Tne Daily Office Project Commences

Third Wednesday after Pentecost

Ephrem of Edessa, aka Ephrem Syrus (d. 373) Color: White

Lectionary Texts:

1 Samuel 15:1-31

Mark 4:26-29

 

The reading from 1 Samuel presents a moral problem for us. Saul's great sin is not performing the herem. We don't have an English equivalent to this Hebrew word. It means that when the Hebrew army wins a battle, it must destroy everything in the city or village it defeats--everything: men, women, children, animals. Hebrews are to take no spoils of battle. All the killing is a sacrifice to God. Saul's sin is that he spares the life of Agag, King of the Amalekites. For us who live in the light of Jesus, it is hard to understand this very harsh God, our God, in the Old Testament. My interest in process theology provides what to me is a viable solution to this problem.

Ephrem Syrus was one of the first and perhaps the greatest of the Syrian church fathers. He wrote theological works and Biblical commentaries in Syriac that helped established Syrian Christianity, which endured and prospered throughout greater Syria (modern day Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran) for the next 10 centuries, until being virtually wiped out by Muslim persecution. Syrian Christianity survives today primarily in India, although less than 1% of the Indian population. Ephrem's commentaries were so popular than one scribe in the 11th century, lacking adequate writing material, erased a Bible manuscript and copied over it one of Ephrem's commentaries. The result of this practice, not uncommon in those days, is called a palimpsest. Modern scholars, using infrared light techniques have read and copied the erased Biblical text. It is one of earliest copies of the New Testament, 5th century. It is called Codex Ephraim Rescriptus, named after Ephrem (alternate spelling). Rescriptus means "written over." It is now in the Bibliotheque Nationale (National Library) in Paris. 

 

It's time for me and the nine of you who signed up for The Daily Office Project to move forward. The rest of you 25-30 or so daily readers can contribute too. After doing some work on this, I've decided that the best place to start is to look for potential liturgical pieces, by that I mean combinations of verses, in the Psalms. This will require close reading of Psalms. I don't want to use anyone elses Psalter (UMH, BCP, or any other). I want us to read the Psalms in full out of our Bibles, looking for the liturgically useful. We'll do 10 Psalms a week for 15 weeks. Every morning prayer in our Daily Office will have a Psalm reading as well as liturgical fragments from Psalms in other parts of Morning Prayer. As I read this paragraph, it may sound a little confusing. You'll get the knack of what were doing as we go along. 

 

Tomorrow I'll have more specific instructions on how to proceed.

 

Also, an anonymous donor and daily blog reader ordered a BCP (Book of Common Prayer) and they sent him two. He said that if anyone wanted the extra, he would leave it at the University UMC church office with a note with your name on it. You can just pick up there. Send me an email, if you want it. First email will get it. We will be using it in the course of The Daily Office project.

 

God of the Psalms,

Lead our hearts to sing as we read the Psalms. May this project be to your glory and our spiritual benefit. Amen

 

Faithfully,

Christian