Day 1 (Monday)
Exodus 18:1-27 (Jethro’s Advice)
Last time we saw Israel receive water at the rock, and then receive victory from the Lord over Amalek when that nation attacked them on their approach to Mt. Sinai. This time, we will see Moses’ wife and children return to him, as Zipporah’s father Jethro brings them to Moses. Jethro’s encounter with Moses is worth noting
Jethro’s Advice
18 Jethro, the priest of Mid′ian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Zippo′rah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away, 3 and her two sons, of whom the name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), 4 and the name of the other, Elie′zer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”).
5 And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. 6 And when one told Moses, “Lo, your father-in-law Jethro is coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” 7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare, and went into the tent.
8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
10 And Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because he delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians, when they dealt arrogantly with them.” 12 And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, offered a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
13 On the morrow Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand about you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God and his decisions.”
17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you; you are not able to perform it alone. 19 Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God, and bring their cases to God; 20 and you shall teach them the statutes and the decisions, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.”
21 “Moreover choose able men from all the people, such as fear God, men who are trustworthy and who hate a bribe; and place such men over the people as rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times; every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves; so it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
24 So Moses gave heed to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 26 And they judged the people at all times; hard cases they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. 27 Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own country.
Reading 20
736 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should point out that, notwithstanding the gifts and miracles that have been entrusted to Moses, and how he and all Israel have been sent out into the wilderness to make offerings to God…in this passage, it is none of them, but rather Jethro, who makes the offering, and all of them participate in it by sharing the meal. This indicates to us what the situation is at this time with regards to the priesthood; there is no particular priesthood yet, but the head of each household, the father of the family, would have fulfilled this role, as we have seen with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob up to this point. This also gives us a glimpse at what sacrificial offerings actually were; an occasion to share a meal with God, to enter into communion with Him. This is the final reading in Exodus before the arrival at Mt. Sinai in chapter 19; we will end here in this Year 1, and in Year 2 we will read about what happens at Mt. Sinai. Next week, we will continue with the story in the book of Numbers, as they prepare to leave the mountain.)
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.)
Day 2 (Wednesday)
Anthony Bloom on Prayer – 5 – On Suffering and Weakness
We have been reading excerpts from Metropolitan Anthony Bloom’s book “Beginning to Pray,” and he has been talking about our experience of the absence of God when we pray. Last time, he talked about how it is usually we who are absent from God, rather than God Who is absent from us, and if we can acknowledge that, then we have a place to begin to pray, recognizing ourselves as those who are outside of the Kingdom and desire to come in, and he noted the example of the Publican and the Pharisee, and the humble prayer of the Publican who understands that he is outside the Kingdom, and is asking for mercy. This time, he will proceed by talking about weakness, and how important it is to true prayer.
Absence of God in Prayer – continued
You probably remember the two passages from St. Paul where he says ‘My power is manifest in weakness.’ Weakness is not the kind of weakness which we show by sinning and forgetting God, but the kind of weakness which means being completely supple, completely transparent, completely abandoned in the hands of God. We usually try to be strong and we prevent God from manifesting His power.
You remember how you were taught to write when you were small. Your mother put a pencil in your hand, took your hand in hers and began to move it. Since you did not know at all what she meant to do, you left your hand completely free in hers. This is what I mean by the power of God being manifest in weakness. You could think of that also in the terms of a sail. A sail can catch the wind and be used to manoeuvre a boat only because it is so frail. If instead of a sail you put a solid board, it would not work; it is the weakness of the sail that makes it sensitive to the wind.
The same is true of the gauntlet and the surgical glove. How strong is the gauntlet, how frail is the glove, yet in intelligent hands it can work miracles because it is so frail. So one of the things which God continues to try to teach us is to replace the imaginary and minute amount of disturbing strength we have by this frailty of surrender, of abandonment in the hands of God. I will give you an example of this.
Twenty-five years ago a friend of mine who had two children was killed during the liberation of Paris. His children had always hated me because they were jealous that their father had a friend, but when the father died they turned to me because I had been their father’s friend. One of his children was a girl of fifteen who came to see me one day in my surgery (I was a doctor before I became a priest), and she saw that, apart from my medical paraphernalia, I had a book of the Gospels on my desk.
So with all the certainty of youth she said ‘I can’t understand how a man who is supposed to be educated can believe in such stupid things.’ I said, ‘Have you read it?’ She said ‘No.’ Then I said, ‘Remember it is only the most stupid people who pass judgments on things that do not know.’ After that she read the Gospels and she was so interested that her whole life changed, because she started to pray and God gave her an experience of His presence and she lived by it for a while.
Then she fell ill with an incurable disease and she wrote me a letter when I had already become a priest and was in England, and said, ‘Since my body has begun to grow weak and to die out, my spirit has become livelier than ever and I perceive the divine presence so easily and so joyfully.’ I wrote to her again: ‘Don’t expect it will last. When you have lost a little bit more of your strength, you will no longer be able to turn and cast yourself Godwards and then you will feel that you have no access to God.’ After a while she wrote again and said ‘Yes, I have become so weak now that I can’t make the effort of moving Godwards or even longing actively and God has gone,’ but I said ‘Now do something else. Try to learn humility in the real, deep sense of this word.’
Beginning to Pray – pg. 33-35
Discussion Questions
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should point out how Metropolitan Anthony has moved beyond the reality of humility to discuss true weakness, and how we cannot in fact encounter God fully and truly until we are truly and deeply weak, until we acknowledge our utter dependence upon His love, His presence, His existence. St. Paul quotes one of the Greek poets when he says: “In Him we live, and move, and have our being,” but the point is absolute for the Christian. The story that our teacher tells here of the woman who grows in prayer and holiness and the encounter with God as she is effectively dying is a deeply challenging point for us; this is not the story that we want to be in, but it is, in fact, the story that all of us are in.)
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. This passage is deeply challenging to anyone who takes it seriously.).
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life? (Urging the necessity of wholesale change is the entire point of this reading).
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 22:24-38 (Dispute about Greatness, Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial, Purse/Bag/Sword Commanded)
Last time, we began to read the account of what happened leading up to the Last Supper, and saw Jesus institute the celebration of the Eucharist, of Holy Communion, and begin to speak to the apostles about how they were called not to rule over one another, but to serve, in imitation of Him. In this chapter, we will see Him continue to speak to them, and then they will go out to the Mount of Olives, where He will be betrayed and arrested by the soldiers of the high priest.
The Dispute about Greatness
24 A dispute also arose among them, which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you; rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. 27 For which is the greater, one who sits at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves.
28 “You are those who have continued with me in my trials; 29 as my Father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you 30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren.” 33 And he said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” 34 He said, “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you three times deny that you know me.”
Purse, Bag, and Sword
35 And he said to them, “When I sent you out with no purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” 36 He said to them, “But now, let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one. 37 For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was reckoned with transgressors’; for what is written about me has its fulfilment.” 38 And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.”
Reading 46
344 words
Discussion Questions
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (There are many things to note here, but one thing the Leader can point out if there is a need to spark discussion is that one of the themes that prevails throughout this reading is given about halfway through, when Jesus tells Peter that “Satan has demanded to sift them all like wheat,” that is, to test them all. As Jesus goes to His death, the trust and the faithfulness of His disciples is put to the test. Instead of leading them into a Promised Land, He is leading them to His own death, and still urging them to trust Him and to remain faithful to Him. It is important to note that all of them fail and run away or deny Him at some point, but from the very beginning, Jesus talks about their repentance and restoration, telling Peter to comfort the others once He has repented. Also, even though all of them are going to fail, Jesus still encourages them to struggle, and shows them how to do so, with prayer, and by urging them to repent after they fall. The point, in the end, is that only Judas actually falls for good; all the others repent and are restored and saved.)
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.)
Leave a Reply