Day 1 (Monday)
Leviticus 16:1-34 (Day of Atonement)
Last time, we read about the ritual uncleanness that came from bodily fluids, and the means that God gave His people to be cleansed of that impurity and restored to full participation in the worship at the Tabernacle and the life of the community of the people of God assembled around Him. This time we will continue and see the guidance that God gives to His people for the annual purification of the people and of the camp, at the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur in Hebrew).
The Day of Atonement
16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died. 2 The Lord said to Moses:
Tell your brother Aaron not to come just at any time into the sanctuary inside the curtain before the mercy seat that is upon the ark, or he will die; for I appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. 3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and shall have the linen undergarments next to his body, fasten the linen sash, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy vestments. He shall bathe his body in water, and then put them on. 5 He shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
6 Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 He shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting; 8 and Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. 9 Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin offering; 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
11 Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house; he shall slaughter the bull as a sin offering for himself. 12 He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of crushed sweet incense, and he shall bring it inside the curtain 13 and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the covenant, or he will die. 14 He shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times.
15 He shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the curtain, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the sanctuary, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel, and because of their transgressions, all their sins; and so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which remains with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one shall be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the sanctuary until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement on its behalf, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat, and put it on each of the horns of the altar. 19 He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.
20 When he has finished atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. 22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.
23 Then Aaron shall enter the tent of meeting, and shall take off the linen vestments that he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there. 24 He shall bathe his body in water in a holy place, and put on his vestments; then he shall come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, making atonement for himself and for the people. 25 The fat of the sin offering he shall turn into smoke on the altar. 26 The one who sets the goat free for Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward may come into the camp. 27 The bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp; their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be consumed in fire. 28 The one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward may come into the camp.
29 This shall be a statute to you forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny yourselves, and shall do no work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you. 30 For on this day atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord. 31 It is a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall deny yourselves; it is a statute forever. 32 The priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the linen vestments, the holy vestments. 33 He shall make atonement for the sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34 This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the people of Israel once in the year for all their sins. And Moses did as the Lord had commanded him.
Reading 7
1119 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 a couple things. First of all, the word “atonement,” which we have seen several times through the book of Leviticus, is one that is often misunderstood. It is often thought to refer to the supposed need for the penalty of death to be imposed on some living thing because of the sins of the people, and for that reason, the various animals are killed. But this is wrong; the only reason that these animals are killed is so that first, their blood may be offered (in most cases) as a symbol of the offering of the (alive) life of the offerer to God, and then of the shared life of the offerer with God, and second, so that their meat could provide a shared meal for the offerer, the priests, and God. When we see the word “atonement,” we need to see it as the invented word that it is: “at one ment,” which is to say, that which restores communion with God. So that is what is happening here. Second, in this Feast, then, we see the two goats; one of them is used for a sin offering for all the people, together with the bull that is the sin offering for the high priest, and it is their blood that is sprinkled throughout the tabernacle for purification. But the other goat is NOT killed, but is sent outside the camp carrying the sins of all the people BACK to the demon of the desert, Azazel, whose temptation and influence and example were understood to be the source of these acts of faithlessness, rebellion, and weakness. In this way, the space of the Tabernacle is purified, and the sins of the people are taken away. What is worth noting is that, in His Incarnation and Passion, our Lord Jesus Christ fulfills both roles, purifying the Temple of this Creation with His own life in our midst, and also carrying the sins of the people outside of the camp, removing them from 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 2 (Wednesday)
Anaphora Prayers of St. Basil the Great – 1
The Orthodox Church celebrates two Liturgies in normal usage throughout the course of the year. On most Sundays and weekdays, we celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, but on the eve of major feastdays (Christmas, Theophany, and Pascha) as well as Holy Thursday, January 1st, and the Sundays of Great Lent, we celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. The vast majority of the text of these two services is identical, but what varies between them is the Anaphora, the offering prayers that precede the Consecration of the Gifts, and these prayers are attributed respectively to St. John Chrysostom, the Archbishop of Constantinople in the 390’s, and to St. Basil the Great, the Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia earlier in the same century. Chrysostom’s prayers are briefer, while Basil’s are longer, but in both of them, we sum up why we are making this offering to God, and recounting what God has done for us. Basil’s prayer is one of the most beautiful summaries of the Orthodox understanding of human life and sin and of God’s love for us and salvation and restoration of us and the entire creation. Because it is so long, we will begin to read it this week, and will continue for the next two weeks as well. We begin at the point in the Liturgy immediately after the Faithful have completed confessing the Creed.
The Holy Anaphora begins with a dialogue between the Priest and the People:
Priest: Let us stand well. Let us stand in awe. Let us be attentive, that we may present the holy offering in peace.
People: A mercy of peace; a sacrifice of praise.
Priest: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
People: And with your spirit
Priest: Let us lift up our hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord
Priest: Let us give thanks (let us accomplish the Eucharist) to the Lord
People: It is proper and right.
St. Basil’s Anaphora (Offering Prayer)
Priest: Master, Lord, God, worshipful Father almighty, it is truly just and right to the majesty of Your holiness to praise You, to hymn You, to bless You, to worship You, to give thanks to You, to glorify You, the only true God, and to offer to You this our spiritual worship with a contrite heart and a humble spirit. For You have given us to know Your truth. Who is worthy to praise Your mighty acts? Or to make known all Your praises? Or tell of all Your wonderful deeds at all times?
Master of all things, Lord of heaven and earth, and of every creature visible and invisible, You are seated upon the throne of glory and behold the depths. You are without beginning, invisible, incomprehensible, beyond words, unchangeable. You are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great God and Savior of our hope, the image of Your goodness, the true seal of revealing in Himself You, the Father.
He is the living Word, the true God, eternal wisdom, life, sanctification, power, and the true light. Through Him the Holy Spirit was manifested, the spirit of truth the gift of Sonship, the pledge of our future inheritance, the first fruits of eternal blessings, the life giving power, the source of sanctification through whom every rational and spiritual creature is made capable of worshiping You and giving You eternal glorification, for all things are subject to You.
For You are praised by the angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities, powers, and the many eyed Cherubim. Round about You stand the Seraphim, one with six wings and the other with six wings; with two they cover their faces; with two they cover their feet; with two they fly, crying out to one another with unceasing voices and ever-resounding praises:
Singing the victory hymn, proclaiming, crying out, and saying:
People: Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to God in the highest.
Part 1 – 457 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 two things here. First, how we begin the Anaphora, after the Creed, with the Priest first blessing the Faithful in the name of the Holy Trinity, and then calling all present to “lift up our hearts to the Lord.” As the people respond in the affirmative, the Priest then turns from facing them back towards the Holy Table, saying, “Let us give thanks to the Lord,” which in Greek is basically “Let’s do the Eucharist!” It sounds a little blunt, but it is that blunt in the Greek. We must never forget that the Eucharist is an offering of thanksgiving…and we must never forget that the quintessential offering of thanksgiving is the Eucharist. Second, this portion of the Offering Prayer effectively sums up the Church’s confession of the Holy Trinity, giving glory and thanksgiving to God the Father, eternal and almighty and glorious, beyond our knowledge or comprehension, the Father of the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has revealed the Father to us, as the express image of His Person, and through Whom the Holy Spirit has been manifested to us. In this summary the actions, or the energies of the Three Persons of the Godhead on our behalf are outlined, and we conclude with the proclamation that all things are subject to God, and that all the angelic powers worship without ceasing. This portion of the prayer concludes with this image of heavenly worship, in which the Seraphim fly around the Cherubic Throne of God singing the Thrice-Holy Hymn…which the People then sing, joining the angelic powers in their eternal worship of God.)
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)
Acts 13:1-16a (Barnabas and Saul Commissioned, Sent to Cyprus and Pisidia)
Last week, we saw Peter saved from Herod's prison by an angel sent by the Lord, and then we heard about the final end of King Herod, and how he died when he claimed the power and glory of a god. We also saw the text tell us that Barnabas and Saul returned "to" Jerusalem, as it said, "after they had completed their mission." There is actually a textual variant in this case, where the text says that Barnabas and Saul returned not "to", but "from" Jerusalem, going back to Antioch. What this means is that what happened last time in Jerusalem was one strand of the story, up to the point when Barnabas and Saul, having come to Jerusalem, left and went back to Antioch. This time, we are going back in time to see what had been happening in Antioch, and how Barnabas and Saul (and John Mark) came to leave Antioch and go to several cities in the eastern Mediterranean, preaching the glory and gospel of the Lord.
Barnabas and Saul Commissioned
13 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
The Apostles Preach in Cyprus
4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
9 But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now listen—the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.
Paul and Barnabas in Antioch of Pisidia
13 Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem; 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it.” 16 So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak:
Reading 23 – 422 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 how the Holy Spirit directs the Church at Antioch to send out Saul and Barnabas to preach elsewhere, and how the Holy Spirit directs them in where they go. We should note, too, how John Mark goes with them at first, but leaves them in verse 13; this will be significant in the future, as it will be the cause of Saul and Barnabas going their separate ways. Third, we should note how the narrative switches from calling the Apostle from Tarsus Saul to calling him Paul, in verse 9. It is really at this point that St. Paul becomes the primary focus of the book of Acts. Finally, we should note that when they go to preach, they go first to the synagogue; this reflects the reality that the Church was not setting up a "new" religion, but rather proclaiming the Gospel of the Messiah Jesus to His people, the Jews, in the places where they gathered to read the Scriptures. It is only after the authorities in those synagogues rejected this word and expelled the Christians, after several years, that the Church begins to function entirely separately from the synagogues. This begins to happen over the course of the book of Acts, but we MUST remember that it has not yet happened yet as we read.)
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?