Two Scriptural Notes on the MP Readings

  • The first reading, Amos 5:1-17 has one of my favorite bits of prophetic poetry in it, one that gets used for an opening sentence at evening prayer. Yet the context is important, especially understanding exactly what’s being said. Here’s the bit in full:

For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name

It’s important to catch the significance of the places mentioned at the beginning: Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba. These are all names we’ve heard before, of course, but they have a special significance. We often have this idea—because it’s pressed quite hard by the Deuteronomistic tradition—that the Jerusalem Temple was the only worship site where the Israelites ever worshiped. That’s not accurate, especially given the seperation of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms after Solomon. Jerusalem was in the South—Northerners didn’t go there so much… In any case, these three places were all major religious centers discussed in the OT histories.

Bethel was the site of Jacob’s famous ladder and his reception of the name Israel. The Ark of the Covenant was kept there before its move to Shiloh and Jeroboam after Israel and Judah split made the shrine at Bethel the theological counterpart of the Temple at Jerusalem (complete with golden calves).

Gilgal was the site of a major shrine mentioned repeatedly in Joshua through 1 Saumel. This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan with a miraculous rolling back of the water, twelve stones were set up as witnesses, where sacrifices were brought, and where Saul was anointed king.

Beersheba is also one of the great early centers of Israelite religion. It is mentioned several times in Genesis as a worship site in the time of the patriarchs. Other references make it clear that major religious activity happened there—but none of them are as explicit about it as the two above.

The point that Amos (who was operating in the Northern Kingdom or else one suspects Jerusalem may well have made the list…) is making here is that seeking the places of sanctuary and great sacrificial worship are not enough—one must seek the Lord. Sacrifice and adherence to the ritual laws is not enough and is incomplete without also adhering to the social laws that mandate justice for the oppressed and care for widows, orphans, and sojourners.  I don’t think Amos is being “anti-liturgical” here as some would like to make it, rather, he’s once again calling Israel to observance of the whole Law with all its demands, not just the easier and more publicly performable parts.

  • The Daily Office lectionary has, well, its issues… In particular, it tends to jump around when we get near to significant feasts and one wonders what gets missed. Indeed even in its continuous reading it seems not to be so continuous. I remember a complaint on the Ship of Fools a while back that it specifically skipped the condemnations of sexual immorality from 2 Peter; this was produced as proof of TEC’s screwing around with the Scriptures. Let me explain that today by way of noting the second reading from Jude 1. Yes, the Daily Office lectionary does leave out a fairly large bit of 2 Peter 2—but that’s because 2 Peter 2:1-22 comes directly from Jude 1:4-16. I’m guessing the compilers decided it didn’t make sense to read the exact same passage within a few days of each other… And yes, this is one of those on-going conversations in Scripture that bls is talking about.

Now Where Did That Go…?

I’ve got two book review type items to post. One is the next stage in the blog’s inevitable evolution into the Martin Thornton FanBlog on his Rock and the River. The other is a new book by Luke Timothy Johnson that I’m still mulling over a bit; on one hand it confirms a lot of what I think about how we read and interpret the New Testament (big surprise there…), but even more so revolutionizes how I read.

At the moment I can’t find either of them.

This is a sign that the large pile of books and assorted papers known as my office needs to be reorganized in a major way. *sigh* More later after I’m able to dig out…

Read This

I’m really slammed today. More breviary changes to come but work and life intrude.

However, you do need to go and read the piece that Dean Knisley put up. We who are liturgically obsessed, I believe, must always have circumstances like this in mind when we sit down and start fiddling with our prayer books. We miss the point entirely if the realities of life and liturgy get disconnected.

As I always say of Eucharistic liturgies—would I want this to be used at a funeral, or alternatively, at the last Eucharist of a person’s life? Because we’re more in danger of the latter than we think…

New Online Breviary: Beta Test Version

Christopher has said on occasion that it’s one thing to advocate for liturgical renewal; it’s another entirely to actually do something about it.

In the spirit of actually doing something, I’m introducing for trial use a new online resource for praying the Daily Office. Named St Bede’s Breviary, it is firmly rooted in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, especially as read through catholic tradition. I’ll say more about this in the coming days but here are a few notes:

  • It differs from other online prayer options specifically in terms of options. You may select from Rite I or II, use one of (currently) three liturgical kalendars, and vary the amount of material and additions as your time and inclinations allow.
  • The other difference from other sites is that it is an integrated full-text office meaning that everything is on one page. No clicking between various windows.
  • M has confirmed that it is crackberry accessible. (No word on other telephony devices…)
  • It is still in the beta testing phase which means that there are glitches. Some I’m aware of and am working as time allows; others will only appear in the course of regular use. So—it’s not perfect.
  • It’s also not static. Meaning, not only can bugs be fixed (unlike in paper breviaries) I’m also open to introducing new options and such as long as they remain in line with the fundamental mandate of the project—a breviary rooted in the ’79 BCP read in continuity with catholic tradition.

Here’s a key point: While I’ve used the word “I” a couple of times, I’m going to carefully qualify it. While I’ve done the PHP coding and worked up the current state of the MySQL tables, this has, from its inception a while back, been a community effort.  In particular bls and Fr. Chris did a tremendous amount of work in terms of both content and technical conceptualization. bls in particular was the mastermind behind the drupal-based version that ran for a while on a host provided by Fr. Chris. Unfortunately my host doesn’t offer drupal support on Windows servers concerning which I’m greatly annoyed… In short, this wouldn’t be possible without them. (And bls, I want to revisit some of your original design ideas too—I’ll shoot you a note…)

Christopher, Brian M, Scott, Mother M, Paul Goings, and others offered support and suggestions, sometimes only in the form of answering seemingly random questions about office minutae.

I’d like to keep it that way too. If you use this, please let me know what can or should be done to make it better or more user friendly.

So, without further ado: St Bede’s Breviary.

Holistic Theology/Spirituality

Martin Thorton speaks of the English tradition as a balance of affective and speculative elements.  I wonder if it’s worth going a step further and adding in the kinetic dimension. In reductionistic terms, then, it’d be theology and spirituality that balances and integrates heart, head, and body. The pay-off is that we recognize the bodily dimensions—kneeling, fasting/feasting, crossings, etc. as just as much a part of our theology and spirituality as what we think and feel.

Random Saturday Morning Bible Thought

I’d love to do—not a true commentary per se—but a close reading that puts 1 Corinthians into conversation with Ephesians.

1 Corinthians is the preeminent Pauline book on the practicalities of church life: what to do about conflicts and factions in parishes, especially those exacerbated by different personalities and different ways of being spiritual.

Ephesians is the preeminent Pauline book (and, yes, it is most certainly Pauline whether Paul penned it in its entirety or not) on the theology and mystical nature of the church: who it connects into the mystery of Christ, how individuals are joined in it, the ultimate nature and purpose of the church.

Hmmm. Now thinking that, I wonder how a joint reading of Colossians and Galatians would look…

Administrative Note on Comments

I just checked the spam filter and items from Christopher and Anastasia got caught there; I’ve no idea why… I’m going to try fiddling with the settings to stop this from happening. If you find you can’t comment—or if we take on a big surge of Russian Pr0n comments—you’ll know why.

Tech Oddity

M’s printer ran out of several color cartridges at once, so she went out to the store. She came back with a new multifunction printer with scanning, fax, and copying functions in addition to regular (high quality) printing functions.

She bought it because she really did need a new printer.

But also because buying a new multifunction printer cost ten dollars less than buying new ink cartridges for her old printer. The new one came with cartridges included.

There’s just something not right about that…

Christianity: The Elevator Pitch

The impetus for this comes partly from my theology series and partly in relation to Dean Knisley’s post on an elevator pitch on the Gospel. (And please note that we’re shooting at two related but different objectives.)

Here it is:

Christianity is “about” participating in the very life of God through incorporation into the Body of Christ—mystically, sacramentally, and communally—which is evermore being transformed into the likeness and mind of Christ in thought, word, and deed.

(You can tell I’ve been reading Ephesians.)

A few notes here:

  • “participation in the very life of God”: this is at the heart of it for me. We’re plugged into God’s being at his invitation.
  • “incorporation”: I chose this word specifically because f the reinforcement of the concept in the Latin root.
  • “Body of Christ—mystically”: Again, as in the first bullet this is supernatural “oogie-boogie” stuff here. That mustn’t be minimized or rationalized away.
  • “Body of Christ—sacramentally”: We are joined to the Body through Baptism and our participation in it is deepened in and through the Eucharist. A sacramental church structure is necessarily required by this point.
  • “Body of Christ—communally”: You can’t be a Christian by yourself. (Ephesians is leaking in here.) One of the fundamental images in the New Testament is Christ as the new Temple being built of living stones who are the individual believers. While individuals must be invested, this is not an individualistic endeavor.
  • “which”: Building on the previous point, this relative pronoun does not modify an individual but modifies “Body of Christ” particularly in its communal manifestation. We as individuals are called to imitate Christ and to be transformed into the mind of Christ but not by ourselves or for our own sakes. This is where Ephesians 4 is so central for me: “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” We are only growing properly as individuals when our growth is benefiting the whole community.
  • “being transformed into the likeness and mind of Christ”: This occurs through both natural and supernatural means. It means acquiring virtues through practice and habit as well as gifts of grace that are embraced and nurtured.
  • “likeness and mind of Christ”: Normally I just use “mind of Christ” as shorthand for this, but that can be mistaken and misunderstood as being cerebrally focused. “Likeness” makes it clear that it is a full imitation that includes character and action, not just thought.
  • “in thought, word, and deed”: Again, this emphasizes that the transformation of the whole community relates to our comprehensive ways of being in the world: what we think, what we say, what we do.