If one reads Morning and Evening Prayer, there are a variety of ways to read the Bible selections. The BCP offers a two-year cycle with three readings each (OT, NT and Gospel). If one desires to use two readings at each office, as is usual in our tradition, the BCP rubrics suggest using the off-year OT reading in the evening. So, for example, this moring we read from Isaiah (Year 1 OT reading) and 1Timothy (Year 1 NT reading). This evening we will read from Genesis (Year 2 OT reading) and Mark (Year 1 Gospel).
Two things have always facinated me about the Daily Office scriptural readings.
The first, is how often the "rubber hits the road". It often happens that I hear a passage (or sometimes even a phrase) and it applies directly to something in my life. I got into an argument with a long time friend last night (who happens to be older than I am), and the reading this morning from first Timothy began: "Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father." Honestly, you can't make that up. You can't even plan for it. I found myself laughing throughout the rest of the office, and I was inspired (quite literally by Scripture) to send off a note appologizing for the argument... and I did include the quote because it was both accurate and humorous.
The second thing that facinates me is how our lectionary (the table of reading assignments for any given day of the year) occassionally skips over "nasty" or "difficult" Scriptural passages. When I was at Saint Mary's we tried to "restore" these passages to the Daily Office, particularly in the New Testament, so that we weren't skipping anything. It was a good thing to do. Whatever the content of Scripture, we were forced to deal with what the text actually said - not just those pleasing bits that we might want to hear. Oddly enough today was one of those days. I noticed yesterday that a large swath of 1 Timothy 5 was missing from the assigned reading for today. It was an easy catch: yesterday we read all of chapter 4, but this morning we began mysteriously at the 17th verse of chapter 5, and the lectionary also suggested that we skip the last few verses of the chapter.
What did we skip? Well for starters, we skipped my new favorite line about how not to speak to an older man. We also skipped another great line (in use for ages by Episcopalians): "No longer drink only water, but take a little wine." We also skipped a section dealing with widows both old and young. My guess is that the few verses directing the lives of young women was seen as problematic.
I can only speak for myself, but I think it is really too bad that the one great resource we have for reading the Scriptures makes attempts to gloss over or ignore certain passages. Originally one would read an entire chapter from the Old and New Testament at each office. Perhaps that is too much, but perhaps not. A few more minutes hearing and reflecting on the Scriptures each day seems to me a good thing. I will continue to use the lectionary of our church, but at the daily office I will continue to restore Scriputral passages that have been taken out. Think of it this way: if I had followed the lectionary without looking at was coming, I probably wouldn't have tried to make amends so quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment