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.
10:34 To whom was Peter speaking? Would anyone expect God to show
partiality?
10:35 What does Peter mean by “nation?” Is it a political, a
cultural, or an ethnic reference? What does it mean to fear God (See my
comments on Mark 16:8)?
10:36 What does Peter mean by “the people of Israel?” Is this the
Gospel?
10:37 What is the geographic relation of Judea to Galilee? Did the
message begin with John or with Jesus?
10:38 Peter now seems to expand on 10:36. What is the difference
between being anointed with the Holy Spirit and being anointed with power? What
does it mean to be oppressed by the devil? How is satanic oppression related to
satanic possession? How shall we handle possession and devil language in a
post-Christian and post-modern world?
10:39 What does it mean to be a witness? In 10:37 it was Judea and
Galilee. Now it is Judea and Jerusalem. Who are “they?” Why does Peter say
Jesus was hung on a tree (rather than a cross)?
10:40 Note the passive: God raised Jesus. Jesus did not raise
himself. What if God had not allowed him to appear?
10:41 Is this a proof text for the doctrine of predestination? What
is the significance of eating and drinking? Is “rose” a passive or active verb?
10:42 Jesus was ordained? What does it mean to judge the living and
the dead?
10:43 All the prophets? Really? Might Peter sometimes be prone to hyperbole?
ISAIAH
25:6-9
25:6 What mountain? Watch for the restatement of poetic parallelism.
Does “all people” open up an argument for universalism? Might this inform our celebration
of the Eucharist?
25:7 Why has a shroud been cast over all peoples? Is anyone else
thinking of the Shroud of Turin?
25:8 Note that 25:6 talks about food and drink and 25:7 talks about
death. Now we have death being swallowed up (like food is swallowed)! How will
God wipe away tears?
25:9 What day? Who will say this? The Lectionary apparently views
this as a passage that prefigures resurrection or in some way theologically
informs our understanding of resurrection. How would this passage have
functioned in the Hebrew Scriptures before Jesus?
PSALM 118:1-2,
14-24
I am hearing echoes from last Sunday.
118:1 By definition, does not “steadfast love” endure “forever”?
118:2 This reads like common liturgy, that is liturgy for use in
common, or public, worship.
118:14 What is the difference between strength and might? Does
“salvation” mean something different in the Psalms than it does in the New
Testament?
118:15-16 What is a victory song? Do you think that the Psalmist might
actually be quoting a Psalm that never made it into the Psalter? What is so
special about the “right hand” of the LORD? Is this an example of a bias
toward right-handedness?
118:17 What are the “deeds” of the LORD?
118:18 Are any punishments worse than death? Does this verse lend
itself to images of a vengeful, wrathful God?
118:19 What, and where, are the gates of righteousness?
118:20 What is “this?” Is the Psalmist referring to a metaphorical
gate or one of the gates leading in and out of Jerusalem?
118:21 What was the answer?
118:22 What stone might the Psalmist had in mind? How does this fit in
with the rest of the Psalm?
118:23 What were the people seeing?
118:24 What day has the LORD made? What day has the LORD not made?
1
CORINTHIANS 15:1-11
15:1 Is this anamnesis? When and where did Paul proclaim this? Why
did the Corinthians need reminding?
15:2 Are the Corinthians saved or are they being saved? Is salvation
an event or a process? How does one hold firmly to a message?
15:3 How did Paul receive what he is now handing on and when did he
receive it? Where does Paul begin the narrative? Did he leave anything
out? What were Paul’s scriptures?
15:4 Note the passive “he was raised”. Also note the second occurrence
of “in accordance with the scriptures” in this reading.
15:5 Why are the appearances to women not mentioned?
15:6 When did Jesus appear to more than five hundred? Is there are
problem caused by the fact that some have died?
15:7 Who is James? Is there a difference between “the twelve” of
15:5 and the apostles of this verse?
15:8 Why does Pail consider himself untimely born? I wonder if Paul
had even heard of Jesus before Jesus was raised.
15:9 While Paul considers himself the least of the apostles, he
still considers himself an apostle.
15:10 Is “I am what I am” an allusion to the tetragrammaton? Has this
phrase made it into popular English? Is Paul bragging about how he worked
harder than any of the apostles?
15:11 Who are they? Paul is claiming to be an apostle, but would the
other apostles have been so quick to claim Paul?
John
20:1-18
20:1 The Mark reading claims that there were three women who came to
the tomb after the sun had risen. Why the discrepancy? Who removed the stone?
How and when was it removed?
20:2 Which disciple is “the one whom Jesus loved?” Why did
Mary say “we”? Why the shift from the singular to the plural? Who were the
“they” whom Mary thought might have taken the Lord?
20:3 Why is the other disciple not named?
20:4 Was the other disciple faster, younger, or was Peter simply a
slow poke?
20:5 Why might the disciple not have gone in right away?
20:6-8 What do you make of Peter seeing, but the other disciple
seeing and believing? What did he believe?
20:9 How do you reconcile this verse with the preceding one? How
could they not have understood?
20:10 This reads like a rather anticlimactic verse.
20:11 It seems the Mary is alone, so why the “we” back in verse 20:2?
Peter and the other disciple were real jerks for leaving Mary all alone at the
tomb.
20:12 Would you recognize an angel if you saw one? Why had the angels
not appeared to Peter and the other disciple, or where they there all along but
Peter and the other disciple did not or could not see them? The Mark reading
mentions only one figure in white in the tomb. Again, why the inconsistency?
20:13 Do you hear an echo? Now it is “I”, not “we.”
20:14 If you saw Jesus, would you recognize him? How could Mary not
have recognized him?
20:15 I definitely hear an echo. Note that both angels and Jesus
address Mary as “woman: and ask her “why are you weeping?” Where would Mary
have taken the body of Jesus?
20:16 Does it make any difference that at first Jesus addresses Mary
as “Woman” but later addresses her by her name? Why does John translate
“Rabbouni”?
20:17 Was Mary attempting to hold on, or already holding on to Jesus?
As if Mary could hold on to Jesus after the ascension? How do we try to hold on
to Jesus when perhaps we shouldn’t? Does Jesus refer to his biological brothers
or his spiritual brothers? Is ascension a process or an event?
20:18 I think this makes Mary the first “witness” of the
resurrection. Does that not also make her the first evangelist?
MARK
16:1-8
16:1 Who was James? How does one anoint with spices?
16:2 I wonder what the women would have experienced if the women had
gone to the tomb before sunrise.
16:3 Why were they wondering who would roll away the stone? This
stone was most likely not a spherical stone but a round stone much like a stone
grinding wheel. How did they even now there was a stone blocking the entrance
to (or exit from) the tomb?
16:4 What does this suggest?
16:5 Who was this young man? What does the white robe symbolize or
suggest? Why was he sitting on the right side rather than the left or does it
not matter? If it does not matter, why is the detail included? Why were they
alarmed?
16:6 Why did the young man think the women were alarmed? Note the
passive voice. Jesus did not rise. Jesus was raised.
16:7 Why is Peter singled out? Why would the resurrected Jesus go to
Galilee? Had Jesus told the disciples that they would see him, resurrected, in
Galilee? Is this anything like a return to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry?
16:8 What does the verb “fled” suggest? Are terror and amazement the
same thing? Are you familiar with Rudolf Otto’s concept of the Mysterium
Tremendum (or Mickey Hart’s recording by the same name)? If they said nothing
to anyone, then how did the details of their experience become known? Did they
at least tell Peter and the other disciples, as they had been instructed to?
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
