The
Sunday called Septuagesima, or the
third
Sunday before Lent.
The
Collect.
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O
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LORD, we beseech thee favourably to
hear the prayers of thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our
offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy
Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and
the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
We now enter upon a transition period of Pre-Lent separating the joyous season
of Christmas/Epiphany and the penitential fast associated with the Lenten
Season. Septuagesima is exactly sixty-three days before Easter.
Sexagesima is fifty-six prior, and Quinquagesima forty-nine. We owe the
designation of the three primary Sundays before Lent to St. Gregory the Great,
and to his rendering the first lectionary readings for the church calendar.
Though he was called Pope, he was rather the Bishop of Rome who was a devout
minister and a leader of his people. He opposed the Lombard invasion and
successfully concluded a treaty with them. He saw Italy through great famine
and epidemics of plague and other diseases. He compiled the Gregorian
Sacramentary out of which many of our Collects are taken. The two (designated)
great Bishops of Rome were Leo and Gregory. Both faced great dangers from both
within and without Rom; therefore, I believe such persecution and danger
engendered a greater faithfulness to the religion of Christ!
This COLLECT does not disdain punishment that we so rightly deserve, but to the
pardon, redemption, and mercy made available in Christ our Lord. The ONLY
thing that we truly DESERVE is justice! And if we receive the justice we
deserve, we shall spend our eternities in Hell. "…we, who are justly
punished for our offences." In praying this Collect, we readily
admit that we deserve punishment for our manifold sins. Though we have no water
of our own, we may beg for it in a desert place. If given, it would be given
out of mercy and not deserved in any sense. Mercy, not justice, is the thing we
most need and desire. Justice becomes fulfilled in the blood of Christ once we
have made appeal, through Him, for Mercy! The whole of man can be remedied by
the simple mercy of God. Remember when Christ was passing along the road out of
Jericho, two blind beggars hailed Him: And as they departed from Jericho,
a great multitude followed him. And, behold, two blind men sitting by the
way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy
on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And the multitude rebuked them, because
they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on
us, O Lord, thou Son of David. (Matt 20:29-31) They sought only mercy
first, and then received their sight.
To the devout Christian, divine punishment is justly deserved by all; but it is
the grace of God whereby we are reconciled to God, forgiven, restored, and
redeemed of our death sentence. We need never ask of God what we deserve for,
without His grace, we all would receive the just deserts for our sin and
transgressions. But it is His great mercy, a corollary of grace that restores
us to a position of favor with God. If we may only receive God's mercy, what
more shall we need? He is All-Merciful and All-Forgiving. If we stand in His
favor, even in the violent storms of life, need we fear any force of evil?
The Collect for Septuagesima Sunday is one of the few that conclude with a most
glorious ending – "….through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without
end." Of course it is a forceful reminder of the Trinity of the
Godhead. If we discount either Person of the Godhead, we have no Godhead upon
which to call – as the tree dimensions of height, depth, and width describe
dimensions of a material object (and without one of which there would exist no
mass) – so the Three Persons of the godhead comprise the full defining
character of God.
Do we realize how perfectly GOOD is the Lord Jesus Christ? In fact, the word
`good' derives from the Middle English word for God, for God is truly GOOD. For
example, `Good Bye' derives from the Middle English term of the 1500's of godbwye – or God be with
you! Amazing that the atheists use this term every day without knowing, isn't
it? Or that they, all around the world, acknowledge Christ's birth in their
calendar year of 2013 years from his birth.
Standing, as we do, in the period between His Glorious Coming (Christmas), and
His great going through His death on the Cross (Calvary), we may be best
disposed to simply seek that mercy for which He came to redeem us. We are
thankful for His Coming, and thankful to the promise of Redemption at the end
of Lent. It is summarized in this great Collect.
