Day 1 (Monday)
Ezra 7:1-14, 25-28; 9:1-4
Last time, we saw the history of the return of the remnant of the people of God (descendants of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi) to Jerusalem, where they laid the foundations of the Temple and began the work of rebuilding it as they renewed the order of worship and sacrifices there on the site. We saw, too, that even when the Temple was completed, God did not return to dwell in the Temple, but the people were, as it seemed, trying very hard to be faithful to God. This time, we will see Ezra the Priest come from Persia to join them, and what work he has to accomplish there among them.
The Coming and Work of Ezra
7 After this, in the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, 2 son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, 3 son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, 4 son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, 5 son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of the chief priest Aaron— 6 this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him.
7 Some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants also went up to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. 8 They came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9 On the first day of the first month the journey up from Babylon was begun, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the gracious hand of his God was upon him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.
The Letter of Artaxerxes to Ezra
11 This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to the priest Ezra, the scribe, a scholar of the text of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel: 12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to the priest Ezra, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven: Peace. And now 13 I decree that any of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom who freely offers to go to Jerusalem may go with you. 14 For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God, which is in your hand…
The letter continues by outlining the substantial resources that the king is sending along with Ezra, all of it out of the king’s treasury, and further directing that the priests and the temple shall be exempt from taxes. He then continues:
25 “And you, Ezra, according to the God-given wisdom you possess, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River who know the laws of your God; and you shall teach those who do not know them. 26 All who will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on them, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of their goods or for imprisonment.”
27 Blessed be the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king to glorify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, 28 and who extended to me steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.
Then there is an enumeration of all the people who came with Ezra from Persia; this is the entire content of chapter 8.
Denunciation of Mixed Marriages
9 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons. Thus the holy seed has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands, and in this faithlessness the officials and leaders have led the way.” 3 When I heard this, I tore my garment and my mantle, and pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat appalled. 4 Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out that the problem with the intermarriages is not one of ethnic purity, but of faithfulness to God’s covenant. It was because of the initial failure to drive out the people living in the Promised Land, and the eventual adoption of their customs and religious practices (including the burnt sacrifice of living children and other unspeakable practices, up to and including ritual sexuality and cannibalism) that God had delivered the people of Judah into the hands of the Babylonians. For Ezra to return to Jerusalem and find that the newly reinstated people of God are continuing to do precisely the thing that had seen them judged previously is a matter of shock and grief for him; we will see next time what needs to be done to remedy the situation.)
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?
Day 2 (Wednesday)
Irenaeus – Against Heresies 10
Last time, we saw St. Irenaeus speak about sacrifices to God in both the Old Testament and the New, and especially begin to speak about the Eucharist. We were reading from Book 4, Chapter 18, and will read a little bit again of what we read last time. We have been depending on a recent condensation of the work by James Payton; anyone who would like to purchase this book can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Irenaeus-Christian-Faith-Condensation-Heresies/dp/1608996247/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=. However, Payton has truncated elements of St. Irenaeus which are not relevant to his Reformed tradition, but which are profoundly relevant to us, so we will draw from the unabridged version of St. Irenaeus, bringing together elements from Book 4 and from Book 5. (Note: This quotation was taken from an un-cited post on a friend’s Facebook wall, and I have been unable to identify the translator. I have confirmed that the reading is an accurate translation, however, and have provided the remainder of the book so we can see how St. Irenaeus wraps up his thought.)
St. Irenaeus of Lyons – Against Heresies – Book 4 (& 5) (excerpts 5)
Book 4, Chapter 18.5, expanded
How can they say that the flesh, which is nourished with the body of the Lord and with His blood, goes to corruption, and does not partake of life? Let them, therefore, either alter their opinion, or cease from offering the things just mentioned. But our opinion is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion. For we offer to Him His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity… (Book 4, Chapter 18.5)
Book 5, Chapter 2a
Vain above all are they who despise the whole dispensation of God, and deny the salvation of the flesh and reject its rebirth, saying that it is not capable of incorruption. For if our mortal flesh is not saved, then neither did the Lord redeem us by his blood, nor is the cup of the Eucharist the communion of his blood, and the bread which we break the communion of his body. (Book 5 Chapter 2a)
Book 5, Chapter 2b
For blood is only to be found in veins and flesh, and the rest of human nature, of which the Word of God was indeed made partaker; it was with his own blood that he redeemed us. So also his apostle says, “In whom we have redemption by his blood, and the remission of sins.” For since we are his members, and are nourished by his creation – for it is he who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall – he declares that the cup, which comes from his creation, is his own blood, and he makes it the nourishment of our blood. He assures us that the bread, which comes from his creation, is his body, and he makes it the nourishment of our body. (Book 5, Chapter 2b)
Book 5, Chapter 3a
For when the mixed cup and the baked bread receive the word of God, and become the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, and by these our flesh grows and is confirmed – how can they say that flesh cannot receive the free gift of God, which is eternal life, since it is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and made a member of him? (Book 5 Chapter 3a)
Book 5, Chapter 3b
As the blessed Paul says in the Epistle to the Ephesians that we are members of his body, of his flesh and his bones. He does not say this about a merely spiritual and invisible man, for spirits do not have flesh and bones, but about that dispensation by which the Lord became a real man, consisting of flesh, and nerves, and bones: That flesh which is nourished by the cup which is his blood, and grows by the bread which is his body. (Book 5 Chapter 3b)
Book 5, Chapter 3c
A cutting from a vine planted in the ground bears fruit in its own time. A grain of wheat, falling into the ground and there dissolving, rises with great increase by the Spirit of God who sustains all things, The wisdom of God places these things at the service of man and when they receive God’s word they become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. (Book 5 Chapter 3c)
Book 5, Chapter 3d
In the same way also our bodies which are nourished by it, and then fall into the earth and are dissolved therein, will rise at the proper time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father. It is he who freely grants to this mortal immortality, and gives to the corruptible the gracious gift of incorruption, for the strength of God is made perfect in weakness…
…in order that we may never become puffed up, as if we had life from ourselves, and exalted against God, our minds becoming ungrateful;
(Book 5 Chapter 3d)
Book 5, Chapter 3e
But learning by experience that we possess eternal duration from the excelling power of this Being, not from our own nature, we may neither undervalue that glory which surrounds God as He is, nor be ignorant of our own nature, but that we may know what God can effect, and what benefits man receives, and thus never wander from the true comprehension of things as they are, that is, both with regard to God and with regard to man. And might it not be the case, perhaps, as I have already observed, that for this purpose God permitted our resolution into the common dust of mortality, that we, being instructed by every mode, may be accurate in all things for the future, being ignorant neither of God nor of ourselves? (Book 5 Chapter 3e)
Irenaeus of Lyons, “Irenæus against Heresies,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 528.
846 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note how Irenaeus connects the Eucharist with the Incarnation and with the Resurrection, not just the Lord’s Resurrection, but our own Resurrection, and connects all of these things with our intrinsic and fundamental relationship with God, with His purpose in creating us as He has, and with the end toward which we are striving. Even the point about the reason that God has permitted us to be subject to death is striking, not that God has created death, but that He has transformed even this evil thing that we have brought upon ourselves to an instrument of instruction and restoration for us.)
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?
Day 3 (Friday)
John 14:25-31; 15:1-11 (Promise of the Holy Spirit continued)
Last time, we saw the Lord revealing the mystery of the Holy Trinity to His disciples, showing to them how He is caring for them, expressing the love of the Father so that even as He seems to leave them, so that the world will no longer see Him, He will nonetheless remain with them always, and will furthermore send the Holy Spirit to them, so that they will never be forsaken.
Promise of the Holy Spirit, continued
25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’
If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.
Jesus the True Vine
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6
Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
438 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out first how the Lord shows them that He is not forsaking them as the time of His ministry with them comes to an end, but rather is telling and showing them what their task is to be after His Resurrection. What He says to them in the second half of the selection continues this theme, both encouraging them, and reminding them that when troubles and difficulties come, that is part of the process by which they are being pruned to bear fruit. What is fascinating is the transition that we see, the line “Rise, let us be on our way,” as this reminds us of the context, that Jesus and His disciples are finishing their meal and are going to the Garden of Gethsemane, so what follows from that point is said as they are walking.)
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?