Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, December 29, 2013, the First Sunday after Christmas (Year A)

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 is a revised continuation of Lectionary Ruminations.  Focusing on The Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the upcoming Sunday from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 draws on nearly thirty years of pastoral experience.  Believing that the questions we ask are often more important than any answers we find, without overreliance on commentaries I intend with comments and questions to encourage reflection and rumination for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged.  All lectionary links are to the via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website.

FOR AN UPDATED AND REVISED VERSION, GO TO THIS LINK 

PREFACE:

I have usually taken the Sunday after Christmas as a vacation Sunday and therefore have rarely had to preach on these troubling texts.  How will you deal with the juxtaposition or so many themes: God’s steadfast love, praise of God, the suffering of God’s chosen, atonement, sacrifice,  death of innocent children, and linguistic and storytelling gymnastics to show the fulfillment

FIRST READING - ISAIAH 63:7-9
63:7 Can you recount all the gracious deeds and praiseworthy acts of the LORD? What are they?  What is the difference between mercy and steadfast love?

63:8 In verse 7 Isaiah speaks in the first person plural of “us”, but in verse 8 shifts to the third person “they” and “their”.  Why the shift?  What difference does it make?

63:9 I like that “It was no messenger or angel” but the LORD’S presence that saved them.  Remember, this is before Christ!  How was the LORD present if not through an intermediary?

PSALM- PSALM 148

Here is a Psalm that can be adapted for use as a Call to Worship if I ever saw one!

148:1 Is it stating the obvious to identify this as a “praise” psalm.

148:2 This is the second time (and the second reading) that angels are mentioned.  What is “all his host”?

148:3 How do the sun, moon and shining stars praise?

148:4 What waters are above the heavens?  Must we buy into this pre-Copernican cosmology to interpret this Psalm?

148:5 How is the name of the LORD to be praised when it is not pronounced?

148:6 What are the bounds of the highest heavens and the waters above the heavens?

148:7 Even though, or perhaps because, I am a kayaker and a sailor, I can more easily accept that the actual sun, moon and stars praise the Lord than I can accept “sea monsters” praising the Lord.

148:7-10 How can creation continue to praise the LORD if humans pollute and destroy it?  Does Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” have anything to say regarding these verses?

148:8 These verses might work for the First Sunday of Christmas in the northern hemisphere, but what about the southern hemisphere?

148:9 he hills are figuratively alive with the sound of music, praise music

148:11 Now we transition from the natural world to the political realm.

148:12 I like the gender and age inclusiveness of this verse.

148:13 What is “the name of the Lord”?  Dare we write it?  Dare we speak it?  If not, how do we praise and exalt it?

148:14 What is “a horn” and what does it symbolize?

SECOND READING - HEBREWS2:10-18

2:10 What a bummer! From the joy and celebration of Christmas a mere four days ago we now get sufferings.  The Christ child has just been born and already we are hearing about his sufferings.

2:11  What is the meaning of sanctification? Why would Jesus be ashamed? 

2:12-13 Where did these quotes come from?

2:14 Can we read/teach/preach this without personifying “the devil”?

2:15 Can we be freed from the fear of death without being freed from death?

2:16 In the context of this verse, who are the descendants of Abraham?

2:17 What was the function of the high priest? Is “sacrifice atonement” the only understanding of atonement?

2:14-18 A fairly theological exposition of the incarnation, which is probably why this passage was chosen for the First Sunday After Christmas, but we still end up with suffering.  The distance from the cradle to the cross, both in terms of geography and time, is not much at all.

GOSPEL- MATTHEW 2:13-23

2:13 In Matthew, how many times does an Angel appear to Joseph in a dream?  Has an angel of the Lord ever appeared to you in a dream?  Why Egypt? John Shelby Spong has an opinion about why Egypt?  Why would Herod want to destroy the child Jesus?

2:13-14 Could this story be an example of Midrash?  Spong thinks so.

2:15 Could there have been another theological reason for Jesus going to Egypt other than fulfilling of prophecy?  What verse is being quoted?

2:16 Death in the slaughter on the innocents intrudes into the otherwise bucolic narrative of Christmas.  Why did Herod kill all children as old as two years?

2:17-18 So all the infants were killed just so that prophecy could be fulfilled?  Could be another example of Midrash?

2:19  Another angel, another dream, same old Joseph!

2:20 Why the plural “those” when only Herod was seeking to kill Jesus.

2:22 How many Dreams has Joseph experienced now? With so many dreams mentioned in the Bible, why does the church say so little about dreams, dreaming, and dream interpretation (other than Jungians)?  Why would Joseph be told in one dream to go to Israel and in a subsequent be warned not to go to Israel?

2:23 Why is the author of Matthew so eager to note the fulfillment of prophecy?  It seems that so far that is the purpose of this Gospel—to show the fulfillment of prophecy.

2:13-23 It seems odd that Mary and Jesus are never mentioned by name but are referred to as “the child and his mother”.

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, December 22, 2013, the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 is a revised continuation of Lectionary Ruminations.  Focusing on The Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the upcoming Sunday from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 draws on nearly thirty years of pastoral experience.  Believing that the questions we ask are often more important than any answers we find, without overreliance on commentaries I intend with comments and questions to encourage reflection and rumination for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged.  All lectionary links are to the via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website.

FOR AN UPDATED AND REVISED VERSION, GO TO THIS LINK

PREFACE:

With both Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23 being among Readings, the Third Sunday of Advent is a good time to sing the O Antiphons.  Unfortunately the Presbyterian Hymnal (#9) offers only three rather than all seven verses.  Fortunately Glory to God: Hymns, Psalms, & Spiritual Songs (#88) offers all seven verses!  See the “Litany for Advent – O Antiphons” in the Book of Common Worship pages 166-167 and consider having the congregation sing the responses rather than say them.

FIRST READING - ISAIAH 7:10-16

7:10 Who is Ahaz and why is the LORD speaking to him?  Does the LORD ever speak to you?

7:11 What is the meaning of “sign”?  Do you ever ask for a sign?  How deep is Sheol?  How high is heaven?

7:12 Do you recall Massah and Meribah? How do we put the LORD to the test? 

7:13 How was the house of David wearing God?  How do we weary God?

7:14 Why does the Lord give this or any sign?  Isaiah says the sign shall be a “young woman” being with child, bearing a son, and naming him Immanuel.  Why do we now thin and speak of a virgin being with child, bearing a son, and naming him Immanuel. In what sense is any pregnancy and birth a sign, and what might it me a sign of?

7:15 What are curds and what does a diet of curds and wild honey symbolize?  At what age might this child know how to refuse the evil and choose the good?

7:16 What land?  What two kings?

PSALM - PSALM 80:1-7,17-19

80:1 Who is the Shepherd of Israel? What is a cherubim, where are they, and who sits enthroned upon them?

80:2 Why the mention of, and only of, Ephraim, and Benjamin and Manasseh?

80:3 What is the connection between God’s shining face and salvation?

80:4 Do you ever feel that God is angry with your prayers?

80:5 Perhaps we can juxtapose this imager with the bread of life and the sup of salvation.

80:6 Do your neighbors ever scorn you or laugh at you?  Is the Psalmist perhaps playing on God’s sense of self honor?

80:7 I am beginning to hear a refrain.  See 80:3.

80:17 What does the right hand of God symbolize and who is there?  How do we deal with such a anthropomorphic language when we know God has no physical body?

80:18 This is beginning to sound like a little “you scratch our back, we will scratch yours” proposition.

80:19 The third refrain (see 80:3, 7) but this time I am reminded of other passages of Scripture relating to God’s shining face. 

SECOND READING - ROMANS 1:1-7

1:1 What does it mean to be called?  What does it mean to be set apart?

1:2 Where, specifically, did God promise the gospel?

1:3 How do we deal with this “decended from David according to the flesh” when, especially at this time of year, people tend to focus on a miraculous birth by a virgin? (see my comments on Isaiah 7:14).

1:4 It seems that Paul is saying Jesus was declared “Son of God” by his resurrection, not his baptism or birth.

1:5 Who are the “we”?

1:6 Again, what does it mean to be called, and what does it mean to belong to Jesus Christ?

1:7 What is a saint?  How do we deal with a non-Trinitarian ascription in light of the Doctrine of the Trinity?

GOSPEL - MATTHEW1:18-25

1:18 In what way?  What does I mean to be with child “from the Holy Spirit”?

1:19 What is a righteous man?  How could Joseph have exposed Mary to public disgrace?  What does it mean to “dismiss her quietly”?  What would have happened to Mary and her child if Joseph had in fact dismissed her quietly?

1:20 It seems that angels appear to people in dreams more than in any other way.  Are you familiar with what John Sanford and Morton Kelsey have written about dream from a Christian perspective?  What might Carl Jung say about this passage?  Has an angel ever spoken to you in your dreams?

1:21 What is the meaning of the name “Jesus” and why name him that because he will save his people from their sins?

1:22 So the point of this narrative is not necessarily to establish Jesus’ divinity but rather to establish his birth as fulfillment of prophecy.

1:23 See Isaiah 7:4.  Why was Joseph instructed to name the child “Jesus” rather than “Immanuel”?

1:24 What does it mean to “take her as his wife”?

1:25 Does the mention of Joseph not having marital relations with Mary serve to establish Jesus’ divinity, Mary’s Virginity, or the fulfillment of prophecy?  What if the author of Matthew had been familiar and/or worked with the Isaiah in the Hebrew rather than the Latin?

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, December 15, 2013, the Third Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 is a revised continuation of Lectionary Ruminations.  Focusing on The Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the upcoming Sunday from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 draws on nearly thirty years of pastoral experience.  Believing that the questions we ask are often more important than any answers we find, without overreliance on commentaries I intend with comments and questions to encourage reflection and rumination for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged.  All lectionary links are to the via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website.


FOR AN UPDATED AND REVISED VERSION, GO TO THIS LINK

FIRST READING - ISAIAH 35:1-10

We see more of Isaiah this week, the third week in a row the First Reading has come to us from this prophet.  What is the connection between the health and productivity of the land and the well-being of the people of Israel?

35:1-2 Are wilderness and dry land to be taken literarily or are they metaphors?  What is so special about the crocus?  How can plants rejoice and sing? What glory belonged to Lebanon?  What was the majesty of Carmel and Sharon? 

35:3 This verse signals a shift from the land to people. Why do I appreciate this verse the older I get?

35:4 In Isaiah’s context, who were those with a fearful heart?  Who has a fearful heart in our context? The Scriptures usually admonish readers to fear God, but here they are called to not fear even though God will come with vengeance and terrible recompense – to save.

35:5 Is this blindness and deafness meant to be taken literally or metaphorically?

35:6 Here is another shift, this time from people back to the land, where we started.  In the case of humans, physical challnges are overcome.  In the case of the land, situations are reversed.

35:7 I like pools, springs, reeds and rushes, but not swamps.  What is this imagery communicating?

35:8 I find it amazing that Isaiah envisions a “highway”.  Where does this highway lead?  What does it connect? Apparently even some of God’s people can be fools.

35:9 This is not quite a vision of the peaceable kingdom but it is close.  It almost seems like a vision of paradise, or heaven.

35:10 Must we interpret this Hebrew Scripture mention of “the ransomed of the Lord” with regard to the Christian doctrine of the Atonement?  How can joy “be upon” anyone’s head?

PSALM - PSALM 146:5-10

146:5 In the context of this psalm and the Psalter, what does it mean to be “Happy”.  Is this the same “happiness” enumerated in the Declaration of Independence?   How are “help” and “hope” related?

146:6 How can we interpret and apply this imager without falling into the creationism-evolution debate? What does it mean to “keep faith”?

146:7-9 Is this an expression of the Bible’s preferential option for the poor and oppressed?  How shall we Americans read and interpret this in light of our current national political debates?

146:10 What would happen to God’s reign if humanity becomes extinct?  This verse could be used or adapted for use as a Call to Worship.

ALTERNATE READING - LUKE 1:47-55

How will you decide between Psalm 146:5-10 and Luke 1:47-55? I usually alternate between cycles, though people might associate Luke 1:4-55 with Advent and Christmas more than they do Psalm 146:5-10.  In favor of the alternate reading is that it is one of the few feminine voices in the Scriptures.  Mary’s psalm of praise, apparently following the template of Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, seems to move from the particular in verses 47-49 to the universal in verses 50-55.  What shall we learn from the theological and doxological trajectory of Mary’s song?  

1:47 Why is this passage often referred to as “The Magnificat”

1:48 Mary’s sentiment seems to reflect the same outlook as expressed in Psalm, 146:5-10

1:49 Is there any significance to the use of “the Mighty One”?  What great things has the Mighty One dome for Mary?

1:50 What does it mean to “fear” God, especially during Advent when we tend to emphasize feelings such as joy?

1:51 What does the arm of God symbolize?  What does “scattered the proud in the thouhts of their hearts” mean?

1:52-53 Note the reversal of fortunes and misfortunes.

1:54 How has God helped Israel?

1:55 What promise did God make to Abraham and his descendants?

SECOND READING - JAMES 5:7-10

5:7-8 This reads like an admonition to patiently wait even in the midst of apparently dashed expectations.  How near is near?  At least a farmer witnesses yearly reward for patience, not waiting nearly two-thousand years for a crop.  How do we strengthen our hearts?

5:9  Would anyone like to speculate what people were grumbling about?  I can’t imagine the author addressing a problem if it did not exist.

5: 10 Do suffering and patience necessarily go together?  When might we be called NOT to be patient in the midst of suffering?

GOSPEL - MATTHEW 11:2-11

11:2 Note that even though he was in prison, John was hearing “what the Messiah was doing.”  Also note that John had his own disciples and was apparently able to communicate with them.

11:3 I know that this Sunday our Reading comes from Matthew rather than Luke, nevertheless, this verse seems out of place in light of last week’s Gospel reading which suggested that John knew Jesus was the Messiah.  Am I reading more into last week’s reading than was there?  Why is John questioning Jesus identity?

11:4 What ad John’s disciples heard and seen?

11:5 This the verse that seems to connect this Reading with the First Reading.

11:6 How does this verse relate to verse 5?  Who was taking offense at Jesus?

11:7 What is the meaning of “a reed shaken by the wind”?

11:8 What is the point?

11:9 From a Christian perspective, was John the last of the Hebrew Prophets?

11:10 What is Jesus quoting?  Does this quote say more about John or Jesus?

11:11 Was Jesus born of a woman?  Did Jesus think John was greater than he was?

11:7-11 I have become convinced that there was (and is) a theological, spiritual, and political connection between Jesus and John that is not fully expressed or explored in the Gospels, but is certainly hinted at.  Other than Jesus and John, is there anyone in the New Testament portrayed as the fulfillment of prophecy?

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, December 8, 2013, the Second Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references may be linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) 

FOR AN UPDATED AND REVISED VERSION, GO TO THIS LINK

PREFACE:

If you did not read last week’s Preface, please to, as it serves as an introduction to both Year A in the New Revised Common Lectionary as well as to the season of Advent. 

FIRST READING – ISAIAH 11:1-10

11:1 Note that in the NRSV this text is formatted as poetry, not prose.  Does this affect how we interpret it?  This verse is a good example of parallelism as a feature of Hebrew Poetry. Who was Jesse?

11:2 Does this verse imply that the spirit of the LORD is the spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and knowledge and fear of the LORD.  Is this spirit the same as The Holy Spirit?

11:3 What is “the fear of the LORD”?  Is justice both blind and deaf?

11:4 Does this verse express a prejudice toward/for the poor and meek? Note the power of voice/word.

11:5 Does “righteousness” equal “faithfulness”?  Are “loins” the same as the “waist”?

11:6-7 Images of the “peaceable kingdom”. What do you know about Edward Hicks?   What is a fatling?

11:8 Is there any significance to “asps” and “adders”?  Is this an allusion to any particular serpent or serpents?

11:9 Who will not hurt? What is “knowledge of the LORD”? Does “earth” refer to people or the planet and all its inhabitants, human and otherwise?

11:10 What does it mean for anyone to “stand as a signal”? Do “people” and “nations” suggest a universalism?

PSALM - PSALM 72:1-7, 18-19

Why do you think this Psalm, out of all of them, was chosen to pair with the Isaiah Reading?

72:1 Which king?  Which son?

72:2 Echoes of Isaiah 11:4?

72:3 Does this passage have any implication regarding mountain top removal mining?

72:4 More preference for the poor, needy and oppressed.  Who is the “He”?  Does this passage have any implication regarding the systemic weakening of our social safety net?

72:5 How can a king live so long?  Is this mere poetic hyperbole?

72:6 What is being asked for here?

72:7 When would the moon be no more?  What are we missing in verses 8-17?

72:18 What are the “wondrous things” the LORD does?
72:19 How can the LORD’s name be blessed when the LORD’s name is not spoken?  Why the double Amen?

SECOND READING - ROMANS 15:4-13

15:4 When were “the former days”?  What writings are included in and meant by “the Scriptures”?

15:5 What does living in harmony look like?  Is this another lectionary echo of Isaiah 11:6-9?

15:6 I hear echoes of Psalm 72:19.

15:7 How did Christ welcome us?

15:8 Was Christ a “a servant” of only the circumcised, or the uncircumcised as well? What promise was given to the patriarchs?  What about the matriarchs?

15:9-12 What is being quoted in this verse and in the following verses?

15:12 Is this a quote of Isaiah 11:1?

15:13 A verse often used liturgically as a blessing/benediction.  Is it Trinitarian?

GOSPEL - MATTHEW 3:1-12

3:1 When were “those days”?  I prefer to refer to “John the Baptizer” rather than “John the Baptist”.  What does it mean that John “appeared”?  What is the symbolic meaning of “wilderness”?

3:2 Note that John proclaims “the kingdom of heaven has come near”, not will or is coming near.  What is “the kingdom of heaven” and what does it mean that it “has come near”?

3:3 Where in Isaiah would you find this quote?  Did John’s appearing in the wilderness lend itself to referring to this passage from Isaiah, or did this passage from Isaiah suggest, after the fact, that the wilderness is where John had to appear?  Must “locusts” refer to insects?

3:4 What is the significance of John’s wardrobe?

3:5 It sounds like John’s preaching station was a popular destination. 

3:6 How do we reconcile John’s act of baptizing with later Christian understandings of the sacrament?

3:7 Are you surprised that “many Pharisees and Sadducees” were coming to John for baptism? Could John’s invective perhaps be more a reflection of Matthew’s perspective than John’s?

3:8 Good advice, regardless of who is being addressed.  What fruit is worthy of repentance?

3:9 How do we reconcile this verse with Romans 15:8?  I recall that both John and Jesus had some interesting things to say about stones.

3:10 Note that “ax” is singular while “trees” is plural.  What is the metaphorical fire?  When the tree is cut down at the root, will a shoot come out from the remaining stump? (see Isaiah 11:1-10)

3:8-10 Is John still talking to only the Pharisees and Sadducees, or also to the people of Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region along the Jordan?

3:11 What is the difference between water on the one hand and the Holy Spirit and fire on the other hand?  In light of this verse, what reasons can you think of to explain why Christians still baptize with water?

3:12 What is a winnowing fork and what is it used for?  What is a threshing floor?  What is chaff? Does the imagery of this verse in any way follow the imagery of verse 8 and verse 10?  Does the imagery of verse 8 and 10 foreshadow this verse?

3:11-12 while in verse 2 we learn that “the kingdom of heaven has come near”, in this verse we shift to the present and future tense:  one is coming, he will baptize, he will clear, he will gather, he will burn. Why the shift in tense?