The Passion Narratives - Luke's Account

Up until this point, we have read what amounts to basically the same story. Both Matthew and Mark likely relied heavily on another source, called Q, for the raw material from which they would compose their Gospels. Consequently, though there are significant differences in style, audience, and focus, both Matthew and Mark share relatively the same material.

Luke, on the other hand, is using both Matthew and Mark for his source material, but only ends up adopting about half of it. The other half of his material is unique to the Lukan story. Pertinent to our discussion will be the following unique passages:

• 22: 31-32 - The Reason for Peter's Denial
• 22:35-38 - The Two Swords
• 23:6-12 - Jesus before Herod
• 23:13-16 - Pilate Declares Jesus Innocent
• 23:28-31, 34, 43, 46 - Sayings Associated with Jesus' Death
• 24:13-35 - Jesus' Appearance on the Road to Emmaus
• 24:36-49 - Jesus' Appearance to the Disciples
• 24:50-53 - The Ascension

Also, in terms of audience, Luke is the only author to identify an audience. He also is quite specific; the Gospel is address to "Theophilus". There are no Roman records of an authority by this name, so scholars have made two guesses as to who he could be:

1. A rich man who became Luke's patron, meaning he paid for Luke to research and write the Gospel, or,
2. Since "Theophilus" literally means "lover of God," it could be that the Gospel is addressed to "all those who love God"

What are your thoughts?

-Fryan

The Passion Narratives - Mark's Account

This week and next we will be looking at Mark's account of the Passion of Our Lord. He writes in a very different style from Matthew, which you should be able to notice. Some points to keep in mind about Mark in general:

• Mark writes almost like a newspaper reporter. He seems to just be reporting facts rather than spending a lot of time interpreting them. Therefore, his Gospel moves very quickly. However, the Passion is of the utmost importance to Mark and so he slows down considerably and adds layers of detail when he gets to the Passion.


• Mark presents a very human Jesus, showing him eating, drinking, resting, as well as being happy, sad, frustrated, angry, and loving.


• Scholars believe Mark was writing to a primarily Gentil audience.


• Scholars date the writing of this Gospel, the first official Gospel to be written, to somewhere between 65 and 70 C.E. (Common Era). That places it firmly in the context of the Second Jewish Revolt against the Romans, which concluded in 70 C.E. with the destruction of the Temple and the defeat of the Jewish rebellion.

So, what do you notice about the Markan account? How is it different for you from Matthew's? How is it the same? What does it tell us about Jesus and ourselves?

-Fryan

The Passion Narratives - Matthew's Account

Here is a place where you can post the things you notice about Matthew's account of the Passion narrative. As we get more into the otehr Gospel accounts, you will be able to post the similarities and the differences you notice as well, but since we've only done one so far, just limit your comments to Matthew.

Some distinguishing characteristics about Matthew's account:

• Matthew places all the blame for the crucifixion on the Jewish crowds present at the time. He has Pilate literally wash his hands of the matter, taking the blame off of him. The line, "his blood be on us and on our children," is not justification for anti-semitic remarks or actions, but unfortunately, has been used as such throughout the ages.
• Matthew is very concerned with ritual and Jewish law. See Mt. 26:5, 17-18, 30, 65; Mt. 27:26 (cf. Psalm 22:1), 62; 28:1.
• The abiding presence of God is an important theme to Matthew. See Mt. 28:20, the last line of the Gospel.
• Of all the Gospel writers, Matthew is the most concerned with the fulfillment of Hebrew scriptures.

So, what have you noticed? Or, what do you want to say about who Matthew says Jesus is and how he presents the Passion narrative?

-Fr. Ryan

Crucify Him! Crucify Him!

I have heard your cries of boredom with looking at the prayers of the prayer book so, with Lent, Holy Week, and Easter fast approaching, our next Bible Study series, beginning tonight, will focus on the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. We are going to look specifically at how each of the four Gospel authors treat this subject, paying particular attention to what sets them apart from one another. I will address questions like: why does Mark focus so much on the Crucifixion, why does John treat the death of Jesus as a pain-free and glorious thing, why does Luke's account go so much further than the others, what really happened to Judas, what sets Matthew's ending apart from the others, and why does Mark's account just stop? The idea will be that by Holy Week this year, you will have a lot deeper understanding of these important scriptures, which will allow you to engage Holy Week and a stronger, deeper spiritual way!

So, with that little teaser, here is the schedule of reading:

Feb. 7 - Matthew 26:1 - 27:26
Feb. 14 - Matther 27:27 - 28:20

Feb. 21 - ASH WEDNESDAY, no lesson this night, but we will still meet for the 7pm service

Feb. 28 - Mark 14:1 - 15:15
March 7 - Mark 15:16 - 16:8

March 14 - Luke 22:1 - 23:25
March 21 - Luke 23:26 - 24:53

March 28 - John 17:1 - 18:40
April 4 - John 19:1 - 20:31

-Fr. Ryan

Eucharistic Prayers

Eucharist. From the greek eucharistia, meaning, "thanksgiving".

Even though what you may hear on any given Sunday in church, when it comes time for the formal Eucharistic Prayer, sounds the same to you each week, there are actually seven forms of the Eucharistic Prayer in our 1979 prayer book.

The first two in the prayer book, beginning on pages 333 and 340 respectively, are the two Rite I prayers. They are written in Elizabethan English and probably sound an awful lot like Shakespeare to you. If you're an English nerd like me, that is exciting to you, but if not, you probably would rather not talk about it. But, just briefly, the first form in Rite I is the oldest prayer of the Anglican church, composed by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1533-1556), who also wrote the majority of the first prayer book (1549). The second Rite I form is a revised version of the first prayer, with some updated language.

The last prayer, what some call a Rite III prayer (p.400), allows the priest to pray off the top of his head and not follow a written down prayer so much. (Fr. Ed is fond of doing this from time to time.)

At youth tonight, we are going to take a special look at four of them in particular - the four that make up the body of Rite II prayers. Here's a tidbit about each one:

Prayer A (p. 361): Contemporary adaptation of Form I, from Rite I.

Prayer B (p.367): Based loosely on a form of prayer found in an ancient book (3rd century) called the Apostolic Tradition, suppossedly written by someone named Hippolytus.

Prayer C (p. 369): An original, contemporary prayer drafted by Howard E. Galley sepcifically for the 1979 prayer book. Many lovingly call it the "Star Wars" prayer, because of it's reference to "galaxies, suns, and the planets in their courses."

Prayer D (p. 372): A contemporary, ecumenical (across denominational lines) prayer based closely on the 4th century form of Eucharistic worship called the Anaphora of St. Basil.


-Fr. Ryan

The Prayers of Compline

"Compline" is a translation of the latin word completorium and means "completion". As early as the 4th century monks would say this portion of Daily Prayer (Daily Office) in their rooms immediately before going to sleep. The 1979 (current) Book of Common Prayer is the first official prayer book to include a form for Compline, and other prayer books around the world have followed suit, such as the form for "Night Prayer" in A New Zealand Prayer Book.

Tonight well be looking at a couple of prayers from Compline, namely the selection of Psalms chosen for the service (Psalms 4, 31, 91, 134), and the concluding prayers.

Our form for discussion will be to ask the questions:

• What does this prayer say about God?
• What does this prayer say about us?
• What does this prayer say about how we relate to God and God to us?

If you wanna get a head start, Compline can be found on page 127 of the Book of Common Prayer or online, by clicking here for a text version or here for an online version that will lead you through the service.

-Fr. Ryan

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

When we got together at the very end of the summer and made a list of the topics y'all wanted to cover in Youth, one of those topics was the subject of prayer, and how we as Episcopalians and Anglicans pray. The latin phrase that titles this post is, in essence, the short answer to that question.

Lex orandi, lex credendi.

Literally translated it means, "the law of praying, the law of believing". Author Fr. Jeff Lee writes it several ways, "the law of prayer establishes the law of belief," or, "the way we pray shapes what we believe."

I think that last one gives the clearest idea of the notion. For the next couple of months, we will be taking a look at the words of our various prayers in the Book of Common Prayer, 1979 and talking about what they mean to us, what they say about God, about us, about our relationship with Jesus Christ, where they came from, and why it is important that they are written down in a book.

-Fr. Ryan