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02/23/2012

Textweek / ATLAS links Lent 4B March 18, 2012

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts.

Lent 4B
March 18, 2012

 

John 3:14-21


O'Day, Gail, "Piety Without Pretense, Faith Without Falsehood: The Lenten Journey According to John," Journal for Preachers, 1997. Section on this text begins on page 12.
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“The decision that John 3:14-21 places before the church resonates even more intensely in the Lenten season. There may be no better place to contemplate the decision for life with God that this text describes than in the forty days of Lenten wilderness, because in the wilderness it is difficult, if not impossible, to hide from the moment of decision.”

 

Ephesians 2:1-10

"All his life long, wherever Jesus looked he saw the world not in terms simply of its brokenness—a patchwork of light and dark calling forth in us now our light, now our dark—but in terms of the ultimate mystery of God's presence buried in it like a treasure buried in a field... .Tobe whole, I believe, is to see the world like that. To see the world like that, as Jesus saw it, is to be whole. And sometimes I believe that even people like you and me see it like that. Sometimes even in the midst of our confused and broken relationships with ourselves, with each other, with God, we catch glimpses of that holiness and wholeness that is not ours by a long shot and yet is part of who we are.”

“For redemption in Christ to be complete, it must range as far and wide as the forces of evil.”

Long, Thomas G., "Just As I Am," The Christian Century, 2006.
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02/23/2012 at 04:34 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Textweek ATLAS links Lent 3B March 11, 2012

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts.

Lent 3B
March 11, 2012 

John 2:13-22

“But in invoking the Temple's destruction and thus the rhythms of Jewish history, in dying for his proclamation of the Kingdom's speedy coming to which that event would witness, Jesus came to embody a religious message that is quintessentially Jewish and — yet? thus? — universally human.”

“It is not too much to suggest that John, early in his narrative, is teaching his readers how to read. Look beyond the literal sense, he whispers, and read for figuration. Read retrospectively, in light of the resurrection. See the Temple and Israel's Scriptures as prefiguring the truth definitively embodied in Jesus.”

“As a teaching for Lent, this lesson invites us to look at the way we live our lives with God and one another and to examine the sources of power and authority which shape our lives and to which we regularly make appeal.”

 Exodus 20:1-20

Marcus, Joel, "Idolatry in the New Testament," Interpretation, 2006.
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Abstract: “The New Testament inherits its attitude toward idolatry from the Old Testament and early Judaism. In all three, idolatry is the primal sin and is connected with sexual immorality and avarice. Both Jesus, in his response to the question about tribute, and Paul,* in his treatment of food sacrificed to idols, reflect the conflict between revulsion against idolatry and the need to survive in an idolatrous world. Moreover, Paul and the Johannine literature respond to the Jewish charge that Christianity itself is idolatrous. Appropriation of New Testament attitudes toward idolatry for our own pluralistic society is complicated by their variety and their apparent caricature of pagan religion.”

 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Green, Donald E., "The Folly of the Cross," Master's Seminary Journal, 2004.
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Abstract: “First Cor 1:23 indicates that both Jews and Gentiles refused to believe Paul's preaching of Christ crucified. They rejected the message in part because of the cultural connotations of crucifixion in the first century. Crucifixion was a vulgar, common execution that the Romans imposed on notorious criminals, prisoners of war, and rebellious slaves. Its harsh brutality symbolized the supremacy of the Roman government over the victim. Gentiles thus viewed crucifixion as a sure sign of the victim's defeat. Jews, on the other hand, held crucified men in even greater contempt because to them crucifixion was a sign of God's curse on the victim. Paul's preaching of Christ crucified thus cut deeply against the grain of his culture. Jews rejected the idea that the Messiah could be crucified (and thus cursed) and looked for signs instead. Gentiles rejected as foolishness the notion that a crucified man could be the only Savior of mankind and sought eloquent rhetoric in its place. Paul's example challenges today's Christian leader to confront the culture with the same message of Christ crucified and not to cater to the latest fads in marketing the gospel to the passing whims of unbelievers.”

02/23/2012 at 03:42 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

02/15/2012

Textweek ATLAS suggestions Lent 2B March 4, 2012

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts.

Lent 2B
March 4, 2012 

Genesis 17:1-16

“God's power manifest in the imagery of creation is another attested dimension of the Mosaic covenant as it was developed in the postexilic period.”

“If a mystical path is one in which the traveler learns to submit to God, then it is the virtue of agrarian life to show us that our submission is authentic only as we commit ourselves to the health and vitality of creation, for it is here that God s ways, however mysteriously, are being worked out. It is here, in the soil beneath our feet and among countless created neighborhoods rather than in some far away celestial place, that God meets us in work and grace that exceeds our comprehension and our wrongdoing.”

 

Psalm 22

Burnett, Joel S., "Where Is God? Divine Absence in Israelite Religion," Perspectives in Religious Studies, 2006.
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“This review of religious expressions from as early as the first half of the second millennium indicates that divine presence and absence were conceived and perceived in Israelite and West Semitic religion in terms of life's blessings and difficulties, respectively. Thus the favorable presence of the deity was not assumed or taken for granted.”

 

Mark 8:31-38

Carder, Kenneth L., "Why Follow a Crucified Christ?" The Christian Century, 1997.
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“We follow the crucified Christ as people of hope. We live on the other side of the cross from Peter.”

 

Mark 9:2-9

“Either the Lord is with us or we are pathetic fools. Down in the valley, with our faith buffeted by storms of disregard, doubt and disdain, our eyes can tell us only one thing: we are pathetic fools. But up on the mountain there is another angle of vision. Up there, in the light of Christ, we can see for real.”

“Where shall preachers and teachers locate the meaning of the gospel story of the transfiguration for themselves and their hearers: behind the text, in it, around it, or in front of it? Each location will yield insight, and none can he ignored.”

02/15/2012 at 12:45 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Textweek / ATLAS suggestions: Lent 1B February 26, 2012

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts.

Lent 1B
February 26, 2012 

Psalm 25:1-10

 Puls, Joan, "The Journey That Is Metanoia: A Paraphrase of Psalm 25," International Review of Mission, 1983.
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“One more time I stretch my heart to receive your word.”

 Mark 1:9-15

“If you sit still in that desert all by yourself, then you will soon notice a mechanical humming between your ears, roughly equivalent to the sound of a small electric clock. This is the sound of your nervous system at work, with all its elaborate wiring and sparking synapses.”

“The story of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness originated as a Palestinian Christian response to persecution under Agrippa I during the aftermath of the Caligula crisis (c. 42 CE). Jesus, in isolation from human society, is challenged by Satan but repudiates incitement to idolatry and betrayal of God. In so doing he serves as an antitype to Agrippa, from the perspective of those whom he persecuted. The story is preserved and developed in diverse strands of the Gospel tradition, of which the most elaborate is the triple temptation story in Q.”

“If egalitarianism was sought, baptism would have hindered it, unless the community undertook ways of altering or nullifying the rite's consequences. The baptismal narrative in Mark may have been just such an attempt, undoing the social consequences of the baptismal rite through the element of reversal.”

02/15/2012 at 12:11 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

02/07/2012

Textweek/ATLAS recommendations - Transfiguration February 19, 2012

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts.

Last Epiphany/Transfiguration
February 19, 2012

 2 Kings 2:1-12

 Rice, Gene, "Elijah's requirement for prophetic leadership (2 Kings 2:1-18)," Journal of Religious Thought, 2006-2007.
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 “Prophetic leadership based on the requirement of 2 Kings 2:1-18 is needed today, because many of our problems are so complex, so overwhelming, so intimidating that they seem insoluble. To be a prophet in succession to Elijah requires the ability to keep watching until Gods presence and power are discerned in the whirlwinds of life.”

 Psalm 50

Abstract: “The article calls attention to the specific basis for the criticisms of Israel's worship found in Psalm 50 by using an analysis of the poem's literary structure on three levels: the verbal, poetic technique and dramatic structure, and themes and ideas. The basis for the denouncement of worship in this Psalm is shown to be that of idolatry in its most subtle sense as the creation of a false image of the god of Israel.”

 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

“To follow this movement in preaching one might, first, search for this movement in one's own ministry. For it may be that preaching this text requires applying it to oneself as a hearer, and seeking the same kind of identification with its movements that the text seeks for its hearers.”

“God's saving work in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the disruptive grace that called Paul, his co-workers, and their churches to an unexpected new freedom and service. They must all learn how to walk the way of the cross and live in the newness of resurrection. The church's grave danger is that, expecting too little from God, it will settle for less than the gospel.”

 Mark 9:2-9

“Either the Lord is with us or we are pathetic fools. Down in the valley, with our faith buffeted by storms of disregard, doubt and disdain, our eyes can tell us only one thing: we are pathetic fools. But up on the mountain there is another angle of vision. Up there, in the light of Christ, we can see for real.”

“Where shall preachers and teachers locate the meaning of the gospel story of the transfiguration for themselves and their hearers: behind the text, in it, around it, or in front of it? Each location will yield insight, and none can he ignored.”

 

02/07/2012 at 02:41 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)