Lectionary Ruminations for for Sunday, November 27, 2011, the First Sunday of Advent (Year B)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references may be linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross-posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore. 
Isaiah 64:1-9
v. 1-9 In the NRSV this Reading is formatted as poetry rather than prose.

v. 1 Why is the tearing open of the heavens associated with the coming down of God?

v. 2 Both images seem to suggest something happening quickly; not instantaneously but not slowly.

v. 3 Hey God, remember when?

v. 4 So there ARE other gods, but gods who do not work for those wait for them?

v. 5 I find the order interesting. Did we sin because God was angry? Did wetransgress because God hid from us?

v. 6 I like the leaf imagery followed by the wind imagery, the wind blowing fallen dry leaves here and there.

v. 7 So it is God’s fault that no one calls on the divine name because God has hidden the divine face from us?

v. 8 Yet? From an early church perspective, God’s work is not done until is is fired by the Holy Spirit.

v. 9 You can be a little angry, God, but please, do not be exceedingly angry. You can remember my iniquity for a little while, but please, not forever. Do not be too hard on us, God, after all, we are your people.

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
v. 1 An interesting first verse in light of last week’s Readings. What are cherubim and where would you find them?

v. 2 Who are Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh and why are they mentioned when no one else is mentioned except Joseph?

v. 3 What does God’s shining face represent?

v. 4 Is God angry with people’s prayers rather than the people who pray those prayers?

v. 5 is this Anti-Eucharistic imagery?

v. 7 I think I am hearing a refrain.

v.17 Who is at God’s right hand?

v. 18 Is this a quid pro quo?

v. 19 Is this déjà vu all over again.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9
v. 3 This is always a good way to begin a letter.

v. 5 What does it mean to be enriched in speech and knowledge?

v. 7 What does it mean to lack in a spiritual gift? What is Paul referring to when he writes about “the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ?”

v.9 Here is a good Reformed word – “called”.

Mark 13:24-37
v. 24 It takes only the first four words to make this reading sound apocalyptic.

v. 25 This verse always reminds me of a passage in C. S. Lewis’ “The Last Battle” in the Chronicles of Narnia.

v. 26 What is it about clouds?

v. 27 How many times does Scripture mention the four winds? The mention of “the four winds” reminds me of Native American and Pagan spirituality.

v. 28 I find this verse enhanced by personally experiencing the need to pick and eat figs soon after they are ripe because they will not stay ripe very long before they will spoil on the branch.

v. 30 How do we interpret this verse about 50 generations later?

v. 34 What does it mean to be spiritually awake?

ADDENDUM
This Sunday is the First Sunday in Advent and the first Sunday in Liturgical Year B – the year of Mark’s Gospel.

In addition to serving as the half time Pastor of North Church Queens and writing Lectionary Ruminations, I also tutor part time. If you or someone you know needs a tutor, or if you would like to be a tutor, check out my WyzAnt page and follow the appropriate links.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, November 20, 2011, Christ the King (Reign of Christ) Sunday (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references may be linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross-posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
v. 11 How did God lose these sheep in the first place?

v. 13 How can one not read this and be a Zionist?

v. 16 God will search out and rescue the 99% while punishing the 1%?

v. 20 I think it is time for me to eat less, exercise more, and drop a few pounds.

vs. 23-24 David, King of the 99%!

Psalm 100:1-5
v. 2 If we are to worship God with gladness, why do so many worship services feel like a funeral and so many worshipers act like they are mourners?

v. 3 How many people in the pew understand the nuance of “LORD” and “God”? Does this verse justify this Psalm being paired with the Ezekiel Reading?

Ephesians 1:15-23
v. 15 How might Paul have heard of the Ephesians faith?

v. 17 What is “a spirit of wisdom and revelation”?

vs. 18-19 I love these phrases: the riches of his glorious inheritance, the immeasurable greatness of his power.

vs. 20-21 Yes, this Sunday is Christ the King.

Matthew 25:31-46
v. 31 How much do we need to know about the theologically loaded title “Son of Man” to responsibly interpret this passage? Does the mention of a throne justify this being the Gospel Reading for Christ the King?

vs. 32-33 The Gospel’s “sheep and goats” juxtaposed with the “sheep and sheep” of the Ezekiel Read seems to offer us a mixed, or confused, metaphor.

vs. 35-45 How do members of the Tea Party and the 1% read these verses.

v. 46 Must there be eternal punishment?

ADDENDUM
The conclusion of another lectionary cycle brings us to Christ the King. Do these Readings say anything new to us in 2011 that they did not say in 2008? Does the emergence of both the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement, not to mention the fact that we are already into the campaign cycle of the next Presidential election, influence how we interpret these Readings?

In addition to serving as the half time Pastor of North Church Queens and writing Lectionary Ruminations, I also tutor part time. If you or someone you know needs a tutor, or if you would like to be a tutor, check out my WyzAnt page and follow the appropriate links.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, November 13, 2011, the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references may be linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross-posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Judges 4:1-7
v. 1 Here we go again. This is beginning to remind me of déjà vu all over again. How many times did the Israelites do what was evil in the sight of the LORD? How many times do we?

v. 3 This is beginning to sound like a broken record. How many times do we cry out to the LORD, asking the LORD to get us out of trouble we have gotten ourselves into?

v. 4 What blasphemy, a female prophet! With regard to male prophets, how often are we told who their wife was?

v. 5 Do you think the Palm of Deborah was known by that name in Deborah’s day?

v. 6 How dare Deborah speak for God!

Psalm 123:1-4
v. 1 I though God was enthroned on the cherubim. Are the cherubim in heaven or in the Temple?

v. 2 So God is a master and maid while we are servants and mistresses. While the Israelites in the Judges passage cry to the LORD, the psalmist simply looks to the LORD. Maybe those eyes were sad, droopy puppy dog eyes that the LORD simply could not resist.

vs.3-4 Are the main complaints contempt and scorn?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
v. 1 What times and seasons? If nothing needs to be written to the Thessalonians about times and seasons, then why does Paul bring it up?

v. 2 Is this an example of chiastic structure: “day lord / thief night”?

v. 3 Since I am of the male persuasion, I chose not to comment on this verse. If there is anyone of the female persuasion out there who would like to comment, please do so.

vs. 4-5 There is a lot of “light” and “darkness” to keep track of. Beware of racial stereotypes.

v. 6 Since the overriding metaphor is staying awake, why does Paul add “sober”?

v. 8 Does the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of salvation, change the metaphor? Note that a breastplate and a helmet are entirely defensive rather than offensive.

v. 10 Is Paul using “sleep” to mean more than one thing?

Matthew 25:14-30
v. 14 “It is as if” make this what? What is “it”?

v. 15 What is a talent? Ability to do what?

v. 18 What were the abilities of the first and second slaves? What was the ability of the third slave?

v. 21 What does it mean to enter into the joy of the master?

v. 24 Maybe the third slave said too much in addition to not doubling the talent.

v. 27 If we take this too literally, it begins to break down seems illogical.

vs. 28-29 I think I will not read these verses aloud anytime soon in Zuccotti Park.

v. 30 Have we heard anything like this before? Where?

ADDENDUM
In addition to serving as the half time Pastor of North Church Queens and writing Lectionary Ruminations, I also tutor part time. If you or someone you know needs a tutor, or if you would like to be a tutor, check out my WyzAnt page and follow the appropriate links.

"God According to God"

There is no shortage of books on the topic of science and religion, there is much to chose from. One of my goals with these monthly posts is to suggest resources that will further the conversation between science and religion. Many Christians (myself included) don't read much outside our own faith tradition. As a way to begin to remedy that oversight, I want to bring Jewish author Gerald L. Schroeder's book, God According to God: A Scientist Discovers We've Been Wrong About God All Along to your attention. Schroeder is a physicist (he has a Ph.D. in physics and earth science from MIT) and a bible scholar. He has spent much of his professional life searching for and exploring the spiritual and physical unity in the world.

Schroeder's students, like many of us, wonder if God is in control why isn't the world perfect? He suggests that the problem isn't with God, as that question assumes. Rather the problem is with our "stunted perception of the biblical God that we imbibe in our youthful years".

So we grow up retaining this childhood notion of an all-powerful, ever present, ever involved, never erring Creator. Unfortunately, that image fails when as adults we discover that the facts of life are often brutally at odds with this popular, though misguided piece of wisdom.... By abandoning preconceived notions of the Author of creation and replacing them with the Bible's description and nature's display of God- we will learn about God according to God.

I'll confess that I have not finished reading this book, but so far I'm enjoying it immensely. Reading Jewish commentaries on Old Testament texts have always been enriching experiences for me. I am finding the insights of a Jewish scientist on the relationship between science and religion equally enriching. You and I may or may not agree with all of Schroeder's ideas but our thinking about science and scripture and God will be expanded and enhanced by them.

What interfaith or non Christian resources have you found helpful as you think about the relationship between science and religion?

Thanks to the Grand Dialogue Book discussion group for introducing me to this book.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, November 6, 2011, the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references may be linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross-posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
v. 1 What do you know about Shechem? The listing of “elders, heads, judges, and the officers” suggests a rather organized society, just forty years after the Exodus.

v. 2 Why does Joshua point back one generation to Terah rather than to Abraham?

v. 14 What is this talk about putting away other gods all about?

v. 15 Three choices: Serve the gods our ancestors worshiped before God called Abraham, serve thelocal gods of the Amorites, or serve the LORD.

vs. 14-18 Is this about monotheism, or about recognizing that of all the gods, only one, the LORD, is the one who has saved us?

v. 19 “You cannot serve theLORD”?

v. 23 Did the people actually have statues of gods, or is this a metaphorical “put away”?

v. 25 Is this the third covenant? What statutes and ordinances are being referred to?

Psalm 78:1-7
v. 1 Who is the speaking?

v. 2 What are “dark sayings from of old”?

v. 3 This sounds like a reference to the oral tradition.

v. 4 Why might you want to hide dark sayings from children?

v. 5 Is the speaker not a child of his/her ancestors?

vs.1-7 This Psalm reads like a call to educational ministry and mission. What would this psalmist say about the state of Biblical literacy, or lack of, in today’s church?

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
v. 13 How might we be uninformed?

v. 14 What does Paul mean “God will bring with him”?

v. 15 What is this all about?

vs. 16-17 Does this presuppose a pre-Copernican three tiered universe? How do we translate this into modern cosmological terms?

v. 18 How are these words encouraging? See item #16 on page 914 in the PC(USA) Book of Common Worship. See also page 949.

Matthew 25:1-13
v. 1 A kingdom parable?

v. 2 Why ten bridesmaids? Why five foolish and five wise?

v. 5 What is this about “delay”? Note that both the wise and the foolish become drowsy and fall asleep.

v. 6 Why midnight? Who shouted?

v. 9 What about sharing?

v. 12 This sounds curt.

v. 13 This point does not fit. Based on what precedes, the point ought to have been “Be prepared. Keep a supply of oil.” Otherwise, the wise bridesmaids should not have slept while the foolish bridesmaids did sleep.

ADDENDUM
In addition to serving as the half time Pastor of North Church Queens www.northchurchqueens.org and writing Lectionary Ruminations, I also tutor part time. If you or someone you know needs a tutor, or if you would like to be a tutor, check out my WyzAnt page and follow the appropriate links.