August 14, 2011 is the ninth Sunday after Pentecost. The Universalist collect is unusually placed here; it comes from the Church of England 1662 prayer book for the second Sunday in Advent. The Lectionary lessons keyed to the Revised Common Lectionary: the Romans text largely maps to that found at Proper 8, year A; the Matthew passage is not present.
Free Church Book of Common Prayer (1929)
Collect:
O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; we humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
- Epistle: Rom. vii. 12-17.
- Gospel: Matthew. vii, 15-21.
A book of prayer for the church and the home (Universalist, 1866)
Collect:
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patence and comfort of thy holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
- Gospel, St. Matt vii. 15.
- Epistle, Rom. viii. 12.
I think I prefer the Universalist collect to the Free Church prayer. The Universalist prayer points to a good teaching moment to talk with a congregation about the nature of Scripture.
Along that vein, the Romans text gives one a place to begin the exploration. I might be inclined to look at how we read the Scriptures in the Spirit in which they were inspired. Not as a dead letter literalism, which can be the bane of both Fundamentalists and anti-Christian lineages of Atheists.
Both collects are Anglican/Western in origin.
The Universalist one was moved from Advent because the Universalist book uses Advent to recount the prophets, and so displaces it.
The Universalists used an Advent collect to recount the prophets? VERY interesting. That points to an eschatological concern. And what fascinates me about classical Universalism is its abiding concern for “the end”. A concern that is expectant and hope-filled, and not fear driven. A kind of Christian-left antidote to apocalyptic and fundamentalist Christianity (and more than an antidote because I am increasingly convinced that the Universalists came to correctly grasp “the end” of God’s purposes).
Actually, they used all four, or more accurately, the patriarchs, Moses, the prophets and John the Baptist respectively.