Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 for Trinity Sunday (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.

PROVERBS 8:1-4, 22-31

8:1 Why might some want to substitute “Sophia” for the NRSV “wisdom?” Are wisdom and understanding the same thing? Note that understanding is personified in the feminine!

8:2 Note that wisdom, like understanding in the preceding verse, is personified in the feminine. What does it mean for wisdom to take a stand?

8:3 Why am I thinking of the classic Greek philosophers in the Agora?

8:4 How does wisdom call and cry out? Philosophy literally means the love of wisdom. Do we live in a post-philosophical age? What is the contemporary relationship between the philosophy and spirituality, the academy and the church? Has wisdom generally been declining in America?

8:22 What does it say about wisdom that she is the first act of creation? What were the other acts of God? Wisdom, unlike Christ, is a creation. Christ is preexistent.

8:23 What does it mean that wisdom was set up?

8:24 Which creation account might this refer to?

8:25 Might some of this apparent parallel repetition be due to Hebraic poetic structure?

8:26 The Creator is talked about with masculine pronouns while wisdom was talked about with feminine pronouns.

8:27 What does it mean to draw a circle on the face of the deep?

8:28 How are the skies above and the fountains of the deep related?

8:29 What are the foundations of the earth? Can we even continue to use such language in a post-Copernican world view?

8:30 How is wisdom like a master worker? It is beginning to sound as if wisdom was in some sort of a relationship with the Creator.

8:31 How might wisdom rejoice?

8:1-4, 22-31 How does this passage add to our understanding of the Doctrine of the Trinity and our observance of Trinity Sunday?  Does the fact that we are reading this passage on Trinity Sunday affect how we might interpret it?

PSALM 8

8:1 How do Christians in a Western Democracy hear and understand references to “Sovereign?”  What is the LORD’s name? Note that his praise is repeated in 8:9

8:2 What babes and infants?  What is a bulwark?  Who is the enemy and the avenger?

8:3 This is one of my favorite verses.  I will never forget the feeling of overwhelming awe and wonder when I looked through a three-inch refractor telescope and saw for the first time with my own eyes the rings of Saturn. How might images from the Hubble Space Telescope help us with this verse?

8:4 Why am I thinking of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, Scene 2, “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god -- the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!?”

8:5 Perhaps this verse should have been read last week on the day of Pentecost. Maybe you can still hear echoes from last Sunday’s Genesis Reading if you used it rather than the Acts Reading.

8:6 How shall we read and interpret “dominion” in an age when humans “threaten death to the planet entrusted to their care,”  including certain global climate change?

8:7 What are beasts of the field?

8:8 Has all animal life on earth now been mentioned?

8:9 Echoes of 8:1! This might be used as a refrain or response in a Call to Worship.

8:1-9 Why might this passage have been chosen for Trinity Sunday? How does this Psalm express the childlike wonder at the root of philosophical speculation?

ROMANS 5:1-5

5:1 What came before the “Therefore?” What does it mean to be justified by faith? Was there no peace with God before justification by faith and/or before Jesus Christ?

5:2 Why does Paul say we boast? What is the difference between boasting and bragging?

5:3 Do you ever boast in your sufferings?

5:4 Do you agree with Paul’s assertion? Is this a “no pain, no gain” theology?

5:5 Why only hearts and not hearts and minds? Is the Holy Spirit the vessel from which or through which God’s love is poured, or is the Holy Spirit the manifestation of God’s love?

5:1-5 Why might this passage have been chosen for Trinity Sunday? Can we read or understand it without a Trinitarian hermeneutic? One of my D. Min. Professors once said that the Doctrine of the Trinity is not Biblical, but it is essential. What do you think the Professor meant?

JOHN 16:12-15

16:12 Why did Jesus not find the time or take the opportunity to say these things before his death?  Why can the disciples not hear them “now?” When will they hear them?  What might Jesus want to tell us that either have not already heard or are not yet ready to hear?

16:13 Are we to assume that the Spirit of truth is the same thing as the Holy Spirit? Where does the Spirit hear the truth the Spirit speaks? Does the Spirit speak for Christ? Is there a difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of Christ? Iy sounds like the Spirit of truth is primarily a spokesspirit.

16:14 What does it mean that the Spirit of truth glorifies Jesus? Does the Spirit worship Jesus?

16:15 How does this verse flow from what came before it?

16:12-15 And one last time, why might this passage have been chosen for Trinity Sunday?

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 Trinity Sunday (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.

Regarding Trinity Sunday and the Doctrine of the Trinity, you might also want to take a look at Random Reflections on the Trinity as well as Dance of the Trinity.

GENESIS 1:1-2:4a

For once, the lectionary prescribes that the First Reading of the Day begins where the Bible begins, “In the beginning” at Genesis 1:1.  This is also, perhaps, one of the longest Readings in the lectionary outside of Lent and the Passion narrative.  Am I stating the obvious when I note that this is the “first” creation account?  I take the Bible too seriously to take it literally.  Thus, I read Genesis 1:1-2:4a as a mythopoeic reflection on human origins rather than a scientific explanation of them.  Can we read and interpret this passage without reference to Genesis 2:4b and following?  How does reading this on Trinity Sunday influence our understanding and interpretation of the passage and how does this passage inform our understanding of the Trinity?

1:1 What translation do you prefer, “when God created” or “when God began to create?”?What difference does the translation make? What was before the beginning?

1:2 What is a “wind from God”? How else might we translate the Hebrew word sometimes translated “wind”?

1:3 This is more or less Creation ex nihilo!  Can we read this without also thinking of the prologue of John? Did God create a wave, a particle, or a string? Note that God creates simply by saying. What does this suggest about the creative word as well as the power of naming?

1:4 What would have happened if God saw that the light was not good? Does the light being good automatically mean that the darkness is bad or evil?

1:5 Note that God is the one who names.

1:6 Are you familiar with this three tiered cosmology? What and where is this dome? How do we deal with this antiquated cosmology?

1:7 God seems to like separating things.  See 1:4.

1:8 Again God names.  See 1:5.

1:9 If I understand the most recent scientific thinking about the beginnings of the earth, there was once just one large land mass or supercontinent before it broke apart, but one should not use science to “prove” Scripture, otherwise we will end up defending scripture against science if the science changes.

1:10 I wonder what criteria God used to determine “good”?

1:11-12 Note that vegetation precedes animal life.

1:13 Would there have been time, or a way to tell time, if there had been no evening and morning?

1:14-15 According to the three tiered cosmology, these lights are under the waters above them. Here we have the roots of both astrology and astronomy.

1:16 So where did the light come from in day one if God did not create the Sun until day four? Does it make a difference that we now know that the moon is not a light but reflects the light of the sun?

1:17-19 These verses seem somewhat redundant following 1:4-16.

1:20 Creatures appear after vegetation in this account.  How is this different compared to the second account of creation beginning in Genesis 2:4b?

1:21 I wonder what is meant by “great sea monster”?  Could this verse have referred to whales, Leviathan, the Kraken, or Nessie?

1:22 Who, or what, are told to be fruitful and multiply? Is this the first blessing?

1:23 We are now at the end of the fifth day and humans still have not appeared.

1:24 Living creatures on land appear after living creatures in the water and the air.

1:24-25 Note that sea creatures and birds are told to be fruitful and multiply in 1:22, but here, animals of the earth are NOT told that.

1:26 Where did this “us” come from and how do we deal with it?  There is that “dominion” word that has caused us so many environmental problems and which we will encounter again in Psalm 8:6.

1:27 What does it mean to be created Imago Dei, male and female?

1:28 Note that with the exception of 1:22, we are not told that God blessed any other creatures or parts of creation other than humans.  In light of how we have historically interpreted and applied the admonition to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion,” I think this has been more of a curse than a blessing as far as we “exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.” How shall we deal with the “be fruitful and multiply” admonition in light of the threat of overpopulation and right to life issues?

1:29-30 It sounds like we have been given plants to eat, but not animals. Maybe God is a vegan!

1:31 Note that we progress from good to very good!

2:1 Scientifically speaking, are the heaven and the earth ever finished?

2:2-3 Why does God need to rest?  Does God tire? What did God do on the eighth day?

2:4a How does this verse add anything to what proceeded?  What is the meaning of “generations?”

PSALM 8

8:1 “O LORD” = Tetragrammaton.  Even though I do not always point it out, be aware that when LORD appears in all upper case letters, it is really the name of God that appears in the text. Are Christians bound by the Hebrew tradition of not pronouncing the majestic name of God? How shall we interpret this verse when we now know there is no “above” the heavens but rather a “beyond” the heavens; no up there but rather an out there?

8:2 What do babes and infants speak other than gibberish? What is a bulwark?

8:3-4 Is there a difference between “creating” and “establishing”? There is no finger of God in the first creation account, only the voice of God. Why am I thinking of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam? I will never forget my sense of awe and wonder the first time I looked through a telescope and saw for myself the rings of Saturn.  I think I have heard it said that the Hubble telescope enables us to look back through time to the first moments after creation.  Do images from the Hubble telescope in any sense show us the face of God? I am reminded of William Shakespeare's monologue in which Hamlet asks "What a piece of work is a man!"

8:5 What does it mean for humans to be a little lower than God? How are human crowned with glory and honor?

8:6 Need I say anything more about “dominion” other than that an ecological awareness forces us to abandon outdated understandings?  See my comments regarding Genesis 1:26.

8:7 Why are sheep and oxen, out of all the animals, named?

8:9 Is this simply a refrain?

2 CORINTHIANS 13:11-13

This short Second Reading and the short Gospel Reading compensates for the long First Reading.

13:11 What does Paul mean when he writes “put things in order?”  What was his appeal? Why are we often inclined to not agree? What does it mean to live in peace?

13:12 What is a “holy kiss”?  Who are the saints?

13:13 Is this verse, a Trinitarian blessing, the only reason this Reading appears on this day, Trinity Sunday? Does anything else in this reading really add anything to the mystery of the Trinity?

MATTHEW 28:16-20

This short Gospel Reading and the preceding short Second Reading compensates for the long First Reading.

28:16 Why are there only eleven disciples? Which mountain had Jesus directed them to?

28:17 Some of the eleven doubted?  I wonder which ones doubted and which ones did not. What or who did they doubt? Can one worship even when one doubts?

28:18 Who gave this authority to Jesus and when?

28:19 How does verse proceed from 28:17? Is this Trinitarian baptismal formula the only verse that commends this reading as appropriate for Trinity Sunday?

13:20 What had Jesus commanded the disciples? What and when is the end of the age?  What is an age?  When did the age begin?

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 2.0 for Sunday, May 22, 2016, Trinity Sunday (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 to the via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website.

FOR AN UPDATED AND REVISED VERSION, GO TO THIS LINK

First Reading - Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

8:1 Why might some want to substitute “Sophia” for the NRSV “wisdom”? Are wisdom and understanding the same thing? Note that understanding is personified in the feminine!

8:2 Note that wisdom, like understanding in the preceding verse, is personified in the feminine. What does it mean for wisdom to take a stand?

8:3 Why am I thinking of the classic Greek philosophers in the Agora?

8:4 How does wisdom call and cry out?

8:22 What does it say about wisdom that she is the first act of creation? What were the other acts of God? Wisdom, unlike Christ, is a creation. Christ was preexistent.

8:23 What does it mean that wisdom was set up?

8:24 Which creation account might this refer to?

8:25 Might some of this apparent parallel repetition be due to Hebraic poetic structure?

8:26 Now the Creator is talked about with masculine pronouns while wisdom was talked about with feminine pronouns.

8:27 What does it mean to draw a circle on the face of the deep?

8:28 How are the skies above and the fountains of the deep related?

8:29 What are the foundations of the earth? Can we even continue to use such language in a post-Copernican world view?

8:30 How is wisdom like a master worker? It is beginning to sound as if wisdom was in some sort of a relationship with the Creator.

8:31 How might wisdom rejoice?

8:1-4, 22-31 How does this passage add to our understanding of the Doctrine of the Trinity and our observance of Trinity Sunday?  Does the fact that we are reading this passage on Trinity Sunday affect how we might interpret it?

Psalm - Psalm 8:1-9

8:1 How do Christians in a Western Democracy hear and understand references to “Sovereign”?  What is the LORD’s name? Note that his praise is repeated in 8:9

8:2 What Babes and infants?  What is a bulwark?  Who is the enemy and the avenger?

8:3 This is one of my favorite verses.  I will never forget the feeling of overwhelming awe and wonder the first time I looked through a three inch refractor telescope and saw the rings of Saturn. How might images from the Hubble Space Telescope help us with this verse?

8:4 Why am I thinking of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, Scene 2 “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god -- the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!”?

8:5 Perhaps this verse should have been read last week on the day of Pentecost. Maybe you can still hear echoes from last Sunday’s Genesis Reading if you used it.

8:6 How shall we read and interpret “dominion” in an age of near environmental apocalypse and certain global climate change?

8:7 What are beasts of the field?

8:8 Has all animal life on earth now been mentioned?

8:9 Echoes of 8:1! This might be used as a refrain or response in a Call to Worship.

8:1-9 Why might this passage have been chosen for Trinity Sunday? How does this Psalm express the childlike wonder at the root of philosophical speculation?

Second Reading - Romans 5:1-5

5:1 What came before the “Therefore”?

5:2 Why does Paul say we boast?

5:3 Do you ever boast in your sufferings?

5:4 to you agree with Paul’s assertion?

5:5 Why only hearts and not hearts and minds?

5:1-5 Why might this passage have been chosen for Trinity Sunday? Can we read or understand it without a Trinitarian hermeneutic? One of my D. Min. Professors once said that the Doctrine of the Trinity is not Biblical but it is essential. What do you think the Professor meant?

Gospel - John 16:12-15

16:12 Why did Jesus not find the time or take the opportunity to say these things before his death?  Why can the disciples not hear them “now”? When will they hear them?  What might Jesus want to tell us that we are not yet ready to hear?

16:13 Are we to assume that the Spirit of truth is the same thing as the Holy Spirit? Where does the Spirit hear the truth the Spirit speaks? Does the Spirit speak for Christ? Is there a difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of Christ? Is the Spirit of truth the Holy Spirit or some other Spirit? Is sounds like the Spirit of truth is primarily a spokesspirit.

16:14 What does it mean the Spirit of truth glorifies Jesus? Does the Spirit worship Jesus?

16:15 How does this verse flow from what came before it?

John 16:12-15 And one last time, why might this passage have been chosen for Trinity Sunday?

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 available to supply as a fill-in occasional guest preacher and worship leader or serve in a half-time to full-time position.

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, May 31, 2015, Trinity Sunday (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

PREFACE: What do we do with Trinity Sunday, one of only two Sundays (also Christ the King) with a special theme not specifically related to an event in the life and ministry of Christ? I once heard a professor in a Doctor of Ministry seminary say that the Doctrine of the Trinity is not Biblical but it is essential. In the Roman’s Reading one can fond reference to the Spirit of God; Abba, Father; and Christ. Is that the Trinity? In your mind, is the Trinity a conundrum, an enigma, a paradox, or simply a mystery we must ponder?

First Reading - Isaiah 6:1-8

6:1 In what year did King Uzziah die and why does it matter? Should Isaiah’s vision be literalized?

6:2 What are seraphs?  Consider Numbers 21:4-9. And “feet might be a euphemism for what?

6:3 Does the threefold “Holy” justify this passage being used on Trinity Sunday? What or who are “hosts”?

6:4 What are pivots and thresholds?  What sort of smoke filled the house and why?

6:5 Why does Isaiah express woe? What is the danger of seeing the LORD of hosts?

6:6 How can a figurative/symbolic live coal blot out sin?

6:8 “us”? Why am I thinking of Dan Schutte?

Psalm - Psalm 29:1-11

29:1 Who and what are the heavenly beings?  Are there more types of heavenly beings than angels and/or seraphs?

29:2 What is holy splendor?

29:6 What, or where, is Sirion?

29:8 Where is Kadesh? Is there anything special or significant about its wilderness?

29:3-10  So much for “still small voice” imagery.  How does an establishment church of the middle class status quo come to terms with a storm God?

29:11 God’s people will certainly need strength to survive a storm.  When was the last time a storm brought  peace?  Or is this peace the peace of a calm after a storm?

Second Reading - Romans 8:12-17

8:12 If we are not debtors to the flesh, what then are we debtors to?  I doubt Paul had MasterCard or Visa in mind.

8:13 What does Paul mean by “flesh” and “Spirit”? Must there be a dichotomy between Spirit and flesh?

8:14 How are we led by the Spirit of God?

8:15 Theologically speaking, why does Paul contrast a spirit of slavery with a spirit of adoption?  When did you last cry “Abba! Father!”?

8:16  How many spirits are being mentioned in this passage?

8:17 Is that a pretty big “if” as in “if, in fact we suffer”?

Gospel - John 3:1-17

3:1 Were not all Pharisees leaders?

3:2 Consider John 4:6-7 as juxtaposition.  We?  For whom, or of whom, is Nic speaking?  What signs?

3:3, 5 Is being born from above the same as being born of water and Spirit?

3:4 What are “re-birthing” therapies?

3:6 Must we read and interpret this through a Pauline lens? See Romans 8:13.

3:7 Are we still astonished by this statement of Jesus?

3:8 I think Jesus was not referring to direction.  So we do not know where people born of the Spirit come from or are going to?

3:9 Is this not still our question?

3:10 I think professional Church types are all a little like Nic at night at one time or another.  We really do not fully understand of what we speak, teach and preach. Sometimes we are groping for answers in the dark.

3:11 We?  Our? For whom, or of whom, is Jesus speaking?

3:12 Of what earthly things did Jesus talk about that Nic did not believe? Now it seems that we have two dichotomies, flesh/spirit and earth/heaven.

3:13 Ascension day has passed, but in the context of this passage, it has not yet happened. Is this an anachronism – a Post Ascension Theology being read back into a pre Ascension event – the Evangelist putting words into the mouth of Jesus? Or is this an example of Jesus being prescient?

3:14 I refer you back to Isaiah 6:2 and again suggest you read and ponder Numbers 21:4-9.  Perhaps Numbers 21:4-9 would have been a better First Reading to pair with this Gospel than the passage from Isaiah.

3:16-17 Maybe too much has already been read and said about this passage. Then again, maybe not enough has been preached about this passage in its literary context.

ADDENDUM

A group of ministers/preachers were sitting together at a table and discussing the Doctrine of the Trinity. Unexpectedly, Christ appeared, pulled up a chair and sat down with them.  One of the ministers/preachers explained to Jesus how the group had been discussing the Doctrine of the Trinity, trying to understand it, but were still perplexed, so asked Jesus “How can these things be?” Jesus responded “Are you Christian ministers/preachers of the Word and Sacrament and yet you do not understand these things?

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

Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, June 15, 2014, Trinity Sunday (Year A)

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 - Genesis 1:1-2:4a

For once, the lectionary prescribes that the First Reading of the Day begins where the Bible begins, “In the beginning” at Genesis 1:1.  This is also, perhaps, one of the longest Readings in the lectionary outside of Lent and the Passion narrative.  Am I stating the obvious when I note that this is the “first” creation account?  I take the Bible too seriously to take it literally.  Thus, I read Genesis 1:1-2:4a as a mythopoeic reflection on human origins rather than a scientific explanation of them.  Can we read and interpret this passage without reference to Genesis 2:4b and following?  How does reading this on Trinity Sunday influence our understanding and interpretation of the passage and how does this passage inform our understanding of the Trinity?

1:1 What translation do you prefer, “when God created” or “when God began to create”? What difference does the translation make?

1:2 What is a “wind from God”? How else might we translate the Hebrew word sometimes translated “wind”?

1:3 This is more or less Creation ex nihilo!  Can we read this without also thinking of the prologue of John? Did God create a wave, a particle, or a string? Not that God creates simply by saying. What does this suggest about the creative word as well as later the power of naming?

1:4 What would have happened if God saw that the light was not good?

1:5 Note that God is the one who names.

1:6 Are you familiar with this three tiered cosmology? What and where is this dome?

1:7 God seems to like separating things.  See 1:4.

1:8 Again God names.  See 1:5.

1:9 If I understand the most recent scientific thinking about the beginnings of the earth, there was once just one large land mass or supercontinent before it broke apart, but one should not use science to “prove” Scripture, otherwise we will end up defending scripture against science if the science changes.

1:10 I wonder what criteria God used to determine “good”?

1:11-12 Note that vegetation precedes animal life.

1:14-15 According to the three tiered cosmology, these lights are under the waters above them. Here we have the roots of both astrology and astronomy.

1:16 So where did the light come from in day one if God did not create the Sun until day four? Does it make a difference that we now know that the moon is not a light but reflects the light of the sun?

1:17-19 These verses seem somewhat redundant following 1:9-13.

1:20 Creatures appear after vegetation in this account.  How is this different compared to the second account of creation beginning in Genesis 2:4b?

1:21 I wonder what is meant by “great sea monster”?  Could this verse have referred to whales, Leviathan, or The Kraken?

1:22 Who, or what, are told to be fruitful and multiply?

1:24 Living creatures on land appear after living creatures in the water and the air.

1:24-25 Note that sea creatures and birds are told to be fruitful and multiply in verse 22, but here, animals of the earth are NOT told that.

1:26 Where did this “us” come from and how do we deal with it?  There is that “dominion” word that has caused us so many environmental problems and which we will encounter again in Psalm 8:6.

1:27 What does it mean to be created Imago Dei, male and female?

1:28 Note that we are not told that God blessed any other creatures or parts of creation other than humans.  In light of how we have historically interpreted and applied the admonition to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion,” I think this has been more of a curse than a blessing as far as we “exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.” How shall we deal with the “be fruitful and multiply” admonition in light of the threat of overpopulation and right to life issues?

1:29-30 It sounds like we have been given plants to eat, but not animals. Maybe God is a vegan!

1:31 Note that we progress from god to very good!

2:1 Scientifically speaking, are the heaven and the earth ever finished?

2:2-3 Why does God need to rest?  Does God tire? What did God do on the eighth day?

2:4 How does this verse add anything to what proceeded?  What is the meaning of “generations”?

Psalm - Psalm 8:1-9

8:1 “O LORD” = Tetragrammaton.  Even though I do not always point it out, be aware that when LORD appears in all upper case letters, it is really the name of God that appears in the text. Are Christians bound by the Hebrew tradition of not pronouncing the majestic name of God? How shall we interpret this verse when we now know there is no above” the heavens but rather a “beyond” the heavens; no up there but rather an out there?

8:2 What do babes and infants speak other than gibberish? What is a bulwark?

8:3-4 Is there a difference between “creating” and “establishing”? There is no finger of God in the first creation account, only the voice of God. Why am I thinking of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam? I will never forget my sense of awe and wonder the first time I looked through a telescope and saw for myself the rings of Saturn.  I think I have heard it said that the Hubble telescope enables us to look back through time to the first moments after creation.  Do images from the Hubble telescope in any sense show us the face of God?

8:5 What does it mean for humans to be a little lower than God? How are human crowned with glory and honor?

8:6 Need I say anything more about “dominion” other than that an ecological awareness forces us to abandon outdated understandings?  See my comments regarding Genesis 1:26 and 27.

8:7 Why are sheep and oxen, out of all the animals, named?

8:9 Is this simply a refrain?

Second Reading - 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

This short Second Reading and the short Gospel Reading compensates for the long First Reading.

13:11 What does Paul mean when he writes put things in order?  What was his appeal? Why are we often inclined to not agree? What does it mean to live in peace?

13:12 What is a “holy kiss”?  Who are the saints?

13:13 Is this verse, a Trinitarian blessing, the only reason this Reading appears on this day, Trinity Sunday?

Gospel - Matthew 28:16-20

This short Gospel Reading and the preceding short Second Reading compensates for the long First Reading.

28:16 Why are there only eleven disciples? Which mountain had Jesus directed them to?

28:17 Some of the eleven doubted?  I wonder which ones doubted and which ones did not. What or who did they doubt? Can one worship even when one doubts?

28:18 Who gave this authority to Jesus and when?

28:19 How does verse proceed from 28:17? Is this Trinitarian baptismal formula the only verse that commends this reading as appropriate for Trinity Sunday?

13:20 What had Jesus commanded the disciples? What and when is the end of the age?  What is an age?  When did the age begin?

ADDENDUM

On June 22 I will be preaching at The Hilltop Presbyterian Church, Toronto, OH.

Random Reflections on the Trinity

Even many non-Christians are probably familiar with the basics of the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity, the Doctrine that talks about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But even many devout Christians would probably confess that they do not fully understand the Trinity. For me, the Trinity is a mystery we must ponder.

This coming Sunday many Christian Churches will be observing Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost and a Sunday to celebrate, reflect upon, and scratch heads about the Trinity. Here are some  random reflections that might get you to scratch your head.

One of the Professors in my D.Min. program at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary argued in our Reformed Theology Seminar that the Doctrine of the Trinity is not biblical but it is essential. I think what he meant was that nowhere in the Scriptures does the word “Trinity” appear and while Scripture in places talks about God in terms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is no fully developed Doctrine of the Trinity. The Doctrine of the Trinity is a creation of human reason as we have sought to make sense of, understand, and somewhat systematize Scripture.

I have recently been thinking about the Doctrine of the Trinity in terms similar to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The Heisenberg Uncertainty principle states that one cannot determine the mass and the velocity of an electron at the same time. If one determines it mass, there is no velocity. If one determines the velocity, there is no mass. Similarly, if we focus on any one “person” of the Trinity then we can no longer see the Triune God. But if we focus on the “Triune God” then we can longer see any of the individual “persons” of the Trinity.

Another analogy I find helpful is that of determining whether light is a wave or a particle. If God is at all like light (Jesus is, after all, proclaimed to be the light of the world) then perhaps our understanding of light can serve as a metaphor for our understanding of God. Sometimes light seems to behave like a wave. Sometimes light seems to behave like a particle. Neither understanding, even combined, fully explains the nature of light and in a sense light is still a mystery.

While the Doctrine of the Trinity can (sometimes) help us make sense of the way God behaves in Scripture, I am becoming increasingly convinced that it does not give us a complete picture of or fully explains the nature of God. The Doctrine of the Trinity helps us to conceptualize and understand the mystery of God, yet God still remains a mystery we must ponder, a mystery that invites us to marvel at God with the same childlike wonder of the Psalmist in Psalm 8:3-5, only more so.

In his book The Journey to Truth, George F. Garlick, Ph.D., discussing the work of Dr. Michio Kaku, writes “the best way to understand the mystery of light is to admit that light is not a part of this world, but instead has its source in the fifth dimension. Kaku concludes, ‘This alternative theory gave the simplest explanation of light; that it was really a vibration of the fifth dimension.’” (p. 108) Just as physicists are beginning to understand light in new ways, maybe it is also time theologians begin to understand God in new ways beyond the Doctrine of the Trinity.

It has been a while since I last read Carl Jung, but I think he argued that the Doctrine of the Trinity was not psychologically complete, that what humans need psychologically is not a Trinity of Father – Son – Spirit but a Quarternity of Father – Son – Spirit – Wisdom/Mary, and that for Roman Catholics the Doctrine of the Assumption of Mary comes close to fulfilling this function. While this is a somewhat esoteric argument, here is a link to an equally esoteric article about Jung’s theory of the Quartentity.

The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D., offers a thoughtful analysis and some words of caution about Jung’s Quarternity and the possible inclusion of the feminine within the Trinity and the Quartentity in her article THE SHAPE OF GOD: Deepening the Mystery of the Trinity.

I generally believe that the questions we ask are often more important than any answers we might find, that we often find more grace in our search for understanding than we do in adopting a posture of dogmatic certainty. Therefore I posit the above reflections as questions, discussion starters, and head scratching conundrums to help us think about, reflect upon, ponder, and ask questions about the Triune God and the Doctrine of the Trinity. And I have not even mentioned perichoresis!