Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

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.

JOEL 2:23-34

2:23 What is the “early rain” and the “later rain” and what is the difference?  What is the meaning of this metaphor?

2:24 I like this image of agricultural abundance, an image which suggests life and freedom from hunger. Might Christians also find in it a prefiguration of the Eucharist?

2:25 Can we thank the LORD for agricultural abundance if we no longer equate agricultural disasters with the LORD’s wrath?

2:26 Why is agricultural scarcity equated with shame?

2:27 What does it mean for God to be “in the midst of Israel”? How do we read this passage in light of the Babylonian captivity and The Shoa?

2:28 Is the pouring out of the spirit anything like the giving of the early and the late rains of verse 2:23?  Are prophecy, dreams and visions anything like the agricultural abundance of 2:24?

2:29 Why would it be unusual for slaves to be so gifted by God?

2:30 Are blood and fire and columns of smoke, the darkening sun and blood moon the only portents?

2:31 During solar eclipses, it appears that the sun is indeed turned into darkness.  During lunar eclipses the moon can take on a reddish color.  Eclipses have been considered portents in almost all religions. I usually consider “great” a positive attribute.  Does “great and terrible” suggest a sort of yin-yang quality to the day of the LORD?

2:32 What does it mean to call on the name of the LORD?  How does one call on the name of the LORD when the Lord’s name is not to be pronounced? What is the relationship between calling on the name of the Lord and the Lord calling?

PSALM 119:97-104

65:1 What is the relationship between praise and vows?  What vows might the Psalmist have in mind?

65:2 I believe God does indeed answer prayer but not always with the answer we want or expect. To whom or what does “all flesh” refer?

65:3 What does it mean that deeds of iniquity overwhelm us?  Are we ever overwhelmed by our own sin?

65:4 Reading this as a Calvinist, I detect some predestination, or at least election, within this verse. Did anyone literally live within the temple courts?

65:5 What awesome deeds might the Psalmist have in mind?  What is the farthest sea from which you live?

65:6 What about plate tectonics? Maybe this is metaphor and not science?

65:7 Why are roaring seas and waves coupled with tumultuous people?  How shall we read this verse during hurricane season?

65:8 Are those at the earth’s center not equally awed?  Why or why not?  What are the gateways of the morning and the evening?  How do they shout for joy?

65:9-13 These verses seem to express the same or similar theology as some of the verses in tJoel 2:23-32.

65:9 What river is the river of God?

65:10 How can Christians in urban and industrialized contexts relate to such agricultural imagery?

65:11 God has a wagon that leaves wagon tracks? What is this imagery about?

65:12-13 Note that these verses describe wild, not cultivated, abundance.

65:12 What is a wilderness pasture?

65:13 I wonder if the meadows are wearing wool clothes. How do meadows and valleys shoiut and sing?

2 TIMOTHY 4:6-8, 16-18

4:6 What is a libation and how is Paul being poured out like one?  What departure is he referring to?

4:7 I love this verse and have used it many times in Services of Witness to the Resurrection. Paul fought, but had he won? Paul ran, but did he place first? Nevertheless, he kept.

4:8 Can this crown be worn only after physical death?  Is there any possible connection with this crown of righteousness and auras/halos?

4:16 What first defense is Paul referring to?  Is Paul expressing any anger, disappointment, or resentment?

4:17 Is “lion’s mouth” a metaphor or had Paul literally faced being thrown to the lions?

4:18 Is Paul thinking of physical rescue and salvation or spiritual, or both?

LUKE 18:9-14

18:9 How shall we read “also?”  Do you know of anyone who thinks they are righteous and regard others with contempt?

18:10 How does the juxtaposition of a Pharisee and a tax collector intensify the parable?

18:11 Have you ever heard anyone pray like this?

18:12 Do such acts of devotion and spiritual disciplines automatically make a person righteous?

18:13 I wonder why I am once again, as I have once or twice in the past few weeks, thinking about the Philokelia and The Jesus Prayer.

18:14 What does it mean to be justified?  Was it the words the tax collector spoke that justified him or the sincerity behind and underneath the words?  The final juxtaposition suggests the topsy-turvy nature of the New Testament vision of the Kingdom of God: the rich shall be poor, the first last, etc.

                                                                  

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 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time / Proper 25 (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.

DEUTERONOMY 34:1-12

34:1-3 Why all the geographical references? Do we know today where all these places are?

34:4 Once again, the women are not mentioned. Why would God allow Moses to see this land, even show him this land, if he were not going to be allowed to enter it?

34:5 Did Moses die on Mount Nebo or on the plains of Moab?

34:6 We know the vicinity of where he was buried but not the actual place.  Why not?

34:7 Is there any sexual connotation here?

34:8 Why mourn thirty days?

34:9 Was Joshua ordained by Moses?  What is so special about the laying on of hands? Why? What do you know about Reiki and body work?

34:10 It was true then but is it still true today? The LORD may have known Moses face to face but did Moses know the LORD face to face?

34:11 What signs and wonders?

34:12 What mighty deeds and terrifying displays of power? Is this verse simply reiterating the preceding verse for emphasis and linguistic effect?

PSALM 90:1-6, 13-17

90:1 How can the Lord be a dwelling place?  What does it mean to dwell in the Lord?

90:2 God was God even before the big bang.

90:3 Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, or in a more modern cosmology, ashes to ashes, star-dust to star-dust.

90:4 I know this is metaphor, but do the metaphorical math.  1000years = 1 day. What is a watch in the night? What might Einstein say about this verse?

90:5 What does “them” refer to, to mortals or to 1000 years? How are dreams like grass renewed in the morning?

90:6 Is this a comment about the human lifespan?

90:13 Is the Psalmist asking the LORD to repent?

90:14 I think this verses harkens back to 90:5b.  As the grass is renewed in the morning, God’s steadfast love renews us daily.

90:15 How many days has the Psalmist’s community been afflicted? How many years have they seen evil?

90:16 Is the Psalmist asking the LORD to show some results?

90:17 What work?

90:1-6,13-17 Does this psalm reflect the pre-Exodus or post-Exodus period? God is timeless but we are not. May our labor, our work, not be in vain.

1 THESSALONIANS 2:1-8

2:1 Were some claiming that it was in vain?

2:2 Shame on those Philippians. What was the nature of the great opposition? What do we do with this “gospel of God” when we usually use the terminology “Gospel of Jesus Christ”?

2:3 Were some claiming that Paul and his companions were engaging in deceit, impure motives, or trickery? Are any contemporary religious leaders similarly accused, true or falsely?

2:4 Is this a biblical warrant for being faithful over being popular or successful?

2:5 I am hearing a refrain.  “As you know” here and “You yourselves know” in 2:1

2:6 What religious leader does not occasionally appreciate praise, especially during Clergy Appreciation Month?

2:7 What sort of demands?  What might the imagery of a “nurse tenderly caring for her own children” suggest?

2:8 How does Paul and his colleagues share their own selves?

MATTHEW 22:34-46

22:34 Is the Gospel writer playing on some rivalry here? What is the difference between Pharisees and Sadducees?

22:35 What is the meaning of “test”?

22:36 Was he asking about the Decalogue or the entire Levitical law code? Was this anything like a presbytery’s examination of a candidate seeking ordination?

22:37 What is Jesus quoting? Is this from The Shema?

22:38-39 If this is the first and greatest, how can there be anything like it?

22:39 What is Jesus quoting?

22:40 Why does Jesus add the prophets to the law?

22:41 This is becoming a dialogue.  Is this question also a test, a tit for tat? Is Jesus attempting to turn the tables?

22:42 Were not all male Jews “sons of David?”

22:43 Why does Jesus say “by the Spirit”?

22:44 What is Jesus quoting?

22:45 Jesus and I are still waiting for the Pharisees to answer. How would you answer the question?

22:46 As a practitioner of the Socratic Method, I think questions are good.  Sometimes the questions we ask are more important than any answer we might receive. Why would the Pharisees no longer ask Jesus and questions?

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

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, October 25, 2015, the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

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

First Reading - Job 42:1-6, 10-17

42:1 What was the question?

42:2 What would you answer The LORD? Is this a variation of the classic question “Can God make a rock so heavy that God cannot lift it?”

42:3 Is Job eating humble pie?

42:4 Is Job planning to cross examine God?

42:5 What is the difference between hearing with the ear and seeing with the eye?  Hearing is a classic Semitic posture.  Seeing is a classic Greek posture.

42:6 Despicable me?

42:10 What is the moral of this story?  What lesson has been learned and is being taught?

42:11 The LORD had brought evil upon Job?

42:12-13 Are these numbers symbolically significant?

42:14 What do these names mean? Why are only the daughters named?

42:15 Did daughters usually receive an inheritance?

42:16 is 140 symbolically significant?  Should it be taken literally?

42:17 We have a happy ending but Job still dies.

Psalm - Psalm 34:1-8 (19-22)

34:1 Is this a promise, a vow, or an expressed intention and desire?

34:2 How does one’s soul make its boast in the LORD?

34:3 How does one magnify the LORD?  Is this a mini Magnificat?  How does one exalt the LORD’s name when the LORD’s name is unpronounceable?

34:4 Do we seek the LORD or does the LORD seek us? How does the LORD answer us today?

34:7 Who is the angel of the LORD?

34:8 How does one taste that the LORD is good?

(34:19) If the LORD rescues the righteous, why are the righteous afflicted?

(34:21-22) This Psalm seems to suggest that evil is still a force to be reckoned with and the wicked will succumb to it while God will redeem the righteous from it.

34:1-8, 19-22 It seems obvious why the lectionary pairs this Psalm with the Reading from Job, but does the pairing invite us to read this Psalm with blinders on?

Second Reading - Hebrews 7:23-28

7:23 What came before the “furthermore”? Who were the former priests?

7:24 Who holds the priesthood permanently?

7:25 Is there a change in emphasis from Christ as sacrifice to Christ as intercessor?

7:26 How is it fitting?

7:27 In light of 7:25, it seems we are back to understanding Christ as sacrifice rather than intercessor?

7:28 What is “the word of the oath”?

Gospel - Mark 10:46-52

10:46 Who came to Jericho?  Is there anything about Jericho that makes it more than just a setting for this story? “Bartimaeus son of Timaeus” seems redundant. Is there any significance to their being a large crowd? Is there any significance to Bartimaeus being blind?

10:47 What do you know about the The Philokalia, Hesychasm, The Way of the Pilgrim, and The Jesus Prayer?

10:48 Who were the many and why did they order Bartimaeus to be quiet?

10:49 Why did Jesus have Bartimaeus brought to him rather than going to Bartimaeus?

10:50 Is there any symbolism in his throwing off his cloak? Was blind Bartimaeus following the sound of Jesus’ voice?

10:51 Did Jesus really need to ask this question?  What is the significance of Bartimaeus calling Jesus “My teacher”? Apparently Bartimeaus had not been blind from birth and therefore knew what it was like to see.

10:52 What faith?  How did it make him well? What does “followed him on the way” mean?

ADDENDUM

Some may be observing this Sunday as Reformation Sunday, in which case can the story of Bartimaeus serve as a parable of the Church? Was the church at one time able to see but had become blind to the truth? Was the Reformation’s reliance on sola scriptura like a regaining of prior vision that enabled the church to once again see, recognize, and follow Jesus?

I am currently serving at the Interim Pastor of The Presbyterian Church of Cadiz, worshiping at 154 West Market Street, Cadiz, Ohio, every Sunday at 11:00 AM. Please like The Presbyterian Church of Cadiz on facebook.