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.
I have been posting Lectionary
Ruminations to Presbyterian Bloggers for nearly three years. I will attempt to continue posting through
the Readings for February 10, 2013, Transfiguration of the Lord. I may continue posting Lectionary
Ruminations to my personal blog, Summit to Shore, but
not here. If you have been following my Lectionary Ruminations on Presbyterian Bloggers,
please migrate over to my personal blog.
8:1 Is “all” hyperbole? What people gathered? How many Americans will think of Richard Nixon when they hear this? Geographically, where is the Eater Gate? What does it mean that Ezra was a scribe? What is the book of the law of Moses?
8:2 Was Ezra a priest, a
scribe, or both? Or were there two
people named Ezra? What about people who
could not hear with understanding? How
do we hear or not hear with understanding?
Is there anything special about this date?
8:3 This was not a twenty
minute reading of Scripture.
8:5Why did the people stand
up when Ezra opened the book?
8:6 What does it mean to
bless the LORD? I thought God usually
blessed individuals and communities, not the other way around. What is the meaning of first raising hands
and then bowing heads?
8:8 Who was reading, Ezra,
or others as well? Note that they were
not onlky reading but also interpreting.
This is beginning to sound like the reading of Scripture and the
ex[position of a sermon.
8:9 So Ezra was both a
priest and a scribe! Who were the
Levites, what did they teach, and how did they teach it? Why would people weep when they hear the
words of the law?
8:10 Who is speaking? Note
the sending of portions to those for whom nothing is prepared.
19:1 Are these spiritual heavens or astronomical heavens? What is the difference? What is a firmament?
19:2 Is there any
significance to the day being paired with speech and the night being paired
with knowledge?
19:3-4a What is this, a
conundrum?
19:4b-6 How can we apply
pre-Copernican poetry in a post-Copernican world?
19:7 So that is why the
Lectiionary pairs this Psalm with the First Reading!
19:7-9 How many synonyms of
Law can you identify in these verses?
19:10 Id one is familiar
only with a tradition of hellfire and damnation preaching; and an image of a
vengeful, wrathful, punishing God, how would these verses sound?
19:12 Is this a rhetorical
question?
19:13 Keep jerks away from
me and I will not be a jerk?
19:14 Pet Peeve Alert! Why
must so many preachers employ this as an exercise in personal piety before preaching? Does not a more communal Prayer for
Illumination serve better?
12:12 How can we hear old, tired metaphors in new ways?
12:13 What does it mean to
“drink” of one Spirit? Is Paul already
thinking of the Lord’s Supper or does this imagery suggest his later comments
about it?
12:26 Perhaps Congress
needs to hear this more than Sunday worshipers.
12:28-31 Is this meant to
be all inclusive or in any way hierarchical based on the order of those things
mentioned?
12:31 What are the greater
gifts (note that it is plural)?
4:14 Was Jesus earlier not filled with the power of the Spirit? Note that “a report” is singular, not plural. I wonder what the report was.
4:15 Praised by
everyone? Is this hyperbole?
4:16 Note that he had been
brought up in Nazareth but not necessarily born there.
4:18-19 What if Jesus had
been handed a different scroll? Who is
speaking within the context of Isaiah?
4:20-21 Would Jesus not
have spoken if the eyes of all had not been fixed on him?
4:21 What did Jesus mean by
this?
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 http://www.wyzant.com/Tutors/RidgewoodTutor page and follow the appropriate links.
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