THE REIGN OF CHRIST
On Sunday 22 November, Roman Catholics and Anglicans/Episcopalians again share a common collect. Here is my Book of Prayers in Common. My rendering for this coming Sunday is:
Let us pray (in silence) [that the reign of Christ may live in our hearts and come to our world]
Pause
Almighty ever-living God, [or Sovereign God]
it is your will to gather up all things
in your beloved one,
reigning in the universe
in the power that is love,
mercifully grant
that the whole of creation,
freed from slavery,
may serve and praise you
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
I provide a commentary here and below.
Lectionary Readings Introduction
This site provides something different: many sites and books provide a brief summary of the reading – so that people read out or have in their pew sheet an outline of what they are about to hear. They are told beforehand what to expect. Does this not limit what they hear the Spirit address them? This site provides something different – often one cannot appreciate what is being read because there is no context provided. This site provides the context, the frame of the reading about to be heard. It could be used as an introduction, printed on a pew sheet (acknowledged, of course), or adapted in other ways.
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Ezekiel addresses those exiled after the fall of Jerusalem (587 BCE), underscoring that the divisions in Judean society as part of the cause of Nebuchadnezzar’s success.
Ephesians 1:15-23
This prayer echoes Psalm 8:6 and 110:1. Reading these psalms provides a good framework for this text.
Matthew 25:31-46
Sheep and goats were the earliest domesticated animals. Sheep had positive connotations. Rams were associated with Zeus and Apollo. Goats do not prevent other goats access to their female. Rams would not accept this. Goats were associated with Pan, Bacchus, and Aphrodite. The defining quality of the sheep in the parable is hospitality, a fusing of the concept of a king moving incognito amongst his people. In Matthew “my brothers”/ “members of my family” refers to Christians. The judgement of the nations is based on their treatment of Christ’s followers.
Reflection on the Collect
The original (pre-Vatican II Roman Missal collect for the feast of Christ the King) is:
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui in dilecto Filio tuo, universorum Rege, omnia instaurare voluisti: Concede propitius, ut cunctae familiae Gentium, peccati vulnere disgregatae, eius suavissimo subdantur imperio; qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Howard Galley’s translation of the pre-Vatican II collect is:
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
This translation is used for Proper 29 – the Sunday closest to November 23 in TEC’s BCP (USA)
[Canada BAS changes “most gracious” to “gentle and loving”]
“Beloved Son” alludes to Christ’s baptism (Matthew 3:13; Mark 1:9; Luke 3:22) and to the transfiguration (Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7).
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the on the door of the church in Wittenberg. In many churches, the last Sunday in October is, hence, celebrated as Reformation Sunday. On 11 December in 1925 in his encyclical Quas Primas Pope Pius XI instituted the Solemnity of Christ the King on this same Sunday. The Roman Catholic calendar reforms of 1969 moved it to the last Sunday of the church year, it lost its possible polemical relationship with Reformation Sunday, and, along with the Three Year cycle of Sunday readings, was readily accepted into many other denominations.
The masculine and power concepts associated with the feast have, in part, been attempted to be addressed by altering the title to “the Reign of Christ”. Some have renamed “kingdom” as “kindom” not just “reign”. Jesus himself transformed the concept of power, reign, lord, and kingdom – John’s gospel clearly has the cross as Jesus’ throne!
There is an obvious reference to Ephesians 1:10
in dispensationem plenitudinis temporum instaurare omnia in Christo quae in caelis et quae in terra sunt in ipso (as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.)
What has captured my own praying as I prepared my reworking was that apparently the Latin instaurare (repair, restore, erect, make, establish, edit, renew, repeat, start anew or afresh, resume) is related to the Greek word σταυρὸς (stauros – normally translated as “cross”).
This image I have found captivating. God gathering, renewing all things; the cross being the gathering; around Christ the King, enthroned on the cross…
I would love to be able to tightly weave all this into a reworking of the collect… but I am consoled that, without explanation, such images are not even available to most who hear the collect in Latin…
I am reminded of the Carthusian “motto”, Stat crux dum volvitur orbis (The Cross is steady while the world is turning).
I will leave you to unpack the allusions to Christ’s baptism, transfiguration,…
“Serve and praise” can be seen as two dimensions which include all we are called to do.
After the Second Vatican Council and the moving of this feast for Roman Catholics, the collect was revised (2002) as:
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
qui in dilecto Filio tuo, universorum Rege,
omnia instaurare voluisti,
concede propitius,
ut tota creatura, a servitute liberata,
tuae maiestati deserviat ac te sine fine collaudet.
This is translated by ICEL (1973) as:
Almighty and merciful God,
you break the power of evil and make all things new
in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe.
May all in heaven and earth
acclaim your glory
and never cease to praise you.
The double purpose clauses has been altered from the original after Vatican II: “ut tota creatura, a servitute liberata, tuae maiestati deserviat ac te sine fine collaudet” – “May all in heaven and earth acclaim your glory and never cease to praise you.” These ideas allude to Lumen Gentium 36 and Gaudium et Spes 39.
In the failed 1998 English Missal translation:
Almighty and eternal God,
you chose to restore all things in Christ your Son, who is king of heaven and earth.
Grant that all creation,
set free from the bondage of sin and death,
may offer homage to your majesty
and join in singing your eternal praise.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
The contemporary Roman Catholic version (2011) is:
Almighty ever-living God,
whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of the universe,
grant, we pray,
that the whole creation, set free from slavery,
may render your majesty service and ceaselessly proclaim your praise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
The Te Reo Maori version is:
E te Atua kaha rawa, ora tonu,
Ko to hiahia ko te whakahou i nga mea katoa
i roto I tau Tamaiti e arohanuitia ana, te Kingi o te taiao,
ka inoi nei matou, whakaae mai
ki kna mea hana katoa kia watea i te taurekarekatanga,
a, kia tuku atu te mahi tatona ki tou mananui,
a, kia kaua e mutu te panui i tou whakanui.
Ma to matou Ariki ma Hehu Karaiti, tau Tamaiti,
e ora nei, e rangatira tahi nei korua i te kotahitanga o te Wairua Tapu,
Atua kotahi, mo ake ake.
The Roman Missal (NZ Catholic Bishops Conference 2010)
The collect, it seems to me, is for the feast of Christ the King/the Reign of Christ – for this Sunday. The weekdays following might profitably use the traditional Anglican Stir-Up collectfor “the Sunday next before Advent”
Compare the above collect to:
Almighty and eternal God,
you have made of one blood all the nations of the earth
and will that they live together
in peace and harmony;
so order the course of this world
that all peoples may be brought together
under Christ’s most gentle rule;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive with with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
NZPB p. 637b
NZPB has an alternative reworking of this collect:
Almighty God,
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority
and mercifully grant that the peoples of the world,
divided and torn apart by sin,
may be brought together
under the gentle rule of Christ…
As does Common Worship (CofE):
Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Common Worship uses this collect on the Third Sunday before Advent .
The one at the top of this page, in my opinion, is more general (than praying for those in authority) and hence more appropriate as a collect.
The suggested collect (NZPB p. 572) for the feast of Christ the King (The Reign of Christ) is less appropriate, in my opinion, than the one above.
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
Stir up, O Lord, [or Stir up, O God]
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, richly bearing the fruit of good works,
may by you be richly rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The Feast of Christ the King/the Reign of Christ is obviously a feast day, celebrated on the Sunday. The collect, hence, is not used on the weekdays following. The following collect is suggested for the weekdays following:
Let us pray (in silence) [that we may be prepared]
pause
Stir up, O Lord, [or Stir up, O God]
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, richly bearing the fruit of good works,
may by you be richly rewarded;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
commentary on the ancient Stir Up collect
This Stir Up collect has been removed in the 2020 publication called A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa
Resources beyond this site:
Textweek resources
Girardian reflection on the lectionary
Resourcing Preaching and Worship Down Under
image: The Crown of Thorns by Matthias Stom (1615–1649).
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