Day 1 (Monday)
Exodus 2:1-10
Welcome to week 11! Last week we saw that Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, had settled in Egypt, and had multiplied so much that the Egyptians decided to make them slaves in order to keep them under control; when they kept on growing more numerous, the Pharaoh decided that all the baby boys should be killed by throwing them into the Nile River to drown, or to be eaten by crocodiles. Let’s see what happens next.
2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Discussion questions:
1) Do you remember who Levi was? (He was one of Jacob/Israel’s sons, so he was a great-grandson of Abraham. Moses’ father and mother were from the tribe of Levi.)
2) How long did Moses’ mother hide him? (For three months – it doesn’t say exactly why he couldn’t be hidden any longer after that. I am guessing that it had to do with him growing bigger and louder, but maybe she had to go back to work at that point. She would have been known to have been pregnant, so maybe she claimed that the baby died, and she needed time to recover from the pregnancy before she went back to work…but all that is just speculation. It is a good opportunity, though, to think about what things must have been like for her, and to try to understand what might be going unspoken here because it’s assumed everyone knows what is going on already)
3) What did Moses’ mother do when she couldn’t hide him anymore? (She got a basket, and coated it in pitch to make it waterproof, and she put the baby into it in the river water among the reeds along the shore).
4) Do you think she was just leaving Moses there during the day while she worked, or was she placing him in God’s hands once she realized she couldn’t keep him? (This isn’t clear…the text doesn’t say anything about the family getting Moses and bringing him home at night, so it seems as though the second option is more likely. She did everything she could to let him live, but ultimately entrusted his life to God. If that’s the case, then what happens at the end of the story is extra beautiful).
5) What happened to Moses after he was left among the reeds? (Pharaoh’s daughter found him and decided to adopt him, even though she knew he was a Hebrew baby.)
6) Who nursed the baby after Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him? (That’s the special part. Moses’ sister volunteered to go find a Hebrew woman to nurse him for the princess, and then of course she brought her own mother, and Moses was sent home with her under the protection of the princess, and was able to live there until he was weaned).
7) What does all that tell us about how Faith and Trust in God? (Moses’ mother did her very best, and when that wasn’t enough, she entrusted her son’s life to God. God’s response to that was to give her son back to her, and, as we will see, to do wonderful things through Moses. This is the same thing as the Lord tells us will happen when He tells us that “whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for the Lord and the Gospel will save it”).
Day 2 (Wednesday)
St. John Chrysostom
St. John Chrysostom is one of the most important saints in the Orthodox Church. He put together the Divine Liturgy that we do every Sunday, and he is considered the ideal standard of an Orthodox Christian priest. He was a man of unshakeable integrity, a preacher of clarity and authority (for which reason he is called Chrysostom, which means “Golden-mouthed”), and a determined and faithful servant of Jesus Christ. He criticized extravagance and corruption for both clergy and laypeople, and insisted that both the clergy and laity be faithful to the call of the Christ in the Gospel. In particular, he insisted that Christian people must care for the poor. Like the martyrs, he suffered greatly as a result of his faithfulness, but through his suffering, his defeat and exile, and indeed his death, the truth and rightness of his preaching and teaching was established. He remains one of the most powerful witnesses to the glory of God in the Orthodox Church.
November 13 – John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople
This greatest and most loved of all Christian preachers was born in Antioch the Great in the year 347; his pious parents were named Secundus and Anthusa. After his mother was widowed at the age of twenty, she spent her time and energy in bringing up John and his elder sister “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). John received his literary training under Anthragathius the philosopher, and Libanius the sophist, who was the greatest Greek scholar and rhetorician of his day. Libanius was a pagan, and when asked before his death whom he wished to have for his successor, he said, "It should have been John, had not the Christians stolen him from us." With such a training, and with such gifts as he had by nature, John had before him a brilliant career as a public speaker and teacher of rhetoric. But through the good example of his godly mother and of the holy Bishop Meletius of Antioch, by whom he was ordained reader about the year 370, he chose instead to dedicate himself to God. From the years 374 to 381 he lived the monastic life in the hermitages that were near Antioch. His extreme asceticism undermined his health, and forced him to return to Antioch in 381, at which point St. Meletios ordained him a deacon. Five years later, he was ordained a presbyter (priest). Upon his elevation to the priesthood his career as a public preacher began, and his exceptional oratorical gifts were shown to the world through his many sermons. They show a mastery of Scripture, an easy and fluid eloquence, and a clear understanding of the workings of God’s plan for salvation in the world. St. John spoke with authority against the abuse of wealth and property, and insisted that Christian people care for both the spiritual and practical needs of the poor. Most of all, his sermons show a natural earnestness and moral force which clearly come from the heart of a blameless and guileless man who lived first what he preached to others. Because of his fame, he was chosen to succeed Saint Nectarius as Patriarch of Constantinople. He was taken away by stealth, to avoid the opposition of the people, and consecrated Patriarch of Constantinople on February 28, 398.
From the beginning, he was an unusual bishop. He hated the fact that Imperial court protocol gave him access to privileges greater than the highest state officials, and during his time as bishop, he refused to host lavish entertainments. This meant he was popular with the common people, but unpopular with the wealthy and the clergy from the beginning. In a sermon soon after his arrival he said, "people praise the predecessor to disparage the successor." His reforms of the clergy were also unpopular. He told visiting regional preachers to return to the churches they were meant to be serving, refusing to allow them to make extra money in the city while neglecting their flocks at home.
His time in Constantinople proved short and full of controversy. The Emperor at the time was Arcadius, a man of weak character, and much under the influence of his wife Eudoxia, who was offended by St. John’s insistent condemnation of the lax morals of the wealthy and powerful in the city. She formed an alliance with others of like mind, both clergy and laity, and in 403 they held a synod which falsely accused him of heresy, and he was deposed and banished to Pontus. The people were were very angry about his departure, and the next night an earthquake shook the city. This so frightened the Empress Eudoxia that she begged Arcadius to call Chrysostom back. While his return was triumphant, his reconciliation with the Empress did not last long. When she had a silver statue of herself erected in the forum before the Church of the Holy Wisdom (Agia Sophia) later that year, and had it dedicated with much unseemly revelry, Saint John thundered against her, and she could not forgive him. In June of 404 he was exiled to a city in Eastern Asia Minor.
The pope in Rome (Innocent I at this time) protested at this banishment, but to no avail. During his exile, John wrote letters to some faithful friends in the City, and these letters were considered a sufficient threat to his enemies that they had him exiled still further, to Pityus, in modern Georgia. The journey overland was filled with bitter sufferings for the aged bishop, both because of the harshness of the elements and the cruelty of one of his guards. He did not reach Pityus, but gave up his soul to the Lord near Comana in Pontus, at the chapel of the Martyr Basiliscus (see May 22), who had appeared to him shortly before, foretelling the day of his death, which came to pass on September 14, 407. His last words were "Glory be to God for all things."
His holy relics were brought back to Constantinople thirty-one years later by the Emperor Theodosius the Younger and Saint Pulcheria his sister, the children of Arcadius and Eudoxia, with fervent supplications that the sin of their parents against him be forgiven; this return of his holy relics is celebrated on January 27. He is also celebrated as one of the Three Hierarchs on January 30, together with Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory the Theologian.
Normally, a saint’s feast day is celebrated on the day of their death. However, since he died on September 14, the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross, his feast-day has been transferred to November 13th."
Discussion questions:
1) What is the most frequently read thing that St. John Chrysostom wrote? (The Divine Liturgy that Orthodox Christians celebrate every Sunday)
2) What does his name “Chrysostom” mean, and why? (It means “Golden-mouthed,” because his preaching was so excellent)
3) What was his life like before he was ordained? What thing in his life is most different from what we do in the Church today? (There is a lot that could be said, and it would be good to talk about how John was a hermit before he was ordained, and how he was extremely strict in his fasting, to the point that his health suffered and he was unable to continue as a monk. From his “failure” as a monk, however, the Church in the world gained him as a deacon, a priest, a bishop, a preacher, and a saint. Moreover, it is clear that his pastoral wisdom came in large part from his personal experience of spiritual effort, in which he found both the limits of human endurance, and the strength that comes from God alone)
4) What was his life like once he was ordained? (It was a good life. He became a very popular preacher, because his sermons were easily understood and were relevant to the people. He preached a great deal on the Scriptures, and emphasized the importance of caring for the poor. His people seem to have appreciated his skill in preaching and his practical advice).
5) What happened to him next? (He was selected as the new Bishop of Constantinople, the capital city of the Empire. Everything that had made him popular in Antioch caused him trouble there. The common people loved him, as they had in Antioch, but the wealthy and powerful grew quickly to hate him).
6) How did he die? (He was exiled by his enemies in the city, and died on the road due to the strenuous journey. It is worth noting that after a period of time, his relics (his body) were brought back to Constantinople, where the emperor begged his forgiveness, and he was glorified as a saint within living memory of his ministry in the city)
Day 3 (Friday)
Luke 5:27-39
Last week we say Jesus heal a leper and a paralytic, and saw an example of what prayer and faith look like. This week we will see him call another disciple, and answer some criticisms made against his followers.
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And he got up, left everything, and followed him.
29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
33 Then they said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.” 34 Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”
Discussion Questions
1) What was the name of the next disciple that Jesus called to follow him? What was his job before Jesus called him? (Levi was his name, and he was a tax collector. He was also called Matthew, and it is by that name that he is most often remembered. To be a tax collector was to be despised and hated by the people at the time, because they worked for the Romans and betrayed their fellow countrymen by taking their wealth, giving it to the Romans, and skimming off the top to enrich themselves)
2) What did Levi do when Jesus called him? (He left everything and followed Jesus, but first he threw a big party, and invited all his sinful friends, and they ate together with Jesus and his disciples)
3) What did the Pharisees think about this? (The Pharisees didn’t like it; they thought that a teacher of the law, like Jesus was, should be pure and keep himself separate from sinful people. So they criticized Jesus to the disciples).
4) What did Jesus say to this? (He said that people who are healthy don’t need a doctor, but people who are sick do. For that reason, He came to call sinful people to repent, but to do that, He needed to spend time with them).
5) What else did the Pharisees criticize the disciples for? (They complained that they didn’t fast, like other faithful Jewish people did).
6) What did Jesus say to that? (He made a comparison with a wedding reception, and said that it didn’t make sense for wedding guests to fast while the Bridegroom was still there at the party, but that after the bridegroom left, then it made sense for people to go back to normal life, which would include fasting).
7) What other story did Jesus tell them to explain how things were changing? (He talked about old and new cloth and old and new wineskins. The point in both cases is that materials like that, once they have aged, can’t be sewn together with new material, because things will stretch in different ways, and the patch won’t last.)
8) What do you think Jesus meant by this? (Answers may vary here – it seems, though, that Jesus is pointing out that not only are his disciples not fasting while He is with them, but that probably once He leaves them, how they fast, and how they live, will not be the same as it was before. We certainly see this to be true in the Christian life; many things are different between what we do now, and what the Jewish people were doing before the Messiah came to them.)