PREFACE: The Lectionary Readings for the Second
Sunday After Christmas are the same in all three years, A,B, and C.
31:7 I wonder what effect
it would have if you started your next sermon by proclaiming “For thus says the
LORD.” IMHO, most worshipers need to
take the admonition to “Sing aloud with gladness” more seriously. Who is “the chief of the nations”? Who are
the remnant of Israel?
31:8 What might the “land
of the north” symbolize? What promise do we find for ourselves in this promise
of restoration?
31:9 Why do the remnant
weep? Who or what is Ephraim?
31:10 Why do the nations
need to hear this? Who scattered Israel and why? Why is Israel now being gathered?
31:11 How has the LORD
ransomed Jacob? Whose hands were too strong? Could this be one of the roots of
a ransom theory of the atonement?
31:12 What and where is the
height of Zion? I like the image of a life likened to a “watered garden”. How many people in our society are
experiencing a life akin to a dried up, dead garden?
31:13 What sort of dance do
you imagine this being? This verse would work well within the context of a
Service of Witness to the Resurrection.
31:14 Here is an image I
can relate to.
147:12 This is another of
the “praise” Psalms that close the Psalter, thus a Psalm that could be adapted
for use as a Call to Worship. How is
this Psalm related to the one before and after?
147:13 What does strengthening
the bars of gates symbolize? Where are children blessed?
147:14 I find peace and
finest wheat a powerful but an odd poetic pairing.
147:15 Why am I thinking of
the Greek god Mercury? What is God’s command?
147:16 I understand how
frost is like ashes, but how is snow like wool? How will this verse sound in
the Eastern United States compared to the Western United States this day?
147:17 This and the preceding
verse works this time of year in most of the northern hemisphere, but what
about in the southern hemisphere?
147:18 This is the second
reference in this Psalm to God’s “word”.
See 147:15 for the first time. It
appears again in 147:19. How can a word melt anything?
147:12-18 It should be
clearly evident why this Psalm was paired with the Jeremiah Reading. But the Psalm seems to emphasize the emotions
of return and restoration while ignoring the lament aspect of the deportation
that preceded it. Where do we, as Americans,
as Christians, and as Presbyterians find ourselves today—in exile or
restoration?
147:19 How do statutes and
ordinances relate to the LORD’s word? What is the relationship between Jacob
and Israel?
147:20 What are the LORD’s
ordinances? Why do other nations not know them?
1:3 What are spiritual
blessings? Where are the heavenly
places? This verse starts out sounding like The Magnificat.
1:4 Presbyterians take
note: here is a verse in support of predestination and election. Have you ever thought of yourself as holy and
blameless? When was the foundation of the world? You might want to juxtapose this
verse and its “before the foundation of the world” with John 1:1 and its “In
the beginning”.
1:5 Another verse in
support of the doctrines of predestination and election unless this verse
applies only to the Ephesians. What is your
destiny?
1:6 Who or what is “the
Beloved”?
1:7 Now we have a “blood” atonement after the ransom of
Jeremiah 31:11. How does blood redeem?
1:8 What is the difference
between wisdom and insight?
1:9 What is the mystery of
God’s will? I think we do not talk
enough about mystery.
1:10 Is this a verse in
support of divine “fate”? What is this “plan”? What and/or when is “the
fullness of time”?
1:11 What is our “inheritance”? This is yet another verse in support of
predestination and election.
1:12 Who are “we”?
1:13 Who are “you”? How is the Holy Spirit a “seal”?
1:14 How is a seal a
pledge?
John’s prologue is my
favorite passage in the Bible. This is
also the first passage I translated from the Greek when learning Greek. How is your preaching or teaching influenced
when you encounter one of your favorite passages? While 1:1-9 are optional, I really think they
need to be read and I will be including them in the Gospel Reading.
1:1 Can we read this and
hear this read without recalling the first creation account of Genesis 1? How,
in a brief amount of time, can we unpack the significance the Greek “logos”
since the English “Word” just does not seem to translate it?
1:2 When was the beginning?
1:3 What is the meaning of
“all things came into being through him”?
1:4-5 Maybe these verses
should have been read at the winter solstice, back on December 21st
in the northern hemisphere, rather than today.
1:4 Can there be life
without being? How does light serve as life? Does this verse lend itself to
universalism?
1:5 Note that the light
shining is in the present tense but the darkness did not overcome it is in the
past tense. How could darkness ever overcome light unless we are talking about
a black hole?
1:6-9 In a matter of weeks
we have moved from the conception of John the Baptizer to his testimony. Once again, I am wondering how much we are
missing when we reflect about the relationship and connection between John the
Baptizer and Jesus. I wonder what John would have thought if he had read this
description of himself and his ministry.
1:6 What does it mean to be
sent from God?
1:7 Believe what?
1:8 How does one testify
about anything? Was this verse meant to knock John down a notch or two?
1:9 Is there a false light?
I like the construction “was coming” as it suggests a process rather than a
point. Like 1:4, does this verse suggest a universalism? This verse is the last
of the optional verses.
1:10 What does it mean to
be “in the world”? What does it mean to “know” and “not know”?
1:11 What was his own?
1:12 Who received him? Who believed in his name? What is the meaning
of “power”? What does it mean to be a child of God?
1:13 Is there any
difference between “the will of the flesh” and “the will of man”? Is there any
theological difference between being born “of God” and being born from above?
How might William James enlighten us to the meaning of being born of God? Must
this birth be a physical birth or are there other types of birth, like, perhaps,
spiritual birth?
1:14 In his 1996 book Mystical Christianity: A Psychological Commentary
on the Gospel of John, Episcopal Priest and internationally known Jungian analyst
writes “John 1:14 is one of the most important verses in the New Testament, a
cornerstone of the Christian religion.” (p. 14) Without this verse there would
be no LECTIONARY RUMINATIONS 2.0? Why?
1:15 Why the parenthesis in
the NRSV? So what?
1:16 What does his “fullness”
refer to? What is grace upon grace?
1:17 “Law” versus “grace
and truth” or “Law and grace and truth”?
Note that “grace and truth” was first mentioned in 1:14.
1:18 Are there not some
passages in the Hebrew Scriptures to refute the claim that “No one has ever
seen God”? Once we have come to know God
the Father through the only son, should we not focus on our relationship with
the Father rather than the Son? What is the difference between a Theocentric
faith and a Christocentric faith? Can one know God without seeing God? What
does “the Father’s heart” symbolize or represent?
ADDENDUM
I am a Minister Member of Upper Ohio Valley Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and am serving as the Pastor of the Bethlehem United Presbyterian Church, Wheeling, WV. Sunday Worship at Bethlehem begins at 10:45 AM. Here is Bethlehem United's Facebook address: https://www.facebook.com/Bethlehem-United-Presbyterian-Church-102482088303980
