circle of prayer 10. the week. one

i am putting the week after the month because it is "discoverable," i think, only as a derivitve, a sub-division of the month. yet of all the divisions of time, with the possible exception of a human life, it is the one most loaded wtih meaning. i have mentioned the background for the week's density of metaphor when i looked at the day, evening and morning, as the basic unit of creation and therefore of revelation.

six days of creation plus the one holy day of the sabbath is the week. although it is an understanding that is largely lost in the modern industrial world of work week and "week end," except by observant jews, it is this week that is fulfilled in the christian week of the new creation: six days of creation, plus the one holy day of the sabbath, plus the eighth day, the first day of the new creation which is not just holy, but the day of the lord.

it was the sabbath that first brought the jews the understanding that the holy one dwells, and is revealed, and is worshipped, in time as well as space. (abraham j. heschel discusses this understanding beautifully in sabbath: its meanings for modern man.) the week becomes a spiritual bracelet, a setting for this holy and glorious jewel, the sabbath.

of course it was possible to misuse this bracelet, to turn something spiritual and glorious into something legalistic and pedantic, and the gospels provide us ample of illustrations of how that happens. but we would be in grave error if we let ourselves mistake misunderstanding for reality.

the most glorious thing about the week adorned by the sabbath is that it was only a prophecy of the more wonderfully bejewelled week to come. the week that remembers the holy one's creation of all things is a foreshadowing of the holy one's recreation of all things in christ jesus. (see, for example, the gospel according to matthew 19:28, and 2 corinthians 5:17.) the seventh day of the week, the day the holy one rested from all the work of creation, becomes the day christ jesus rests in the earth, having finished (see the gospel according to john 19:30) the work of the new creation.

then comes the most amazing event. early in the morning of the first day of the week, jesus' disciples find that his tomb is empty, that he is risen. the first day of the week becomes the first day of the new creation, a day so wondrous it is called by the early church the eighth day.

the first day becomes the lord's day, the day of christian rejoicing and worship. (see revelation 1:10; the bible begins and ends on the first day of the week.) the church in the east will continue to mark the sabbath in addition to the lord's day; the greek church will remember the connection between creation and the week by assigning psalm 104 to saturday vespers; the western church will keep that connection in her worship by assigning the canticle of the three young men, benedicte, omnia opera, to saturday morning. but with the resurrection comes a new spiritual bracelet, the week as the setting for the lord's day, the eighth day, the day of light, the day of the resurrection, the day of the spirit.

circle of prayer 9. the month

"god said, 'let there be light in the vault of heaven to divide day from night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years. . . .' and so it was. god made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, the smaller light to govern the night, and the stars. . . . god saw that it was good." (genesis 1:14-18)

we have lost the month. of course we have calendars of the twelve months of the roman year, with illustrations of any sort, from farm machinery to sacred sites of scotland, but for the most part we who live in the detritus of the roman empire have lost the month as controlled by the moon. our calendar is solar, with nice tidy months that come out even. some of them even note the phases of the moon. but the moonth, this great symbol of death and rebirth, this celestial sign of the power of the female, is mostly gone.

how thorough is this loss was revealed to me when i read amos 8:5 (". . . when will the new moon be over/so that we can sell our corn . . . ?" jb) in eugene h. peterson's translation, the message: ". . . when's my next next paycheck coming/so i can go out and live it up?"

of course the christian year continues to have its most imporant holy day controlled by the moon: the pascha, easter. but i suspect few worshipers know this is true. we don't look for the full moon after the spring equinox, we just look on the calendar.

the hebrew calendar was (is) lunar, and there are many reminders of this fact in scripture. in psalm 81 we hear,

"start the music, sound the drum,
the melodious lyre and the harp;
sound the new moon trumpet,
at the full moon, on our feast day!

"this is a statute binding on israel,
an ordinance of the god of jacob,
this decree he imposed on joseph
. . . ." (vv. 2-5)

numbers 28 contains the mitzvah of the full moon:

"at the beginning of each of your months you must offer a holocaust to YHWH . . . . this must be the monthly holocaust, year after year, month after month, every month of the year." (vv. 11, 14)

it is at the feast of the new moon that jonathan learns of his father saul's intentions towards david. (1 samuel 20)

many people who live close to creation continue to recognize the moon's symbology, and many oriental cultures have retained lunar calendars and feasts. one of the most powerful art exhibitions i have ever seen was a work by the apache artist bob housous called "13 moons" at the wheelwright museum in santa fe. the japanese continue to have "moon viewing parties to view particularly favourable moons. often called "the canticle of the sun," francis of assissi's great hymn "most high, omnipotent, good lord" includes the moon: "my lord be praised by sister moon/and all the stars that with her soon/will point the glittering heavens."

if my thesis that time and its created markers are indeed a primary self-revelation of the holy one is correct, then it would behoove us to become aware once more of the waxing and waning of "the smaller light."

perhaps we might adopt some of the jewish practices around the moon, such as this blessing:

"One must be able to see the moon at the time that one recites the blessing. After reciting the blessing over the moon, it is proper to dance joyfully and to greet three people with the worlds "shalom aleichem." It is also customary to sing the song "David melekh yisrael chai vekayam" (David the king of Israel lives forever)--because the new moon is also associated with eternal life and messianic times of perfect peace.

The blessing is as follows: Blessed are you, God, ruler of the universe,whose word created the heavens and whose breath created the heavenly hosts, who gave them ordinances that they not change their orbits. Joyful and happy are they to do the will of their creator, a worker of truth whose work is truth! To the moon God said; renew yourself, crown of glory for those borne in the womb, for they like you, are destined to renew themselves,and to give glory to their creator for the sake of God's holy honored sovereignty (malkhut/Shekhinah). Blessed are you, God, renewer of months." (http://telshemesh.org/water/jewish_cycles_of_the_moon_jill_hammer.html)

i of course know of paul's warning to the colossians: ". . . never let anyone else decide . . . whether you are to observe annual festivals, new moons or sabbaths. these were only pale reflections of what was coming: the reality is christ." (colossians 2:16-17) but i am also aware of how limited is much contemporary understanding of christ, and suspect that looking at some of the pale reflections might help us recognize the reality when we see him.

circle of prayer 8. the day: evening and morning: embellishments

if evening and morning are the hinges of prayer, what turns on them? what are the gates of prayer? and how did simply "observing" the times come to include such a rich liturgy as we have today?

the liturgical embellishments begins as early as the sixth chapter of deuteronomy, which with the gift of the shema, the words, "listen, israel, YHWH our god is one YHWH. you shall love YHWH with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength," (6:4-5) comes the mitzvah, the commandment: "you shall repeat [these words] . . . at your lying down and at your rising." (6:7)

by the time of daniel, "three times each day he continues to fall on his knees, praying and giving praise to god . . . ." (daniel 6:11) it is usually assumed that the third time of prayer was noon, another time of natural awe.

psalm 119 begins to make things more complex.

verse 62 ("i get up at midnight to thank you/for the righteousness of your rulings") not only provides the basis for the night office but suggests content, psalm 119 itself, 176 verses of thankfulness for the laws of YHWH.

verse 147 ("i wake up before dawn to call for help/i put my hope in your word") has led to the office of matins, as verse 148 ("i lie awake throughout the night/to meditate on your promise") has led to vigils.

finally, verse 164 ("seven times daily i praise you/for your righteous rulings") lies behind the seven hours of prayer of the rule of st. benedict, although of course benedict was not the first to build on this couplet.

but most popular, and poignant, is compline, the past prayer before sleeping. to this little office belong psalms of trust for the night, such as 4 and 91. but most importantly, to compline belongs the song of simenon, the nunc dimittis:

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, *
according to thy word;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, *
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, *
and to be the glory of thy people Israel. (luke 2:29-32)

with this little song, sung by the aged simeon who had stayed in the temple in expectaton of seeing the messiah, and how now, having held the infant jesus, proclaims that he is ready to die. this little song begins to make explicit the parallels between the cycle of the days and the cycle of our lives.

circle of prayer 7. the day: evening and morning: morning

it is early in the morning. rosy-fingered dawn has yet to take off her evening gloves. but the birds know what is about to happen and, and they rejoice in it. around the world, as the eastern horizon begins to glow, comes the call and response:

v/ "o lord, open though our lips."
r/ "and our mouths shall show forth thy praise."

then swells the songs that begins our daily pilgrimage:

"come, let us sing unto the lord,
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
. . .
oh that today, we would harken to his voice." (from psalm 95, venite)

"oh that today, we would harken to his voice."

more psalms follow, his words given to us to be his voice, words that are prayers for us and the whole world, because we pray as the body of christ, carrying out our role as a royal priesthood.

pierre teilhard de chardin, the french jesuit and paleontologist, saw the role of the priesthood as "to divinize the new day." and so he prayed to the holy one, ". . . i shall offer you, i your priest, on the altar of the whole earth, the soil and sorrow of the world."

then there is a reading, a listening to the word of god, the mantra the holy one gives us to "harken to" today. we tend these days to read too much too silently. "to harken to" something means we hear it. and if what we hear is the voice of the beloved, each word is precious, each word full of many meanings.

we hear these words coming from

"the lord, the god of israel,
who has come to his people and set them free,
who has raised up for us a power of salvation." (emphasis added)

the evening canticle as the song of mary, the mother of the first-born of the new covenant. the morning canticle is the song of zecheriah, the father of john the baptist, the last-born of the old covenant. of john jesus would say, "of all the children born of women, there is none greater than john; yet the least of the kingcom of heaven is greater than he is." (luke 7:28)

as we sing the benedictus this very day takes its position in salvation history. the temptation is to say, "ho hum, a rainy thursday." but we sing ourselves to see this as the day the lord has made, in which his purposes are being worked out, in which we as the royal priesthood "form a process up to the horns of the altar." (psalm 118:27)