[CatherineTorpey]

Our scripture is extra-canonical:
Odes of Solomon; Ode 8:1-7

Rev. Natalie Renee Perkins is preaching on “Tips for How to Get Unstuck”

***Please bring two candles for this worship, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 together through ritual action.***

Here is the scripture:

1 Open; open your hearts to the dancing joy of the Lord And let your love abound from heart to lips:
2 In order to bring forth fruits for the Lord, a holy life, And to speak with attention in his light.
3 Stand and be restored, All of you who were once flattened.
4 Speak, you who were silent, Because your mouth has been opened.
5 From now on be lifted up, you who were destroyed Since your justice has been raised.
6 For the Right Hand of the Lord is with you all, And she will be a helper for you.
7 Peace was prepared for you, Before what may be your war”

Since the Odes of Solomon are extra-canonical (not found in our Bibles), I’m not very familiar with them. The following is taken from the introduction to them in the book The New New Testament, edited with commentary by Hal Taussig:

THE ODES OF SOLOMON are simultaneously one of the most significant discoveries of early Christian literature and one of the most ignored discoveries of early Christian literature in the past two hundred years. Found in piles of research in a well-traveled and expert scholar’s office in the early twentieth century, they have been published since shortly after their “discovery.”

They are indisputably the largest trove of early Christian worship material ever found in one document, which is almost a third the size of the Bible’s book of 150 psalms. …. These forty-one “songs” of early Christianity are most likely a collection from different communities over a period of time and therefore have no unified authorship. However, they do represent a certain kind of early Christianity in their beliefs, practices, and ways of framing the world. They look and sound very much like the psalms of the Hebrew scriptures, except that they have regular references to the Word, the Light, the Lord, and the Son of God in ways that indicate that they belong to some kind of Christ movement; that is, they are definitely “psalms” of a “Christian” character, although they never use the name “Jesus,” and rarely even the title “Christ” or “Anointed One.”

The title, “The Odes of Solomon”—probably added to the document later than its assemblage—cannot, of course, refer to the author of this collection (since Solomon lived a thousand years before) but serves rather as an affirmation of a strong and intimate connection between this part of early “Christianity” and the traditions of Israel. This document represents a collection of different odes from different communities, making “Solomon” something like the psalms’ figure of “David.”

It is also difficult to identify a date of composition for the odes. Most commentators think they came early…, more toward the first century than the second. The place of composition is also unclear. The closeness to the psalms of the Hebrew scriptures suggests a “Christ” movement with very strong ties to the traditions of Israel. The odes’ language of Syriac points toward Syria. It is not clear whether the odes were ever transcribed in Greek or Aramaic, but the fine poetic style indicates a real possibility that they may originally have been in Syriac.

The “Christ” figure often speaks in these odes, which means that early Christ people who sang them took on the identity of “Christ.” This identification of the singers with the “Christ” is complemented by the content of the odes in which the “Christ” is a cosmic figure who makes humans one with God.

… Ode 8 opens with seven verses of invitation to praise. Then the voice changes to that of the “Christ,” who speaks directly of his experience, and who also invites humans to “recognize my knowledge” and “love me with gentleness” (8:11). The direct invitation from “Christ” for such a loving relationship becomes more intimate as “he” describes the origins and substance of this relationship: Even from before, when they did not yet exist, I knew them, And I imprinted a seal on their faces. I fashioned their members, And I presented my own breasts for them, So they could drink my own consecrated milk, that through it they might live. (8:13–14)”

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