Crazy Theological Thoughts

In the christian church there are a lot of faithful people. They read devotions on a daily basis. They go to church and hear lectionary readings. They do their best to get their head wrapped around the bible. But how much do they really hear? How much do they really know? The lectionary on Sunday is lucky to give 20% of the bible. Most devotional pay great attention to the New Testament. Daily reading plans do their best to cover the entire bible. But most people either read too much to comprehend or go through it too fast. But how do others accomplish this task. Muslims know their koran. Buddhists know maybe not everything the buddha said, but know a lot. Jews know the Tanak especially Isaiah and the Torah but more importantly the psalms. How does this compare to Christianity? Christians do not know enough. They need a better lectionary on Sunday mornings. They need a related reading plan. Something that while may only cover 46% of scripture helps people to dig...

This term is generally used to speak about people who have reduced the christian message to the gospel. But I would think antinomian would be a better term, which indicates those who have abandoned the law. But here I mean those who have reduced the proclamation of the church to the Gospels. Most of those who follow the lectionary only preach on the gospel lesson. Some do this because the lectionary commitees maintained the Gospel lesson as the controlling text. Others do this because one can always find something new and fresh in the same text to preach. The problem is we have reduced the proclamation of the church to three maybe four books of the Bible. Is this the whole of scripture? Is this what Jesus meant by everything I commanded them? No, St Paul instructs us to search all of the scriptures to find truth. Therefore, preach on the Old Testament lesson. But maybe we should even set aside a time during the year when the Old Testament Lesson is the controlling text. ...

Arland Hultgren writes, "He has written that while there is a 'formal' canon-the complete, officially recognized canon-there is in practice for each Christian confession or theological camp an 'effective' canon, which is selective and based on the self-understanding of each confession or theological persuasion, and he calls for all Christians to come to terms again with the whole 'formal' canon and thereby achieve unity of faith and church." This again goes to the two distinct canons within the Church. There is the formal canon which is Holy Scripture. Then there is an "effective" canon. Here he does not mean the canon which is heard in the Lectionary. But a confessional canon is those texts that support theology and practice of the church. The "effective" canon is made up of selected parts of the "formal" canon. Thus, if you are going to put a lectionary together you would only use texts from the "effective...