Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, January 25, 2015, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

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.

First Reading - Jonah 3:1-5, 10

3:1 What was the “word of the Lord” before the incarnation and how did it come to people? How many times in the average person’s life does the word of the Lord come to them?

3:2 What do you know about Nineveh and what would be a modern equivalent? What made Nineveh at that time great or is great only a reference to its size?

3:3 How large would a city have to be to take three days to walk across it?  Is this perhaps hyperbole?

3:4 What is so special about forty days?

3:5 So ritual without real repentance is OK? Did the people believe God or Jonah? What is the symboli meaning of sackcloth and is there any symbolic equivalent today?

3:10 This verse must be a Process Theologian’s favorite. If God is God, God must be free and powerful enough to change the divine mind.

Psalm - Psalm 62:5-12

62:5 Who or what else might your soul wait for in silence?  What does it mean to “wait in silence”?  What do you know about contemplative prayer?

62:6 Are rock, salvation and fortress merely poetic synonyms or does each noun offer a unique nuance?

62:7 Are deliverance and honor related? In the previous verse God was a rock. In tis verse God is a mighty rock.

62:8 What times might we be tempted not to trust in God?  How does one pour out one’s heart before God? How is God a refuge? How do you deal, if at all, with “Selah”?

62:9 What is the difference between a breath and a delusion? Who are of low estate and who are of high estate?

62:10 Why would anyone put confidence in extortion?  It is OK if riches increase as long as you do not set your heart on them.  How does this verse counteract the prosperity gospel? Why is the Psalmist even mention this?

62:11What is the meaning of “once” and how is it related to “twice.”

62:11-12 Is God’s steadfast love the source of God’s power?

62:12 This sounds like works righteousness.

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

7:29 What is “the appointed time” being referred to?  How does any time grow short?   What does it mean for those who have wives to be as though they had none?

7:30 What does it mean to buy as though one  had no possessions?

7:31 What is the present form of the world? How does it pass away?  Are Plato and/or C. S. Lewis any help here?

Gospel - Mark 1:14-20

1:14 Is “after” a chronos or a kairos reference? From did Jesus come? What is “the good news of God”?

1:15 What time is fulfilled? What does Jesus mean “the kingdom of God has come near”? How has it come near?  Is the good news of God the news that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near or something else?

1:16, 19 It sounds like Jesus had a thing for brothers.  I wonder why.

1:17 What did Jesus mean by “follow me”?

1:18, 20 It sounds like Mark has a thing for “immediately”.

1:20 Why would Jesus call James and John but not their father or the hired men?

ADDENDUM

I am currently serving at the Interim Pastor of The Presbyterian Church of Cadiz, worshiping at 154 West Market Street, Cadiz, Ohio, every Sunday at 11:00 AM. Please like us on facebook.