Tuesday in the First Week of Lent
For the third consecutive year, a group of folks are gathering every weekday morning during Lent at 6:30 a.m. (yes, even on Saturdays!) to engage in the wonderfully monastic/Anglican tradition of reading the "Daily Office" -- also known as "Morning Prayer".
The service consists of prayers, reading of the Psalms and other lessons from the Bible as well as some time of intercession and thanksgiving. The entire process takes about 30 minutes and provides a disciplined way of beginning one's day and focusing one's attention in the unfolding process of observing this holy season of Lent.
One of the adaptations we've made to the Office here at Trinity is the decision to read books of the Bible "in course" (sequentially) rather than follow the prescribed Lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer. This year we're moving through Genesis, Hebrews and Matthew.
Today, I was noticing how certain themes/terms are woven throughout the biblical texts, and how those themes pass right by us if we're not paying attention -- for instance the word "covenant".
In the passage from Genesis (chapters 8 and 9) this morning we read how God had established a covenant (made a promise) through Noah with all of humankind -- the promise was that God would never again flood the entire earth -- and the "seal" or visible symbol that God could be trusted to keep God's word was the rainbow. Noah's response to the deliverance his family received through the flood was to offer sacrifices of various sorts of ceremonially "clean" animals.
In the reading from Hebrews (chapter 9), we heard about the "covenant" that God established with the Children of Israel through Moses and mitigated by the Aaronic/Levitical priesthoods of Israel -- institutionalized in the various iterations of temple worship.
The symbol of this set of promises was the "Ark of the Covenant" -- a gold-covered box that contained a jar of manna, the God-provided bread from the Israelite's Wilderness Wanderings, the miraculous staff of Aaron, Moses's brother, and the actual stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments had been inscribed. The Ark of the Covenant was housed in the innermost sanctuary of the portable Tabernacle (during the Exodus) and later in the Temple. This sanctuary was called the "Holiest of Holies".
Afixed to top of the Ark of the Covenant was an empty chair called the "Mercy Seat". This seat signified the presence of the invisible God who could not be contained by a visible representation (also known as a "graven image"). Once a year the High Priest entered behind the veil of the Holiest of Holies and offered special sacrifices on behalf of the people.
The writer of Hebrews connects the work of the Aaronic/Levitical priesthood with Jesus' offering of himself in his death on the cross. In the writer's understanding, Jesus has established a "new covenant" (the seal of which is Jesus' own self). By virtue of the resurrection, Jesus has passed into a heavenly "Holiest of Holies" (of which the Temple version was simply a copy). own self.
All of this raises interesting issues for reflection.
In all of these instances, the covenant with Noah, the covenant with Moses/the Children of Israel and the covenant through the Person and Work of Jesus, the initiator of the action is God. God makes the overtures to a person, Noah (who had found "favor" in the eyes of God). God makes an overture to an entire people (the Children of Israel) through Moses. God makes an overture to all of humankind through Jesus.
These covenants are one-sided in that God provides all of the stipulations and human beings provide the appropriate responses. How does God "deciding for us" collide with our Western idolization of the autonomy of the self, and our assumption that individual agency/decision is sacrosanct.
How are these covenants related? While the writer to the Hebrews clearly believes that in Jesus the covenant through Moses is "superceded", I'm not sure that this sort of reading is particularly helpful in the ongoing Christian dialogue with our Jewish sisters and brothers.
This raises a question about biblical interpretation. How do we engage in a thoughtful conversation with the texts of scripture without either: dismissing them out of hand because they contradict our sensibilities or glibly assuming that the text "says what it means and means what it says"?
Of course the connection of Jesus' death on the cross with the sacrificial system of the Aaronic/Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 9:25, 26) raises all sorts of questions. Certainly, the writers of the New Testament would have had this imagery in their cultural understanding. Nonetheless, the Church has struggled for sometime to articulate the way in which Jesus' death is a part of the saving acts of God in history. How does Jesus' death seal a new covenant from God to humankind? Or is Jesus' example the seal? Or is his resurrection? Or all of it? Or none of it?
To wrestle with these sorts of questions is the work of theology...and not theology done strictly in the lofty towers of academia, but in the trenches of our day to day work, relationships and worship.
Just a few rambles after a few minutes hearing the "Word of the Lord" at 6:30 a.m. this morning!
For the third consecutive year, a group of folks are gathering every weekday morning during Lent at 6:30 a.m. (yes, even on Saturdays!) to engage in the wonderfully monastic/Anglican tradition of reading the "Daily Office" -- also known as "Morning Prayer".
The service consists of prayers, reading of the Psalms and other lessons from the Bible as well as some time of intercession and thanksgiving. The entire process takes about 30 minutes and provides a disciplined way of beginning one's day and focusing one's attention in the unfolding process of observing this holy season of Lent.
One of the adaptations we've made to the Office here at Trinity is the decision to read books of the Bible "in course" (sequentially) rather than follow the prescribed Lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer. This year we're moving through Genesis, Hebrews and Matthew.
Today, I was noticing how certain themes/terms are woven throughout the biblical texts, and how those themes pass right by us if we're not paying attention -- for instance the word "covenant".
In the passage from Genesis (chapters 8 and 9) this morning we read how God had established a covenant (made a promise) through Noah with all of humankind -- the promise was that God would never again flood the entire earth -- and the "seal" or visible symbol that God could be trusted to keep God's word was the rainbow. Noah's response to the deliverance his family received through the flood was to offer sacrifices of various sorts of ceremonially "clean" animals.
In the reading from Hebrews (chapter 9), we heard about the "covenant" that God established with the Children of Israel through Moses and mitigated by the Aaronic/Levitical priesthoods of Israel -- institutionalized in the various iterations of temple worship.
The symbol of this set of promises was the "Ark of the Covenant" -- a gold-covered box that contained a jar of manna, the God-provided bread from the Israelite's Wilderness Wanderings, the miraculous staff of Aaron, Moses's brother, and the actual stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments had been inscribed. The Ark of the Covenant was housed in the innermost sanctuary of the portable Tabernacle (during the Exodus) and later in the Temple. This sanctuary was called the "Holiest of Holies".
Afixed to top of the Ark of the Covenant was an empty chair called the "Mercy Seat". This seat signified the presence of the invisible God who could not be contained by a visible representation (also known as a "graven image"). Once a year the High Priest entered behind the veil of the Holiest of Holies and offered special sacrifices on behalf of the people.
The writer of Hebrews connects the work of the Aaronic/Levitical priesthood with Jesus' offering of himself in his death on the cross. In the writer's understanding, Jesus has established a "new covenant" (the seal of which is Jesus' own self). By virtue of the resurrection, Jesus has passed into a heavenly "Holiest of Holies" (of which the Temple version was simply a copy). own self.
All of this raises interesting issues for reflection.
In all of these instances, the covenant with Noah, the covenant with Moses/the Children of Israel and the covenant through the Person and Work of Jesus, the initiator of the action is God. God makes the overtures to a person, Noah (who had found "favor" in the eyes of God). God makes an overture to an entire people (the Children of Israel) through Moses. God makes an overture to all of humankind through Jesus.
These covenants are one-sided in that God provides all of the stipulations and human beings provide the appropriate responses. How does God "deciding for us" collide with our Western idolization of the autonomy of the self, and our assumption that individual agency/decision is sacrosanct.
How are these covenants related? While the writer to the Hebrews clearly believes that in Jesus the covenant through Moses is "superceded", I'm not sure that this sort of reading is particularly helpful in the ongoing Christian dialogue with our Jewish sisters and brothers.
This raises a question about biblical interpretation. How do we engage in a thoughtful conversation with the texts of scripture without either: dismissing them out of hand because they contradict our sensibilities or glibly assuming that the text "says what it means and means what it says"?
Of course the connection of Jesus' death on the cross with the sacrificial system of the Aaronic/Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 9:25, 26) raises all sorts of questions. Certainly, the writers of the New Testament would have had this imagery in their cultural understanding. Nonetheless, the Church has struggled for sometime to articulate the way in which Jesus' death is a part of the saving acts of God in history. How does Jesus' death seal a new covenant from God to humankind? Or is Jesus' example the seal? Or is his resurrection? Or all of it? Or none of it?
To wrestle with these sorts of questions is the work of theology...and not theology done strictly in the lofty towers of academia, but in the trenches of our day to day work, relationships and worship.
Just a few rambles after a few minutes hearing the "Word of the Lord" at 6:30 a.m. this morning!
posted by FrGaryB | 8:00 AM
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