Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, April 3, 2011, the Fourth Sunday in Lent (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 are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

1 Samuel 16:1-13
Out of Genesis and into 1 Samuel

v. 1 God calls the shots, and chooses the Kings.

vs. 1-2 I think these verses might read a little differently than three years ago in light of recent political events in the Middle East and North Africa.

v. 4 Why did the elders of Bethlehem tremble?

vs. 1-5 I think there is some fascinating political intrigue being alluded to in these verses. This sounds like nothing less than the makings of a coup d'état

vs. 6-7 Good advice both for political parties as well as Pastor Nominating Committees, or any nominating committee.

v. 10 Do you see any symbolism in there being seven rejected sons?

v. 12 How does this verse read when juxtaposed with verse 7?

v.13 What do you make of the spirit of the LORD coming mightily upon David AFTER Samuel anoints him?

Psalm 23
What can we say about the most popular passage in the Bible that we have not already said?

v. 1 Does it serve any theological and homiletically purpose to point out that “The LORD” is not a reference to Jesus but to the LORD God? How many Christians hear this Psalm as a Psalm about Jesus rather than a Psalm about God? The shepherd imagery draws upon verse 11 of the First Reading.

v. 4 Do you prefer the “darkest valley” of the NRSV or the “valley of the shadow of death” of the KJV and RSV?

v. 5 What does it mean to have one’s head anointed with oil and one’s cup overflowing. Can we really speak of overflowing cups when in the Eucharist we barely fill little plastic cups containing less than a shot glass? Can we speak of being anointed with oil when most congregations rarely, if ever, practice it? I argue for anointing with oil at the time of Baptism as well as the laying on of hands associated with prayers for healing and wholeness. If we practiced more anointing with oil, this popular Psalm might actually mean even more to some people.

v. 6 What does it mean to dwell in the house of the LORD all one’s life? Is “house of the LORD” a reference and/or allusion to the Temple, or something else?

Ephesians 5:8-14
v. 8 Can we put this verse in conversation with Psalm 23:4? What does it mean toliveas childreb of oflight?

v. 9 I love this verse. It sounds like something Gandalf might say to Bilbo, or Frodo might say to Sam.

v. 10 And how does one find this out? Does Paul have a scavenger hunt in mind?

v. 11 Can one expose works of darkness without shining light on them? I am thinking of Christian muckrakers, whistleblowers, and gadflies.

v. 12 What secret things do you think Paul has in mind? Id this a reference/allusion to mystery religions, or something else. Let us not forget the rumors that were spread about cannibalistic Christian rites when non-Christians were dismissed from the Eucharist.

v. 14 What is the author of Ephesians quoting here?

John 9:1-41
vs. 1-41 This is one really loonnngggg Reading? Are you going to shorten it? I think I will use only verses 1-12.

v. 2 What is wrong with this question?

v. 3 What is wrong with this answer?

v. 4 We?

v. 5 What is Jesus when he is not in the world?

vs. 6-7 Why was the man not healed until after he went and washed?

v. 11 Is there any significance to the construction “the man called Jesus”?

v. 14 Oh no! Not the Sabbath? Surely there must be a law against making mud on the Sabbath.

v. 16 Imagine that, religious authorities having a divided opinion! Let’s put it to a vote.

v. 17 A radical proposal - let the one whose life was changed have the final word.

v. 21 Plausible deniability or passing of the buck?

v. 22 Let us not forget that most scholars agree that John is the latest of the four canonical Gospels, perhaps here reflecting the historical split between Judaism and Christianity. What did it mean, what would it have meant, for a Jew to “be put out of the synagogue”?

v. 24 And what do we know?

v. 27 Sarcasm or acerbic wit? I think the Pharisees doth protest too much.

v. 28 Is this the only reference in Scripture to “disciples of Moses”?

v. 29 But we know where he has come from, don’t we?

vs. 30-33 An astonishing application of logic and astonishing testimony from who is turning out to be an astonishing man.

v. 33 Perhaps the key verse?

v. 34 The typical authoritative response to questioning and challenging authority.

v. 35 After 34 verses of narrative, “Son of Man” terminology is raised. Why the change? Here is the progression as I see it:
     v.    1 Rabbi
     v. 17 Prophet
     v. 22 The Messiah
     v. 33 Man from God
     v. 35 Son of Man

v. 38 And another step in the progression . . . . Lord.

v. 40 And the answer to this question is?

ADDENDUM
In the John Reading, there seems to be some relationship between blindness, sight, and sin. The man born physically blind receives his physical sight, while the Pharisees born physically seeing are spiritually blind and refuse to have their third eye opened. The man was not a sinner while the Pharisees are portrayed as sinners. I think this is the nature of John’s Gospel, often confusing us with the interplay of the physical and the spiritual as it compares and contrasts the two realms. This is pre-modern stuff. There is no mind/body split in the John. Both the spiritual and the physical seem to exist in the same world but operate on different planes of awareness.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, March 27, 2011, the Third Sunday in Lent (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 are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Exodus 17:1-7
v. 1 Let us not make no more of the name of the location than necessary. This is a geographical location, not a theological condition (even though it seems otherwise). Why would anyone camp at a place where there was no water to drink? Perhaps we can put this verse in conversation with the Gospel Reading.

v. 2 I empathize with Moses. What does it mean to “test the LORD”?

v. 5 Not all church leaders are blessed with such a staff. I am envious of Moses.

v. 6 Will Moses see God standing on the rock? What is so special about Horeb? Is it significant that Moses did this “in sight of the elders” rather than alone, with no one watching?

v. 7 I have yet to find a congregation named “The Massah and Meribah (put your denominational moniker here) Church” yet there are probably many which can rightly claim the name.

Psalm 95
v. 1 Is it too obvious to see connection between “the rock of our salvation” and the “rock at Horeb” in the first reading?

vs. 1-2 This sounds like a call to worship.

vs. 3-4 Depths, heights, sea and land: what else is there?

vs. 6-7 Still another call to worship. Why do most main line protestants hardly ever bow down and kneel? Are our knees too old and arthritic?

v. 8 This obviously points back to the First reading, which argues for an intentional linguistic and theological connection using the word “rock: in verse 1. Also, note that verses 1-7 were in the third person. With verse 8 the Psalm shifts to the first person and God becomes the speaker.

v. 11 Based on this verse, why might so many churches be struggling these days with declining membership and financial resources?

Romans 5:1-11
v. 1 I hate it when Readings from the Pauline corpus begin with “Therefore”. It means are missing the initial points of the argument. On the other hand, justification by faith is a keystone of protestant theology.

vs.2-3 Where is all this talk about “boasting” coming from? See also verse 11.

vs. 3-5 sufferings . . . endurance . . . character . . . hope . This argument reminds me of the concept of disciplined training in the sense of “no pain, no gain.”

v. 6 Who are the ungodly and what does it mean that Christ died for them (or us)?

v. 7 I confess that I have never been able to wrap my head around this one. It seems that it should be the other way around.

v.8 Following Paul’s argument, how did Christ’s death prove God’s love for us.Doe this statement assume we are the “ungodly” of verse 6?

v. 9 It seems that we are already justified but not yet saved from the wrath of God.

v. 10 Similarly, it seems that we are already reconciled but not yet saved.

John 4:5-42
vs. 5-6 Is there anything significant about the setting? What once happened at Jacob’s well?

v. 6 Note that in last week’s Gospel reading, and just prior to this in the Gospel, Nic came to Jesus by night. Now it is noon, when the sun is at its highest point in the sky and when it barely casts any shadows. Think about the temporal setting of this reading juxtaposed with the temporal setting of last week’s Gospel Reading. What is John trying to communicate by this juxtaposition?

v. 7 Can we consider this John’s version of the Parable of the Good Samaritan?

v. 13-14 I think this is the heart of the reading, a reading as deep and multivalent as Jacob’s well. Like last week’s Gospel Reading, I cannot help but interpret this reading, especially this verse, from a Jungian perspective.

vs. 16-26 What do these verses add to the story? Could we not stop reading at then of verse 15 and still get the point?

v. 23 What does Jesus mean when he says “the hour is coming”? What does it mean to worship “in spirit and truth”?

v. 26 Does this verse require us to read this passage in the context of and in conversation with all the other “I am” sayings in John, not to mention Exodus 3:14?

v. 29 Can we categorize the woman’s speech as a witness? Evangelism? Preaching? And the answer to this rhetorical question is?

vs. 31-34 First, Jesus was thirsty. Now his disciples are worried about him being hungry. Why all this emphasis on Jesus’ thirst and hunger when, I assume the point of the passage, is our spiritual thirst and hunger?

vs. 35-38 These verses sound a bit apocalyptic. What does it mean to enter into another person’s labor?

v. 39 So the woman was a witness and evangelist!

v. 40 Why do you suppose Jesus stayed, depending on your perspective, as long as two days, or as little as two days?

v. 42 Is this not what all teachers and preachers long to hear?

ADDENDUM
The John Reading is longer than most Gospel readings and I am considering shortening it by ending it at with verse 15. What do you think about this?

Grounded Scriptures: Responding to Catastrophe

The prophetic book of Joel is all about disasters.
It is kicked off dramatically by a huge locust invasion:
(1:4) What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten.

The first response is mourning for the loss of agricultural produce.
(1:5) Wake up, you drunkards, and weep;
and wail, all you wine-drinkers,
over the sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
And even mourning on the part of the land:
(1:10) The fields are devastated,
the ground mourns;
for the grain is destroyed,
the wine dries up,
the oil fails.
Just as the plants themselves wither, so does the joy of the people, shrunk to a bare ghost of itself. They cry, they wail, they mourn loudly as if to get God’s attention. Then they appeal to God’s kindness. The people do this first, calling for a solemn assembly (1:14), and then so do the animals:
(1:20) Even the wild animals cry to you
because the watercourses are dried up,
and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.
The locusts appear to attack again (or maybe Joel’s just being poetically repetitive) and then finally Joel reports God’s response to the frantic pleas for help, with words of consolation.
(2:21-23) Do not fear, O soil;
be glad and rejoice,
for YWHW has done great things!
Do not fear, you animals of the field,
for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
the fig tree and vine give their full yield.
O children of Zion, be glad
and rejoice in YHWH your God;
for God has given the early rain for your vindication,
and poured down for you abundant rain,
the early and the later rain, as before.

God’s blessing and consolation is seen in the return of things to their “natural order,” the seasonal rains as expected. God’s word is in the disruption, and God’s word is in the reconciliation.
The reconciliation part is easy to “get.” God loves us and wants to heal our world.
But it’s hard to get your mind around the idea that God may have deliberately SENT the army of locusts…(Joel doesn’t say why)… especially in a world recently rocked by natural disasters, where people say earthquakes are God’s punishment on our sins. I believe it is offensive and wrong to claim God punishes us like this, but nonetheless the idea is represented in scripture: Joel calls the locusts “God’s army.”

I think it is important to listen for God’s word in the world around us. We all know how to learn from experience, and that may be the best way to listen for God’s word. I mourn the tragic events in Japan without calling them divine punishment, but I still hope that perhaps we can hear God’s wake-up call that asks us to question the safety of nuclear power.
One lesson I think we can always learn from the major disasters of the earth is humility – knowing that the world doesn’t revolve around humanity. I kayak in Tomales Bay, which lies right on top of the San Andreas fault. If that fault were to open, the bay water (creatures & kayaks and all) would go cascading down right into it. This is a risk I take on my kayaking days. Although it is scary to think about, I know that my life is, cosmically speaking, smaller than the importance of the continental plates maintaining balance against one another. The continental plates are important, too. The ocean is important, and Good, even when it hurls vast quantities of water up our shorelines. Even Joel’s villain, the locust, is God’s own creature, and treasured in God’s sight. We live in fragile co-existence with many natural powers greater than ourselves – from locusts to tectonic plates. May we learn to live within our limits, to keep ourselves (and others) from perching on those risky edges, and to honor the goodness in all created things.

Welcome Mat

Good morning!  I apologize for not being around much over the past few weeks. RingSurf has been temperamental, and I've been distracted with a little spring nesting.  But I'm here today with good news: we have a new member of our webring! 

I'm thrilled to welcome Abbie Watters, who blogs about her journey out of Dallas and into RETIREMENT! at "No Longer Not Your Grandfather's CPA."

In her own words:

"I am an elderly Presbyterian Elder looking at life, the Church, grandchildren, and the weather. I started this blog when my husband and I were trying to sell our house in Dallas and move to Tacoma. It was originally just an outlet to moan and groan about the state of the housing market and our lack of success in selling. Since then it has evolved into my thoughts on everything that is going on around me, and since most of what I'm interested in is going on at the church, I have opinions about that. I report on Presbytery meetings I attend, and comment on whatever tempest in a teapot is currently brewing in the church. I also talk about my grandchildren and remember family times from the past with pictures dug out of shoeboxes. Last December I did a month-long series on "Reclaiming Joy", and currently, during Lent, I'm doing a series on "Words Matter" taking my cues from the Lenten study published by the National Council of Churches. I have also recently taken up the spiritual discipline of "Praying in Color" and occasionally post my doodles. Finally, I've embarked on a long overdue diet and I'm using the blog as accountability."

Welcome, fellow Presbyterian Blogger!

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, March 20, 2011, the Second Sunday in Lent (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 are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross-posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Genesis 12:1-4a
This is one of the shortest First Readings we have seen in awhile.

v. 1 How do you think the LORD said this, in a dream, a vision, or what? Note the spelling of the name “Abram”. The archetypal call narrative.

v. 2 In retrospect, it seems the LORD has delivered on this promise.

v. 3 This verse, alone, ought to be enough to combat anti-Semitism.

v.4 Why did Abram take Lot with him?

Psalm 121
v. 1 I recall there are various interpretations of this Psalm, one being the “nature’ interpretation that sees in the hills evidence of the LORD’s presence, the other that suggests this verse is setting up a comparison between the local mountain deities, which do not provide help, and the LORD, which does. One such diverse interpretations present themselves, how do we decide?

v. 2 Regardless of which interpretation you follow, this assertion still follows.

v. 3 What does it mean that our foot will not be moved? So what that God never slumbers?

v. 4 Is there any difference between “slumber” and “sleep”, or this simply an example of Hebrew poetic construction?

v. 5 What does it mean for the LORD to be a “keeper”? “Shade”? “Right hand”?

v. 6 I love this verse, but while I can recall some hot summer days when it seemed like the sun was striking me, I cannot recall the moon ever striking me

v. 7 Now here is a verse I can treasure!

v. 8 What is the “going out” and the “coming in” being referred to and does it make any difference that they appear in this order?

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
v. 1 Obvious connection to the First Reading. It would seem that Christians of non-Jewish background cannot claim Abraham as our ancestor, as Paul did.

v. 2 If, but he was not.

v. 3 What is Paul quoting? Where does Scripture say this?

v. 4 Except in the church!

v. 5 I like that trust is connected with faith, a theme emphasized in the PC(USA) A Brief Statement of Faith.

v. 15 How does the law bring wrath?

v. 16 What is “it”? Faith is connected with grace, and with grace there is a guaranty.

v. 17 Following Paul’s theological reasoning, perhaps we should be considered “Abrahamians” rather than “Christians”.

John 3:1-17
This passage is so nuanced and so multivalent, I am not sure where to begin. I prefer a Jungian interpretation, but does that preach?

v.2 What is the significance that Nic comes at night? I see a literary and theological connection with the woman at the well, at noon, and wonder if we can only interpret both passages in dialogue with each other. I suspect this is not the Royal “we”, so who else is Nic speaking for?

v. 3 Seeing from above, a bird’s eye, or angel’s eye view.

v. 4 Nic is confusing obstetrics and gynecology with theology.

v. 5 Jesus connects water and spirit.

v. 6 Jesus separates flesh from spirit.

v. 8 What is Jesus comparing everyone born of the spirit to: the wind, our hearing of the wind, or our not know where it comes from and where it goes?

v. 9 Thanks, Nic, for asking the question we have all been wanting to ask.

v. 10 Touché

v. 11 Who is the “we”. What do “we” know and what have we “seen”? What is the nature of religious and spiritual knowledge, when we are post enlightenment interpreters of pre-enlightenment scripture?

v. 13 Does this verse reflect a post ascension perspective?

vs. 14-15 Here is a passage worth exploring from a Jungian perspective. Consider the rod of Asclepius. Be sure to read the Hebrew scripture alluded to.

v. 16 no comment

v. 17 I wish some hell, fire, and damnation preachers would remember this verse.

ADDENDUM

I made a prior commitment somehow to tie this Sunday’s sermon in with Celtic Christianity. I think I will focus on the Psalm and the story of Patrick building the Easter Fire on Slane, across the valley from and in defiance of the High King of Ireland building his fire on Tara.

Grounded Scriptures: our ancestor the land

This is a small point but an important one.
Leviticus, again – sorry to you who are Leviticus-haters – here we have a concluding chapter, where the blessings and are laid out – the blessings as reward for good behavior, curses as recompense for unfaithfulness. Blessings are abundance, fruit, grain, and peace. Curses are enemy armies, pestilence and wild animals, and the wasting and withering of your crops and fruit trees. But even after many curses, the land is given a “sabbatical” to rest, and if the people repent, God’s favor will return:
Lev 26:40-42 But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors, in that they committed treachery against me and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me—so that I, in turn, continued hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

These fine fellows usually appear in age order: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Num 32:11, Dt 1:8 and throughout Deuteronomy, Kings, Chronicles, Psalm 105:9, I could go on and on). Some people look at this verse in Leviticus and say, ha, isn’t that funny, they reversed the order! Here it’s Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham.
Don’t laugh it off. There must actually be a reason for this. In the context of such a land-loving book, it is not enough to command gentle and holy treatment of the land. One must be reminded that God has a long-lasting and important relationship with the land. Here, in reverse order, they begin with the most recent covenant (jacob), move back to his father’s covenant (isaac), and HIS father’s covenant (abraham) – but the relationship older and more important than any of the above is God’s relationship to the land. There is no covenant between the land and God, but the land itself is a kind of covenant, a living, adapting, changing token of the relationship between God and humanity. For a people defined by their ancestors, to put God in the place in a lineage where Abraham’s father should be is a high honor indeed. It’s as if the land itself were their original ancestor, and God’s original partner in the relationship to humanity.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, March 13, 2011, the First Sunday in Lent (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 are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
2:15 This verse places us within the second account of creation. If you do not know what I mean by that, post a question.

2:15-17 What is so special about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Was it poisonous? Please note that there is no mention of what sort of fruit tree this was. It was not necessarily an apple tree.

3:1 Note that the antagonist is a “serpent” but not necessarily a snake. Is the serpant playing word games, or what?

3:2-3 The woman seems to offer an honest defense, although she seems to recount God saying more than we were originally told. Did God actually say all this, or has the woman embellished the original admonition?

3:4 Depending on what “death” means (Bill Clinton?), it seems that the serpent can be judged truthful. On the one hand, the man and the women will eventually die a biological death, but not immediately. On the other hand, I think it can be argued that the man and woman are about to die a spiritual death.

3: 5 So, knowing good and evil makes one like God? Is this why the woman eats of the tree, to be like God? Or simply to know good and evil?

3:6 It seems wisdom is associated with knowing good and evil. The amateur philosopher in me is beginning to squirm. How can we relate this story to Plato’s analogy of the cave?

3:7 The metaphor of “open eyes” representing knowledge seems more Indo-European than Semitic, yet this second account of creation almost certainly comes to us from the Semitic oral tradition. For those who appreciate a little risqué Biblical humor, here is a joke I learned from one of my college Religion Professors. Q: If Eve wore a fig leaf, what did Adam wear? A: (go to the Addendum of Lectionary Ruminations for the Answer)

Here is a more serious question. How much of our interpretation of this text is influenced by Augustine’s doctrine of original sin having been imposed upon this text and us for centuries. For a different perspective, look to Matthew Fox’s Original Blessing.

Psalm 32
v. 1 An appropriate Psalm if one reads the Genesis account within the framework of original sin. In light of this verse, I wonder: did the man and woman of the Genesis Reading sew fig leaves together and make loincloths primarily to cover their genitals or to cover their sin?

v. 2 I read no deceit in either the man or the woman of the Genesis Reading. Did you?

v. 3 How can someone “keep silence” while at the same time “groaning”?

v. 4 What does God’s heavy hand feel like? What do you and your congregation do with the “selah”? Do you ignore it, read it, or interpret it musically?

v. 5 Confession is good for the soul as well as the psyche. Does God forgive the guilt of our sin without forgiving the sin?

v. 6 How does the “therefore” leading to an admonition follow from an individual’s experience?

v. 7 What does it mean that God is a “hiding” place? Would Marx accuse believers of turning to opium as a way of dealing with trouble rather than trying to change the trouble?

v. 8 Who will do the instructing here?

v. 9 How do we read this and the previous verse in light of the Genesis reading? I have known a few horses and mules. Sometimes I myself can be an ass.

v. 10 From you experience, does it ring true that the wicked are tormented?

v. 11 I hear a Call to Worship in this verse.

Romans 5:12-19
v. 12 It does not seem right to begin a Reading with “Therefore”. We are not given the premise of the argument. What was it that Paul was saying? Is Paul speaking literally or in a mythical sense? If death spread to all because of sin, then did sin spread like a virus? Viral infection offers a different image than sin being passed on through procreation.

v. 13 So if we had no law, we would not be aware of our sin?

v. 14 What does it mean that death “exercised dominion”? Portraying Adam as “a type of the one who was to come” is a significant theological move. Why does Paul play?

v. 15 How is the free gift not like the trespass? What is the “free gift”?

v. 17 It sounds as if now, people exercise dominion if life, whereas before, death exercised dominion.

v. 19 Note the verb tenses.

What does it mean to think of and talk about Jesus as “the second Adam”?

Matthew 4:1-11
v. 1 I cannot help but read this account, and its parallels, without thinking of Martin Scorsese’s 1988 film adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ controversial 1960 novel “The Last Temptation of Christ”. Why would the Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness? What does the wilderness represent?

v. 2 What does the forty days and forty nights remind you of?

v. 3 what do you make of the fact that “the devil” and “the tempter” are apparently used interchangeably? Might the tempter be attempting to sow seeds of doubt?

v. 5 Was this a literal “taking”? What warning is there in the fact that the devil could correctly quote Holy Scripture?

v. 7 Is there more going on here than proof-texting?

v. 8 A week after the Transfiguration of the Lord, I might be hearing this verse a little differently then I would on any other Sunday.

v. 10 First it was the devil, then it was the tempter, now it is Satan. Should we read “Satan” as a name or a title?

v. 11 Here comes the Calvary, even if a little late. What does it mean that the angels came and waited on Jesus.

How do you understand this passage: as a description of real events in time and space or the description of a spiritual wrestling within Jesus, more of a visionary encounter or recounting?

ADDENDUM: The answer is: A hole in it.

Grounded Scriptures: Hosea and Gomer - Don't Try This at Home.

At SFTS we are “giving up silence for Lent” – at least in the particular context of silence about violence. This is important. I remember once having a conversation with a very conservative Christian, and domestic violence was mentioned, and he felt the need to clarify that we were talking about “problematic” or “unhelpful” violence. I assumed this was as opposed to the kind that “builds up” or “teaches” or “strengthens” the woman.
I kick myself when I remember this conversation. How did I not explode with the loud truth that all violence is harmful, and that there is never a good place for violence between adults in a loving relationship?
So today I say it, and I write it. There is simply no legitimation for violence against a spouse or loved one.
And I have to pick up some pieces of the Bible and deconstruct them. Because there you will find what is apparently a legitimation for domestic violence – at least in metaphorical terms.


The prophet Hosea and his “wife” Gomer.
Hosea 1:2-8.
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

The two of them go on to have children and to name them all kinds of prophetic names (“not pitied,” and “not my people” among them). In case this doesn’t tip you off that it’s a STORY and not a reality, I have good word from real Biblical scholars that “Gomer” is in no ways a woman’s name. It’s a man’s name, and “she” stands here for the nation of Israel (in the same way that her children do).

2:2-3
Plead with your mother, plead--
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband--
that she put away her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts,
or I will strip her naked
and expose her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and turn her into a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
2:5b-6.
For she said, “I will go after my lovers;
they give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”
Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns;
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.

The plot thickens. “She” is unfaithful. She loves the “lovers” (or foreign trading partners) who provide her with food. God proposes some wilderness solutions, to the point of starving her in the desert. These are interesting. They have real connotations of real economic situations – are the people of Israel remembering the God who fed them manna in the wilderness, or are they relying on the deceptive abundance of other kings?

No matter how we take the metaphor, it all looks like a nice case for the therapeutic values of violence. The [prophet’s wife / God’s people] is unfaithful to [the prophet/God], and so [the prophet / God] remedies the solution by making her suffer until she repents. Someone could try to preach it straight up: we are bad, so God will make us suffer until we repent. I’ll take that back. People DO preach that. Preachers legitimate suffering and violence all over the place. They call this a story of unconditional love, and say that the line “kill her with thirst” is spoken in love. They say that the sinful person must be loved back into obedience, through violent “tough love” and plenty of suffering.
You cannot preach this story without legitimating violence. So we must preach against it. We must tell people that this is horrific. That’s one of the problem with the detached, ungrounded way we read Scripture. We don’t even realize when it’s terrible, and we accidentally swallow a legitimation of violence. We read it all in “stained glass language” and couldn’t possibly hear it as sarcastic, or biting, or ironic. We’re blind to the harsher aspects of the text – and so we unwittingly accept the unacceptable.
Prophets speak from a place of desperation and urgency. The stakes are so high that they try to scare people into doing what is right. Sometimes this works. But even if it does, when it has costs as high as this we must not read such prophecy as sacred. It is indeed the story of God’s people struggling together with God and God’s prophets – but God is not the abuser, and violence is never okay.

Creation: It's all about us! Or not?

What is the proper motive for caring about the environment?

We have a responsibility to the earth. The Bible seems pretty clear about that. But is it

to care for or

to have dominion over or

to tend or

to subdue the earth?

As the list above suggests, we seem to have at least two different reasons that motivate us to care for the earth.

Some of us read Genesis and other Biblical texts and come to the conclusion that the creation has value and needs to be cared for by us because of what creation can do for us. Everything in the world has been given by God to us for our use. In this view the earth and everything in it exists for us. Things in the natural world have value because we can use them for our own good. Usefulness to humans is what gives things in nature their value. Certainly we need to use nature wisely, but that wise use is defined by our needs.

Others would read Genesis and others Biblical texts and say, while we certainly do use minerals, plants and animals to our benefit, these things have value and worth apart from their utility to us. In this view the natural world is loved and valued by God because God loves and values what God has created. Creation's worth and value come from God and are not located in usefulness to humans. Our use of natural resources must take into account the intrinsic value of creation.

On one level this is an interesting philosophical and theological question. But it also has real world implications. How many times have you heard someone say, "Why did God create mosquitoes? What good are they?" Since mosquitoes serve no readily apparent use for humans and in fact cause us discomfort and disease, why do they exist? What possible purpose could mosquitoes have? This is a trivial example but we seem to expect even the insect world to be "on our side".

There are of course, more serious examples. Should designated wilderness areas be off limits to any human use? Should there be designated wilderness areas at all? Can we require people to move out of wilderness areas? Should farmers be allowed to graze cattle on public wilderness lands? Should we open ANWAR to oil drilling? Is it important to have an endangered species list and to spend resources to preserve those animals? You can add you own questions to this list.

It seems to me, that before we tackle these quite difficult questions we need as a society, to spend some time thinking about the more basic question. So I'm asking, what is the proper motive for caring for the creation?

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, March 6, 2011, the Transfiguration of the Lord (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 are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Exodus 24:12-18
v. 12 While this reading stands on its own merits, I find it difficult to read it without looking for connections to the Gospel Reading and wonder how much we should read the Gospel account of the Transfiguration as a Midrash on this text. There are many similarities between the two texts, perhaps the least being the setting; that of a mountain. Why must Moses go up to God rather than God coming down? I can understand why “law” is singular, but why is “commandment” also singular?

v. 13 Note that that Moses does not go up to God on the mountain alone. He takes with him his assistant (and heir apparent), Joshua.

v. 15 What shall we make of the cloud?

v. 16 Shall we equate “the glory of the Lord” with the cloud? From personal experience, I know there is something “numinous” about being on a mountaintop, above tree line, when clouds enshroud the summit. What does the explicit linguistic connection to the creation account, i.e. six days and the seventh day, suggest about any theological connection?

v. 16 What does a devouring fire on top of a mountain look like? If this is what the people of Israel saw, what did Moses and Joshua see?

v. 17 How much is the forty days and forty nights a prefiguration of the forty years in the wilderness and how much is this a post Exodus influence on an earlier text?

Psalm 2
v. 1 A timely verse, considering recent world events.

v. 2 Who is the LORD’s “anointed”?

v. 4 I like this image of a laughing God, although we might debate the nature of the laughter.

v. 5 Zion, the holy hill, rather than the holy mountain Moses and Joshua ascended or upon which Jesus is transfigured.

v. 7 Why is “decree” singular? Is this the King speaking?

vs.8-9 A prophecy or promise, never, or not yet, fulfilled?

v.10 Sound advice in the world’s contemporary political and social climate.

v. 11 What is fear? When was the last time you served the LORD with trembling?

v. 12 Kiss God’s feet? Euphemistically? What is the symbolism being employed here?

Psalm 99
v. 1 The earth quakes but the people tremble (see Psalm 2:11). What are cherubim and where are they?

v. 3 What is God’s awesome name?

v.4 Here is a nice imagery of God appropriate for address.

v. 5 This sounds like a call to worship. Where and what is God’s footstool?

v.6 How does Samuel come to be included with Moses and Aaron? Who do you know who has cried to the LORD and God answered them?

v.7 A reference to the Exodus. Note that “decrees” and “statutes” are both plural.

v.8 An interesting juxtaposition: The forgiving God and the Avenging God. Can God have it both ways?

v.9 Another call to worship? Must we worship only at God’s holy Mountain? What and where is God’s Holy Mountain?

2 Peter 1:16-21
v. 16 What is a cleverly devised myth? How shall we read this verse as it relates to the mythopoeic nature of Scripture?

v.17 Did Jesus not have honor and glory before the event being recounted? What does the voice seem to echo?

v. 18 When Scripture relates the personal experience of the first followers of Jesus, what does that say about our own personal experience of the risen Christ?

v. 19 What is the prophetic message? How has it been confirmed? How can we do anything else than be attentive to a lamp shining in a dark place? What is the morning star and how does it rise in our hearts?

v. 20 This is why we interpret Scripture in community and why I invite, solicit, and encourage your comments responding to Lectionary Ruminations (hint, hint)

v. 21 Prophecy, like poetry and art, comes from somewhere other than the prophet, poet, or artist.

Matthew 17:1-9
v. 1 Six days later, after what? As Moses took Joshua, Jesus takes Peter, James and John.

v. 2 What does it mean to be transfigured? Has anyone else’s face ever shone like the sun? Has anyone elses clothes ever become dazzling white?

v. 3 What is the meaning of “Suddenly”? Why Moses and Elijah? What might they represent? Is there any significance to the fact that the three greats (Moses, Jesus, Elijah) are balanced by the three mere disciples (Peter, James and John)? It seems we have a dyad of trinities.

v. 4 Way to go Peter, interrupt a spiritual experience with mundane concerns. At that moment, I wonder if Jesus really thought it was “good” Peter was there. Why three dwellings rather than just one for all three?

v. 5 The text suggests a chronology of Jesus being transfigured before the bright cloud appeared. Note the reappearance of the word “suddenly.” What does the Gospel add or include that the Reading from 2 Peter did not?

v. 6 Were the disciples overcome by fear by hearing the voice or by hearing what the voice said?

v. 7 Was this a reassuring touch? Would there be any difference in interpretation if Jesus had said “Do not be afraid and get up.”?

v. 8 Where did Moses and Elijah go?

v.9 Why would Jesus “order” these three disciples to tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead”? Who is the Son of Man? Could this, indeed, be a misplaced resurrection appearance read back into the Gospel at an earlier point? How might this Reading prefigure the resurrection?

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 27, 2011, the Eighth 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 are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Isaiah 49:8-16a
v. 8 “Thus says the Lord” certainly leaves no doubt about whom Isaiah claims is speaking here. What is the “time of favor” and “day of salvation” being referred to? What does it mean that God has “kept” us and “given” us as a covenant to the people?

v. 9 What prisoners are being referred to? Are “the prisoners” the same as “those who are in darkness”? How can bare heights be anyone’s or anything’s pasture if it is bare?

v. 10 Is this a reference to only physical hunger and thirst? Who is the one having pity? How can springs of water serve as a guide?

v. 11 This is not mountain top removal mining being referred to here. Might this same thought be expressed by a phrase such as “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” (See Isaiah 40:3-4)

v. 12 Why might the north and south be mentioned, but not the poetic parallel east and west? Is there anything special about the land of Syene?

v. 13 How do the heavens sing and how does the earth exult? How do mountains sing? Why would the heavens and mountains sing and the earth exult because the LORD has (note the tense) comforted the LORD’s people and will have (note the tense) compassion on the Lord’sSuffering ones?

v. 14 Have you ever felt like Zion?

v. 15This is one of my favorite passages in Isaiah, alluded to by A Brief Statement of Faith line 49. What does it mean that God cannot forget us?

v. 16 So God has my name tattooed in the palms of God’s holy hands? How special!

Psalm 131
I think this might be the shortest psalm in the Psalter!

v. 1 The first two lines sound to me like a lament, but the third and fourth lines sounds more like confessions of a follow of Scottish Common Sense Philosophy.

v.2 In light of Isaiah 49:15, I cannot but help envision myself as a nursing child at the breast of a maternal God.

v. 3 What does it mean to “hope in the Lord”? (See Psalm 130:7)

1 Corinthians 4:1-5
v. 1 Who is the “us”? What does it mean to be “stewards of God’s mysteries”? What are “God’s mysteries”?

v. 2 What does it mean to “be found trustworthy?”

v. 3 Who is judging and who is being judged and for what?

v. 4 In other words, we have all committed sins we are not even aware of committing?

v. 5 So if we expect the Lord to be our judge, we should refrain from judging one another until Jesus returns and then truly allow him to be our judge? For PC(USA) Presbyterians, what does this say about the Rules of Discipline in the Book of Order?

Matthew 6:24-34
v. 24 What does this verse tell us about any Pastor trying to serve yoked churches? Oh, this is not about churches but God and wealth. Most of the wee-kirks I have served have not had much wealth, nevertheless, I think it is just as easy to worship the wealth they do not have as much as the wealth they might have.

v. 25 According to the rules of logic and rhetoric, how does “Therefore” follow from the verse preceding it? Who is speaking here? I am sorry Jesus, but in this post recessionary period of high unemployment, it is very difficult not to worry just a little. Yes, life is more than and clothing, but according to Maslow, until theses basic needs are met, it is difficult to focus on needs further up the hierarchy.

v.26 Yes, I think that to God I am more valuable than a bird, but as a teenager I also read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Quoting from THE SPARROW “Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your heavenly father’s knowledge; but the sparrow still falls.” (See Luke 10:29-30)

v. 27 Most Medical Doctors and Psychologists would probably argue that we actually subtract hours from our life by excessive worrying.

v. 28 But I and the people I am responsible for are not lilies.

v. 29 True, lilies in the field appear more glorious than Solomon or any fashion model, but Solomon could afford a great wardrobe and fashion models can afford Botox, cosmetic surgery, personal trainers, and to afford a wardrobe most of us could never hope to afford.

v. 30 I am glad St. Patrick’s Day is not too far away, because it sounds like I am going to be wearing green.

v. 33 If I strive first for the kingdom of God, can I still strive second for these other things?

v.34 Perhaps the Lord’s Prayer “give us this day our daily bread” and the story about daily manna can be instructive here. Frankly, today’s troubles are more than enough for today. I would like to put off some of them until tomorrow so that I do not have to worry about them until tomorrow.

ADDENDUM
I have specifically invited the congregation I serve at North Church Queens to read these ruminations before worship, as they may form the bulk of my Sermon, entitled “Lectionary Ruminations”. I will copy these ruminations and distribute them to worshipers before worship.

Grounded Scriptures: Waiting for due season

Strawberries are coming into season. At least in the warmer parts of California. As of this week, they are showing up at my farmer’s market, which is enough for me to say FAIR GAME! Of course I write this here with great trepidation, because my kind readers, being from all over the country, may hurl spite and jealousy in my general direction. But just think of what you can look forward to.
Strawberries from the grocery store just don’t do it for me. The white and mealy insides, the lack of juicyness, their ridiculous size – they smack of unnaturalness. The worst are the strawberries you buy in November. They’ve been flown from Chile or somewhere, and aborted prematurely off their vine so they can survive the flight before ripening (and rotting). But a local, fresh strawberry is something else entirely. Red all the way through, ripened thoroughly on the vine, intoxicating in their sweetness, and so delicate they will bruise in a minute, if you don’t eat them – nevermind flying them to another country. They are truly worth waiting for.

The Bible verse that most immediately comes to mind is Ps 104:27. “[all creatures] look to you to give them their food in due season; you open wide your hand and satisfy the needs of every living creature.”
The proper course of things, the rightness of seasonal changes, the appropriate time to receive and to eat – the goodness of waiting!

But a more ominous verse comes to mind as well. This is from the wilderness wanderings, Numbers 11:4-6: “The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”’
The truth is, we can get our cucumbers and melons any season of the year, but we get it at a price. We can have raspberries on our Christmas desserts, flown on little petrochemical wings from faraway lands, to save us from the boring manna diet of what CAN be grown (or stored) locally in the winter. We get it at a price: pollution across our skies, insecurity for our own local farmers, and mealy white strawberries.
The Israelites got access to their wonderful, Nile-irrigated vegetables while they were in Egypt, and got it at a price: their freedom. It is useless to pretend we do not also give up our freedom when we allow Dole and other multinational corporations to feed us, hook us in, teach us the attitude of entitlement that keeps the dollars flowing and the strawberries flying.

Barbara Kingsolver writes in vivid terms about our lack of (gastronomic) patience, which may be said to have negative effects on other realms of society. Patience and restraint, great virtues, are only applied selectively in our culture: “…browbeating our teenagers with the message that they should wait for sex, for example. Only if they wait to experience intercourse under the ideal circumstances (the story goes), will they know its true value. “Blah, blah, blah,” hears the teenager: words issuing from a mouth that can’t even wait for the right time to eat tomatoes, but instead consumes tasteless ones all winter to satisfy a craving for everything now. We’re raising our children on the definition of promiscuity if we feed them a casual, indiscriminate mingling of foods from every season plucked from the supermarket, ignoring how our sustenance is cheapened by wholesale desires.” (Barbara Kingsolver, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” page 31).

Dare to cut loose and be free. Cut loose from Pharaoh’s addictive provisions of food-with-a-price, and wait for the Real Deal. I promise (though I have perhaps not waited as long as you in colder climes will) that the strawberries will taste way better.

Presidents' Day

A couple of years ago, after a national election, the Sunday morning pastoral prayer at my church included mention of our newly elected national and local leaders. One young member stood up immediately, walked out of the sanctuary, and confronted the pastor afterward: asking how he could violate church and state by praying for the President. 

I think perhaps this individual missed the point. As Christians, isn't it our duty to pray for our communities and our leaders?  Isn't prayer part of discernment about the paths we choose to take?  Personally, I am uncomfortable with the idea of churches controlling governments (directly or indirectly) but am quite comfortable with churches lobbying for funding addressing issues they find important (e.g. poverty, hunger, AIDS, etc.)

It's one thing for a church to tell parishioners how to vote.  It's quite another to pray for our country and its leaders.

A few thoughts about Church and State:
U.S. Constitution .net (Jefferson's Wall of Separation Letter and the The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment)
And, of course, there's always Wikipedia (Separation of church and state and Separation of church and state in the United States)

Go Fish!: The Heart of the Matter

Missional author Reggie McNeal talks a lot about the need for churches to have an external focus, rather than an internal one. We as church folks need to turn our focus out into the communities around us.

The best reason we need to shift our focus: God cares about the people who live around us. What's on their hearts is on God's heart. And so it should be in ours.

Do you know what's on the hearts of your neighbors? Truly on their hearts. Are they worried about how to support their families? Stressed by caring for older parents? Struggling in relationships with loved ones? Passionate about education?

And this is key: are you guessing, or do you really know? Have you asked them?

You could ask your congregation what they think is on the hearts of their neighbors, but resist that temptation. Your results may come back skewed. We're on the inside looking out, our neighbors are on the outside looking in (if they're even looking inside of where we are in the church). We in the church need an outsider's opinion.

There are a number of ways to seek that opinion. Here's a few suggestions:

• Meet with the police chief, or some police officers in your community; what do they see as the main needs of the people they serve? What do they as officers care about? Is there any support the church could offer them?
• Sit down with some of the executive directors of your community's social service agencies and non-profits. What do they see happening in the lives of "the least of these"? Where could church members make the most difference?
• Talk to the principals of your local schools. What do kids and youth need most in your community? What's on the principals' wish lists for materials or services?
• Start frequenting your local shops and restaurants; get to know owners and workers and ask them what they've noticed in the community.

You could probably come up with more ideas. These information-gathering techniques needn't be formal or organized. Making it a priority to talk with people, asking them what's important to them, and then really listening to them, that's all that's needed. In fact, don't even get into problem solving mode with them; save that for another time.

Ask God to give you new eyes to see what he sees, and new ears to hear what he hears. Most of all, ask God to give you a new heart that opens wide to include the people who are on God's heart.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 20, 2011, the Seventh 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 are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.


Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
v. 2 Why should the people of Israel (and us by extension) be holy?

vs. 9-10 What do you know about gleaning? In addition to this being a form of social welfare, it probably also is good ecology.

vs. 11-12 So, contrary to last week’s Gospel Reading, it is ok to swear by the name of God as long as one swears truthfully?

v. 13 Let’s put these word on display on Wall Street and in the lobby of America’s mortgage lenders.

v. 14 Praise God for the ADA. I sometimes wonder what was going through the minds of people who designed and built church buildings before ADA. I fear we are now paying the price for their lackof awareness and foresight.

v. 15 As the economic disparity in America approaches levels that have not been seen since just before the Great Depression, this verse becomes ever more poignant.

v. 16 Good for kin and neighbor, but what about the stranger?

v. 18 The first part of his verse points toward the Gospel reading. The second part of this verse informs Jesus’ answer to the questions “Which is the greatest commandment?”

vs. 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17 Is the repetition of “I am the LORD” merely a literary device or does it suggest that these verse may have been used liturgically in a responsive fashion? Might the repetition of “I am the LORD” also serve a theological function?

Psalm 119:33-40
Do not forget that this is the second week in a row the Psalm has been an excerpt from Psalm 119, an acrostic.

v. 33 How does the LORD teach? Note that “way” is singular.

v. 34 Does understanding precede the keep of God’s law?

v. 35 Note that “path”, as “”way” in verse 33, is singular.

vs. 36-37 What is God’s responsibility and what is our responsibility for turning the heart?

v. 38 What is the “promise”? What does it mean to “fear”God?

v. 39 What disgrace does the Psalmist dread?

v. 40 Hey, God. Look at me. Look at me? I might not have kept all your decrees, but I wanted to. Give me life just for trying.

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
v. 10 If Paul laid the foundation, who is now building on that foundation? How many ways are there to build on an already established foundation?

v. 16 What is the foundation of “God’s Temple”?

v. 17 Is Paul talking about self-destruction, or destroying the temple of another?

v. 18 Paul again writes about being “wise” and becoming “fools”. But become fools in order to become wise? What is Paul doing with these word games and twists of logic?

v. 19 And where is this so written? Perhaps Job 5:13? If so, I find it ironic that Job is traditionally classified as “Wisdom Literature”.

v. 20 Again, perhaps Psalm 94:11?

v. 21 All things are yours? What is Paul talking about?

v. 22 So, in the end, all things are God’s?

Matthew 5:38-48
v. 38 And how many times have we not only heard this said, but cited out of context?

v. 39 It sounds as though Jesus is asserting his own authority over the law. What do you know about “turning cheeks”?

v. 40 Did Jesus live in a litigious society?

v. 41 Why would someone force you to go a mile?

v. 42 Give? How much? Loan? With our without interest?

v. 43 I have not heard this one very often, if at all.

v. 44 I actually find it easier to pray for those who persecute me than to love my enemies.

v. 45 True.

v. 46 Does Jesus mean to suggest that the only reason to love is to be rewarded?

v. 48 Is human perfection really a reachable goal?

Monday Blog Club - Valentine's Day!

1. PCMK Interim Blog: light for the journey. The Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco in ministry with Interim Pastor Jack Lohr. Recent posts include View from Session and Doing Demographics in addition to notes about upcoming programming, e.g. the Lenten "Supper and Study."
   
2. Peaceworks: Thoughts about what it means to pursue a life that includes faith, justice, peace, coherence, integrity, and sustainability. Recent posts include The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Speaks to Egyptian Protesters, This Is My Commandment (love one another), and Do You Know Who You Are? (a short, funny anecdote about humility).
   
3. Prayers4Today: Welcome to prayers4today, a place of silence, prayer, and solitude. These prayers may be used in worship settings or newsletters, with attribution please. Recent prayers (poems!) follow Matthew 4 and 5, including wordswordswords, halite, and baditudes.

This week in our adult Sunday School class we talked about how much pressure we (as individuals in our society) tend to place on VALENTINE'S DAY and how putting so much emphasis on one day sets us up for disappointment and our loved ones up for failure. We set forth this week in a spirit of loving compassion, dedicated to sharing patience and kindness with those closest to us (the same ones who frequently bear the brunt of our short tempers and outside frustrations).

Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours, and a special thank you to all of our bloggers!

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 13, 2011, the Sixth 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 are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore. http://summittoshore.blogspot.com/

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
v. 15 Life is paired with prosperity. Death is paired with adversity. How much is this a linguistic construction and how much is it a theological construction?

v. 16 Is this, by any chance, one of the longer passages in the Hebrew Scriptures? Are commandments, decrees, and ordinances synonyms used for emphasis or does each term refer to something different?

v. 17 Is the “not hearing” an allusion to the Deuteronomy 6:4?

v. 18 I find it interesting that while death will come quickly, the people will still enter and possess the land.

v. 19 Who can dispute with witnesses like heaven and earth? In verse 15, the pairing was life/prosperity and death/adversity. Now it is life/blessings and death curses. In verse 15 the scheme was A and A’, B and B’. Here, it is A and B, A’ and B’.

v. 20 Can we remain faithful to the text while adding Sarah, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, Bilhah, and Rachel?

Psalm 119:1-8
v.1 The First Reading establishes the choice. The Psalm outlines the rewards or affects of the better choice.

vs 1-8 Note the synonyms: (1) law, (2) decrees, (3) ways, (4) precepts, (5) statutes, (6) commandments, (7) ordinances, and (8) statutes (again). What can teachers and preachers learn from the Psalmist’s literary creativity in addition to the Psalmist’s theology? And I have not even mentioned that this Psalm is an alphabetical acrostic. Ah, but can dudes even feign great hyperbole? I judge keeping lovely muses nasty. Oh, please, quit reading sarcastic tomes. Unveil virtuous workers. Xanex yields zero.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9
v. 1 Picking up where we left off last week . . . are you a spiritual person or are you an infant in Christ? What about most of the people in the Christian community in which you find yourself?

v. 2 As a preacher or teacher, do you serve milk, a Gerber’s Gospel, or a meat and potatoes Gospel?

v. 3 How much jealousy and quarreling exist in your congregation?

v. 4 To whom do you belong? Who are the Paul and the Apollos in the communities we know?

v. 5 Not that Paul, in this verse, sets himself on equal footing with Apollos.

v. 6 Are you a planter or a waterer?

vs. 6-7 God may give the growth, but who is the reaper?

v. 8 What wages are appropriate?

v. 9 Note the “we/you” language. Where do you fall in this dichotomy?

Matthew 5:21-37
v. 21 “It was said to those of ancient times” sounds like something in the past that has no or little influence in the present.

v. 22 Judgment, the council, the hell of fire. This sounds like increasing levels of punishment.

vs. 23-26 I think I might skip over these verses during the stewardship drive.

v. 27 This is beginning to sound formulaic (see v. 21).

n. 28 No comment. Instead, I refer you to former President Jimmy Carter.

v. 29-30 If we do not take this literally, then what is the meaning of the figurative language?

v. 31-32 Note the slight change in the formulaic introduction. Why do conservatives, evangelicals, and literalists tend to overlook this passage when it comes to G-6.0106b?

v. 33 More formulaic introduction.

vs. 34-37 How do we interpret this verse when we are required to take a civil oath, as in an oath of office or court of law.

ADDENDUM

Tomorrow, February 11, 2011, marks the one-year anniversary of my contributing Lectionary Ruminations to Presbyterian Bloggers. Two previous contributors authored this blog column before I volunteered to pick up the reigns after they had laid them down. I find it hard to believe that a full year has passed since then. A year of Lectionary Ruminations translates into fifty-two blog posts, or ruminations on 204 passages of Scripture. More recently, I have been cross posting Lectionary Ruminations on my personal blog, Summit to Shore. Summit to Shore is a rather eclectic blog through which I offer Theological and philosophical reflections on everything between summit to shore, including kayaking, climbing, religion, philosophy, theology, politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive New York City Presbyterian Pastor.

Grounded Scriptures: created in God's image

There's something difficult in the word "dominion" which the humans are commanded to exercise in most translations of the Bible: "have dominion over the fish and the birds and the animals." It should be translated somewhere on the fine line between "stewardship" and "domination," because its meaning is about midway between, but the problem is that the word resembles one much more than the other. So I take Ellen Davis' recommendation to call it "skilled mastery" (from her full article which you can download right here) which indicates that our rule is not arbitrary or forceful. In order to take good care of it, we must have knowledge and respect for it.
Also, the "be fruitful and multiply" is mostly quoted with reference to humans, but the fish & birds & all are also commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Let us not forget our kinship.

A reading modified from Gen 1:26-28

God said, “let us create humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them exercise skill and mastery over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind, Adam, (earthling), in God’s image.
In the image of God,
God created him,
Male and female,
God created them.
In much the same way God had already blessed the animals, God now blessed humankind, and God said, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and exercise skilled mastery over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

AND A PRAYER.
Great God, you have created us in your image,
and imprinted upon us your attributes.
You have created us to be creators,
you have created us to be creative.
Deep in our souls is imprinted
your limitless vision of this world’s fertility and abundance;
sharp on our hearts is your call
to exercise good stewardship and loving care over what is entrusted to us.
We feel the true goodness of the world you have created
And the particular goodness of our little corner of the world.
We are standing on holy ground; ought we to have removed our shoes?
Great God,
Into your servants breathe the inspiration of your holy spirit,
Scrub away whatever is covering your image hidden inside.
Allow us to pray and to think and to speak from that place of creativity, of wisdom, of love and tender care.
Be in our work, and in our play. Be love in our hearts today.
In the strong name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Monday Blog Club

Welcome to a new meeting of the Monday Blog Club! Today's three blog highlights are:

1. Occasional Sightings of the Gospel by Thom M. Shuman with "quirky, sometimes irreverent, hopefully relevant reflections on where God is working in the world and in our lives. www.ionabooks.com has published "The Jesse Tree" (Advent devotions) and www.csspub.com has published "Cradled in God's Grace", liturgies for Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary. I post liturgies @ www.lectionaryliturgies.blogspot.com & prayers @ www.prayersfortoday.blogspot.com"
   
2. Onesimus Online: history, theology, culture, the church, and other dangerous stuff by Joseph Black. "I'm presently a lecturer at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (part of Africa International University), and a member of the Theological Studies Department, of which I am the Acting Head of Department. I've studied history at Duke University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and the University of Cambridge. But for some reason the powers that be have me teaching theology. Go figure. My spiritual journey has taken me from the American dream to Presbyterianism to Charismatic Presbyterianism to really Reformed Presbyterianism to irenic Evangelicalism to the edge of the abyss. I am now a member of the Alexandrian Orthodox cathedral Church of Sts Cosmas and Damien in Nairobi, Kenya."
   
3. Pastor James: Thoughts on faith, musings on Scripture, plus audios and videos of sermons from Boulevard Presbyterian in Grandview Heights, an older suburb just a couple miles from downtown Columbus, OH. Add your two cents to the mix. By James Sledge, "the pastor of Boulevard Presbyterian in the Grandview Heights suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Before going to seminary in my mid-thirties, I was a corporate pilot."

We are indeed an interesting, varied bunch. Have a wonderful (and warm) week!

Chimps and Humans

What is it that makes us human? If you ask people that question, often their answer describes ways they believe we are different than animals. We have language, we use tools, we have culture, we transmit knowledge from one person to another, we are self aware, we have souls. Until fairly recently scientists would have given similar responses to that question as would theologians.

Every now and again one runs across something that makes one wonder about the differences between humans and other animals. Consider this report in Science Daily about the actions of a group of chimpanzees toward a dying member of their group.

In the days leading up to the chimp's death, the group was very quiet and paid close attention to her, the researchers report. Immediately before she died, she received much grooming and caressing from the others, who appeared to test her for signs of life as she died. They left her soon after, but her adult daughter returned and remained by her mother all night. When keepers removed the mother's body the next day, the chimpanzees remained calm and subdued. For several days they avoided sleeping on the platform where the female had died, even though it was normally a favored sleeping spot, and remained subdued for some time after the death.

This week Science Daily published another story describing observations about the actions of mother chimpanzees after the deaths of their infants. While many animals recognize that a dead animal is different than an alive animal, the reactions described in these two articles describes something more. They describe the recognition of the death of a particular individual and what appears to be a sense of loss or mourning.

James Anderson, one of the researchers whose work is described in the article has this to say about his observations.

"Several phenomena have at one time or another been considered as setting humans apart from other species: reasoning ability, language ability, tool use, cultural variation, and self-awareness, for example, but science has provided strong evidence that the boundaries between us and other species are nowhere near to being as clearly defined as many people used to think,"..."The awareness of death is another such psychological phenomenon. The findings we've described, along with other observations of how chimpanzees respond to dead and dying companions, indicate that their awareness of death is probably more highly developed than is often suggested. It may be related to their sense of self-awareness, shown through phenomena such as self-recognition and empathy towards others."

The previously sharp distinctions between other animals and humans are blurring as we learn more about other animals.

The knowledge we have gained about the complexity of animals' lives is fascinating and gives us much to think about as we ponder who we are as human beings and what our relationship with other animals ought to be.

What makes us human?

What I want to suggest today, is that what makes us human is not our biological uniqueness. What makes humans distinct from other animals is our particular vocation, our calling to care for other animals and God's creation. As Christians we are called to love God and to love our neighbor. Who is our neighbor? The answer to that question may cross species lines.

There is, of course, much more to be said about all this- too much for one blog posting. But lets talk about it via the comments.

*****

This is an area that is of interest to me. I have written several posts about these ideas on my blog, if you would like to read more.

And an apology: For some reason, the block quote tool and I have "issues" and the formatting after the block quotes doesn't return to normal. I was able to make a distinction in font and font size that I hope makes it clear where the block quotes begin and end and my comments begin.