Sunday, February 15, 2015

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, February 22, 2015, the First Sunday in Lent (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.

FOR AN UPDATED AND REVISED VERSION, GO TO THIS LINK

9:8 Why does God not address the women?
9:9 This is the first, the Noahic, not the Abrahamic covenant. The Covenant with Abraham came later.
9:10 What are the implications for an ecological ethic? “Every animal of the earth” reminds me of the Native American “All my relations.”
9:11 Apparently God did not know about global climate change.
9:12-13  And the name of this sign Roy G. Biv!
9:16 Does God really need a rainbow to be reminded of the covenant?
9:17 Is the sign of the covenant anything like the sign (and seal) of a sacrament?
9:13-17 The rainbow is not there for us but for God, to remind God. Sacraments are not there for God but for us, to remind us.
9:8-17 It is unfortunate that this passage does not mention the number forty.

25:1 I am used to hearing about the lifting up of the eyes and familiar with the lifting up hands.  I wonder how many instances there are of lifting up of the soul.
25:2 What is more biblical, trusting in God or believing in God? What, in your mind, is the difference between “trust” and “belief”?
25:3 What does it mean to wait for God and in this context who is waiting on God?
24:4-5 How can the LORD “make” us know? How does the LORD “teach”?
25:6 This sounds like the Psalmist is trying to remind a forgetful God.
25:7 I guess it is all right for God to forget some things, like my sins, but not other things, like God’s mercy and steadfast love. Are the “sins of my youth” the same as youthful indiscretions?
25:8-9 What is God’s “way”?
25:10 How many of the LORD are there? Cab this verse be used to defend religious and spiritual  pluralism?

3:18 Christ was “made” alive in the spirit?
3:19 What spirits in what prison? Does this account for the “he descended into hell” phrase in The Apostles’ Creed?
3:20 Was this Second Reading selected in light of the First Reading, or vice versa? I compliment Paul on his theological creativity and seeing in the story of Noah a prefiguration of Christian Baptism.
3:21 Baptism may not remove dirt but what about sin?  Whose good conscience is being referred to?
3:22 What “authorities and powers” might Paul have had in mind?

1:9 In what days? Why was Jesus baptized?
1:10 Who saw what? If you had been there what would you have seen?
1:11 Who heard this voice? Whose voice was this?
1:12 How many times in Mark do we find “immediately”? Why would the Spirit drive Jesus out into the wilderness?
1:13 Why “forty days” and not “forty days and nights”?  How was Jesus tempted by Satan? How shall we understand and interpret this “Satan”? Why does Mark mention that Jesus was with the wild beasts? How did the Angels “wait” on Jesus?
1:14 Why did Jesus not come to Galilee until after John was arrested?  Where was Jesus before he came to Galilee? What is the “good news of God”? For any news to be good one must recognize that things can always be better.
1:15 What time is fulfilled?

ADDENDUM

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

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