Ordinary Time Week 9

Psalm: Psalm 14 or Psalm 145:10-18 
Old Testament: 2 Samuel 11:1-15
  or 2 Kings 4:42-44 
Gospel: John 6:1-21 
Epistle: Ephesians 3:14-21

This week we have 3 really classic and well-known passages of Scripture. First in 2 Samuel we have the narrative of David and Bathsheba. John 6 tells the story of the feeding of the 5,000. And finally our passage in Ephesians is one of Paul's powerful prayers for his readers and is used around the world every Sunday as a benediction to church services.

I wish I had time to discuss all the readings, but I want to continue our discussion from last week concerning Ephesians.

Our passage this week starts in verse 14, but Paul picks up where he left off in verse 1 of this chapter. "For this reason..." he writes in both instances. Verse 1 is the start of the prayer that is then picked up again here in verse 14. The reason he is praying for the Ephesians, and the reason he is in chains incidentally, is because of the burden placed on him to be the disciples to the Gentiles. We discussed last week Paul's message of  unity in Christ for all peoples--Jew and Greek. We must also remember the struggle and persecution the Ephesians Christians were facing and even the fact that Paul was writing this letter from prison. So that context of fear, hurt, maybe a sense of shame placed by non-christian family members, and doubt perhaps about their Faith all go into the prayer Paul offers to the church in Ephesus.

Ordinary Time Week 8

Psalm: Psalm 89:20-37 or Psalm 23 
Old Testament: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a
  or Jeremiah 23:1-6 
Gospel: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 
Epistle: Ephesians 2:11-22

I want to try and tackle our reading from Ephesians this week, if indeed Paul can ever be "tackled," much less in only 800 words. Millions of words have no doubt been written on just these 11 verses alone. But what is Paul trying to get at in these verse? I think he is once again speaking of the unity found for all in Christ. Paul is writing to a Gentile audience trying to figure out how and where they fit into the Story of God. Things that we take for granted now, weren't settled when Paul was writing his letters. The New Testament wasn't around and all the early Christians had was the Hebrew Scripture and some oral traditions about Jesus. The story of Jesus is about a Jewish Messiah, who came from the Jewish God and now these new believers in Jesus can't avoid the question about what to do with all that Jewish heritage.

Ordinary Time Week 7

Psalm: Psalm 24 or Psalm 85:8-13
Old Testament: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
  or Amos 7:7-15
Gospel: Mark 6:14-29
Epistle: Ephesians 1:3-14

Ordinary Time continues this week and I want to explore the Ark of the Covenant since that is what our reading from 2 Samuel refers to. Perhaps you are familiar with Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark or the numerous documentaries and specials on TV that typically play around Easter or Christmas. I think the Ark still holds the imagination of people. 2 Samuel 6 relates how the Ark was moved from its resting place in a small Israelite village to a tent in Jerusalem.

Ordinary Time Week 6

Psalm: Psalm 48 or Psalm 123

Old Testament: 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

  or Ezekiel 2:1-5

Gospel: Mark 6:1-13

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

I somehow have managed to get way behind on the Blog this last few weeks because of vacation and other things. So I am trying to catch up. So this is last Sunday's reading that I am just getting to.

I was drawn this week to the Gospel reading because I found the topic to be pretty interesting. In Mark ch. 6 Jesus returns to his Hometown of Nazareth to teach and perform miracles like he had done in other places since the beginning of his public ministry. Scholars use these types of verses to try and parse out and fill in the gaps of what the Gospels fail to tell us about Jesus' life. For example, Jesus is called "the son of Mary" so it is believed generally from this and other examples that Joseph must have died earlier in Jesus' life. In fact, Joseph isn't mentioned at all in Mark's gospel. This verse and others also show that after Jesus birth in Bethlehem  he spent the majority is his childhood and early life in Nazareth. We take this information for granted but there are very few non-Christian sources that mention Jesus and the Gospels, especially Mark, are sometimes scarce on things we would like included.