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
8:26 How do you deal
with angels in your teaching and preaching? Why Philip? So what that this is a wilderness
road?
8:27-28 There is a lot in
this verse to unpack. Why are we told so
much about this man? Is there anything special about Ethiopia? What is a
eunuch? What or who is “the Candace”? Why would an Ethiopian come to Jerusalem
to worship?
8:29 Has the angel of 8:26 become
the spirit?
8:30-31 Why would the
Ethiopian be reading aloud? Why would anybody read anything on their own if
they needed a guide to help them understand it?
8:32b-33 Where in Isaiah is
this found?
8:34 What an opportune
question!
8:35 Perhaps the lesson we
should learn from this is to proclaim the good news beginning with where people
have questions.
8:36 Was there a reason why
this Ethiopian eunuch should not have been baptized?
8:37 This sure sounds like
confessional language but does it say everything we would expect an adult being
baptized today to say?
8:38 To bad we don’t have a
description of the baptism. Then again, maybe we should be thankful that we don’t
have a description.
8:39 Why would the Spirit
snatch Philip away?
8:40 What do you know about
Azatos? Did Philip stop proclaiming the good news when he arrived at Caesarea?
22:25 Who, or what, is the
great congregation? What vows?
22:26 What do we do with
the shift from the second person to the first person?
22:27 How many ends does
the earth have? How many families of the nations are there?
22:28 How do we understand
dominion?
22:29 Who are sleeping in
the earth? Is death being contrasted with life?
22:30 How can the Psalmist
speak for posterity? How many generations?
22:31 How can anything be
proclaimed to people not yet born? Done what?
4:7 Who is “us”?
4:8 What does it mean to
say that God is love?
4:9 Why did God’s love have
to be revealed?
4:10 How can a sacrifice
atone? Does this passage presume any particular theory of the atonement?
4:11 But what does it mean
to love one another?
4:12 What does not seeing
God add to the argument? How is God’s love perfected in us?
4:13 Who is “we”? Is it
logical to shift from so abruptly from loving to abiding, from the Son to the Spirit?
4:14 What is the meaning of
“world”?
4:15 See Acts 8:37. What
does it mean to abide?
4:16a What is the
difference between knowing and believing?
4:16b I think this is not
only good poetry but good theology.
4:17 What and when is the
day of judgement? What does “as he is, so are we in this world” mean?
4:18 I like this
verse. What does this verse say to hell,
fire and damnation preachers and their sermons?
4:19 Could be argued that
without God’s love we cannot love?
4:20 How does this verse
inform Christian ethics? What about loving people who are not brothers and
sisters in Christ?
4:21 After fourteen verses
about love why say anything about a commandment? Who is “him”? How does this
relate to the New Commandment of John’s Gospel?
15:1 Is there a difference
between a vine and the true vine? What is the meaning of “true”? Is there such
a thing as the false vine?
15:2 What branches do we
find within ourselves? Even fruit producing vines are occasionally cut back.
15:3 How does the word
cleanse? Is cleansing the same as pruning?
15:4 How do we abide? See 1
John 4:13.
15:5 Note that this is one
(of the seven) “I am” sayings of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. What is more
important, bearing lots of inferior fruit or less but superior fruit?
15:6 Are we still talking
about the branches within us? I think it is wrong to, in any way, connect this
verse to any concept of hell or fires of hell.
15:7 Is Jesus the same as
his words? Whatever we wish?
15:8 Is bearing much fruit
something other than becoming Jesus disciple? Not that Jesus uses the plural “disciples”.
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 The Presbyterian Church of Cadiz on facebook.
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