It is in Scripture

The practice of Counting the Omer is not strange to the Bible. It is commanded in Leviticus 16:9-21. Although our community is not a Jewish community, we recognize that the Apostle Paul concludes that we are grafted into that community, not as part of the ethnic identity, but rather the spiritual.

It is wise

Although our community does not regard Counting the Omer mandatory, it is wise. God desires that we have and seek wisdom above everything. Inherent is wisdom, is the knowledge and understanding of patterns governing the world we live in that God has created. Fundamentally, our life experiences are cyclic patterns, repeated in daily, weekly, monthly and annual cycles. Observing patterns helps us understand how the world works and how to treat it and live in it wisely as God desires. Counting the Omer raises our awareness of daily moments and activities of our lives. And in those moments, God impart wisdom to us. Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (ESV).

It is personal

Counting the Omer is a personal time of spiritual growth, worship, thankfulness and reflection. Each day one focuses on the transition to the next day, blessing God and thinking carefully about the words of Scripture. The daily monotonous and mundane routine is interrupted with personal and divine mindfulness. It is a conscious time to pray and start the day giving God priority in your life.

It is communal

Even more importantly, Counting the Omer is an act of the community. Couples and families should count the Omer together. Our community will be counting together along our 49-day journey to God pronouncing the Ten Commandments at Mt Sinai. Counting the Omer creates one-mindedness and vision among communities.

It is educational

Counting the Omer is a liturgical experience. Meditations and devotions can be crafted to fit a community’s needs and to reinforce and sharpen the awareness among the community of its vision, mission and purpose. For example, our community devotion will journey through the story of the Exodus until the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mt Sinai. Each daily meditation and devotional has been selected from select passages in Exodus 1–20. The final ten days is a reading of the verses of Exodus 20 in reverse with an understanding that the Ten Commandments are ten steps of the journey from Egypt through the wilderness into God’s presence. The Counting of the Omer is a reenactment of the divine act of salvation from bondage in Egypt at the Passover and Red Sea Crossing to the journey through the wilderness to God’s house on Mt Sinai where God makes a covenant with Israel. In Scripture, the Exodus story is the paradigm of biblical salvation. So this story should never be far from our understanding of what God is doing in our lives, in our communities and in the world. Counting the Omer is a time to learn more deeply about how God saves.