Welcome to the Daily Orthodox Scriptures, 2021. I am Fr. Alexis, and we are reading through the Scriptures each day of the year, using the Orthodox Study Bible. Today is Day 246 of our readings, and it’s September 3. So today we will be reading from Zechariah 11; Psalm 56; Proverbs 11:26-30; 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13.

We read from this chapter of Zechariah on Holy Friday. Listen for the verse that is quoted in the New Testament about the 30 pieces of silver. Now to the readings. Let’s begin.

Open your doors, O Lebanon, and let the fire devour your cedars. Let the pine wail, for the cedar has fallen; because the mighty men have been greatly afflicted. Wail, oak trees of the Basanite land, for the thickly wooded forest has fallen. The sound of wailing is from the shepherds, for their greatness has been brought low; the sound of roaring lions, the arrogance of the Jordan has languished. Thus says the Lord Almighty: “Tend the sheep of the slaughter like a shepherd, the ones whose possessors have slaughtered and did not repent, and those selling them said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for we have become rich and the shepherds themselves suffered nothing because of them.’ Therefore I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord, “but behold, I will deliver men up, each one into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king. They shall cut the land into pieces, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

But I shall tend the sheep of the slaughter in the land of Canaan, and I will take to myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty and the other one I called Line, and I shall tend the flock. And I shall cut off three shepherds in one month, and my soul shall be weighed down by them, for their souls have roared against me. And I said, “I will not tend to you; that which dies, let it die, and that which perishes, let it perish, and let the rest of them devour the flesh each of his neighbor.” And I shall take my staff Beauty, and I shall cast it away, to break my covenant which I made with all the people. And in that day they will be scattered about. And the Canaanites shall know the flock is kept safe, for this is the word of the Lord. And I shall say to them, “If it is fitting in your judgment, give me my payment, or refuse it.” And they established my wage at thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Drop them into the smelting furnace and see if it is proven, as in the same manner I was proven for their sake.” And I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the smelting furnace in the house of the Lord. And I threw aside the second staff, the Line, to disband the possessions between Judah and Israel.

And the Lord further said to me, “Take even for yourself the equipment of a shepherd, of an unskilled shepherd. For behold! I raise up a shepherd against the land, one who will not care for the sheep who are abandoned, nor seek the scattered ones, nor heal the injured, nor even guide the healthy. But instead, he will devour the flesh of the choice ones, and he will tear them apart joint by joint. Woe to you shepherding the flock carelessly, forsaking the flock! The sword shall be against his arms, and against his right eye; his right arm shall be completely withered, and his right eye shall become totally blind!”

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me,
For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will hope,
Until lawlessness shall pass away.
I will cry out to God most High; My God who is my benefactor.
He sent from heaven and saved me;
He gave over to disgrace those who trample me down.

God sent out his mercy and his truth,
And delivered my soul from the midst of young lions.
Although troubled, I fell asleep;
As for the sons of men, their teeth are a weapon and arrows,
And their tongue is a sharp dagger.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
And your glory above all the earth.
They prepared a trap for my feet,
And they bowed down my soul;
They dug a pit before my face,
But they fell into it.

My heart is ready, O God,
My heart is ready;
I will sing, and I will sing a psalm.
Awake, my glory;
Awake, harp and lyre;
I will arise at dawn.
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing to you among the Gentiles.
For your mercy is magnified to the heavens,
And your truth to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
And your glory above all the earth.

He who plans good things seeks good grace,
But he who seeks evil, it will capture him.
He who trusts in riches, this man will fall,
But he who helps the righteous, this man will rise.
He who does not deal graciously with his own house will inherit the wind,
And a man without discernment will be servant to one with discernment.
A tree of life springs up from the fruit of righteousness,
But the souls of the lawless will be taken away before their time.
If the righteous man is scarcely saved,
Then where shall an ungodly man and a sinner appear?

But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, a but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We read today one of the most well known passages of Scripture, the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, St. Paul’s description of love, and as beautiful as it is, I think we don’t often fully understand it. First of all, the word in Greek that we have translated here as “love,” is agape. Some Bibles might even say “charity” instead of “love.” That’s mostly because the word in Latin is caritas, which is where we get the word “charity” from. But this love is not about charity as we think of it today, as important as that is. It’s not about romantic love either, or love within marriage, though a marriage must also have agape-love.

Agape is the way that God relates to us. It is a spiritual love that is selfless, unconditional, and cheerful. Many of the saints identify agape with the Holy Spirit so that when St. Seraphim of Sarov says that the goal of the human being is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, the central way of doing that is through this agape-love. Fr. Thomas Hopko said that God who is love enters into union with man through the Son of his love by the Spirit of love; to live in this divine love is the spiritual life.

So where do we start expressing this agape love? I think it’s best to start with the people around us, a selfless goodness toward others, and that can be really hard, even to express it to our family members at times, but as we grow in faith and as God’s grace flows through us, this self-giving becomes more natural and less awkward. It becomes a way of being.

I’m Fr. Alexis, and remember: Christ is in our midst!