Put on the armour of light
Almighty God,
give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness,
and put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on 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 eternal,
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
A collect is a short prayer which usually only takes about 30 seconds to pray. It gathers together and summarises our prayers (from the Latin, collecta) and turns our readings from God’s word into requests directed back to him (from a contraction of the Latin, cum lectione, ‘with the reading’). Over the next 60 days we will be praying together the weekly collects from the Book of Common Prayer, which are designed to be prayed alongside the readings from scripture which are set down for each week’s celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
Traditionally, Advent has been reckoned as the start of the church’s year for many. The first collect we are praying is not just for the first Sunday of four in Advent but is intended in the 1662 Prayer Book to be prayed every week in the run up to Christmas. It originates from the first English-language liturgy composed by the great Reformation Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer in 1549, and so has a special place in the hearts of those who believe that public worship should be conducted in a language understood by the people (as Article 24 of the Thirty-nine Articles prescribes).
This first collect is a collect of contrasts: darkness and light; great humility and glorious majesty; the first and second comings of Christ; this mortal life now and the life eternal to come.
It is not a casual collect, but an energetic and urgent plea, reminding us of the vigorous action required of us as the universal Day of Judgment approaches. We must decisively cast off the works of darkness now, if we are to survive that day and rise to everlasting life.
The first reading, Romans 13:8-14, begins by speaking much of love. We are to love one another and so fulfil the Law. But Paul defines what it means to live in love by faith, by urging us not to indulge in sexual immorality or quarrelling. He sums up the command to love as requiring us to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light” — which striking phrase is picked up by our collect.
This momentous exchange can only be accomplished by God’s grace alone, which is what we primarily pray for. As Article 10 reminds us, “we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God”. The change of life our meagre efforts can never achieve, the grace of an Almighty God can give to us through Christ, when he becomes ours by faith.
St Augustine (once a sensual man of debauched life) was wonderfully converted by reading this section of Romans; and we too can be free of those depressing deeds of darkness by throwing ourselves fully on God’s gracious goodness, and taking up the protective armour of light. Then, rather than gratifying our disordered desires, we can begin to imitate the one who came in great meekness and humility (hence the reading from Matthew 21:1-13). He came not to be served, but to bring light and life to those who follow him as Lord.
So pray this with me:
Almighty God,
give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness,
and put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on 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 eternal,
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.