Gleanings From the Text
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The Hebrew word ruah (spirit, breath) appears eight times in the first ten verses of the pericope, and once in its conclusion. The NRSV translation fails to make evident the connection between God’s “spirit” and the animating “breath” that gives life to the bodies in verse 10. The spirit of God is a unifying force that leads to life.
The verb hayah (to live) occurs six times in the pericope, usually appearing alongside ruah. The counterpoint to hayah in this pericope is ’etsem (bones), a word that occurs ten times and symbolizes the state of Israel: hopeless, cut off, dead.
Food for Thought
Ezekiel’s report of the valley of dry bones comes up often in discussions of resurrection imagery in the Old Testament; however, this vision has more to do with restoration than resurrection. Kevin Madigan and Jon Levenson put it this way: “The question it answers is not the familiar, self-interested one, ‘Will I have life after death?’ but rather a more profound and encompassing one, ‘Will God honor [the] promises to [the] people?’” (155). Madigan and Levenson’s book is an accessible introduction to the afterlife concept as it develops from the prophets to the time of Jesus.
Ezekiel began his prophetic work around 591 BCE, was taken into exile in Babylon in 597 BCE, lived through the destruction of Jerusalem ten years later, and continued his work until at least 571 BCE (Petersen, 139). He was designated a sopeh, a sentinal, and commanded to warn people of the coming destruction. In this week’s pericope, the exile has occurred and Ezekiel’s work is now to give his listeners the hope of restoration – “I will place you on your own soil” (verse 14).
Be sure to check out Job 10:8-9, 11 and Genesis 2:4-9 for intertextual connections.
Sink Your Teeth Into This
God’s promises have been impossible from the very start. There is the call of Abraham and Sarah, two impossibly old folks who were charged with giving birth to a nation as plentiful as the stars in the sky. The nation did grow up, but before too long it had been enslaved. When God liberated the people, they continually fell away – even when they had been given their own land, even when they had judges, kings, and prophets to try and keep them in line.
Ezekiel was faced with a situation in which a promise made thousands of years ago, a promise that seemed too good to be true, was turning out to be exactly that. The exile was one of the most traumatic events in Jewish history, and there’s a whole book of the Bible – Lamentations – dedicated to the words of despair and hopelessness God’s people felt at that time. The land was supposed to remind them of God’s promise; the king was supposed to remind them of God’s promise; the Temple was supposed to remind them of God’s promise. Now all those things were gone and the people were left despondent – utterly alone. We can hear their anguish in the words of Psalm 137.
Despite the 2,500 years that separate us from Ezekiel, I think each of us must have some idea how he felt, how his people felt. I suspect that there are things many of us treasure as reminders of God’s promise: a passage of scripture; words spoken by a dear friend at just the right moment; the memory of a particular star in the sky one night. They are meaningless to anyone else, but to us they are touchstones to which we cling when everything else falls away. Now imagine that you’ve lost even those, and I think you begin to grasp the magnitude of the exile.
So we return to that painful conversation between Ezekiel and God. Painful because Ezekiel knew. “Mortal, can these bones live?” And the prophet knew the answer; he knew it was impossible.
And yet, that’s precisely what happens in the vision that follows. In essence, God says, “You think it’s impossible for me to restore my people from exile? I’m going to show you that I could do something infinitely more impossible than that. Not only am I going to restore the bones and sinew and flesh, but I am going to return my breath to these bodies, and they are going to live again.
“I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act.” God keeps promises, even though they have been impossible from the very start.
Biographical Information
Joshua T. Andrzejewski is a second-level student at Union-PSCE in Richmond within the Masters of Divinity and Christian Education programs. He grew up in Levittown, Pennsylvania – the birthplace of suburbia – and found his way to Richmond through Project Burning Bush. This summer, he will serve as a resident teacher for the program. Next year, he will be doing a year-in-ministry as a chaplain at a level-1 trauma center in Richmond. He can be reached at josh.andrzejewski@gmail.com.
Works Referenced
Kevin J. Madigan & Jon D. Levenson, Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 146-155.
David L. Petersen, The Prophetic Literature (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 137-168.
Read more!
Friday, April 3, 2009
May 24, 2009 - Psalm 1 - J.P. Kang
Gleanings From the Text
Psalm 1
Psalm 1 (along with Psalm 2 in some early collections) invites and welcomes the reader and hearer, not only to the Psalter proper, but beyond to a comprehensive vision of life. As such, special consideration may be paid to its anticipatory function and paradigmatic significance.
The somewhat irregular literary structure of Psalm 1 may be summarized by this pair of telescoping statements: “Happy the one . . . whose way is known by the LORD,” and perhaps parenthetically, “Not so the wicked . . . whose way will perish.” (vv. 1, 4, 6). This “didactic poetry” (so Krauss, p. 114) thus presents two ways and their corresponding destinies (see Mays, Psalms, pp. 43–44), thereby exhorting readers and hearers to choose the abundant life (a theme to which the Johannine lections for this Sunday also relate).
Food for Thought
v. 1: The opening word, Heb. ʾašrê (Gk. makarios), is translated as “happy” (e.g., NRSV and JPS) or “blessed” (e.g., KJV and NIV). How does the choice affect the understanding of the identity or character of “the righteous”?
v. 2: “the law” (JPS: “the teaching”) is “the Torah of YHWH” (Gk. nomos kuriou). What is Torah and what is the Christian’s relationship to it? For the semantic range of tôrâ (and much more!), see S. Dean McBride, Jr., “Perspective and Context in the Study of Pentateuchal Legislation” [read at Google Books].
Are life’s possibilities really as starkly opposed as the psalmist concludes? If the profile of the “righteous” strikes one as idealistic and/or hypocritical, it might be instructive to consider the exhortations to perpetual joy, prayer, and thanksgiving in 1 Thess 5:16–18. Many of us may even find it easier to identify, for various reasons, with the “wicked”! How, then, can we preach Psalm 1 without simply moralizing?
Sink Your Teeth into This!
Mays comments that “Psalm 1 teaches that life is a journey through time; living chooses a particular route of existence” (Psalms, p. 43; emphasis mine). Heschel observed that “The Bible is more concerned with time than space” (The Sabbath, pp. 6–7) and that our goal is to “become attuned to holiness in time” (p. 10).
The vital and temporal rhythms of sowing and reaping give root to the Psalm’s contrast of fecundity (“fruit in its season,” v. 3) and barrenness (“chaff that the wind drives away,” v. 4). If the sacred journey is yet one of perpetual struggle with the two ways, then it should come as no surprise that we should experience disproportionate yields in various seasons.
By God’s grace may we all hear this word, accept it, and bear fruit!
For further reading and reflection
John Calvin, Commentary on The Book of Psalms [read at CCEL].
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951).
Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1–59: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1988), 112–22.
James L. Mays, Psalms (Interpretation; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 40–43.
James L. Mays, Preaching and Teaching the Psalms (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 161–63.
Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs: NavPress Publishing Group, 2002). [read at BibleGateway]
S. Dean McBride, Jr., “Perspective and Context in the Study of Pentateuchal Legislation,” pp. 47–60 in Old Testament Interpretation: Past, Present, and Future (edited by James L. Mays, David L. Petersen, Kent Harold Richards; Nashville: Abingdon, 1995). [read at Google Books].
Biographical Information
J. P. Kang is a recent graduate of Union–PSCE (Ph.D., Bible, 2007), and currently calls Seattle home. He was born in Wheeling, WV, to Presbyterian minister Edwin Kang (UTS B.D., 1966) and Mae Kang, and grew up as a missionary kid in Zaïre and Japan. He can be reached at jpkang@alum.mit.edu and via his blog at http://mymachero.com/.
Read more!
Psalm 1
Psalm 1 (along with Psalm 2 in some early collections) invites and welcomes the reader and hearer, not only to the Psalter proper, but beyond to a comprehensive vision of life. As such, special consideration may be paid to its anticipatory function and paradigmatic significance.
The somewhat irregular literary structure of Psalm 1 may be summarized by this pair of telescoping statements: “Happy the one . . . whose way is known by the LORD,” and perhaps parenthetically, “Not so the wicked . . . whose way will perish.” (vv. 1, 4, 6). This “didactic poetry” (so Krauss, p. 114) thus presents two ways and their corresponding destinies (see Mays, Psalms, pp. 43–44), thereby exhorting readers and hearers to choose the abundant life (a theme to which the Johannine lections for this Sunday also relate).
Food for Thought
v. 1: The opening word, Heb. ʾašrê (Gk. makarios), is translated as “happy” (e.g., NRSV and JPS) or “blessed” (e.g., KJV and NIV). How does the choice affect the understanding of the identity or character of “the righteous”?
v. 2: “the law” (JPS: “the teaching”) is “the Torah of YHWH” (Gk. nomos kuriou). What is Torah and what is the Christian’s relationship to it? For the semantic range of tôrâ (and much more!), see S. Dean McBride, Jr., “Perspective and Context in the Study of Pentateuchal Legislation” [read at Google Books].
Are life’s possibilities really as starkly opposed as the psalmist concludes? If the profile of the “righteous” strikes one as idealistic and/or hypocritical, it might be instructive to consider the exhortations to perpetual joy, prayer, and thanksgiving in 1 Thess 5:16–18. Many of us may even find it easier to identify, for various reasons, with the “wicked”! How, then, can we preach Psalm 1 without simply moralizing?
Sink Your Teeth into This!
Mays comments that “Psalm 1 teaches that life is a journey through time; living chooses a particular route of existence” (Psalms, p. 43; emphasis mine). Heschel observed that “The Bible is more concerned with time than space” (The Sabbath, pp. 6–7) and that our goal is to “become attuned to holiness in time” (p. 10).
The vital and temporal rhythms of sowing and reaping give root to the Psalm’s contrast of fecundity (“fruit in its season,” v. 3) and barrenness (“chaff that the wind drives away,” v. 4). If the sacred journey is yet one of perpetual struggle with the two ways, then it should come as no surprise that we should experience disproportionate yields in various seasons.
By God’s grace may we all hear this word, accept it, and bear fruit!
For further reading and reflection
John Calvin, Commentary on The Book of Psalms [read at CCEL].
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951).
Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1–59: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1988), 112–22.
James L. Mays, Psalms (Interpretation; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 40–43.
James L. Mays, Preaching and Teaching the Psalms (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 161–63.
Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs: NavPress Publishing Group, 2002). [read at BibleGateway]
S. Dean McBride, Jr., “Perspective and Context in the Study of Pentateuchal Legislation,” pp. 47–60 in Old Testament Interpretation: Past, Present, and Future (edited by James L. Mays, David L. Petersen, Kent Harold Richards; Nashville: Abingdon, 1995). [read at Google Books].
Biographical Information
J. P. Kang is a recent graduate of Union–PSCE (Ph.D., Bible, 2007), and currently calls Seattle home. He was born in Wheeling, WV, to Presbyterian minister Edwin Kang (UTS B.D., 1966) and Mae Kang, and grew up as a missionary kid in Zaïre and Japan. He can be reached at jpkang@alum.mit.edu and via his blog at http://mymachero.com/.
Read more!
May 17, 2009 - John 15:9-17 - Barry Chance
Gleanings from the Text
John 15:9-17
This text is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse in John. This discourse focuses mainly on preparing the disciples for life and ministry post-Easter and thus the topics include the coming of the Holy Spirit, persecution, and the nature of the continuing community of faith. This particular pericope is the second half of a section that began at 15:1 and focuses on the image of the vine as a symbol of the interconnectedness of Jesus and his disciples.
A few words of particular interest in the Greek:
Agape – One of three Greek words for love, John favors this word when speaking about a self-giving love as best illustrated by the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.
Philos – Most often translated “friend” it is more literally “loved one.”
In this pericope, Jesus effectively says “I love (agape) you, so I call you loved ones (philos).” The theological implication is that the identity of the disciples is tied up in the fact that they are loved—they are Friends of Jesus—Friends of God.
Food for Thought
What does it mean to be a Friend of God? When Jesus says “Love one another as I have loved you” he gives us a clue as to where we might begin to reorder our relationships with God and one another.
1. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” To be a friend is to give generously of yourself to your friends.
2. “I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” Friends do not hold back from one another; rather, the basis of friendship is trust and openness.
3. “I appointed you to go and bear fruit.” Friends take each other seriously; they recognize the gifts and purposes of the other and seek to help the other live a meaningful life.
Some might hear the commandment to love and wonder if it is still love if it is commanded. There is no good way to resolve that; however, I wonder how it might change the debate if we think of love as an action instead of a sentiment. If love is more about what I do to my neighbor than what I feel about my neighbor, does that change the dynamic? Perhaps sometimes we need to practice being loving until we learn how to love.
Sink Your Teeth Into This:
“You’re my friend ain’t you mamma? I mean daddy. I mean, Mr. Barry?” I hear those words at least once a week. Sometimes it is while I am shaking hands as people file out of the sanctuary, but usually it is at Bible study on Wednesday night. My answer is always “Yes, Mae,* and you’re my friend.”
Mae is one of the students in my congregation’s Friendship Bible Study, a weekly study for adults with intellectual disabilities. The class is called Friendship because the curriculum we use comes from Friendship Ministries, but I can think of no better name because it reminds me and all of the other mentors that our role is to be a friend.
Friendship has not always come easily to all of my friends. Some of them have been mocked, excluded, and abused because they are different. Some have difficulty expressing themselves and people aren’t patient with them as they try. Some are just hard to befriend. Still, they are my friends and Jesus teaches us what that means.
Friends give generously, trust and are open with each other, and help each other live meaningful lives. Friends tell the legislature when the laws aren’t working, say enough when someone is overmedicated, log many miles in the car getting people to church, share the details of their lives, let others pray for them, and help each other discover and use the gifts that God has given them.
* I have changed the name to protect my friend’s privacy.
For Further Reading & Reflection
Nouwen, Henri J. M. Adam, God’s Beloved. (Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY, 2004)
Hauerwas, Stanley and Jean Vanier. Living Gently in a Violent World. (IVP Books: Downers Grove, IL, 2008)
www.friendship.org
Biographical Information
Barry Chance (M.Div., ’05) lives in Shreveport, LA, with his wife Katie. He is the pastor of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church where he teaches a weekly Bible study for adults with intellectual disabilities. He also serves on the board of two ministries that serve the needs of people with intellectual disabilities - Evergreen Presbyterian Ministries and Friendship Ministries - and would love to speak with anyone looking for ways to include people with disabilities into the full life of the church. Read more!
John 15:9-17
This text is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse in John. This discourse focuses mainly on preparing the disciples for life and ministry post-Easter and thus the topics include the coming of the Holy Spirit, persecution, and the nature of the continuing community of faith. This particular pericope is the second half of a section that began at 15:1 and focuses on the image of the vine as a symbol of the interconnectedness of Jesus and his disciples.
A few words of particular interest in the Greek:
Agape – One of three Greek words for love, John favors this word when speaking about a self-giving love as best illustrated by the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.
Philos – Most often translated “friend” it is more literally “loved one.”
In this pericope, Jesus effectively says “I love (agape) you, so I call you loved ones (philos).” The theological implication is that the identity of the disciples is tied up in the fact that they are loved—they are Friends of Jesus—Friends of God.
Food for Thought
What does it mean to be a Friend of God? When Jesus says “Love one another as I have loved you” he gives us a clue as to where we might begin to reorder our relationships with God and one another.
1. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” To be a friend is to give generously of yourself to your friends.
2. “I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” Friends do not hold back from one another; rather, the basis of friendship is trust and openness.
3. “I appointed you to go and bear fruit.” Friends take each other seriously; they recognize the gifts and purposes of the other and seek to help the other live a meaningful life.
Some might hear the commandment to love and wonder if it is still love if it is commanded. There is no good way to resolve that; however, I wonder how it might change the debate if we think of love as an action instead of a sentiment. If love is more about what I do to my neighbor than what I feel about my neighbor, does that change the dynamic? Perhaps sometimes we need to practice being loving until we learn how to love.
Sink Your Teeth Into This:
“You’re my friend ain’t you mamma? I mean daddy. I mean, Mr. Barry?” I hear those words at least once a week. Sometimes it is while I am shaking hands as people file out of the sanctuary, but usually it is at Bible study on Wednesday night. My answer is always “Yes, Mae,* and you’re my friend.”
Mae is one of the students in my congregation’s Friendship Bible Study, a weekly study for adults with intellectual disabilities. The class is called Friendship because the curriculum we use comes from Friendship Ministries, but I can think of no better name because it reminds me and all of the other mentors that our role is to be a friend.
Friendship has not always come easily to all of my friends. Some of them have been mocked, excluded, and abused because they are different. Some have difficulty expressing themselves and people aren’t patient with them as they try. Some are just hard to befriend. Still, they are my friends and Jesus teaches us what that means.
Friends give generously, trust and are open with each other, and help each other live meaningful lives. Friends tell the legislature when the laws aren’t working, say enough when someone is overmedicated, log many miles in the car getting people to church, share the details of their lives, let others pray for them, and help each other discover and use the gifts that God has given them.
* I have changed the name to protect my friend’s privacy.
For Further Reading & Reflection
Nouwen, Henri J. M. Adam, God’s Beloved. (Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY, 2004)
Hauerwas, Stanley and Jean Vanier. Living Gently in a Violent World. (IVP Books: Downers Grove, IL, 2008)
www.friendship.org
Biographical Information
Barry Chance (M.Div., ’05) lives in Shreveport, LA, with his wife Katie. He is the pastor of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church where he teaches a weekly Bible study for adults with intellectual disabilities. He also serves on the board of two ministries that serve the needs of people with intellectual disabilities - Evergreen Presbyterian Ministries and Friendship Ministries - and would love to speak with anyone looking for ways to include people with disabilities into the full life of the church. Read more!
May 10, 2009 - 1 John 4:7-21 - Carol Clarke
Gleanings from the Text
1 John 4:7-21
By now, the Easter lilies have withered along with the enthusiasm of some for preaching more of “John,” either Gospel or epistles. In addition to the recurrent Johannine themes, however, this pericope offers an eloquent and theologically rich treatment of divine love.
Biblical scholar Raymond Brown attributed these writings to the “community of the Beloved Disciple.” The Johannine community experienced conflict and some left, but the perspective of the writer(s) is less that of an outsider telling them how they got it wrong than an insider imploring them to get it right. Here the prophetic word is spoken as reasoned exhortation (first person plural and third person references).
Words worth noting --
Love -- agape love; some form of which (noun, verb, or vocative of address) appears 27 times in 15 verses.
God is love (verses 8 and 16). We teach our children these words almost as soon as they can talk. Not only by implication and example, but by divine essence, God is love. John Wesley commented: “[God] is said to be love; intimating that this is his darling, his reigning attribute, the attribute that sheds an amiable glory on all his other perfections.”
Love perfected -- It has realized its full potential; its purpose is fulfilled and so it is mature, full-grown.
Boldness -- Not bodacious audacity but confidence which stands in awe of what God has done for us in Christ. We can live without fear of judgment because Christ is our “atoning sacrifice” (NRSV).
Abiding -- When we love, we are living at home (abiding) in God, because God (Father, Son, and Spirit) is the source and substance of divine love and our love for one another.
Food for Thought
A song we love to sing from the 60’s is “If I Had a Hammer” by Hays and Seeger. The first stanza contains the line: “I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land.” Relationships sometimes have to be hammered out before we can sing and celebrate them.
How far do we have to go to hate someone? Does personal preference or intolerance count? Is indifference toward others equivalent to hatred?
About the Johannine community conflict -- Did the very strength of the arguments made within the community contribute to its undoing? Did these people seem a little too sure of themselves for others? Were there significant socioeconomic differences (see 3:23)? Was the conflict really theological? (We humanoids are good at putting a theological face on interpersonal conflicts or outright prejudice.) Are our “brothers and sisters” only believers who believe as we do?
What can we learn from this passage about mentoring or counseling in times of conflict?
Sink Your Teeth into This
God has given us a tremendous gift in one another. As we love those we can see, we learn to love God whom we can’t see.
The first faces that many of us can remember seeing are those of our mothers and fathers. The flawed humanity that we are and that they were is somehow used by God to teach us to love. Now that’s miraculous!
One of my earliest memories is playing too close to an embankment, dancing and swinging my doll in the air. Somehow she flew out of my hands and fell 20 feet to the creek bank below. My mom rescued me and my doll. Now that I think on it, today would be a good day to say thanks to her and to God for love.
References
Raymond Brown. The Community of the Beloved Disciple (Paulist Press, 1979).
Judith Lieu. I, II, and III John: A Commentary (Westminster John Knox, 2008).
John Wesley’s Notes on the Bible, Christian Classics Ethereal Library (http://www.ccel.org/)
1 John 4:7-21
By now, the Easter lilies have withered along with the enthusiasm of some for preaching more of “John,” either Gospel or epistles. In addition to the recurrent Johannine themes, however, this pericope offers an eloquent and theologically rich treatment of divine love.
Biblical scholar Raymond Brown attributed these writings to the “community of the Beloved Disciple.” The Johannine community experienced conflict and some left, but the perspective of the writer(s) is less that of an outsider telling them how they got it wrong than an insider imploring them to get it right. Here the prophetic word is spoken as reasoned exhortation (first person plural and third person references).
Words worth noting --
Love -- agape love; some form of which (noun, verb, or vocative of address) appears 27 times in 15 verses.
God is love (verses 8 and 16). We teach our children these words almost as soon as they can talk. Not only by implication and example, but by divine essence, God is love. John Wesley commented: “[God] is said to be love; intimating that this is his darling, his reigning attribute, the attribute that sheds an amiable glory on all his other perfections.”
Love perfected -- It has realized its full potential; its purpose is fulfilled and so it is mature, full-grown.
Boldness -- Not bodacious audacity but confidence which stands in awe of what God has done for us in Christ. We can live without fear of judgment because Christ is our “atoning sacrifice” (NRSV).
Abiding -- When we love, we are living at home (abiding) in God, because God (Father, Son, and Spirit) is the source and substance of divine love and our love for one another.
Food for Thought
A song we love to sing from the 60’s is “If I Had a Hammer” by Hays and Seeger. The first stanza contains the line: “I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land.” Relationships sometimes have to be hammered out before we can sing and celebrate them.
How far do we have to go to hate someone? Does personal preference or intolerance count? Is indifference toward others equivalent to hatred?
About the Johannine community conflict -- Did the very strength of the arguments made within the community contribute to its undoing? Did these people seem a little too sure of themselves for others? Were there significant socioeconomic differences (see 3:23)? Was the conflict really theological? (We humanoids are good at putting a theological face on interpersonal conflicts or outright prejudice.) Are our “brothers and sisters” only believers who believe as we do?
What can we learn from this passage about mentoring or counseling in times of conflict?
Sink Your Teeth into This
God has given us a tremendous gift in one another. As we love those we can see, we learn to love God whom we can’t see.
The first faces that many of us can remember seeing are those of our mothers and fathers. The flawed humanity that we are and that they were is somehow used by God to teach us to love. Now that’s miraculous!
One of my earliest memories is playing too close to an embankment, dancing and swinging my doll in the air. Somehow she flew out of my hands and fell 20 feet to the creek bank below. My mom rescued me and my doll. Now that I think on it, today would be a good day to say thanks to her and to God for love.
References
Raymond Brown. The Community of the Beloved Disciple (Paulist Press, 1979).
Judith Lieu. I, II, and III John: A Commentary (Westminster John Knox, 2008).
John Wesley’s Notes on the Bible, Christian Classics Ethereal Library (http://www.ccel.org/)
Biographical Information
Carol Clarke (MDiv. 1999, ThM. 2001) who has worked in the Louisville Presbyterian Center and pastored in Virginia and Pennsylvania, has just moved to Marble Falls, Texas.
May 3, 2009 - All Texts - Various Contributors
A Special Invitation!
Today we invite you to participate in blogging about the lectionary passages assigned for May 3, 2009. Give us a brief though, anecdote, or insight that occurs to you as you sink your teeth into the texts. We want to create the opportunity for genuine online interaction, so get typing!
Lectionary Texts for the Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23:1-6
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18
Today we invite you to participate in blogging about the lectionary passages assigned for May 3, 2009. Give us a brief though, anecdote, or insight that occurs to you as you sink your teeth into the texts. We want to create the opportunity for genuine online interaction, so get typing!
Lectionary Texts for the Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23:1-6
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18
Feel free to answer any or all of the following questions in the comments section below:
- What is your first response to the pericopes for this week?
- What do you find most challenging in these texts?
- What is one thing you would choose to say about these passages?
- Do you have a particular insight to share?
- Do any of these passages bring a memory to mind?
- How have these texts impacted your life?
- What should a congregation come away knowing after having heard a sermon based on one of these passages?
Read more!
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