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?

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