Advent Week 2 – BLESSED Lord

The Reverend Joey Odell / December 5, 2025

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 patience 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.

The collect for the second week of Advent seems a strange fit - not just for contemporary evangelicals and other Christians who think that Advent is just pre-Christmas, but also for us who know that Advent calls us to the hope of the return of Jesus. Why is this collect an Advent collect?

It’s important to realize that this collect is perhaps the most Protestant statement in our prayer book outside the 39 Articles. In the year 1536, William Tyndale was executed for the crime of publishing the Bible in English. Only a year later King Henry VIII authorized the publication of the Great Bible, which was placed in, and chained to, the pulpit in every church. Contrary to the assumptions of historically confused Baptists and Adventists, the Great Bible was ordered chained to the pulpit for two reasons – to prevent theft and to allow the laity always to have access to it, for the price of such a large book was beyond the means of most people. If you ever take the time to research the Great Bible, you’ll find that the images and Scriptures on the title page convey a definite royal message: the King had authority from God to give the Bible to the people. Notice these features:

• Central to all is the figure of King Henry VIII, whose crown has been removed in deference to God The King hands the Verbum Dei (the Word of God) to the leaders of the Church, (Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury), and the Civil Government (Thomas Cromwell, the Lord Privy Seal).

• To Cranmer Henry says “Such things command and teach” (I Timothy 4:11)

• To Cromwell he says, “Judge righteously; hear the small as well as the great.” (Deuteronomy 1:16-17

• To everyone Henry Says, “My commandment is, in my dominion & kingdom, that men fear and stand in awe of the living God.”

• In the left middle picture, Cranmer passes the Bible to the clergy with the words, “Feed ye Christ’s flock” (I Peter 5:2)

• On the right middle picture, Cromwell hands the Bible to the laymen saying, “Shun evil, and do good; seek peace and ensue it.”

• At the left top of the bottom frame, a preacher urges his people to pray and give thanks for their king (I Timothy 2:1-2). The congregation responds, “Long live the King.”

So, whatever we may think of Henry VIII’s proclivities and motivations, he clearly believed it was beneficial to himself and to his kingdom to make the Word of God accessible to the people in their own language.

In England in 1549, when the first Book of Common Prayer was published, the Great Bible had been available to the people for ten years, while the Roman Catholic church would not publish a complete Bible in English for 60 more years. Thus, when this collect was first published, it proclaimed what the Reformation was truly about – where authority is found. Faithful Christians of every stripe would affirm that all authority is given to the Lord Jesus Christ, who commissioned his church to take the gospel into all the world. But, what is the ultimate and highest authority in this world that is accessible and understandable to us? The reason Rome did not authorize the Scriptures to be printed in English – or Spanish, or French – was because it proclaimed itself as the ultimate authority to not only have the Scriptures, but to tell the people what it said and what it meant.

When people can read, know, and wrestle with understanding the Holy Scriptures together, without a magisterium to tell the people what to believe, a transformation of understanding occurs in people, in families, in communities. This is why this nearly 400-year-old collect still matters. It calls us to faithfulness as a people in an age of universal literacy: to not only hear the Word of God read and explained at the divine service, but also to, ourselves, read, learn, mark, and inwardly digest it. When the words of the Scriptures are not just something someone else tells you about, but they are securely rooted in your soul, it transforms your life. It orients you toward what is good, true, and beautiful. It places your hope, not in temporary circumstances, but in eternal truths and the relationship between us and our Triune God and Savior.

Knowing the Scriptures, knowing the truth gives us hope – not a hope that the world has, a feeling that what you want might come to pass, but the hope spoken of in the Bible, a certainty that what has been decreed will certainly come to pass. This is not a hope that is a guess, but a hope that is knowing. Knowing our calling and baptism are sure, knowing that Jesus meets us in the sacraments, knowing that the church is the supernatural body of Christ, and knowing that Jesus is making all things new.

But why now? Why is this collect placed in Advent and not during Trinty-tide? Shouldn’t all the Advent collects be about Christmas? Of course not – after all, none of the historic collects during Advent are about Christmas. They are, as a whole, about what Advent and Christmas point us toward, the mystery of faith: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ WILL come again. Our hope is not that Jesus came, did some very important things, and left us here on earth to work it out. It is that He is coming again to restore the world to its rightful relationship with our creator. May we, by patience and comfort of God’s holy Word, embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which He hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.