Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 for Palm/Passion 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.

PREFACE: For liturgical churches, this Sunday’s Lectionary Readings offers more Scripture than perhaps any other day other than the Easter Vigil, and far more possibilities for non-liturgical churches than they are used to. If one uses the primary Gospel Reading of Luke 22:14-23:56 there may be little time or need to expound on the reading in a sermon. Therefore, I opted to ruminate on the optional and shorter Luke 23:1-49.

LITURGY OF THE PALMS

LUKE 19:28-40

19:28 After he had said what?  Why does one always go “up” to Jerusalem?

19:29 Is there anything special we need to know about Bethphage and/or Bethany?  Which two disciples do you think Jesus sent?

19:30 What village was ahead of them? Are the details about the colt at all significant?

19:31 Was Jesus meaning to refer to himself as “The Lord?”

19:32 How did Jesus know what the two disciples would find?

19:33 How many owners were there and was it a common practice for a colt to be owned by more than one person?

19:34 They respond just as they were told.

19:35 What is the meaning and/or purpose of throwing cloaks on the colt? Could Jesus not get on the colt by himself?

19:36 Why would people throw their cloaks on the road? This is beginning to look like a political, military, or sports team triumphant victory parade.

19:37 How many disciples were there? What deeds of power had the whole multitude of the disciples seen?

19:38 Where is this saying from?

19:39 Why were there some Pharisees in the crown and why would they want Jesus to order the disciples to stop?  Stop what?

19:40 When was the last time you heard stones shout out? A geologist might be able to understand what a stone was saying.

PSALM 118:1-2, 19-29

118:1 Why do many Psalms begin with “O?”

118:2 This reads like a rubric or call for an antiphonal response.

118:19 Where are, and what are, the gates of righteousness? Who are the righteous?

118:20 We have gone from the plural to the singular.

118:21 How has the psalmist been answered?

118:22 What stone did what builders reject?  What is a chief cornerstone? What is its function? Juxtapose this verse with Luke 19:40.

118:23 What is the Lord’s doing?

118:24 What day did the LORD make?  Did the LORD not make all our days?

118:25 What does it mean to beseech? What sort of success might the Psalmist have been asking for? Who are the “us?”

118:26 Who comes in the name of the Lord? Do you recall Luke 19:38?

118:27 Why bind the festal procession with branches?  What are and where are the horns of the altar? Might this and the preceding verse lead one to think of Luke 19:28-40 as a midrash of Psalm 118?

118:29 This verse and other parts of the Psalm could be used as a responsive Call to Worship. See Psalm 118:1-2.

LITURGY OF THE PASSION

ISAIAH 50:4-9A

50:4 What is the tongue of a teacher like? Note that the teacher is taught by God.

50:5 Does the Shema have anything to contribute to our understanding of this verse?

50:6 Who is speaking?  How did this verse become associated with The Passion? Could we read The Passion narratives as a midrash of this passage?

50:7 What is a face like flint?

50:8 Who are the “us” that stand together?

50:9 Will the Lord God declare the prophet guilty?

50:7-9 I sense some sort of self-righteousness here that bothers me.  What about you?

PSALM 31:9-16

A prayer for deliverance from personal enemies is an obvious choice for the liturgy of the passion. They read as if they could have been spoken by Job. We can almost imagine hearing these words from the lips of Jesus as he was being crucified, or at any time during his passion. This Psalm reads like the thoughts and feelings of the dejected, rejected, and defeated. Nevertheless, the Psalm, in the end, expresses prayerful trust. Are we to read these words as referring to or prefiguring Christ’s Passion, or simply as a meditation or commentary on Christ’s Passion?

31:9 What was the Hebrew understanding of the relation between the soul and the body?

31:10 Does the Psalmist have no hope or joy?

31:11 Why would others react to the Psalmist in these ways? How and when do we react to someone in these ways?

3:12 What does it mean to pass out of mind like one who is dead? Are we to read these words as referring to or prefiguring Christ’s Passion, or simply as a meditation or commentary on Christ’s Passion?

31:14-16 The Psalm, in the end, expresses prayerful trust. 

31:14 How might the psalmist maintain trust in God despite all the psalmist’s suffering?

31:15 Who might have been the Psalmists enemies and persecutors? Who are your enemies and persecutors?

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11

2:5 What mind was in Christ Jesus?

2:6 How much should we focus on “form?”  I am thinking about Plato. Was Paul?  What if Christ had exploited equality with God?

2:7 Emptied himself of what?  Is there a difference between likeness and form?

2:8 Does how Christ died matter?

2:9 What name is above every name?

2:10 What does the bended knee represent or symbolize?

2:11 Is “Jesus Christ is Lord” a minimalist confession of faith? If so, why was it later expanded?

LUKE 23:1-49 (Alternate)

23:1 What assembly?

23:2 Why is a religious assembly is making civil accusations?

23:3 What sort of answer is “You say so?”

23:4 How many chief priests were there? Why does Pilate receive such bad press?

23:5 What does “stirs up the people” refer to? Have similar charges and accusations ever been made against any other teacher?

23:6 What difference does it make if Jesus is a Galilean?

23:7 Why does jurisdiction matter? Was Pilate passing the buck?

23:8 If Herod had really wanted to see Jesus, what had been stopping him? Was Herod seeking to be informed or merely entertained?

23:9 I wonder how long Herod questioned Jesus. Why did Jesus not answer? Did he take “the fifth?”

23:10 What is the difference between a chief priest and a scribe? Why were they so opposed to Jesus?

23:11 Why would Herod put an elegant robe on Jesus?

23:12 What motivated or facilitated the changed relationship between Herod and Pilate? Why had they been enemies before this day?

23:13 Is there any group Pilate did not call together?

23:14 Is there significance to the “any of your charges” language?

23:15 Is Pilate simply covering his backside by referencing Herod?

23:16 Why have Jesus flogged if he had done nothing wrong?

23:17 What happened to verse 17?

23:18 Who was Barabbas?

23:19 Why the parenthesis?

23:20 Why was Pilate so intent on releasing Jesus?

23:21 Is this an example of mob rule?

23:22 Is there any significance to Pilate addressing the crowd three times?

23:23 Since when did a mob trump a Roman official? So much for the rule of law!

23:24 I thought Pilate had already, several times, given his verdict, a verdict different than this.

23:18-25 What might have happened if Pilate had not given in to the crowd’s demands?

23:26 Why make someone else carry Jesus’ cross?

23:27 So not all in the crowd were antagonistic toward Jesus. I wonder who these women were.

23:28 What does it mean to be a daughter of Jerusalem?

23:29-31 Is Jesus quoting from something? Where else might we find these sayings?

23:32 I wonder what sort of criminals.

23:33 What is the significance of Jesus being crucified between two criminals?

23:34 Who was Jesus asking forgiveness for? Who was casting lots? What are lots?

23:35 Did the crowd scoff or only the leaders?

23:36 How is offering sour wine a form of mocking?

23:37 What is the irony?

23:38 Is this an example of more irony?

23:39 Why would a criminal also being crucified deride Jesus?

23:40-41 I think this is a multivalent statement.

23:42 Why am I thinking of Taizé?

23:43 Do not get preoccupied with temporal issues. .

23:44 Is there anything significant or symbolic about three hours of darkness and when it started to get dark? Was this a miracle? A sign? A metaphor? A solar eclipse?

23:45 What purpose did the temple curtain serve?

23:46 Where have we heard this before?

23:47 What is a centurion? Was this centurion a Jew? A proselytize? A God fearer? A discerning Roman?

23:48 Why the plural “crowds?” What does beating one’s breasts symbolize.

23:49 Who were Jesus’ acquaintances? Would the disciples be considered among his acquaintances? Why are the women who followed him singled out? Why did they all stand at a distance?

                                                                  

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 5th Sunday in Lent (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.

ISAIAH 43:16-21

43:16-17 These verses appear to reference the Exodus. Is that the only way they can be interpreted?

43:18-19 These are two of my favorite verses, but how do they relate to what has come before and what follows?  What images come to mind when you hear “former things” and “things of old?”  As leaders or members of congregations facing change, how do these verses both challenge and comfort us?  Does “way” in any way point back to the “way in the sea” of 43:16? It seems that God does not totally transform the wilderness, or the desert, but rather provides a way in and through it.

43:20 Apparently even the prophet knew that all God’s critters have a place in the choir.  Why do humans so often assume that God’s new heaven and new earth is reserved only for humans and no other living creatures?  If wild animals honor God, why do humans find honoring God so difficult?

43:20-21 Did God not form all people, not just God’s chosen people, for the divine self? 

PSALM 126

126:1  When did the LORD restore the fortunes of Zion? How were the people like those who dream?

126:2 When was the last time you heard Presbyterian pews or any pews filled with laughter let alone shouts of joy?

126:3 What “great things” might the Psalmist have had in mind? What great things has the LORD done for you?

126:4 Why does the psalmist ask the LORD to restore fortunes when in 126:1 it was stated the LORD has already restored fortunes? When and how are the watercourses in the Negeb restored? You may want to juxtapose this verse with Isaiah 43:19-20.

126:5-6 Why would someone cry when they sow? How can tears nurture joy?

PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14

3:4b To what is Paul referring?

3:5 Paul was a Pharisee? I recognize there is still a distinction between cultural or secular Judaism and religious Judaism., but is this the distinction Paul was making? Can we extend Paul’s argument to cultural or secular Christianity?

3:6 How can Paul claim to be blameless under the law?

3:7 What gains might Paul have been referring to? Note that Paul uses the past tense “had.”

3:8 What Greek word does the NRSV translate as “rubbish” and how else might it be translated?

3:9 Is there more than one kind of righteousness?

3:10 What is the power of Christ’s resurrection? What does Paul mean “becoming like him in his death?” Was Paul seeking to be a martyr? How do we become like Christ in his death?

3:11 What did Paul mean by “if somehow?” Was obtaining the resurrection from the dead the only or prime motivating factor for Paul? Is it the only or prime motivating factor for our faith?

3:12 Already obtained what?

3:13 You may want to juxtapose “forgetting what lies behind” with Isaiah 43:19.

3:13-14 What imagery is being employed? Is Paul’s faith based on or motivated by a reward or goal?

JOHN 12:1-8

12:1-8 Where do we find ourselves in this story, at the table with Jesus and Lazarus, serving with Martha, anointing Jesus’ feet, complaining about church budget priorities, watching from an open window?

12:1 Is there anything special about the number six or six days?  What do you know about Bethany?  Where and when have we met Lazarus before?

12:2 Only Lazarus has been named, so who is the plural “they?” Where and when have we met Martha before?  Who do you think, in addition to Lazarus, was at table with Jesus?

12:3 Where and when have we met Mary before?  How costly was this perfume? What is nard?

12:4 The parenthetical expression reminds us that this was written after the fact and that the author was writing with the benefit of hindsight.

12:5 Adjusting for inflation, what is the current value of three hundred denarii?

12:6 Might this parenthetical expression be redactor overkill? Note that Martha and Mary were doing for others while Judas was doing for himself. Martha and Mary gave for others. Judas gave nothing but his criticism.

12:7 Why would Mary buy this perfume before Jesus died? If she bought it for Jesus’ burial, why is she now, at least six days before his death, using it to anoint his feet?

12:8 How shall we interpret and apply this passage considering the issue of income inequality in the midst of a presidential campaign?

                                                                  

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 4th Sunday in Lent (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.

JOSHUA 5:9-12

5:9 Why is the phrase “I have rolled away” reminding me of Christ’s resurrection? What “disgrace of Egypt” was the LORD referring to?  Where is Gilgal?  What does “Gilgal” mean?

5:10 The Passover can apparently be celebrated anywhere, even while camping upon the plain of Jericho. Maybe observing the Passover by going on a camping or backpacking trip is the best way to observe it!

5:11 Were unleavened cakes and parched grain the produce of the land, or was that in addition to the produce of the land?

5:12 What is manna?

5:11-12 Now that the Israelites enjoy the produce of the land, the manna stops.  Either way, God is the ultimate provider.

PSALM 32

32:1 What is your definition of happiness? When your transgression is forgiven and your sin is covered, are you as happy as a room without a roof?

32:2 What is iniquity? Is iniquity the same as deceit?

32:3 How can the Psalmist be silent while also groaning? Why was the Psalmist silent?

32:4 What does it mean for a hand to be heavy upon you?  What do you do with “Selah?”  How about a guitar riff?

32:5 As if we really could hide our sin from God? Are sin, iniquity, transgressions, and guilt synonyms?

32:6 What is the meaning of “the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them?”

32:7 Does God want us to hide from trouble?

32:8 Who is teaching and instructing?

32:9 In other words, don’t be an ass? What function do bits and bridles serve?

32:10 What is the nature of “trust” and how does it differ from faith?

32:11 Somber, doer Christians, please take note: be glad in the LORD!

32:1-11 Confession is good for the soul and one’s demeanor.  Are Christians happier than non-Christians?  I usually discern a thematic connection between the First Reading and the Psalm, but I am not discerning any this week.  Am I missing something? How do you see Joshua 5:9-12 and Psalm 32 in conversation?

2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-21

5:16 Does Paul mean that his viewpoint has changed? What other point of views are there than human points of views?

5:17 What does it mean to be “in Christ?”  Note that in the NRSV, it is the creation that is new, not the person!  This verse is often used in liturgies related to confession of sin, either as a call to confession or a declaration of pardon.

5:18 What is the ministry of reconciliation?  PC(USA) Presbyterians might want to look at the Confession of 67.

5:19 Does “the world” refer to only people? Why did the world need to be reconciled to God?

5:20 What is the role of an ambassador?

5:21 What is “the righteousness of God” and how do we become it?

5:16-21 There are numerous theories of the atonement and the Reformed Tradition has room for many of them without endorsing any one over all the others.  Does 2 Corinthians  5:16-21, however, presuppose any one understanding of the atonement?

LUKE 15:1-3, 11b-32
15:1 Is this perhaps hyperbole? Why are tax collectors and sinners lumped together?

15:2 How do the Pharisees and scribes move from sinners listening to Jesus to Jesus eating with sinners?

15:3 And the lesson for Preachers and teachers is:  when people are grumbling about your ministry, tell a parable?

15:11b Who was this man?  What was his name?   What were the son’s names?  What is wrong with these sorts of questions?

15:12 Why would this younger son think he could have his inheritance before his father died?

15:13 I think I prefer “dissolute” to other translations. What if the son had invested his inheritance and earned a sizeable return?

15:14 Was fate conspiring against the younger son?

15:15 What is the irony in this?

15:16 Was the younger son not earning enough to feed himself? Could he not eat some of the pods without being seen?

15:17 Is it significant that his father’s hire hands had enough bread to spare rather than pods or other food?

15:18 Juxtapose this with the 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Reading. I think this might be the key verse from this passage.

15:19 What is the difference between a son and a hired hand?

15:20 Now this is an example of family values!

15:21 The son is true to his intentions! See Luke 15:18.

15:22 What do the robe, ring, and sandals symbolize, signify, or represent? While bathing or baptism is not mentioned, baptism is often equated with “putting on Christ.”

15:23 Would there have been only one fatted calf?

15:24 Who are the “they” that celebrated?

15:23-24 I think we in the institutional church do not celebrate enough.  In too many of churches, the Lord’s Supper is less like a celebration and more like a mournful dirge. Maybe if we celebrated more and exuded more joy, our younger brothers and sisters would come back home.  Read this again considering Psalm 32:11. Just saying!

15:25 Why was the elder son not summoned when the celebration began?

15:26 How would the slave know what was going on?

15:27 Note the use of “your brother” and “your father.”

15:28 This single verse is both a reversal and an extension of the tale, making it a true parable! Do you know any elder brothers, or just elders, who too often act like this? I wonder how Edwin H. Friedman would interpret this parable.

15:29 I sympathize with the elder brother.

15:30 Note that the elder son refers not to his “brother” but to his “father’s son.”

15:11b-32 I think this parable is more about the elder son than the younger son or the father. Then again, maybe it really about the father and neither son.

15:1-3, 11b-32 One problem with this Gospel Reading might be that we are too familiar with it and think we already know what it is about.  How can we hear it as if we were hearing it for the very first time?  Is it too obvious that the tax collectors and the sinners are the younger son; the Pharisees and scribes are the elder son; and God/Jesus is the father?  Fast forwarding to the present day. Where do you find yourself in this parable?  The poignant teaching for us is that we might become or be like the elder son. I contend that parables are not based on fact. It does not matter if the facts of the parable are true or not. What matters is that the moral of the story, the lesson, is true. This parable seems to be about a younger son’s contrition, a father’s loving heart, and an elder’s son resentment. Where was the mother in this parable?

                                                                  

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.