Day 1 (Monday)
Exodus 14:1-31 (Crossing the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s Army Drowned)
Last time we saw the Exodus begin; this time, we will see Pharaoh betray his word and make war against God one more time as he decides to chase after the the children of Israel and try to bring them back. And therefore, this week we will also see the Lord deliver His people and utterly defeat Pharaoh. This reading is especially fitting for this period, since we celebrated the Lord’s Baptism on January 6th and have been blessing homes since that time, and are also now preparing for the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection…and the Lord’s deliverance of His people from Egypt in the Passover foreshadows both Theophany and Pascha itself. This moment, when the Children of Israel are delivered from bondage in Egypt by a miracle, with the parting of the Red Sea and their passage through it, is one of the significant moments in the history of the people of Israel that anticipates the Lord’s baptism, and that itself is a sign of His death and resurrection, trampling down death by death. As we are baptized into His death and resurrection, then we may say that on both occasions, both at Theophany and at Pascha, the Lord saves His people by means of water.
Crossing the Red Sea
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-ha-hi′roth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Ba′al-zephon; you shall encamp over against it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are entangled in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred picked chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued the people of Israel as they went forth defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-ha-hi′roth, in front of Ba′al-zephon.
10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them; and they were in great fear. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord; 11 and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still.” 15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go on dry ground through the sea. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
19 Then the angel of God who went before the host of Israel moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness; and the night passed[a] without one coming near the other all night.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians, and discomfited the host of the Egyptians, 25 clogging[b] their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel; for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
The Pursuers Drowned
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its wonted flow when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled into it, and the Lord routed[c] the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host[d] of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not so much as one of them remained. 29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. 31 And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did against the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
Reading 16
909 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should address the points noted in the Additional Discussion Questions below.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
6) “What is the a) literal, b) allegorical, c) moral/ethical, d) anagogical/eschatological meaning of this text? (Think of these questions as a mountain which we can ascend, or as layers of meaning upon which we can reflect. Oftentimes, as we reflect upon a text in this way, we may find that the highest level, the anagogical reading (in which we see the text as revealing the glory of God and His kingdom in a deeper manner, opening up to us the grand scope of God’s great work of salvation in and for us) sheds new insights on the lower levels of interpretation.)
Additional Discussion questions:
1) How many chariots did Pharaoh send after the Israelites when he decided that he shouldn’t have let Israel go? (It says he sent 600 picked chariots and ALL the other chariots of Egypt…so this was a large army, led by the elite forces of the king).
2) What did the Israelites say to Moses (and to the Lord) when they saw the Egyptians coming? (They asked if Moses had brought them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness because there weren’t graves for them in Egypt…this is a sarcastic way of saying that leaving Egypt was stupid, and they shouldn’t have listened to Moses at all, and slavery was at least better than dying).
3) What did Moses tell them? (He told them to not be afraid, and to stand firm, and that the Lord would fight for them, and they wouldn’t have to fight at all, only watch and see God would do to save them.)
4) What did God do? (He told Moses to stretch his staff over the sea, and He drove the sea back with a strong wind, and divided the waters, so the Israelites could cross over on dry land).
5) Why didn’t the Egyptians attack the Israelites while they were waiting for the waters to divide and waiting to cross over? (The Angel of the Lord, Who had been leading them, moved and went behind them, and blocked the way between them and the Egyptians with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night – so the Son of God Himself protected them during the night, in the form of a pillar of cloud and fire).
6) What happened to the Egyptians after the Israelites crossed over? (They tried to cross over as well, but the Lord told Moses to stretch his hand over the sea, and the division in the waters went away, and the waters came back and drowned the army of Pharaoh. The hymns of the Church talk about how Moses divided the waters moving his staff vertically, and brought them back together moving his staff horizontally, making the sign of the Cross above the waters and in that way anticipating the Lord’s deliverance of His people by both His baptism in the Jordan and by His crucifixion).
Day 2 (Wednesday)
Metropolitan Anthony Bloom On Prayer – 1
Metropolitan Anthony Bloom was a bishop of a community of Russian Orthodox exiles in Western Europe in the late 20th century. He speaks clearly and beautifully about the realities of the Christian life. The following excerpt is from his book “Beginning to Pray.” He is talking toward the question of why it is that sometimes, indeed often, we feel that God is absent when we pray. We will be reading from the first chapter.
From chapter 1 – The Absence of God
As we start learning to pray, I would like to make it clear that what I mean by ‘learning to pray’ is not an attempt to justify or explain this in a speculative way. Rather, I would like to point out what one should be aware of, and what one can do if one wishes to pray. As I am a beginner myself, I will assume that you are also beginners, and we will try to begin together. I am not speaking to anyone who aims at mystical prayer or higher states of perfection, because these things will teach themselves. When God breaks through to us or when we break through to God in certain exceptional circumstances, either because things suddenly disclose themselves with a depth we have never before perceived or when we suddenly discover in ourselves a depth where prayer abides and out of which it can gush forth, there is no problem of prayer. When we are aware of God, we stand before Him, worship Him, speak to Him.
At the outset there is, then, one very important problem: the situation of one for whom God seems to be absent. This is what I would like to speak about now.
Obviously I am not speaking of a real absence – God is never really absent – but of the sense of absence which we have. We stand before God and we shout into an empty sky, out of which there is no reply. We turn in all directions and He is not to be found. What ought we to think of this situation?
First of all, it is very important to remember that prayer is an encounter and a relationship, a relationship which is deep, and this relationship cannot be forced either on us or on God. The fact that God can make Himself present or can leave us with the sense of His absence is part of this live and real relationship. If we could mechanically draw Him into an encounter, force Him to meet us, simply because we have chosen this moment to meet Him, there would be no relationship and no encounter. We can do that with an image, with the imagination, or with the various idols we can put in front of us instead of God; we can do nothing of the sort with the living God, any more than we can do it with a living person.
A relationship must begin and develop in mutual freedom. If you look at the relationship in terms of mutual relationship, you will see that God could complain about us a great deal more than we about Him. We complain that He does not make Himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for Him, but what about the twenty-three and a half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer ‘I am busy, I am sorry’ or when we do not answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at the door of our heart, of our minds, of our conscience, of our life. So there is a situation in which we have no right to complain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent than He ever is.
The second very important thing is that a meeting face to face with God is always a moment of judgment for us. We cannot meet God in prayer or in meditation or in contemplation and not be either saved or condemned. I do not mean this in major terms of eternal damnation or eternal salvation already given and received, but it is always a critical moment, a crisis. ‘Crisis’ comes from the Greek and means ‘judgment.’ To meet God face to face in prayer is a critical moment in our lives, and thanks be to Him that He does not always present Himself to us when we wish to meet Him, because we might not be able to endure such a meeting.
Remember the many passages in Scripture in which we are told how bad it is to find oneself face to face with God, because God is power, God is truth, God is purity. Therefore, the first thought we ought to have when we do not tangibly perceive the divine presence, is a thought of gratitude. God is merciful; He does not come in an untimely way. He gives us a chance to judge ourselves, to understand, and not to come into His presence at a moment when it would mean condemnation.
759 words
Beginning to Pray – pages 25-27
Discussion questions:
1) What do you notice about this passage? What jumps out at you? (Each person should answer this question, and then the leader can give his/her answer as well. If this results in a discussion, it’s just fine if the other questions are skipped. Chances are what jumps out will involve answers to the other questions anyway.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here? (Among other things, that He is a real person, and that the laws of our relationship with Him are not so different from those that govern every other relationship in our lives. If we want someone else to be present with us, we have to be present with them. It reminds us, too, that God is Holy, and that therefore an encounter with Him is a moment of judgment; to comprehend, even in a small way, the holiness of God is to see ourselves truly, how much we fail and fall short of the glory of God)
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us? (It reminds us that we tend to be very bad at being present in our relationship with God. It reminds us, too, of the real ramifications of our limited nature. We can conceive of a Being greater than us, and can even begin to imagine a Being infinitely greater than all things…but it is another thing entirely to stand face to face with that Being)
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life? (Hopefully, everyone will see the importance of changing whatever needs to change in our lives to be more present with God, perhaps in prayer, or church, or service to others, or all of these together. The idea that sometimes we should be grateful that God seems to be absent, because we simply aren’t ready to encounter Him, is humbling and challenging; if we can take that seriously, then a great number of changes to our lives become necessary.)
6) “What is the a) literal, b) allegorical, c) moral/ethical, d) anagogical/eschatological meaning of this text? (Think of these questions as a mountain which we can ascend, or as layers of meaning upon which we can reflect. Oftentimes, as we reflect upon a text in this way, we may find that the highest level, the anagogical reading (in which we see the text as revealing the glory of God and His kingdom in a deeper manner, opening up to us the grand scope of God’s great work of salvation in and for us) sheds new insights on the lower levels of interpretation.)
Day 3 (Friday)
Luke 20:1-18 (Authority of Jesus Questioned, Parable of the Wicked Tenants)
Last time we read the story of the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, as He came to His people and His city in mingled glory and humility, riding on a donkey, but receiving the acclamation of the people: Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” After this He wept over Jerusalem, and entered the Temple to cleanse it. We’ll continue today with Luke 20, showing Jesus teaching in the Temple after Palm Sunday, in the final days before His betrayal and crucifixion.
The Authority of Jesus Questioned
20 One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question; now tell me, 4 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know whence it was. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
9 And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, that they should give him some of the fruit of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant; him also they beat and treated shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third; this one they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will respect him.’ 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 And they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “God forbid!” 17 But he looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written:
‘The very stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner’?
18 Every one who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on any one it will crush him.”
Reading 42
405 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should note that Jesus has basically taken over the Temple; after He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He went straight to the Temple and drove out the money-changers, purifying the House of God and making it His own. What God’s people had yearned for since the Babylonian Captivity has come to pass; God is dwelling once more in their midst, even in the Temple, teaching and ministering to the people and calling them and all nations to follow Him. Both of the stories in today’s reading make this same point; in a barely veiled way, Jesus is telling anyone who will listen Who He is. He is the One Who Came from Heaven and had sent John, and He is the Heir of the Master of the vineyard, come to claim back His inheritance from the evil tenants. He is the King of Israel, come to dwell among His people once more and forever.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
6) “What is the a) literal, b) allegorical, c) moral/ethical, d) anagogical/eschatological meaning of this text? (Think of these questions as a mountain which we can ascend, or as layers of meaning upon which we can reflect. Oftentimes, as we reflect upon a text in this way, we may find that the anagogical reading, in which we see the text as revealing the glory of God and His kingdom in a deeper manner, sheds new insights on the lower levels of interpretation.)
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