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 over thirty years of pastoral experience. Believing that the questions we ask are often
more important than any answers we find, without over reliance 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
1:15b When did King Darius
rule?
2:1 Do these dates matter?
How does the word of the LORD come to a prophet?
2:2 Who are these people?
2:3 Are these rhetorical
questions? How much time has elapsed between Haggai’s prophecy and the
destruction of the temple?
2:4 What is courage? Does the 1957 Pulitzer Prize winning Profiles in Courage offer any insight?
2:5 Is this spirit the Holy
Spirit? According to A Brief Statement
of Faith – Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) “the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and
Savior,
to unmask idolatries I Church and culture,
to hear the voices of people long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.”
2:6 Why am I thinking of Paul
Tillich’s The Shaking of the Foundations?
2:7 Did this ever come to
pass?
2:8 Why does the LORD need
or want gold or silver? Does this have any stewardship implications?
2:9 It sounds like the LORD
is not only promising to make the Temple great again but greater than it ever
was.
Why is there a choice of
Psalms this week?
145:1 How can God’s name be
blessed and praised unless God’s name if God’s name is not pronounced?
145:2 How can Christians
bless and praise God’s name every day when most Christians probably only worship one day
a week, if at that?
145:3 This sounds like a
Call to Worship. If God’s greatness is unsearchable, then why do we engage in
theological reflection?
145:4 Is this still
true? Is this a biblical mandate for
Christian Education, catechesis, and faith formation? What mighty acts might
the Psalmist had in mind?
145:5 How do you understand
the word “meditate”? Could this be construed in support of meditative and
contemplative prayer?
145:17 Do kindness and
justice always go hand in hand?
145:18 Is the Lord distant
to all who do not call on the Lord?
145:19 What desires? What
does it mean to fear the Lord?
145:20 Must the Lord
destroy the wicked in order to watch over all who love him? Can we assume that
if someone is destroyed in any other way than by natural death that they were
wicked?
145:21 This sounds like a
restatement of 145:1-2. What is meant be “all flesh”?
Why is there a choice of
Psalms this week?
98:1 Why sing a new song and not an old song? What makes a song new? What marvelous things
has the LORD done? What does a
metaphorical right hand symbolize? Is
this a right handed conspiracy?
98:2 What victory?
98:3 How can love be
steadfast love and how can there be any faithfulness if the is no memory? Can
this and the preceding “victory” language lead to a militaristic and triumphalist
faith and theology?
98:4 Is there a difference
between “joyful noise” and “joyous songs/praises”? What about noise that is not joyful? What
about funeral dirges masquerading as hymns?
98:5-6 I wonder how
churches that eschew singing accompanied by instruments handle these verses. I
do not mean to malign Bach, but why have we become so dependent upon the organ and
piano while neglecting strings and brass?
98:7 Now I know why I like ambient
music that incorporates natural sounds like breaking waves.
98:8 Is anyone else
thinking of Julie Andrews?
98:9 Righteousness and
equity do not scare me. Do they scare
you?
2:1-2 I wonder what Paul
would say now about the coming of the Lord nearly two-thousand years later.
Christians should not be shaken, but relieved, by apocalyptic visions.
2:2 Was someone else preaching
and/or writing letters claiming to be Paul?
2:3 How were Christians
deceived then and how are they deceived today?
2:4 Whom is Paul writing
about? What temple is Paul referring to?
2:5 Do those whom you
taught or preached to remember everything you have said? When and how long was Paul with the
Thessalonians?
2:13-14 As a Presbyterian,
I am hearing echoes of call, election and predestination.
2:15 What does it mean to
stand firm and hold fast? What
traditions is Paul referring to? Today,
Protestant usually eschew “tradition” while Roman Catholics embrace “tradition.” Does the Wesleyan Quadrilateral help us
handle and deal with tradition?
2:16-17 How do Trinitarians
deal with non-Trinitarian blessings and benedictions, or do you find an
allusion to the Holy Spirit in this verse?
20:27 At some point in my
youth I learned that the Sadducees were the ones who denied the
resurrection. That is why they were “sad,
you see.”
20:28 Do you find it odd
that the Sadducees referred to Jesus as “teacher?”
20:28-35 What do you know
about levirate marriage? Does this
passage have anything at all to say concerning marriage equality, family
values, or society’s social welfare safety net? How might couples, or women,
who either want children but can’t conceive, or couples who are childless by
choice, hear this passage?
20:29 Is there any
significance to the number seven?
20:33 Maybe in the
resurrection this woman will get to pick the man she wants to be married to!
20:34 What does Jesus mean
by “this age?”
20:35 So much for family
values and the defense of marriage!
20:36 How do angels figure
into this?
20:37-38 If you were no so
used to this argument, would you buy it? Was the Sadducees' question about the
nature of the resurrection or the reality of the resurrection? Why am I
thinking of the Irish Philosopher George Berkeley?
ADDENDUM
I am currently a
Member at Large of Upper Ohio Valley Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) and will begin serving as the Interim Pastor of the Richmond United
Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Ohio on Tuesday, November 1st, 2016. Sunday Worship at Richmond begins at 11:00 AM.
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