Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, June 19, 2016, the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

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 via the Presbyterian Mission Agency Revised Common Lectionary webpage.

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First Reading - 1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a

19:1 Do you remember Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah from last week’s First Reading? The saga continues.

19:2 Why did Jezebel send a messenger to Elijah?  Why not just kill him?  She swears by her gods, but what gods would those be?

19:3 Having spoken truth to power, why is Elijah only now afraid? What do we know about Beer-sheba?

19:4 Is there any significance to the mention of a day’s journey and a broom tree?  How long was a day’s journey? While Jezebel swore by her gods, Elijah prays to the LORD. Why does Elijah want to die?

(19:5) The beginning of a Big Dream, but where does the narration of the dream end?

(19:6) Are you experiencing déjà vu? (See the First Reading from two weeks ago, 1 Kings 17:10-11)

(19:7) Who or what was this angel? Why did it take two touches?

19:8 What is the significance of forty days and forty nights? How might this account have influenced the Gospel traditions of Jesus’ wilderness wanderings? What is the significance of Horeb?

19:9 What is the religious and spiritual significance of caves? Is anyone else thinking about lascaux?

19:10 Is Elijah really the only remaining faithful Israelite?

19:11 What is the religious and spiritual significance of mountains? What is the religious and spiritual significance of thunderstorms and earthquakes?

19:12 What is the religious and spiritual significance of fire? What does sheer silence sound like? Have you ever experienced sheer silence?

19:13 What is the significance of Elijah’s mantle? Whose voice did Elijah hear?

19:14 See 19:10

19:15a Where is the wilderness of Damascus? Who is Hazael and where is Aram?

Psalm - Psalms 42 and 43

I can almost hear these words coming from the lips of Elijah.  These two psalms contain some of my favorite Biblical images and lines.

42:1 How much does a deer long for flowing streams? Does your soul long for God?

42:2 What is supposed to happen who look upon God’s face?

42:3 Why was the Psalmist crying?

42:4 What does it mean to pour out one’s soul? What is the psalmist remembering?

42:5 Is this a rhetorical question?

42:6 Does the Psalmist not remember God when their soul is not cast down? Where is Mount Mizar?

42:7 Is this pure ocean and water imagery?

42:8 God’s song is the Psalmist’s prayer?

42:9 Does God ever really forget anyone, or is this just the Psalmist’s expressing their feelings?

42:10 Taunting is deadly? What ever happened to the adage “sticks and stones may break my bines but names may never harm me.”?

42:11 See 43:5. Is the Psalmist not now praising God?

43:1 How can God vindicate?

43:2 How can God be a refuge if God has cast off the psalmist?

43:3 What is the relationship between light and truth? In this context, what is God’s light?

43:4 Note that the Psalmist shifts from speaking of God in the third person to the second person.

43:5 See Psalm 42:5. What sort of feeling or emotion does a cast down and disquieted soul suggest?

Second Reading - Galatians3:23-29

3:23 When did faith come? Was faith revealed by Christ? What about Abraham?

3:24 What is the function of a disciplinarian?

3:25 What happens when there is no disciplinarian?

3:26 Through faith rather than through how?

3:27 What does it mean to be clothed with Christ and how does baptism accomplish that?

3:28 Do you think Paul meant for this list to be complete, or just the beginning on an infinite list? Black/white, rich/poor, gay/straight, republican/democrat, etc?

3:29 Are we not also Sarah’s offspring? Where did Abraham’s faith come from if faith came in Christ Jesus?

Gospel - Luke 8:26-39

8:26 Who arrived? What do we know about the country of the Gerasenes?

8:27 Who is he? Where was he before he stepped out on land? What is your demonology? Oh no, a naked homeless tomb dweller! How much worse could it get?

8:28 Why would a naked homeless tomb dweller know who Jesus was when even Jesus’s disciples didn’t seem to know who Jesus was?

8:29 Why the shift from plural (demons) to singular (unclean spirit)? Why the parenthetical comments. Was this naked homeless tomb dweller kept shackled out in the tombs?

8:30 Why did Jesus want to know his name? Note that in 8:29 Jesus refers to an unclean spirit while the man claims to have many demons. What is the difference between an unclean spirit and a demon?

8:31 What and where is the abyss?

8:32 Obviously Jesus has authority over the demons, but what about the swine?

8:33 Why did the swine, now apparently demon possessed, kill themselves? Is there some irony at work here?

8:34 What is a swineherd?

8:35 Why were the people afraid? Who else sat at the feet of Jesus?

8:36 Is demon possession a type of illness that can be healed? If demon possession is equated with illness, must all illness be equated with demon possession?

8:37 Why were the people afraid? What were they afraid of?

8:38 Why would Jesus send this man away?

8:39 Read this verse VERY carefully.  Read between the lines.  What is it saying?

ADDENDUM

I am currently a Member at Large of Upper Ohio Valley Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). I am a trained and experienced Interim Pastor currently available to supply as a fill-in occasional guest preacher and worship leader or serve in a half-time to full-time position.