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 options for the First
Reading, Second Reading, and Gospel, there are various permutations of Reading arrangements.
If you use the Acts passage as the Frist Reading you would use the 1
Corinthians passage as the Second Reading.
If you use the Numbers passage for the First Reading you could use
either the Acts reading or the 1 Corinthians passage as the Second Reading but
I think the Acts passage would be the better choice. How will you decide which
Gospel Reading to use?
2:1 What was the day of
Pentecost before the coming of the Holy Spirit?
Who are the “they”? Where might
that “one place” have been?
2:2 This verse might be
especially poignant in light of recent tornados and the beginning of hurricane season.
What came; a sound like the rush of a mighty wind or an actual mighty wind?
Does it matter?
2:3 What is a divided
tongue? How does a tongue, even a
tongue, as of fire, rest on someone?
2:4 What does it mean to be
“filled with the Holy Spirit”. Rosetta
Stone, eat your heart out!
2:5 What purpose does this
verse serve?
2:6 Who is in the
crowd? Where did the crowd gather? Have
you ever been bewildered? What bewilders
you? Who was speaking?
2:7 Have you ever been
amazed and astonished by a Christian spiritual experience? Who were asking the
question? What Galileans were speaking?
2:8 Is this a Gospel rhetorical
question?
2:9-11 Lay readers, and
even some clergy, hate reading these verses.
I think, however, that this list serves a very important theological purpose.
Is there anything special about the area’s listed, or the number?
2:11 What are God’s deeds
of power?
2:12 Earlier it was
bewildered, amazed and astonished. Now
it is amazed and perplexed. What does
this mean? When was the last time you were perplexed by a Christian spiritual
experience?
2:13 Who sneered? Does this verse explain at all why most PCUSA
Presbyterians shun offering fermented wine at communion? Are most Presbyterians afraid of losing
control and appearing to be filled with new wine? Rather than being filled with new wine, or
any wine, we are filled with grape juice, a nice, safe alternative void of all
power and warmth, (like the spirit in most of our congregations).
2:14 Why was Peter always
the first to open his mouth? Who was Peter addressing? Where only men of Judea
in Jerusalem? Where were the Judean
women?
2:15 As if people are not
drunk before 9:00 AM? Some people are
just coming home from all night parties at that time.
2:16 One cannot go wrong by
quoting from a Jewish prophet when your audience is filled with devout Jews.
2:17-21 Is this a case
where a prophecy in the Hebrew Scriptures prefigures a later event, or where a
prophecy is used as an apology for a later event? Should we interpret these verses in light of
Pentecost or only within their context within the Hebrew Scriptures?
2:17-18 Does the Pentecost
experience place us in the last days?
Note the inclusive character of these verses.
2:19-20 What shall we make
of these portents and signs?
2:20 What and when is “the
Lord’s great and glorious day”?
2:21 What does it mean to
call on the name of the lord? Saved from
what?
11:24 What are “the words”
of the Lord? Is there anything special about the number seventy? Is there any story like this in the New
Testament?
11:25 In the NRSV the
“Lord”, not LORD, comes down. Does this
make any difference? Why did the Lord
take some of the spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders? Was there not enough Spirit to go around, so
it had to be rationed? What does it mean
to prophesy? Why could they not prophesy again?
11:26-29 Why are these two
men named when the seventy are not named?
Why might they have remained in the camp? What did it mean to be registered?
11:27 Was this a young
filer of complaints, a tattle-tale, or bearer of good news?
11:28 Why did Joshua want
to stop Eldad and Medad from prophesying?
In my mind this seems to disqualify Joshua as Moses’ successor?
11:29 Indeed, would that
all. We can only hope and pray that it
be so. It seems Moses was not concerned about safeguarding his power or
authority but will to share it.
11:30 Is the prophesying of
Medad and Eldad the reason Moses and the elders returned to the camp. I want to know the rest of the story.
104:24 How could this verse
serve as an interpretive lens for Numbers 11:26-29? What are the works of the
LORD?
104:25 The sea kayaker and
sailor in me is nodding his head.
104:26 Was this verse
Thomas Hobbes’ inspiration for the title of his political treatise? How do we
deal with perhaps purely mythical beings when we encounter them in Scripture?
104:27-28 Ergo, all
creatures depend upon the LORD.
104:29 What does it mean
for God to hide God’s face? What shall we make of the connection between the
withdrawal of breath (spirit) and death?
104:30 I love the
juxtaposition of 104”29 and 104:30, especially the imagery of breath/death and
spirit/creation. How do these verses to the institutional church in light of
Pentecost?
104:31 Would the LORD not
rejoice in the LORD’s works?
104:32 I think this verse
is applying storm imagery to the LORD.
How does this inform our interpretation of Acts 2:2?
104:33-35b These the
concluding they could be adapted to function as a Call to Worship. For example:
One: The LORD be with you.
All: And also with you.
One: We will sing to the LORD
as long as we live.
All: We will sing praise to
our God while we have being.
One: May our meditation be
pleasing the LORD,
All: for we rejoice in the
LORD
One: Bless the LORD, O my soul.
All: Praise the LORD!
One: Let us worship the
LORD!
12:3b Is this really true?
12:4-6 Why am I thinking of Isabel
Briggs Myers
and her book Gifts Differing? Why do
we tend to reserve the reading of these verses for the Rite of Ordination? Are
gifts, services, and activities synonyms?
12:7 Is every Christian given a
manifestation of the Spirit?
12:8-10 Do you think that Paul meant for
this list to be exhaustive? What is your
gift? What service do you perform? What
activity are you engaged in? What is your manifestation of the Spirit?
12:11 What does “activated” mean?
12:12 How does this analogy or metaphor
help us make sense of the Pentecost experience?
12:13 Do you think Paul meant for “Jews
or Greeks, slaves or free” to be exhaustive?
What does it mean to be “made” to drink?
Do Christians have no choice in the matter? What does it mean to “drink” of one
Spirit? Is this an allusion to the
Eucharist?
20:19-23 What day
does this take place? How does this
passage inform our understanding of the Pentecost experience? Did we not read
these verses on the Second Sunday of Easter?
20:19 What is the
significance of Jesus’ words “Peace be with you.”?
20:20 Did the disciples not
recognize Jesus until after he showed them his wounds?
20:21 Why might Jesus have
repeated what he said? How did the Father send Jesus?
20:22 Did the disciples
receive the Holy Spirit? If so, was it
Jesus words or his breathing on them, or both, that allowed them to receive it? Is this the Johannine Pentecost?
20:23 To whom was Jesus
speaking? How shall we Protestants deal with this verse?
7:37 And what festival
would that be? In the Christian tradition what is the difference between a
feast day and a festival day, if any?
7:38 May only believers
drink? What Scripture passage does Jesus quote and what is the original
historical and literary context of that passage?
7:39 So Jesus had to be
glorified before there was a Spirit? Did
the author of the Gospel know this at the time Jesus quoted scripture, or does
this comment make sense only in hind sight?
How does the Doctrine of
the Holy Spirit help us understand this verse?
ADDENDUM
This coming Pentecost, June 8, 2014, I will be guest preaching at The Presbyterian Church of Cadiz, Ohio. Worship begins at 11:00 AM.
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