January 1st, 2009

Please pray...

That God will bless the Common Cause Partners to obey His will and to know and love Jesus the Savior.

In the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (USA), January 1st is The Circumcision of Christ. This observance emphasizes Christ's obedience to the Law of Moses, so that He would be the perfect sacrifice to fulfill the Law for us. This is reflected in the

Traditional Collect:

ALMIGHTY God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Revised Common Lectionary observes this day as The Holy Name of Jesus. Here the emphasis is with the Angel's instruction that Joseph and Mary call their child Yeshua, a name meaning "God saves" or "God is salvation." Jesus role as Savior is extolled in the

Contemporary Collect:

Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Both Propers include a selection from

Paul's Letter to the Philippians:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death--
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
(2:5-11)