Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, December 30, 2012, the First Sunday after Christmas (Year C)

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. 

FirstReading – 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

2:18 What does it mean to minister before the LORD?  What is an ephod?

2:19 How old was Samuel that is robe was “little”?  What is the yearly sacrifice?

2:20 This is starting to sound sexist: Samuel’s father is named but not his mother!

2:26 How does one grow in favor with the people, let alone the LORD?  Does “stature” refer only to Samuel’s physical size?

Psalm- Psalm 148

148:1-2 These verses could easily be adapted for use as a Call to Worship.  Note, however, that it is the angels and the heavenly host, not humans, being called to worship.

148:3 The Hubble Telescope might offer us images of shining stars praising the LORD.

148:4 What waters are above the heavens?

148:5 Which creation myth does this allude to?

148:6 What comes to your mind when you think of sea monsters?

148:7 Shall we think of tornadoes and hurricanes as praising God even as they leave death and destruction behind?

148:11 After numerous physical features and living creatures are named, humans finally appear.

148:12 How does the presence of both “men” and “women” speak to patriarchy?  How does the presence of both “old” and “young” speak to a church that is graying and which has more or less failed to attract a younger generation?

148:13 What is the name of the Lord and how can n it be praised if it is not to be pronounced?

148:14 What is a horn and why would the LORD one for the people up?

SecondReading – Colossians 3:12-17

3:12 What does it mean to be God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved?  Is this about election and/or predestination?  Is there anything special about this list of five virtues?

3:13 This may be one of the hardest pieces of advice to the church follow.  If more church members were to put this into practice, the church would be much better off.

3:14 Love is a glue?  I am not a musician, so I would love some musical reader to explain perfect harmony.

3:15 Be thankful for what?

3:16 What is the word of Christ?  I thought Christ was the Word?  To teach and admonish one another means to be taught and admonished as well as to teach and admonish.  What is the difference among psalns, hymns, and spiritual songs?

3:17 Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus?

Gospel– Luke 2:41-52

2:41 Whose parents? I find it interesting that neither of the parents are named.

2:42 Is there anything special about being twelve years old?

2:43 How could Jesus’ parents not know that tier son stayed behind?

2:44 I wonder what other relatives were among the group.  Do you think that Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John were among them?

2:45 If you do the math, Jesus’ parents probably arrived back in Jerusalem approximately 36 hours after they left.

2:46 Were the three days after they originally left Jerusalem, or three days after their return?  Is this a literary prefiguration of and/or literary allusion to the crucifixion, death, and resurrection?

2:46 I wonder what questions Jesus was asking.  When was the last time a twelve year old asked you questions about your teaching?

2:47 His answers?  I thought Jesus was the one asking questions, not the one answering them.

2:48  How did Jesus treat his parents?  Was the mother of Jesus scolding him?

2:49 Is this another example of foreshadowing?  Do you think this is at all cryptic?  Was Jesus talking back to and sassing his mother?

2:50 Every twelve year old’s point of view!

2:51 Was Jesus not obedient before this time?  What do you treasure in your heart?  More specifically, what memories of your child or children, or any child, do you treasure in your heart?

2:52 Do you remember 1 Samuel 2:26?  Would we at all be inclined to juxtapose these two verses if they were not artificially paired by the Lectionary?  If Jesus was the Word made Flesh, how could Jesus increase in wisdom, let alone in divine favor?

ADDENDUM

How long after the fact do we include particular concerns in the Prayers of the People?  It will have been over two weeks, and the third Sunday by the time December 3o rolls around, since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut.  How many Churches will continue to include prayers for Newtown, or even those affected by hurricane Sandy, in their Sunday public prayers?  Here is a link to the first petition of my Prayers of the People the Sunday after Newtown.  The petition is original.

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.

I have been posting Lectionary Ruminations to Presbyterian Bloggers for nearly three years.  I will attempt to continue posting through the Scripture Readings for February 10, 2013, Transfiguration of the Lord.   I may  but not here.  If you have been following these posts, please migrate over to my personal blog, Summit to Shore.