Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, July 15, 2012, the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (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. 

First Reading – 2Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

v. 1 Was one of those 30,000 named Indiana Jones?  Is there any significance to the number 30,000?

v. 2 Where was Baale-judah and what does the name mean?  What are cherubim, where were they, and how was God enthroned upon them?

v. 3 Who was Abinadab?

v. 5 What might this dance have been like?

v. 12b. I though the ark had been in the house of Abinadab.  Who was Obed-edom?  What took place in the verses, 6-12a, that are not part of the lectionary, that could explain this? Why make a sacrifice after six paces?  Why not four paces, or seven or eight?

v. 14 Déjà vu.  What is a linen ephod?

v. 16 Why might Michal have despised David?

v. 17 What is an offering of well being?

v. 19 What do you make of the giving of food?

Psalm - Psalm 24

v. 1 Is there any difference bertween “the earth: and :the world” or is this just an example of Hebraic poetic structure?

v. 2 Same question about “seas” and “riveers”?

v. 3 Ditto “hill of the LORD” and “holy place”?

v. 4 And again.

vs. 7-10 I think these verses were mis-numbered.  Where four verses exist, we ought to have six..  It is too late to change versification now, however.  How does the First Reading influence your reading and interpretation of this Psalm?

Second - Reading Ephesians 1:3-14

v. 3 This reads like a liturgical formula.

v. 4 This sounds like predestination.

v. 5 What is the difference between destined and predestined?

v. 6 Who is the “Beloved”?   Is this an allusion to the Song of Songs?

v. 7 How does blood bring redemption?

v. 9 What is the mystery of God’s will?

v. 10 Is this “all things” universalism?

v. 13 How is the Holy Spirit a seal that marks?

v. 14 What is “the pledge of our inheritance”?

Gospel - Mark 6:14-29

v. 14 Herod heard of what?  What does it mean for a name to become known?  I have a hunch it is more than Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame.  Could some of been saying that “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead” is there had not been a fertile soil for belief in the resurrection?


v. 15 Of all the Prophets, why Elijah?  Who were “the prophets of old”?

v. 17-29 Is this discourse really necessary for telling the Gospel story?

v. 20 Did anyone ever refer to Jesus as a “righteous and holy man”?

v. 29 Whose disciples?  This is not an example of déjà vu but prefiguring and sounds like language used to refer to Jesus after his death.

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.