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.
2:10
Having taught a Psychology/Philosophy course on Death and Dying, I hate
euphemisms for dying and death, even
Biblical ones. As Christians, we are
called, and equipped, to look death in the face and call it by name.
2:12 To
whom can Solomon give credit for the firmly established kingdom he inherited?
3:3 What
does it mean to Love the LORD? What were
the statutes of David? Note the
plurality “high places”. Where, and what
were, these high places?
3:4 What
was so special about Gibeon?
3:5 If you
want to know more about biblical dreams and dreaming, read Morton Kelsey and
John Sanford.
3:7 how
old was Solomon when he experienced this dream?
3:9 Wasn’t
the sin of Adam and Eve that they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil? What separates Solomon’s request
from their action?
3:12 I am
reminded of the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion in the Wizard of Oz. The Great Oz did not give then what they did
not already have. Solomon, in making his
request, had already demonstrated that he possessed a wise and discerning
mind. I think Socrates would have
approved.
3:13 God
gives Solomon riches and honor.
3:14
Solomon must earn long life.
v. 1
Alleluia. But could dis even fulfill
good, holy, instructional, jovial, kaleidoscopic, language?
v. 2 Can
you list, in alphabetical order, or course, the works of the LORD?
v. 9 Is
the name of the LORD so awesome and Holy that we cannot even attempt to
pronounce it?
v. 10 What
does it mean to fear the LORD? If the fear of the LORD is the beginning of
wisdom, what is wisdom’s end? Those who
practice “fear of the LORD” or those who practice “wisdom” have a good
understanding?
v. 15 Apparently,
wisdom is the theme of the day. How do
the wise and the unwise live differently?
v. 16 Are
our days, our age and time, evil?
v. 17 Is
foolishness the opposite of, or the absence of, wisdom? Is understanding the will of the Lord the
same as wisdom?
v. 18 Is
it ok to get drunk with something other than wine? I good serving of vintage Spirit would taste
pretty good right about now!
v. 19 What
are the differences among psalms, hymns and spiritual songs? Is this just a literary device?
v. 51 How
many of Jesus’ “I am” sayings have we read in the Fourth Gospel before
now? What is the difference between
living bread and au bon pain or le pain quotidian? What other bread came down from heaven?
v. 52 The
$1,000,000 question!
v. 53 How
did Jesus segue from bread to bread and blood?
v. 54 Not
“will” have eternal life but “have” eternal life. Nevertheless, they will not be raised up
until the last day.
v. 55
Thank God they are not false food and false drink.
v. 57 Why
“living Father” and not just Father?
v. 58 What
bread did our ancestors eat and die? What does it mean to live forever?
vs.
51-58 Is it even possible to read these
verses without reading them through the lenses of a sacramental and Eucharistic
hermeneutic? How might we understand
differently if we approached them with a tabula rasa heuristics? I am inclined to read them as mystical,
almost Gnostic verses filled with multivalent meaning. This is the author of the Fourth Gospel at
his or her best.
ADDENDUM
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