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
23:1 Whom is Job answering?
23:2 What is Job’s
complaint? What is a “bitter”
complaint? Whose hand is heavy?
23:3 Whom does Job not know
where to find?
23:4 Job is sounding like a
trial attorney.
23:5 Is Job seeking
understanding?
23:6 Why does Job think he
would not be contended with?
23:7 Could an person who is
not upright contend with such greatness and power?
23:8-9 Has Job really gone
in all directions? Like the Khan
character in The Wrath of Khan, Job
seems to be a two dimensional thinker.
In a Copernican universe, three dimensions might be enough, but in a
post-Einstein universe, we must posit at least four dimensions. Where do we look for God in a four or more
dimensional universe?
23:16 Is Job’s terror
anything like Rudolph Otto’s Mysterium Tremendum?
23:17 Does Job’s “if only”
indicate the futility of trying to hide from God?
22:1 Where have we heard
this before? It seems like we hear this at least every three years if not more
often.
22:2 How many times have
you felt this way?
22:3 I think this “yet” is
a one word statement of faith.
22:4 Is this only an appeal
to salvation history?
22:5 Is the psalmist
perhaps trying to play on God’s emotions?
22:6 But I am not like my
ancestors?
22:7 I have a hunch the
psalmist is talking about more than just popularity.
22:8 Who or what is being quoted?
22:9 God takes us from the
womb?
22:10 This reads as if life,
if not faith, begins at birth, not conception.
22:11 How far is too far?
22:12 What is a bull of
Bashan?
22:13 Why talk about bulls
as if they were lions?
22:14 Are these mixed
metaphors/images? What does it mean to be poured out like water? What does it
mean for a heart to be melted?
22: 15 Give this Psalmist a
drink of cool, refreshing water of life.
4:12 How can a word, any
word, be living and active? What does it
mean to separate soul from spirit?
4:13 Were Adam and Eve
still naked even after they attempted to cover themselves?
4:14 What is a high
priest? What is a great high priest? Why
the plural “heavens”? How many heavens
are there? What confession?
4:15 Are there high priests
who are unable to sympathize with our weaknesses? Is there a difference between being tested
and being tempted?
4:16 In the context of this
verse, how do you define “boldness”? Who sits on the throne of grace?
10:17 Who was setting out,
where was he setting out from, and where was he heading to? Is there any
significance to the man using the word “inherit”? What words, other than “inherit”, do we
usually hear associated with “eternal life”?
10:18 What has the Church
and Christian community not learned from this verse?
10:19 Why does Jesus refer
only to the second tablet of the law rather than both tablets?
10:20 This man is a saint!
10:21 The conundrum: give
away your riches and you will have what you lack.
10:22 Was he grieving
because he gave up eternal life for riches, or because he gave up riches for
eternal life?
10:23 Do you hear this, 1%?
Is the kingdonm of God the same as eternal life?
10:24 Why were the
disciples perplexed? The kingdom of heaven must be like flying with all one’s
possessions in a carry on.
10:25 A few years ago I
learned that is easier to drive a car through the Queens Blvd. overpass on the
Jackie Robinson Pkwy than it is for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of
God.
10:26 Is the answer not obvious? The poor can be saved.
10:27 So even God can
enable a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God?
10:28 Peter, also known as the “open mouth, insert foot”
disciple.
10:29 What relative is not
mentioned?
10:30 When is “this age”? I
can do without the persecution part. What and when is the age to come?
10:31 The classical
Christian inversion.
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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