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
1:4 How did the word of the
LORD come to Jeremiah? How does the word
of the LORD come to you or anyone? Note that this narrative is is told from the
perspective of the first person.
1:5 How might this verse
impact our thinking about predestination and issues related to ending a
pregnancy?
1:6 In classic call
narrative style, Jeremiah finds reasons and excuses for not answering God’s call.
What are your excuses?
1:7 In classic call
narrative style, God overcomes Jeremiah’s objections.
1:8 What do you fear? What
are you afraid of?
1:9 This seems like an
overly anthropomorphic metaphor for talking about God’s call.
1:0 This quite a prophetic
task, don’t you think? Who, today, are our Jeremiahs?
71:1 What comes to your
mind when you hear or read the word “refuge”? Being an outdoor sort of person,
I naturally think of National Wildlife Refuges.
71:2 What does it mean for
God to incline the divine ear?
71:3 What, if any, is the
difference between a refuge and a fortress?
How do we deal with such militaristic images in our overly militarized world?
71:4 How does God
rescue? Has God ever rescued you?
71:5 Why am I thinking of
Princess Leah saying “Help me Obi Wan Kanobi you’re my only hope”?
71:6 does this single verse
justify the lectionary pairing this Psalm with the First reading? You may want
to juxtapose this verse with Jeremiah 1:5.
12:18-19 Who is the “you”? Do
these verse negate some people’s need
for sensual and tactile aspects of religion and spirituality?
12:19 Why would the hearers
beg that not another word would be spoken?
12:20 Why the parenthesis?
Why would God want an animal that touched the mountain to be stoned to death?
12:21 Before what do you
tremble with fear. Are you familiar with Rudolph Otto’s concept of the “mysterium
tremendum”?
12:22 Note that it is the
heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly Jerusalem, that is being spoken of. What do
angels in festal gathering look and sound like?
12:23 Who are the
firstborn? How do we reconcile this with
William James’ concept of the twice born?
12:24 What word did the
blood of Abel speak?
12:25 Who IS speaking?
12:26 What does this
shaking represent or symbolize? Why am I thinking of Paul Tillich’s “The
Shaking of the Foundations”?
11:27 What cannot be
shaken?
11:28 What is an acceptable
worship? We might approach worship with
reverence, but when was the last time the majority of worshippers approached
worship with awe? Why am I thinking of Annie Dillard writing in Teaching a
Stone to Talk “On the whole, I do not find
Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does
anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as
I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing
on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a
Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to
church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life
preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping
god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to
where we can never return.”
12:29
When was the last time you hard to call the fire department to a worship
service?
13:10 Why does the specific
location not matter?
13:11 How do we interpret
this passage in light of modern science and medicine? Maybe some illnesses still cripple us
spiritually even after we are physically healed.
13:12 Apparently no
statement of faith or good works were required.
Why would Jesus heal THIS women and not others, or all, similarly
oppressed? Why her? Note that Jesus sets
her free from her ailment, not her sins?
13:13 What does it mean
that the pronouncement of healing proceeded the laying on of hands? Why am I thinking of Reiki? Why do we
generally no longer lay on hands when we pray for a person to be healed?
13:14 Ya gotta love
institutional religion and its orthodox, legalistic practitioners, NOT! Who was
being chastised, the people for coming to be healed or Jesus for healing?
13:15 Touché! Jesus 1 – Hypocritical Religious Leaders – 0!
Why might Jesus mention water?
13:16 What is the
significance of Jesus referring to the woman as “a daughter of Abraham”? Is her age of any significance? How do we deal with questions about Satan?
Why am I thinking about the Exodus?
13:17 I wonder what other
“wonderful things” Jesus was doing.
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.
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