The Collect for the First Sunday after Christmas from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States is below. Whereas The Book of Common Prayer repeats the Collect from Christmas Day, the Order gives a different prayer that takes its beginning from John 3.16.
The prayer then goes on to draw on Ephesians 2.8 (“the gift of God”), Ephesians 3.17 (“rooted and grounded”), and John 16.33, and 1 John 5.4-5 (“overcome the world”), like so: Christ has overcome the world; by faith, which is the gift of God, we are united to the incarnate Christ, who dwells in us; therefore God gives us power to overcome the world and gain immortality in living union with Christ the Immortal Conqueror. All of this is through Christ’s merits and Christ’s grace alone.
The First Sunday after Christmas
THE COLLECT
MOST merciful God, who hast so loved the world as to give thine only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, vouchsafe unto us, we humbly pray Thee, the precious gift of faith, whereby we may know that the Son of God is come, and being always rooted and grounded in the mystery of the Word made flesh, may have power to overcome the world, and gain the blessed immortality of heaven: through the merits of this same incarnate Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
