Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 for The 2nd Sunday In Lent (Year A)

Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 is a further revision and refinement of my Lectionary Ruminations and Lectionary Ruminations 2.0.  Focusing on The Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the upcoming Sunday from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 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 sometimes pointed and sometimes snarky comments and Socratic like questions, to encourage reflection and rumination for readers preparing to lead a Bible study, draft liturgy, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged.

GENESIS 12:1-4a

12:1-4a This is one of the shortest Readings we have seen in a while and perhaps one of the shortest in the three year lectionary cycle.

12:1 How do you think the LORD said this, in a dream, a vision, or what?  Note the spelling of the name “Abram.”  This reads like an archetypal call narrative.  Where was Abram’s country?  Who were Abram’s kindred? What was Abram’s relationship with the LORD prior to this?

12:2 In retrospect, it seems the LORD delivered on these promises. What does it mean to be someone to be a blessing.

12:3  Note that it is the LORD who curses, not Abram. This verse, alone, ought to be enough to combat anti-Semitism.

12:4a Did Lot go with Abram or did Abram take Lot with him? Who was Lot and what was his relationship to and with Abram?

PSALM 121

121:1 I recall that there are various interpretations of this Psalm, one being the “nature’ interpretation that sees in the hills evidence of the LORD’s presence, the other suggesting this verse is setting up a comparison between the local mountain deities, which do not provide help, and the LORD, which does.  When such diverse interpretations present themselves, how do we decide?  Saint Patrick’s Day will be coming up on Friday, March 17, 2017  and you may want to consider this psalm in conversation with the Legend of Patrick lighting the Easter fire on the “hill” Slane. You might also recall that just two weeks ago we read passages where a theophany occurred on a mountain (What is the difference between a mountain and a hill?) .

121:2 Regardless of which interpretation of this Psalm you subscribe to, this assertion still follows. Must one be a “creationist” to think of the LORD as making heaven and earth?

121:3 What does it mean that our foot will not be moved?  What difference does it make if the LORD slumbers or not?

121:4 Is there any difference between “slumber” and “sleep”, or this simply an example of Hebrew poetic construction?  Does “Israel” refer to a people, a nation, or both?

121:5 What does it mean for the LORD to be a “keeper” and “shade”? Why is the shade on the right hand and not the left?

121:6 I love this verse, but while I can recall some hot summer days when it seemed like the sun was striking me, and I have been sunburned more than once, I cannot recall the moon ever striking me or burning me. How might the moon strike us by night?

121:7 Now here is a verse I can treasure!

121:8 What is the “going out” and the “coming in” a reference to and does it make any difference that they appear in this order?

ROMANS 4:1-5, 13-17

4:1 I see an obvious connection to the First Reading, but it would seem that Christians of non-Jewish background cannot claim Abraham as our ancestor, according to the flesh, as Paul did. We can claim him only as our ancestor by faith.

4:2 Why does Paul use “if”?  Was Abraham justified by works or not?

4:3 Where does Scripture say this?

4:4 Except in the church!

4:5 I like that trust is connected with faith, a theme emphasized in the PC(USA) A Brief Statement of Faith. Who are the ungodly?

4:13 Is Paul engaging in exegesis, Midrash, or eisegesis?  What law was there for Abraham since Moses had not received it?

4:14 Could one not argue for trust and faith in the law?

4:15 How does the law bring wrath?

4:16 What is “it”?  Faith is connected with grace, and with grace there is a guaranty.

4:17 Following Paul’s theological reasoning, perhaps we should be considered “Abrahamians” rather than “Christians?” Could Paul’s argument serve as a basis for interfaith dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims?

JOHN 3:1-17

3:1-17 This passage is so nuanced and so multivalent, I am not sure where to begin. I prefer a Jungian interpretation, but does that preach?

3:1 What do you know about Pharisees?  Is there any symbolism or significance associated with the name “Nicodemus”?

3:2 What is the significance that Nic came at night?  I see a literary and theological connection with the woman at the well, at noon, and wonder if we can only interpret both passages in dialogue with each other rather than apart.  I suspect this is not the Royal “we”, so who else is Nic speaking for? What ‘signs” was Nic referring to?

3:3 “Very truly, I tell you” seems to be a formulaic introduction to teachings in John.

Does being “born from above” give one a bird’s eye view or angel’s eye view?

3:4 Nic is confusing obstetrics and gynecology with theology, stuck in a literal rather than metaphorical understanding.  How many people in the pew are stuck in the literal? What do you know about “rebirth therapy” and “rebirthing”?

3:5 See my comments for 3:3. Jesus not only connects water with spirit but both water and spirit with “birth from above”.

3:6 Is Jesus, or John, introducing a dualism, and if so, does it come from some other source?

3:7 What does it mean to be astonished? When was the last time you were astonished by something you read in Scripture?

3:8 What is Jesus comparing everyone born of the spirit to: the wind, our the hearing of the wind, or our not knowing where it comes from and where it goes? Modern weather measurements and forecasting does indeed allow us to know where the wind comes from and where it goes. What other connections are there between wind and Spirit? Does faith precede understanding or can understanding precede faith?

3:9 Thanks, Nic, for asking the question we have all been wanting to ask.

3:10 Touché!  Must religious and spiritual leaders always have all the answers?

3:11 See 3:3. Who is the “we?”  What do “we” know and what have we “seen?”  What is the nature of religious and spiritual knowledge when we are post enlightenment interpreters of pre-enlightenment scripture?  Is this a singular or a plural “you”?

3:12 is the earthly/heavenly duality the same thing as the flesh/spirit duality of 3:6?

3:13 Does this verse reflect a post ascension perspective?  How will people in the pew hear and understand “Son of Man?”

3:14-15 Here is a passage worth exploring from a Jungian perspective. Consider the rod of Asclepius.  Be sure to read the Hebrew scripture alluded to. One could preach a whole sermon just on these two verses. How is looking at Jesus upon the cross like the Children of Israel looking at a bronze snake upon a pole?

3:16 What could I say that has not already been said? Maybe that we too often quote this verse without considering its context?

3:17 I wish some hell, fire, and damnation preachers who often use Scripture to beat people down would remember this verse.

ADDENDUM

I am a Minister Member of Upper Ohio Valley Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and am serving as the Interim Pastor of the Richmond United Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Ohio. Sunday Worship at Richmond begins at 11:00 AM. Some of my other blog posts have appeared on PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS and The Trek.

My Mentor Muir

What book or author has motivated you to get outside, venture forth into the wilderness, hit the trail, and experience nature?

I was already a bit of a hiker, backpacker, and camper when, as a teenager, I first encountered John Muir through the pages of Edwin Way Teale’s The Wilderness World of John Muir. I received this 332 page hard back as a Christmas present from my sister and brother-in-law when I was sixteen years old, over forty years ago! I think I read it soon after and have come back to its worn pages time and again. Like an old friend whose stories remind me of younger days, whenever I read Muir, whether from the pages of The Wilderness World of John Muir or from The Mountains of California or Muir’s Mountaineering Essays edited by Richard Fleck, I find that Muir’s words can usually transport me back into the wilderness, even wilderness I have never personally experienced.

Muir’s compulsion to experience nature and the wilderness, and his ability to write about what he experienced, captivated me and motivated me to go and do likewise. Reading about his 1,000 mile walk has convinced me that had they existed at the time, Muir would have hiked both the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, and would have probably blogged about his adventures if the technology had existed. His descriptions of the High Sierra, especially the area around Yosemite, invited me to not only explore nature and experience my own wilderness adventures but to also, like him, write about them. Maybe there is just a little Muir in me when I blog about a hiking or backpacking trip on Summit to Shore.

While not directly backpacking related, my favorite Muir story is, without a doubt, “Stickeen,” a touching story about a brave little black dog that accompanied Muir on a glacier while Muir was exploring in Alaska. I have returned to that story many times, and almost every reading brings tears to my eyes. If you have ever experienced K-9 companionship on the trail and have not read this short story, a mere nineteen pages in Teale’s The Wilderness World of John Muir, do so at your earliest opportunity, but make sure you have a box of tissues handy.

This post, slighty edited, first appeared on The Trek.

Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 for The 1st Sunday in Lent (Year A)

Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 is a further revision and refinement of my Lectionary Ruminations and Lectionary Ruminations 2.0.  Focusing on The Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the upcoming Sunday from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 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 sometimes pointed and sometimes snarky comments and Socratic like questions, to encourage reflection and rumination for readers preparing to lead a Bible study, draft liturgy, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged.

GENESIS 2:15-17; 3:1-7

2:15 Does the fact that this verse places us within the second account of creation affect how to interpret this verse? What is different about the LORD God of the second account of creation compared to the God of the first account of creation? Is “man” the best translation of the Hebrew?

2:16 Really?

2:17 What is so special about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  Was it poisonous?  Please note that there is no mention of what sort of fruit tree this was.  It was not necessarily an apple tree. How would the “man” know which tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? How was it different from all the other trees in the garden? What are the possible meanings/interpretations of “death”?

3:1 Note that the antagonist is a “serpent” but not necessarily a snake. Had the LORD God made the serpent? Where else in the Hebrew Scriptures will we find serpents?  Is the serpent playing word games, or what?

3:2-3 The woman seems to offer an honest defense, although she seems to recount God saying more than we were originally told.  Did God actually say all this, or has the woman embellished the original admonition?

3:4 Depending on what “death” means, it seems that the serpent can be judged truthful.  On the one hand, the man and the women will eventually die a biological death, but not immediately.  On the other hand, I think it can be argued that the man and woman were about to die a spiritual death.

3:5 So, knowing good and evil makes one like God?  Is this why the woman eats of the tree, to be like God? Or does she eat of the tree simply to know good and evil? Or does she eat of it as a simple act of rebellion? Or curiosity?

3:6  It seems wisdom is associated with knowing good and evil.  The amateur philosopher in me is beginning to squirm.  How can we relate this story to Plato’s analogy of the cave?

3:7 The metaphor of “open eyes” representing knowledge seems more Indo-European than Semitic, yet this second account of creation almost certainly comes to us from the Semitic oral tradition.  I find it interesting that in the New Testament “their eyes were opened” is what the disciples experienced on the way to Emmaus as Jesus explained to them all that had happened. For those who appreciate a little risqué Biblical humor, here is a joke I learned from one of my college Religion Professors.  Q: If Eve wore a fig leaf, what did Adam wear? A: A hole in it.

2:15-17, 3:1-7 Is this the best text to introduce Lent?  How much of our interpretation of this text is influenced by Augustine’s doctrine of original sin? Consider Matthew Fox’s Original Blessing for a different perspective on this text.

PSALM 32

32:1 This may be an appropriate Psalm if one reads the Genesis account within the framework of original sin, but what if one does not?  In light of this verse, I wonder if the man and woman of the Genesis Reading sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths primarily to cover their genitals or to cover their sin? What does it mean that “sin is covered”?

32:2 I read no deceit in either the man or the woman of the Genesis Reading. Did you? What does it mean that the LORD imputes iniquity?

32:3 How can someone “keep silence” while at the same time “groaning”?

32:4 What does God’s heavy hand feel like?  What do you and your congregation do with the “selah”?  Do you ignore it, read it, or interpret it musically?

32:5 Confession is good for the soul as well as the psyche.  Does God forgive the guilt of our sin without forgiving the sin? What is worse, sinning, or trying to cover up our sin?  Why am I thinking of President Nixon and the Watergate scandal?

32:6 How does the “therefore” leading to an admonition follow from an individual’s experience? What does the rush of mighty waters represent or symbolize?

32:7 What does it mean that God is a “hiding” place?  Are there some theological gymnastics going on as hiding one’s sin is replaced by hiding in God?

32:8 Who will do the instructing here? Who will be doing the watching?

32:9 How do we read this and the previous verse in light of the Genesis reading? In other words, “don’t be an ass”? How is God’s law like a bit and bridal?

32:10 From you experience, does it ring true that the wicked are tormented?  Does being surrounded by steadfast love prevent one from being tormented?

32:11 I hear a Call to Worship in this verse.

ROMANS 5:12-19

5:12 It does not seem right to begin a Reading with “Therefore”.  We are not given the premise of the argument.  What was it that Paul was saying?  Is Paul speaking literally, figuratively, or in a mythical sense?  If death spread to all because of sin, then did sin spread like a virus?  Viral infection offers a different image than sin being passed on through procreation.  Paul seems to let Eve get off easy.

5:13 If we had no law, we would not be aware of our sin?

5:14 What does it mean that death “exercised dominion”?  Portraying Adam as “a type of the one who was to come” is a significant theological move.  Why does Paul play it? You may want to consider Karl Barth’s  Christ and Adam: Man and Humanity in Romans 5

5:15 How is the free gift not like the trespass?  What is the “free gift”?

5:16 Is it worth exploring the juxtaposition of trespass/condemnation and free gift/justification?

5:17 It sounds as if now, people exercise dominion if life, whereas before, death exercised dominion.

5:18 Here is another “therefore” but at least this time we know what came before it. Is this “act of righteousness” the same as the “free gift” in 5:16?

5:19 Note the verb tenses. Does this and the preceding verse suggest a universalism?

5:12-19 What does it mean to think of and talk about Jesus as “the second Adam”? Would Paul have altered his argument if he had understood modern biology and DNA?

MATTHEW 4:1-11

4:1 I cannot help but read this account and its parallels without thinking of Martin Scorsese’s 1988 controversial film adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ 1960 novel The Last Temptation of Christ. Why would the Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness?  What does the wilderness represent? You may also want to explore this passage’s theological connection with The Desert Fathers and Mothers. How shall we deal with “devil” language?

4:2 What does the forty days and forty nights remind you of? Why would Jesus fast?  What do you and your congregation know about fasting? How does this passage inform our understanding and practice of Lent?

4:3 What do you make of the fact that “the devil” and “the tempter” are apparently used interchangeably? What is the temptation here?  Might the tempter be attempting to sow seeds of doubt?

4:4 What do you make of the fact that Jesus responds by quoting Scripture? What Scripture is Jesus quoting?

4:5 Was this a literal “taking”?

4:6 What warning is there in the fact that the devil could correctly quote Holy Scripture? What is the nature of this temptation? What Scripture does the devil quote?

4:7 Is there more going on here than proof-texting?  Are Jesus and the devil lobbing Scripture texts like hand grenades? How do we test God?  Why am I thinking of Exodus 17:7?

4:8 A week after the Transfiguration of the Lord, I might be hearing this verse a little differently than I would on any other Sunday. Why can we not take this literally?

4:9 What is the nature of this temptation?

4:10 First it was the devil, and then it was the tempter, now it is Satan.  Should we read “Satan” as a name or a title?

4:11 Here come the reinforcements, even if a little late.  What does it mean that the angels came and “waited” on Jesus?

4:1-11 Do we read this passage as a description of real events in time and space or the description of a spiritual wrestling within Jesus?

ADDENDUM

I am a Minister Member of Upper Ohio Valley Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and am serving as the Interim Pastor of the Richmond United Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Ohio. Sunday Worship at Richmond begins at 11:00 AM. Some of my other blog posts have appeared on PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS and The Trek.

Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 for The Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 is a further revision and refinement of my Lectionary Ruminations and Lectionary Ruminations 2.0.  Focusing on The Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the upcoming Sunday from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 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 sometimes pointed and sometimes snarky comments and Socratic like questions, to encourage reflection and rumination for readers preparing to lead a Bible study, draft liturgy, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged.

EXODUS 24:12-18

24:12-18 Why must Moses go up to God rather than God coming down? In Christ, God came down to us. What mountain is this? If it were not for this verse, would we still make a distinction between the two tablets of the law? I can understand why “law” is singular, but why is “commandment” also singular?

24:13 Note that that Moses does not go up to God on the mountain alone. Moses takes with him his assistant (and heir apparent), Joshua. Why does the NRSV say Moses went up “into” the mountain?

24:14 Who is Aaron?  Who is Hur?

24:15 What shall we make of the cloud?

24:16 Shall we equate “the glory of the Lord” with the cloud?  From personal experience, I know there is something “numinous” about being on a mountaintop, above tree line, when clouds enshroud the summit.   What does the explicit linguistic connection to the creation account, i.e. “six days and the seventh day”, suggest about any theological connection between this account and the first creation account? Is the giving of the law anything like a new creation?

24:17 What does a devouring fire on top of a mountain look like?  Does this suggest lightening or a volcano or something else altogether? If this is what the people of Israel saw, what did Moses and Joshua see?

24:18 How much is the forty days and forty nights a prefiguration of the forty years in the wilderness and how much is this a post Exodus influence on an earlier tradition?  Or is the mention of forty days and forty nights an allusion to the story of the flood? How might this passage inform our understanding of The Season of Lent?

24:12-18 While this reading stands on its own merits, I find it difficult to read it without looking for connections to the Gospel Reading and wonder how much we should read the Gospel account of the Transfiguration as a Midrash on this text.  There are many similarities between the two texts, perhaps the least being the setting; that of a mountain.

PSALM 2

2:1 Is this a rhetorical question?

2:2 Is this a reference to secularization? Who is the LORD’s “anointed”?

2:3 What is the meaning of this?  What are bonds?  What are cords?

2:4 I like this image of a laughing God although we might debate the nature of the laughter.

2:5 From laughter to wrath and fury.

2:6  Zion, the holy hill, rather than the holy mountain Moses and Joshua ascended or upon which Jesus is transfigured.  Is this “king” to be equated with the “anointed” of 2:2?

2:7 What decree?  Is this the King speaking? Why does this verse sound familiar?

2:8 Forget the Promised land, have all the earth!

2:9 Was iron the hardest known metal at the time?

2:8-9 I this a prophecy or promise never, or not yet, fulfilled? 

2:10 This sounds like good advice in the world’s contemporary political and social climate.

2:11 What is fear? When was the last time you served the LORD with trembling?

2:12 What does it mean to (euphemistically?) kiss God’s feet? 

PSALM 99

99:1 The earth quakes but the people tremble (see Psalm 2:11).  What are cherubim and where are they? If The LORD is king, who is not the king?

99:2 Is The LORD great only in Zion?  What is the meaning of “peoples”?

99:3 What is God’s awesome name?  How can one praise God’s name if it is not pronounced?

99:4 This is great imagery for God appropriate for addressing God in prayer. What is the meaning of “equity”?

99:5 This sounds like a call to worship.  Where and what is God’s footstool?  Not that this verse addresses the people while the previous verse addresses The LORD.

99:6 How does Samuel come to be included with Moses and Aaron?  Who do you know who has cried to the LORD and God answered them?

99:7 This is undoubtedly a reference to the Exodus. Note that “decrees” and “statutes” are both plural.  Whom did God speak to in the pillar of cloud? What does a pillar of cloud look like?

99:8 An interesting juxtaposition: The forgiving LORD and the avenging LORD. Can The LORD have it both ways? Can we?

99:9 This sounds like another call to worship?  Must we worship only at God’s holy mountain?  What and where is God’s holy mountain?

2 PETER 1:16-21

1:16 What is a cleverly devised myth?  I wonder what Rudolph Bultmann or Joseph Campbell might have to say about this? Were some claiming that the gospel was a cleverly devised myth? How shall we read this verse as it relates to the mythopoeic nature of Scripture?

1:17 Did Jesus not have honor and glory before the event being recounted? What does the voice seem to echo?  What event is being referred or alluded to?

1:18 When Scripture relates the personal experience of the first followers of Jesus, what does that say about our own personal experience of the risen Christ? 

1:19 What is the prophetic message?  How has it been confirmed?  How can we do anything else than be attentive to a lamp shining in a dark place?  Where might this dark place be? What is the morning star and how does it rise in our hearts? Might this be a reference or allusion to Mercury and/or Venus? Why do we see Mercury and Venus only in before sunset or just after sunrise? Will there be any need for a lamp once the morning star rises and the day dawns?

1:20 This is why Christians interpret Scripture in community and why I invite, solicit, and encourage your comments responding to Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 (hint, hint; plead, plead).  What do we do when someone offers a new or different interpretation that is at odds with the historic or current community?

1:21 Prophecy, like poetry and art, comes from somewhere other than the prophet, poet, or artist, but who gets to make that claim?  What does it mean that Scripture (and thus prophecy) is self-authenticating?

MATTHEW 17:1-9

17:1 Six days later, after what? See Exodus 24:16. As Moses took Joshua, Jesus takes Peter, James and John.

17:2 What does it mean to be transfigured?  Why am I thinking of Franz Kafka? Has anyone else’s face ever shone like the sun?  Has anyone else’s clothes ever become dazzling white?

17:3 What is the meaning of “Suddenly”?  Why Moses and Elijah?  What might Moses and Elijah represent?  Why would Moses and Elijah want to talk with Jesus, or Jesus want to talk with them? Is there any significance to the fact that the three greats (Moses, Jesus, Elijah) are balanced by the three mere disciples (Peter, James and John)?  It seems we have a dyad of trinities.

17:4 Way to go Peter, interrupt a spiritual experience with mundane concerns! I wonder if at that moment Jesus really thought it was “good” Peter was there. Why three dwellings rather than just one for all three? What is the meaning of “dwelling”?

17:5 The text suggests a chronology of Jesus being transfigured before the bright cloud appeared.  Note the reappearance of the word “suddenly.”  Why does this voice and what it says sound familiar? What does the Gospel add or include that the Reading from 2 Peter did not?  You may want to take another look at Exodus 24:16.

17:6 Were the disciples overcome by fear by hearing the voice or by hearing what the voice said?  What does it mean to “fall to the ground”?  Might falling to the ground refer to posture?  What might have been the nature of the fear that came over the disciples?

17:7 Was this a reassuring touch?  Would there be any difference in interpretation if Jesus had said “Do not be afraid and get up.”?

17:8 Where did Moses and Elijah go?  Why did they leave?

17:9 Why would Jesus “order” these three disciples to tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead”? Who is the Son of Man?  Could this, indeed, be a misplaced resurrection appearance read back into the Gospel at an earlier point?  How might this Reading prefigure the resurrection? Why does Jesus refer to this as a “vision”?  What is a “vision”? Have you ever experienced such a “vision”?

ADDENDUM

I am a Minister Member of Upper Ohio Valley Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and am serving as the Interim Pastor of the Richmond United Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Ohio. Sunday Worship at Richmond begins at 11:00 AM. Some of my other blog posts have appeared on PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS and The Trek.

Review of Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple

Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple
Author: Sarah Svien Kirkconnell
Softcover: 90 pages
Bay Street Publishing; copyright 2007

When a couple of canoeing friends loaned me a copy of Sarah Svien Kirkonell’s Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple, I was so impressed by it that I ordered my own copy. A few months later, when I set out on a weeklong solo backpacking trip, all my dinners were Kirkonnell’s Freezer Bag Cooking recipes!

Part of what impressed me about Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple was that most if not all the ingredients could be bought in a grocery store. I live in a small town and had to travel out of town to larger grocery stores to find all the ingredients. Fortunately, there are larger grocery stores within twenty miles of where I live.

I was also impressed that all the ingredients could be packed into a one quart zip lock freezer bag. When it came time to prepare my dinner, all I had to do was add boiling water to the bag, allow it to sit in an insulated cozy for between five to ten minutes, and perhaps open a pouch of tuna, chicken or salmon at some point during the process, and add it the bag as well.  At the end of each meal, all of which were tasty and filling, the empty zip lock bag served as a trash bag for any empty foil pouches and other trash I had accumulated throughout the day.

Admittedly, each freezer bag dinner weighed more than a freeze dried dinner would have weighed, but each freezer bag dinner also took up less space than a freeze dried dinner would have taken up and cost less. I would not want to rely solely of freezer bag dinners for a long backpacking trip such as thru hiking the AT, but I think freezer bag dinners are a quick, easy, and inexpensive alternative to freeze-dried meals for any backpacking trip or trek lasting up to a week.

Kirkonnell has written a few other books apparently similar to Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple, including Freezer Bag Cooking: Adventure Ready Recipes, and more. She also publishes recipes and writes about trail cooking at www.freezerbagcooking.com.

This review originally appeared on The Trek

Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time / Proper 2 (Year A)

Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 is a further revision and refinement of my Lectionary Ruminations and Lectionary Ruminations 2.0.  Focusing on The Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the upcoming Sunday from New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 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 sometimes pointed and sometimes snarky comments and Socratic like questions, to encourage reflection and rumination for readers preparing to lead a Bible study, draft liturgy, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged.

LEVITICUS 19:1-2, 9-18

19:1 Did The LORD speak in Hebrew?

19:2 What does it mean to be holy? Why should the people of Israel (and us by extension) be holy?  What is the difference between shall and should?

19:9-10 What do you know about gleaning?  In addition to this being a form of social welfare, it probably also is good ecology.  How has industrialized farming done away with such practices? What does this say to the 1% and to the 99%? How shall we read “alien” in light of the current anti-immigrant political climate?

19:11-12 So, contrary to last week’s Gospel Reading, it is ok to swear by the name of God as long as one swears truthfully?

19:13 Let’s put these words on display on Wall Street and in the lobby of America’s mortgage lenders. Is it permissible to defraud someone who is not a neighbor?  Who is a neighbor?

19:14 Praise God for the ADA.  I sometimes wonder what was going through the minds of people who designed and built church buildings before the ADA.  I fear congregations worshipping in pre ADA buildings are now paying the price for a lack of awareness and foresight.

19:15 As the economic disparity in America approaches levels that have not been seen since just before the Great Depression, this verse becomes ever more poignant.  In other words, justice is economically blind? What happened to the preferential option for the poor.

19:16 Good for kin and neighbor, but what about the stranger?

19:17 Is it okay to hate people who are not kin? Would you ever consider reproving your neighbor?

19:18 The first part of his verse points toward the Gospel reading.  The second part of this verse informs Jesus’ answer to the questions “Which is the greatest commandment?”

19:8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17 Is the repetition of “I am the LORD” merely a literary device or does it suggest that these verse may have been used liturgically in a responsive fashion?  Might the repetition of “I am the LORD” also serve a theological function?

19:1, 9-17 How shall we read these verses in light of the Ten Commandments?

PSALM 119:33-40

119:33-40 Do not forget that this is the second week in a row the Psalm has been an excerpt from Psalm 119, an acrostic Psalm. What synonyms for “statutes” are used in these verses?

119:33 How does the LORD teach?  Note that “way” is singular. The “end” of what?

119:34 Does understanding precede the keeping of God’s law? Can we keep laws we do not understand?

119:35 Note that “path”, as “”way” in verse 33, is singular.

119:36-37 What is God’s responsibility and what is our responsibility for turning our heart and eyes?

119:38 What is The LORDS “promise”?  What does it mean to “fear” God?  You may want to revisit Aldous Huxley’s “mysterium tremendum” as described in his The Doors of Perception and Rudolph Otto’s “mystery” or “numinous” as explored in his The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and its Relation to the Rational. 

119:39 What disgrace does the Psalmist dread?

119:40 Hey, God, look at me?  I might not have kept all your decrees, but I wanted to.  Give me life just for trying.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:10-11

3:10 How much of God’s grace has been given to Paul?  How much has been given to you? Is Paul bragging when he calls himself “a master builder”. If Paul laid the foundation, who is now building on that foundation?  How many ways are there to build on an already established foundation?

3:16 The Greek “you” is plural! What is the foundation of “God’s Temple”?  Did God’s Spirit dwell in the Jerusalem temple before it was destroyed?

3:17 Is Paul talking about self-destruction, or destroying the temple of another? How shall we read this in light of the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem temple?

3:18 Paul again writes about being “wise” and becoming “fools”, but become fools in order to become wise.  What is Paul doing with these word games and twists of logic?  Wittgenstein, please help me. Are there two types of wisdom?

3:19 Where is this written, Job 5:13 perhaps?  If so, I find it ironic since the Book of Job is traditionally classified as “Wisdom Literature”.

3:20 Where is this written, Psalm 94:11 perhaps?

3:21 What human leaders might Paul have had in mind? All things are yours?  What is Paul talking about?

3:22-23 So, in the end, all things are God’s?

MATTHEW 5:38-48

5:38 How many times have we not only heard this said, but cited out of context, and used to argue the opposite point for which it was intended?

5:39 It sounds as though Jesus is asserting his own authority over the law.  What do you know about “turning cheeks”?  The Just War theory has overturned any sense of not resisting evildoers. How can Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. help us here?

5:40 Did Jesus live in a litigious society?  What point is he making? What is the difference between a coat and a cloak?

5:41 Who might force you to go a mile and why?

5:42 Give?  How much?  Loan?  With our without interest?

5:43 I have not heard this one very often, if at all. Where might Jesus have heard it?

5:44 I actually find it easier to pray for those who persecute me than to love my enemies.

5:45 What is the point?

5:46 Does Jesus mean to suggest that the only reason to love is to be rewarded?

5:47 What does it mean to “greet”? Is Jesus talking about biological brothers and sisters or brothers and sisters in the faith?

5:48 Is human perfection really an attainable goal? How is perfection related to holiness? Does perfection refer to degree or status?

ADDENDUM

I am a Minister Member of Upper Ohio Valley Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and am serving as the Interim Pastor of the Richmond United Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Ohio. Sunday Worship at Richmond begins at 11:00 AM. Some of my other blog posts have appeared on PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS and The Trek.