Lectionary Ruminations 2.5 for the 29th 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.

JEREMIAH 31:27-34

31:27 Are these days still to come or have they been fulfilled? What does it mean to sow with the seed of humans and the seed of animals?

31:28 So the LORD watches over everything?

31:29 Why would the teeth of children be set on edge if their parents ate sour grapes? Where might this saying have originated?

31:30 This sounds only fair. Does this verse portray an angry, vengeful, wrathful, punishing God?

31:31 I again ask if these days are still to come or have already been fulfilled? If the new covenant replaces or supersedes what came before, what covenant(s) will be replaced or superseded?

31:32 In what ways was the covenant broken? What about the covenant with Noah?

31:33 But what if the people have hearts of stone?

31:34 What does it mean to “know the LORD?” It sounds as though the people will still sin but that the LORD will forgive and forget their sin.

PSALM 119:97-104

119:97 What law is being referred to?  How does the law become one’s meditation?  Does this have anything to do with anything like mindfulness meditation or contemplative prayer?

119:98 Why the singular “commandment” and not the plural “commandments?”  Is “commandment” a mere synonym for law?

119:99 How often have you thought/felt you had more understanding than your teachers?  Are “decrees” nothing more than a synonym for law?

119:100 This sounds like a youthful statement.  Are “precepts” just a synonym for law?

119:101 Are there only two ways, evil and good?  Is “word” a synonym for law?

119:102 How many synonyms for law, in addition to “ordinances” have we encountered so far?

119:103 I love honey. How might this verse inform our understanding of “ruminating” on Scripture?

119:104 How do precepts and the law provide understanding?

2 TIMOTHY 3:14-4:5

3:14 What has Timothy learned and firmly believed?  From whom had he learned it?

3:15 What sacred writings are being referred to? Was Timothy raised in the Christian tradition?

3:16 What does it mean for all scripture to be “inspired” or “God breathed?” I do not see science, geology, or history in this list of what Scripture is useful for.

3:17 What does it mean to be proficient and equipped?  To borrow an idea from hiking/backpacking, what are “the ten essentials” of the Christian Faith all believers ought to be equipped with? Similarly, it does not help to have the ten essentials if one does not know how to make use of them.

4:1 In spite of this verse, why do so many Christians seem so quick to judge others? Is this an oath?

4:2 What is the message Paul urges Timothy to proclaim. Is our time favorable or unfavorable for proclaiming this message? What is the relationship between proclaiming and teaching?

4:3 Who is to decide if doctrine is sound or not? How might this verse apply to health and wealth television evangelists?

4:4 What is the difference between truth and myth and who is to decide what is myth and what is truth?  How does this apply to Rudolf Bultmann and his 1941 essay on The New Testament and Mythology, in which he called for the "demythologizing" of the New Testament?  How does this apply to the myth work of people like Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, not to mention John Shelby Spong? How can myths be true?

4:5 Does being sober mean only abstaining from alcohol or mind-altering drugs?  What is the work of an evangelist?

LUKE 18:1-8

18:1 How does one pray always? Does the “prayer of the heart” help one not lose heart?

18:2 What does it mean to fear God?

18:3 Must we always pray prayers of supplication?  What about prayers of adoration, confession, intercession, and thanksgiving, not to mention contemplative prayer?

18:4 Why would the judge refuse to administer justice?

18:5 How long would it have taken for the widow to wear out the judge, or had she already done so?

18:6 Why are we listening to a judge who neither fears god nor respects people?

18:7 Is this a rhetorical question? How is God like the unjust judge and not like the unjust judge?

18:8 How quick is quickly? Who is the Son of Man? When and why is the Son of Man coming? How does the second half of this verse follow from what precedes it?   Has the Son of Man already come or not?  If Jesus was referring to himself as the Son of Man, why did he do so?

18:4-8 Is this parable saying that we should keep pestering and complaining to God until we wear God down?

                                                                  

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 28th 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.

JEREMIAH 29;1, 4-7

29:1 What an archaeological discovery it would be to find this actual letter!  What is the meaning of “remaining elders?” Had some elders taken into exile escaped, died, or been killed? Is there anyone in exile Jeremiah did not address?

29:4 Note that Nebuchadnezzar had not taken them into exile. God had sent them into exile.

29:5 Why are the exiles told to build houses and plant gardens?

29:6 Babylon is beginning to sound like the exile in Egypt?  How might this and the preceding verse apply to Christians – resident aliens – in a secular culture and post-Christian world?

29:7 Do you pray for your city, town, or village every Lord’s Day?

PSALM 66:1-12

66:1 What is a joyful noise?  Does “all the earth” refer to only people or to only to living beings, or to the fullness of creation? Whales can sing, but can rocks?

66:2 How does one sing to the glory of God’s name when God’s name is considered unpronounceable?

66:3 What are God’s deeds?  How do you understand the meaning of “awesome?”  Are you familiar with Rudolph Otto’s concept of the “numinous” in The Idea of the Holy or Aldous Huxley’s concept of “mysterium tremendum” in The Doors of Perception?

66:4 How do we read this in the light of global climate change? What do we do with “Selah?”  Do we pronounce it?  Do we ignore it?  Do we take it as a cue to break into a guitar riff?

66:5 Can we see all of God’s deeds or are some invisible? Does God have no deeds among non-mortals?

66:6 Is this the deed, or this is just part of a larger and more significant deed?

66:7 Note that God keeps watch on the nations and not just Israel. Who are the rebelliuous?

66:8 This sounds like a call to worship. God might keep watch on the nations, but God is the God of Israel.

66:9 Is slipping feet a metaphor referring to death, or even extinction of a race and culture?

66:10 How and why is silver tried? What happens to silver after it is tried? What is refining dross?

66:11 Is this a reference to exile and enslavement in Egypt?

66:12 I think I know what “water” might refer to, but I am not so sure I know what “fire” refers to.  How might our understanding of this verse be influenced by The Shoah?  What and where is the “spacious place?”

2 TIMOTHY 2:8-15

2:8 Does “remember” mean only do not forget?  This is a pretty bare bones gospel. Note that Jesus was raised from the dead. He did not rise from the dead. What is the difference?

2:9 Where and why was Paul chained like a criminal?

2:10 This may be a verse particularly dear to the theological offspring of Calvin.

2:11 How do we die with Christ?

2:12 If we endure what?

2:12-13 How can Jesus Christ both deny us if we deny him but remain faithful if we are faithless?

2:14 Who are the “them?”  What do you think Paul meant by “wrangling over words?”  I wonder what Paul would think and say about my Lectionary Ruminations or exegesis in general. I’m sorry; Paul, but words have meaning. Words matter!

2:15 “Do your best” does not mean “be perfect!” Why would any worker have a need to be ashamed?  What does it mean to “rightly explain the word of truth?” Why does the word of truth need to be explained?

LUKE 17:11-19

17:11 Geographically speaking, where, in relation to Jerusalem, is the region between Samaria and Galilee.  Why does it matter?

17:12 I wonder why the village is not named. Maybe, years later, the disciples remembered this happening but could not remember where it happened. Is there any significance to the fact that there were ten lepers? You may want  to research leprosy in the Bible.

17:13 Why am I thinking of the Philokalia and The Jesus Prayer?

17:14 Jesus apparently did not lay hands on them, pray for them, or do anything else other than tell them to go and show themselves to the priests – and they were made clean!  What does it mean to be made clean?

17:15 All ten were made clean, but were all ten healed? Is being made clean synonymous with being healed?  Why would only one turn back, praising God with a loud voice? What about the other nine?

17:16 Have you ever prostrated yourself at another person’s feet?  Has anyone ever prostrated themselves at your feet? Were the other nine not Samaritan?  What does it matter that the one who turned back, praised God with a loud voice, prostrated himself before Jesus, and thanked Jesus, was a Samaritan? Why am I thinking of a parable about someone helping a stranger alongside the road and the story of Jesus and a woman at a well? Thanking God should not be confined to one day, or one hour a week.

17:17 Jesus must have read my mind! Perhaps someone knew the answer to the first question, but the second?

17:18 Is this a rhetorical question? If the other nine were not foreigners, what were they?

17:19 With this after the fact statement, it seems Jesus is simply interpreting what has already happened.  Did the other nine, who did not return, also have faith? Are we among the 9/10^th or the 1/10^th? Our faith should make us well. It should not make us ill. Toxic faith is no faith!

                                                                  

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 27th 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.

PREFACE:

This Sunday is generally recognized as World Communion Sunday, and in the PC(USA) the designated day to receive the Peace & Global Witness Offering.  How do any or all the day’s readings allow themselves to be a springboard for a sermon leading to or pointing to The Lord’s Table and highlighting the ministry of Peace, Peacemaking, and Global Witness?

LAMENTATIONS 1:1-6, 3:19-26

The Lectionary does not consider this a continuous reading. Lamentations 1:1-6 is the First Reading and Lamentations 3:19-26 may be used as the response rather than Psalm 137. I prefer, however, to combine them into the First Reading and then use the Psalm as a Response.

1:1 I think this verse addresses the reality of cities like Detroit and others in the industrial heartland of America. What other once great cities, other than Jerusalem, might this verse speak to?

1:2 Who were her lovers?

1:3 Might this speak to other exiled peoples?

1:4 Might this also describe back roads and side roads in America after the advent of the Interstate system.

1:5 Who is to blame, the LORD or the former inhabitants of the city?

1:6 Zion is the daughter of whom?

3:19 What is wormwood?  What is gall?

3:20 Might the Book of Job be of any help here?

3:21 Is this example of something from the past serving as a springboard into the future?

3:22 If this is true, then why 1:1-6?

3:23 Ergo every morning brings new hope.

3:24 What is a portion?

3:25 How log shall we wait upon the LORD?  How does the soul seek the LORD? How are waiting and seeking related?

3:26 I cannot but help hear this verse and consider contemplative prayer.

LAMENTATIONS 3:19-26

See LAMENTATIONS 1:1-6, 3:19-26 above.

PSALM 137

137:1 What are the rivers of Babylon? Is anyone else thinking of a song from the Broadway Musical Godspell?

137:2 What might willows symbolize?  Why were the harps hung up? What might harps symbolize?

137:3 Can mirth be feigned? What are the songs of Zion?

137:4 Why could one not sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

137:5 Does “forget” refer to memory only? Consider this verse juxtaposed with today’s First Reading.

137:6 What does the tongue clinging to the roof of the mouth symbolize or signify?

137:7 Who were the Edomites?

137:8 Why is Babylon referred to as a daughter?

137:9 Yes, this is one of the more problematic passages of Scripture, but note that is the exiles speaking, not God.  It expresses their profound anger born of grief and exile.

2 TIMOTHY 1:1-14

1:1 Why does Paul need to state his credentials in a personal letter to Timothy?

1:2 Why does Paul refer to Timothy as his “beloved child?”  Is there any significance to the tripartite “Grace, mercy, and peace” greeting? Note that there is no “Trinitarian” greeting/blessing here.

1:3 Why would Paul, or anyone, worship God without a clear conscience? What is Paul talking about?

1:4 What would account for Timothy’s tears?

1:5 Do we know anything else about Lois and Eunice? Was Timothy nurtured in the Christian faith by his mother and grandmother or was he old enough at the time to convert as an Adult with them?

1:6 How can the laying on of hands rekindle the gift of God within a person?  What is this “gift of God” Paul refers to? How do we rekindle our faith?

1:7 Is Paul speaking of the Holy Spirit?

1:8 Do you think Timothy was ashamed?  Have you ever been ashamed of testimony about our Lord?  Personally, I am sometimes ashamed of those who in my mind pervert the Gospel and inflict pain and persecution in the name of Christ.  For instance, I am ashamed of Medieval Crusades and the contemporary exploits of the Westboro Baptist Church, and some TV Evangelists.

1:9 Preexistent grace?

1:10 Preexistent grace only now revealed?

1:11 Is there any differences between herald, apostle, and teacher?  Do the titles refer to different functions and roles?

1:12 What shame is Paul referring to? What did Paul entrust?

1:13 What gives Paul, or any individual, the right to establish a standard of sound teaching? In the Reformed Tradition, only councils can establish such standards, and councils can sometimes ere.

1:14 What is the good treasurer to which Paul refers? Paul finally mentions the Holy Spirit!

LUKE 17:5-10

17:5 All the apostles or just some of the apostles?  How does one measure faith?  Are Fowler’s stages of faith in any way a measurement?

17:6 I think Jesus, or the Gospel writers, were sometimes prone to hyperbole. Why would anyone want a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea?

17:7 Is this a serious or a rhetorical question? Why am I, a white American living 150+ years after the end of slavery in America, cringing when I read this verse?

17:8 An interesting verse considering America’s growing economic inequality.

17:9 And some bosses and managers treat hired workers just this way.

17:10 I do not like this verse. It sounds to puritan to my ears. Where the apostles not worthy of being thanked?

17:7-10 How do these verses relate to, inform, or follow from Luke 17:5-6?

                                                                  

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 26th 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.

JEREMIAH 32:1-3a, 6-15

32:1 Why are the references to the reigns of two kings significant?  What year was this?

32:2 Who was the king of Babylon and why was his army besieging Jerusalem? 

32:3a What had Jeremiah done to provoke King Zedekiah to confine him?

32:6 How did Jeremiah know and how does anyone know when the word of the LORD comes to them?

32:7 What is the right of redemption? Where is Anathoth?

32:8 What and where is the land of Benjamin? What is the significance of this real estate transaction? How can we know we have truly and accurately heard the word of the LORD?

32:9 What is the contemporary value of seventeen shekels of silver? What is the symbolic significance of the purchase?

32:10 I think it is amazing what Jeremiah was able to do all this while confined. It sounds like this was not much different than real estate transactions today.

32:11 Why all this documentation?

32:12 Why are all these people and witnesses mentioned?

32:13 This must be one of the shortest verses in the Hebrew Scriptures.

32:14 What a significant archeological find this would be! I can imagine the sequel a movie “Indiana Jones and the Lost Deed of Jeremiah!”

32:15 How can contemporary real estate purchases be theological statements? Perhaps we need to be purchasing real estate in depressed and distressed neighborhoods. Oh, I guess that is gentrification! Shall we substitute “Marsh Harbour” for Anathoth?

PSALM 91:1-6, 14-16

91:1 How is a shadow a shelter?  If the Almighty does not have a physical body, how does it cast a shadow? Might this be metaphorical language? What is the deeper meaning of “Most High?”

91:2 How is a refuge and fortress like a shelter and a shadow? Note that both a refuge and a fortress are defensive, not offensive. When I read about refuges in the Bible, I think of National Wildlife Refuges.

91:3 Who is the fowler? What might the deadly pestilence refer to?

91:4 God has pinions?  God has wings? Raptors, like eagles, have pinions. Hens do not have pinions.  What is a buckler?

91:5 Why is terror associated with the night? Why am I thinking of Dylan Thomas?

91:6 Rather than a chiastic structure we have 91:6 parallel to 91:5, ABAB.

91:14 Who is speaking?  Has the voice changed? What does it mean to “know a name?” Do you know God’s name?

91:15 What do being rescued and being honored have in common?

91:16 What does “salvation” mean in the context of the Psalms?

1 TIMOTHY 6:6-19

6:6 What is godliness? Is great gain the only motivation to strive to be godly?

6:7 So the person with the most toys at the end of the day does not get to take their toys with them! I cannot help but think of Luke 12:13-21.

6:8 Would you, or most Americans, be content with only food and clothing? How much food and clothing do we need to be content?

6:9 Is there a difference between being rich and wanting to be rich? When it comes to being rich, how much food and clothing and wealth is enough?

6:10 It is not money but the love of money that is the root of all evil. How do we reconcile this and the preceding verse with capitalism?  Why must the desire to be rich lead one away from the faith?

6:11 I have a hunch this was not intended to be an all-inclusive, exhaustive list. Can a person be rich and still pursue all that is on this list?

6:12 I have problems with the “fight” metaphor.  Is there another metaphor that would suffice?  How about “Climb the good climb of faith?” Note that “witnesses” are again mentioned, as in Jeremiah 32:10.

6:13 Is it a problem that this is not Trinitarian? What good confession did Christ Jesus make before Pilot?

6:14 What commandment?  What does it mean for our Lord Jesus Christ to be manifested?

6:15 Who will bring this about?

6:16 What is “unapproachable light?” Who is it that no one has ever seen or can see?

6:17 Why do we not enjoy everything God provides us with? Are you surprised that the rich are not commanded to distribute their riches to the poor? What about Matthew 19:20-22 and Luke 18:21-23?

6:18 This sounds like the beginning of a stewardship sermon.

6:19 What life is not life?

LUKE 16:19-31

16:19 What is the significance of being dressed in purple?  There seems to be an almost seamless transition from the Second Reading to the Gospel. Note that the rich man is not identified by name.

16:20 Note that the poor man IS identified by name. Is this the same Lazarus that is mentioned in John 11?

16:21 Is this an example of trickle-down economics in the New Testament era? Why am I thinking of Matthew 15:26-27 and Mark 7:27-28?

16:22 Note that the poor man is carried away by angels while the rich man is simply buried.

16:23 What and where is Hades? Why was the rich man being tormented?

16:24 How does this verse feed into popular and contemporary notions of hell?

16:25 I am surprised Abraham referred to the dead rich man as “child.” I think this is just another example of the reversals we find in Scripture, reversals such as: the first shall be last and the last shall be first, the rich will become poor and the poor will become rich, and so on.

16:26 How could the rich man converse with Abraham if a great chasm exists between them?

16:27 Note that even in his torment the rich man refers to Abraham as “father.”

16:28 Is there any significance to the number five?

16:29 Moses and the Prophets represent two of the three divisions of the Hebrew canon. Should we not also listen to the Writings?

16:30 This sounds like prefiguration.

16:31 Do I detect some prejudice toward Judaism? Is there no hope or promise here? This sounds like an admonition only.

                                                                  

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.