiful grace and mercy to help and deliver us? How will God’s glory and honor be served by God’s deliverance of us from this hindrance?
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us;
and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins,
let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
[1] Marion Hatchett notes that in the Gregorian, the address is changed to the Father. This Collect is also found in the Bobbio missal. Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book, (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 166-7.
[2] Hatchett, 166-7. Paul V. Marshall indicates that this Collect was used for the Third Sunday of Advent in the 1892 and 1928 BCPs. Marshall, Prayer Book Parallels II (New York: Church Publishing, 1990), 78-9.
[3] Hatchett, 166.
[4] See 2 Corinthians 6:18, 1:3-4 and 3:17, where Lord refers to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, respectively. The Creed of Athanasius, BCP 864-5, includes a concise statement of the Lordship of all three persons of the Trinity.
[5] Perichoresis is the technical term given to the mystery of the intimate, mutual indwelling of the three persons of the Trinity. This term calls attention simultaneously to the Oneness and the Threeness of the Trinity.
[6] Eucharistic Prayers C and D are not as clear regarding the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit as are Prayers A and B. In Prayer C, sanctification is described as being made “one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name.” In Prayer D sanctification reads as “holy people” who are becoming “one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice to Christ” through participation in the Eucharist.
© 2022 Donna Hawk-Reinhard, edited by Kate McCormick
Want to know more about the Collect format or this series of meditations? You can find that information here.