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.
21:8 What is the significance of Isaac
growing and being weaned? Why did Abraham make a feast when Isaac was weaned?
21:9 Are these the mythological roots of
the Arab-Israeli conflict? Why is the son of Hagar nowhere named in this
passage?
21:10 Do you think inheritance was the
only issue?
21:11 Which son is the cause of distress?
21:12 How many more times will God not
operate by conventional standards?
21:13 So Abraham will be the father of at
least two, if not many nations!
21:14 This verses raise a lot of issues
that might insult the ears of modern readers, and rightly so.
21:15 Why did Hagar cast her son under a
bush?
21:16 I wonder if Hagar thought she too
was about to die.
21:17 I think it is interesting the God
hears the voice of the boy even though the passage does not tell us the boy is
crying, but it does tell us that Hagar is crying, which God seems to ignore.
Where else have we heard “Do not be afraid”? What fear is God referring to?
21:18 It seems that Arabs could appeal to
this verse for claiming God’s blessing.
21:19 Was the well there earlier and
Hagar did not see it, or has it just appeared?
21:20 What is the meaning of “God was
with the boy”? I find it interesting that the boy became an expert with the bow
in light of his mother having sat a bowshot away from him (21:16) when she
thought he was about to die.
21:21 Where is Paran?
86:1 Are we to hear this today as the
prayer of Hagar? Does this presume the preferential option of the poor and
needy?
86:2 Is the Psalmist appealing to God’s
conscience?
86:3 This verse reminds me of Luke
18:1-8.
86:4 What does it mean
to lift up one’s soul?
86:5 Is the Psalmist
asking to be forgiven?
86:6 Why must God be
supplicated?
86:7 Does the Psalmist not call on God in
good days?
86:8 What other gods is the Psalmist
referring to? What are God’s works?
86:9 What nations does the Psalmist have
in mind? What about Genesis 21:18?
86:10 Is the Psalmist buttering up God?
Are the wondrous things in this verse the same as the works in 86:8?
86:16 Who is speaking here? Who is the servant? Who is the child?
86:17 How do we ask for and seek for
signs? Is the Psalmist reminding God of
how God has helped in the past?
6:1b-2 What if Paul was wrong? Was this a
rhetorical question or might some have actually been making this argument?
6:2 Is there a difference between living
in sin and being a sinner?
6:3 We may know this but what about those
to whom Paul was writing?
6:4 What did Paul mean by “newness of
life”?
6:5 Have we indeed been united with him
in a death like his? What was his resurrection like?
6:6 How was our old life crucified?
6:7 How does death free us from sin?
6:8 Is Paul beginning to repeat himself?
See 6:4.
6:9 Who is the “We”?
6:10 I find the dying to death and living
to God an interesting literary construction and profound theological idea.
6:11 Is there a difference between
actually being dead to sin and considering oneself dead to sin? Why is it that
some people who claim to be alive to God in Christ Jesus seem to get no joy or
satisfaction out of life?
10:24 Who is
speaking?
10:25 Who or what is
Beelzebul? Who is calling who Beelzebul?
10:26-27 With covered/uncovered,
secret/known, dark/light and whispered/proclaim language, this passage is beginning
to sound apocalyptic.
10:28 Who can kill
both soul and body in hell?
10:29 Why are the
sparrows sold?
10:29-31 Not one
sparrow falls to the ground without God’s knowledge yet the sparrow still fall
to the ground. Is there any comfort in that? What comfort is there in knowing
that te hairs on my head are counted?
10:32 Is acknowledging
Jesus the same as expressing one’s trust in him?
10:33 What does it
mean to deny Jesus? Where does the agnostic, or the disinterested, fit into
this?
10:34 There goes the
image of Christ the peacemaker! This and
the following verses can be very troubling.
How do we deal with them in an age of jihad and fundamentalist
extremism?
10:35-37 I wonder how
James Dobson and his Focus on the Family
deal with these verses.
10:37 Note that one
can still love their parents but not more than they love Jesus.
10:38 What does it
mean to “take up the cross”?
10:39 This verse
sounds paradoxical yet I think it expresses a cross cultural and universal
spiritual truth.
ADDENDUM
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