Thoughts on the Divine Service
30. Post-Communion Collects
Dear friends,
As Jesus goes about His public ministry, He is God visiting His people (Luke 7:16). He’s all about reversing and defeating the curse of sin with His miracles and forgiveness, and forgiveness moves His people from fearing His wrath to trusting in His grace. It sets them free from sin to serve Him and their neighbor. It gives them the hope of everlasting life.
For instance, there’s “the sinful woman” in John 8:1-11, caught in adultery and dragged before Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees to trap Him. The wages of sin is death, her accusers have all the evidence they need and they’re sizing up nearby rocks for the stoning. She’s face to face with the Lord who thundered, “You shall not commit adultery” at Sinai, but He’s on His way to the cross for her redemption. The incarnate Lord does not condemn her, but tells her, “from now on sin no more.”
Or take Zacchaeus, a tax collector in a time when tax collectors make their money by charging more than the state requires. He climbs a tree to see the spectacle of Jesus passing by, and Jesus summons him down and goes to his house. When Zacchaeus has spent time with the Teacher speaking His gracious Word, he rejoices to help the poor and restore fourfold restitution to anyone he has defrauded (Luke 19:1-10). He is set free from sin and rejoices to do good works.
There’s always Lazarus, dead four days when Jesus arrives in Bethany. God-in-flesh-and-blood goes to his grave, tells Lazarus to come out, and Lazarus emerges—not as a zombied corpse, but a living man freed from death. Even better, though, Jesus performs this miracle to foreshadow the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day (John 11:23-26).
Forgiveness of sins, a life set free for service and the hope of the resurrection: those are the sorts of gifts people receive when Jesus visits them.
As the various elements of the liturgy proclaim, you encounter Jesus just as much as the woman, Zacchaeus and Lazarus. In fact, you do more than just draw near, for you receive His body and blood into yourself for the forgiveness of your sins. Because Jesus is present there, He’s giving the same gifts to you. Not only that, but where Zacchaeus and the woman likely only saw Jesus one time, He keeps visiting you in His means of grace, again and again.
Lutheran Service Book has three different collects to be prayed after Holy Communion, each with a distinct emphasis, but the common theme that we’ve just been visited by Jesus Himself.
For those weighed down and troubled by their sin, this one is especially comforting:
O God the Father, the fountain and source of all goodness, who in lovingkindness sent Your only-begotten Son into the flesh, we thank You that for His sake You have given us pardon and peace in this Sacrament, and we ask You not to forsake Your children but always to rule our hearts and minds by Your Holy Spirit, that we may be enabled constantly to serve You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Rejoice, sinners: the Lord has given you pardon and peace. He does not hold your sins against you; but He forgives you, calls you His beloved child and gives you His Holy Spirit. You are not forsaken. Go and sin no more.
For those who know too well that it’s difficult to go and sin no more, but easy to slip back into the same sins:
We give thanks to You, almighty God, that You have refreshed us through this salutary gift, and we implore You that of Your mercy You would strengthen us through the same in faith toward You and in fervent love toward one another; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Given the persistence of the Old Adam, it is good to pray that we make good use of the life and freedom Christ has given us.
Finally, for those who eagerly anticipate the Last Day, a reminder that the same Jesus, who has come in bread and wine, will come again in glory:
Gracious God, our heavenly Father, You have given us a foretaste of the feast to come in the Holy Supper of Your Son’s body and blood. Keep us firm in the truth faith throughout our days of pilgrimage that, on the day of His coming, we may, together with all Your saints, celebrate the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which has no end; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
As we await the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end, we rejoice that Christ the Bridegroom visits His betrothed bride, the Church, that she (we!) might be spotless and holy when He comes in glory on the Last Day.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
(One brief nerdy note: for those interested, the first collect above (“O God, the Father…”) has been prayed after Holy Communion since the 13th century; the second (“We give thanks to You…”) was authored by Martin Luther as he worked to reform the liturgy so that it pointed to Christ once again; and the third was composed around 1998 as work began on the hymnal that would become Lutheran Service Book.)