Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, October 7, 2012, the Twenty-Seventh 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


1:1 Is this similar to “once upon a time”?  What do you know about the land of Uz?  What does it mean that he “feared God”?

2:1 How many heavenly beings are there?  What is the meaning of the name “Satan”?

2:2 Would not an omniscient God not have to ask this question?  Do I hear an echo of Genesis chapter 3 verse 9?  Did Satan prefer the earth to heaven?

2:3 Why did the LORD bring up the topic of Job?  Since Satan had just been on the earth, is this a put down of Satan, God saying to Satan “Job is better than you”?\

2:4 What is the meaning of “skin for skin”?

2:5 What does it mean to  touch bone and flesh?

2:6 Is this going to be a test of Job’s integrity or Satan’s power?  Is God testing, even tempting, Satan?

2:7 Is there a double meaning at work here?

2:8 Some days, we anyone of us may feel like Job.

2:9 Why do Republicans not accuse Job’s wife of constituting the first death panel?

2:10 Job is, above all, a man of clear logic.  Job may not have sinned with his lips, but what about with his heart or mind?

26:1 Yep, this sounds like something Job would have said.

26:2 What about lead me not into temptation?

26:4 If I did this, how could I stay in the church?

26:6 This Psalmist is beginning to sound self-righteous.

26:7 What are God’s wondrous deeds?

26:8 Can we truly say this when God is omnipresent?  This seems to reflect worship of a domesticated God confined to the Temple rather than a wild and primitive wandering God sometimes abiding in a tent, a cloud, and a column of fire.

26:11 Is the Psalmist pleading his case before God’s bench?

26:12 What is “the great congregation”.

1:1 “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."   Sorry, wrong story.  What were the many and various ways God spoke by the prophets?

1:2 What does the author mean by “last days”?  Why the plural “worlds”?

1:3 What is the difference between a reflection and an imprint?  What is his powerful word?  Does “purification for sins” presume any particular understanding of the atonement?

1:4 What name did he inherit and from whom did he inherit it?

2:5 What is the coming world?

2:6 What is the source of this saying?

2:9 Is death suffering, of did Jesus suffer in a way that no human has suffered and died?

2:10 Who are God’s many children?  What is perfection?

2:12 Where in the Gospels does Jesus say this?

10:2 How many Pharisees, two, twenty, two hundred?  Were the Pharisees seeking to “test” Jesus as God tested Job and the Psalmist?  What could Jesus know about a man having a wife?

10:3 What did Moses, or what did God command you?

10:4 So much for family values.

10:5-9 This seems to answer a question about divorce, or rather the afterlife, not marriage, let alone same sex marriage.  Speaking of same sex marriage, check out this Stand For Love link: http://www.mlp.org/2012/10/03/stand-for-love/

10:10 In whose house?  Where the disciples also seeking to test Jesus?

10:11-13 How have Biblical literalists arguing against same sex marriage seem to ignore the fact that Jesus said nothing about same sex marriage but said this about heterosexual marriage and divorce?

10:13 Ouch.  This sounds ugly in light of recent sexual abuse of young boys by priests and football coaches.  I would prefer “laying on of hands”  rather than “touch”.

10:14 How can the kingdom og God belong to little children.  Can we grow to big or too old for God’s kingdom?

10:15 I think a whole sermon could be preached based on this single verse.

10:16 Who do we bless and how do we bless them?

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.

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