Sermon St Frideswide, Patronal Eucharist 21st October 2021

Fr Richard Peers SMMS

God of peace and strength,

whose abbess Frideswide

built a community of love and learning

with the gifts of the Spirit

and in the strong peace that comes from you:

renew us with healing waters of salvation,

increase in us courage and resolve

and inspire us, like Frideswide, to teach your truth

and bring hope to your world;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

If you have a small black Book of Common Prayer in reach, you may want to turn to page 87. You will see there that this is where the ‘Collects, Epistles and Gospels’ begin. They continue to page 292, making this the biggest section of our Prayer Book alongside the psalter. There is much that could be said about the arrangement of Scripture, the Epistles and Gospels, in this section, but this evening I want to reflect on the Collects.

The Collects are the short prayers that we use at Morning and Evening Prayer and at the Eucharist. No one is entirely certain why they are called ‘collects’, but the most convincing explanation I have read is that they are called this because they are the prayer that is prayed once the people have gathered, collected together.

Collects of this short style and form are unique to Latin Christianity, the church and churches of the West. Eastern churches have much longer prayers of a completely different style.

In Latin the Collects have a sparseness of language, a spareness of phrase and a density of meaning that is really quite extraordinary, this is very much the ‘genius’ of the Latin rite.  A ‘noble simplicity’. Many of these prayers are very old indeed almost certainly dating to the seventh century.

The Church of England has long treasured the Collect form of prayer, Thomas Cranmer’s translations and his new Collects in the Prayer Book rightly seen as a unique treasure handed on to us. In times past Anglicans would learn these prayers by heart to win prizes at Sunday school but also we hope to deepen their prayer.

The Collect has a particular form, although with considerable flexibility.  A good example is the one for the current week in the Prayer Book, on page 241:

First of all God is addressed “O Almighty God”, quite a lot of the traditional Collects begin with this phrase for this week, Trinity 20, additional information is given about God, he is described as “most merciful”. 

A request is then made “keep us we beseech thee, from all things that may hurt us” and then the consequence, the benefit of that petition being granted is explained “that we, being ready, both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that thou wouldest have done.”

It is a delightfully simple formula. I have often taught it in schools and even Primary age children can enjoy writing their own Collects.

I should point out that liturgical scholars would wince at my simplified version of the Collect form. Daniel McCarthy, for example, suggests that the simple fourfold shape I have described should really be seen as 8 elements:

Invocation

Amplification

Petition

Purpose

Cause or motive

and Premise.

Well liturgical scholars have to justify their existence somehow!

In modern times many new Collects have been written. very often this is to expand the language to be both more inclusive and also richer and more poetic.

There is no ancient Collect for St Frideswide, a ‘common’ collect, for abbesses was used. Several modern Collects have been written for her. The latest appears in today’s booklet for this Eucharist, it was written by our Precentor, Philippa, and is rather lovely I think.  A few of us stuck an oar or two in at various draft stages. There are many dangers to writing liturgy by committee but I hope you will take your booklet home and pray this prayer. We need much prayer here at Christ Church and it would be good to think of you praying for us using these words.

So to turn to our Collect. 

God of peace and strength,

The first line addresses God very simply and offers a description of his attributes, peace and strength. This is of course the meaning of Frideswide’s name. For the bible peace is an important attribute of a life lived in harmony with God. God’s shalom, in the Hebrew Scriptures is fundamental to his intention for the world. Shalom is not simply the absence of conflict but a sign of God’s wholeness, of completion.

For Muslims and Jews shalom is a common greeting, shalom aleichem / aleichem shalom. Last week after the Court Service here the High Sheriff Imam Monawar Hussain took many of us out for a curry.  After dinner he invited various people of different faiths to speak. A Jewish man present sang one of my favourite pieces from Jewish worship: Oseh shalom … “may he who makes peace in high places, make peace for us “

Few of us would argue that peace was not a key concept for the Bible and for Christians. Strength is more complex though. We can be nervous about strength, we even talk about ‘brute strength’.  The key is, I think, where the strength comes from. If it comes simply from muscle power, or position, it means little.

But the psalmist says: “the Lord is my strength and my shield” (Ps. 28:7 ) when the strength we rely on is God’s it is utterly reliable. Be strong and courageous says Deuteronomy (31:6)

and “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” writes St Paul (Phil. 4:13)

We yearn for peace but we need strength to endure the lack of peace which is part of the reality of our lives. So,

God of peace and strength,

our prayer begins.

whose abbess Frideswide

built a community of love and learning

Community too is fundamental to Christian living. Right at the beginning of the church we are told in the Acts of the Apostles (4:32) that the early Christians shared all their goods in common and were ‘of one heart and mind’. Christians have always gathered, collected, together to practice our faith; we gather for worship; church, from ecclesia means those called out to be together.

Love hardly needs any comment at all. God so loved the world. (Jn 3:16). Love is the motivation for the incarnation, for Jesus who saves us and died for us. Love in all its facets is the test of the Christian life. The famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13 is a challenging read at the end of any day if we ask ourselves:

Have I been patient?

Have I been kind?

Am I envious?

Do I boast?

Am I proud?

Do I dishonour others?

Am I self -seeking, easily angered?

Do I let go of wrongs, delight in evil, rejoice in the truth?

Do I always protect, trust, hope and persevere?

A community of love is demanding indeed.

But Frideswide’s community was also a community of learning. Of scholarly activity.

This is hugely significant. Love is wonderful. But we can all too easily – perhaps in our times more than any other – regard love as a feeling, an emotion. This is not how Christians have classically understood it. For Augustine love is an act of the will.

It is only by learning, by studying theology. By knowing the Bible that we can experience the fullness of faith and challenge the misconceptions of the world.

The next two lines of the Collect make it clear where that fullness comes from;

with the gifts of the Spirit

The ‘gifts of the Spirit’ can, of course, relate to a sort of generalised sense of the presence of God imparting grace to us, but in Christian history it has been used to identify seven gifts, referred to first of all in Isaiah 11. This is a passage about God’s kingdom of peace, shalom and the longed for Messiah who will come with 

wisdom

understanding

counsel

strength

knowledge

delight or piety

and

fear of the Lord

Augustine linked these to the Beatitudes and they are traditionally said to be the gifts received in Baptism and Confirmation.

Next in our Collect we have the line:

and in the strong peace that comes from you:

Clearly, this is an echo of the opening line reflecting on the meaning of Frideswide’s name. It makes clear that this peace and strength is the fruit of faith, and that it comes from God not from our own power. This is the gift of salvation we receive in baptism, our participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus. That death when water and blood flowed from his side. Which we enter into in baptism and renew our selves in in the Eucharist, water and blood. These are the healing waters of salvation that the Collect refers to next:

renew us with healing waters of salvation,

increase in us courage and resolve

But it is also the water associated with Frideswide, the well at Binsey that so many of us value visiting, to which students in our chaplaincy will be walking on Sunday afternoon.

I like the mention of ‘courage and resolve’. Frideswide had courage, she refused the way of life that was to be imposed on her and was determined, resolved to live a life in Christian community.  A resolve which is a reminder once again that Christian living is not just feelings, however fine, not some spirituality but a decision,  resolve, a determination, an act of the will.  As we say to the candidates in baptism who are old enough to respond, after we’ve recited the Creed. Is this your faith? And they answer, we hope with courage and resolve: “This is my faith.”

And so we come to the end of the prayer:

and inspire us, like Frideswide, to teach your truth

and bring hope to your world;

The gift of faith is never for ourselves alone. We are all, every baptised person called to teach the faith. It is not possible to watch the news, it is not possible to listen to the needs of those who come to us, it is not possible to look at our own lives and not realise that we need a Saviour, we need Jesus. And that is why this prayer, every Collect ends with five simple words. 

through Jesus Christ our Lord …

We pray only through Jesus, we know him as the Christ, the anointed One, the one chosen by God to do this for us and we name him, we acknowledge him as Lord.

In the end it is all, St Frideswide, the well at Binsey, this cathedral church, the Augustinian canons, the life of Chapter for five centuries, even our beautiful music. It is all pointless, if it does not bring us to him, to Jesus.

God of peace and strength,

whose abbess Frideswide

built a community of love and learning

with the gifts of the Spirit

and in the strong peace that comes from you:

renew us with healing waters of salvation,

increase in us courage and resolve

and inspire us, like Frideswide, to teach your truth

and bring hope to your world;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.