Crazy Theological Thoughts

Today, I have set up another blog to reveal my Four Year Lectionary. If you have read the resent posts you will note the reasons for a new lectionary. But in case you have not read them. There are many reasons for developing a New Lectionary that will better serve the Church. People need a great correlation between the entire body of Scripture and the Lectionary. Preachers need to learn to preach on more than just the Four Gospels. They need to understand the importance of Great Old Testament figures. The New Lectionary even provides for additional seasons. Therefore, the Lectionary has a Season of the Old Testament and a Season of the New Testament which breaks up the Ordinary Season. This Lectionary still has a strong foundation in the history of Biblical Reading. Moses instructed the people to read the Torah. St Paul instructed the people to Read the Old Testament. St Peter encouraged people to read the letters of St Paul and the Old Testament. Justin Martyr told the emperor t...

Do Christians believe in a Benevolent God? Do Christians believe in a Just God? Is there a difference? Benevolent: Characterized by or suggestive of doing good. Just: Honorable and fair in one's dealings and actions. Does God do good for everyone? And if so who determines what is Good? More importantly does God treat everyone fair in accordance with what they have done. A Benevolent God would not allow bad things to happen. A Benevolent God would not cause destruction and devastation upon the Earth. A Benevolent God would not flood the entire Earth. A Benevolent God would not require people to commit Genocide. A Benevolent God would not pour out wrath upon the earth. Do Christians believe in a Benevolent God? On the other hand, A Just God would judge people for their wickedness. A Just God would repay all sins with balanced and appropriate punishment. A Just God would follow an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. A Just God would slaughter those who reject the Law and dis...

Most of the Church starts the history of the Church with Christ. Sure during the season of Advent we may talk about John the Baptist. But for the most part History seems to start with Jesus. The only time we use the Old Testament prophets is to relate them to St Paul or Jesus. They just help to prove our point. But shouldn't we talk about the History. You look at those bookshelf pictures of the bible, and how much is History. Most of us think of Acts, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, and maybe some more. You have Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Ezra, and Nehemiah. But what about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are they Historical? Are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy Historical? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel have some History in them as well, don't they? Jonah is all Narrative with the possible exception of Jonah's Psalm. Job also has a Historical account of the life of Job or at least a great deal of it. The Epistles have some history i...

How many times do you hear the lection and wonder about the. context? Most people know that context is key. Where is Jesus at? When is this in his ministry? What just happened? When the disciples forget to bring bread and Jesus tells them about the Yeast of the pharisees, do you remember where this is contextually. Luckily Jesus reminds us that he has already fed the 5000 and the 4000. But without it being in the lection would you remember. This is even further complicated when you jump from Mark to John and back to Mark. But what if the lectionary actually made a greater focus on sticking to one Gospel or Book. The Lectionary even could follow things contextually. This same problem can occur in the Epistle lections. St Paul often has a great retorical style, which flows from one thought into the next. What if we did not leave contextual gaps? what if we even took some of the shorter Epistles and just read the entire letter. Context is key to understanding bib...

Amazingly the Apostles of Jesus quote the Hebrew Bible more than anything else. The apostles used the hebrew bible to support their teachings concerning christ. Philip starts with Isaiah's writing to teach the Etheopian Eunuch. Jesus starts from Isaiah when it is read in the Synagog. For centuries the Church did not read the Old Testament. It was used to teach theology, but not read in services. Note: there were certain occasions in which some Old Testament lections were read. But over all there was a very limited number of passages from the Hebrew Bible read. Recently or in the last 70 years the church has started to read the Old Testament again. Recent Lectionaries have moved to a three lesson system which includes a reading from the Hebrew Bible. Note: A reading from the Old Testament is not always used. The so called Historical Lectionary only used .2% of the Hebrew Bible. The LSB version increases to 6% of the Hebrew Bible. The RCL makes a great jump to 10% ...

Most people think the season of advent lasts four weeks. But did you know that it started off at six weeks. Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas. Now most people think it is the season of Christmas. Advent was created in the fifth century. It was started to prepare people for the celebration of epiphany. When it was moved to connect with Christmas it was to be a forty day season paralleling Lent. People knew how well lent helped prepare people for Easter. Advent would the celebrate forty days before Easter. We now connect Joy, Hope, Peace, and Love with Advent. I don't know what the weeks were then. There was not a stable lectionary at that time to set these themes. In the sixth century it was shortened to the four weeks we have today. I bring this up only to think about what if advent would be moved back to six weeks? Or what would happen if we added another season before advent? Just food for thought. Thank you. Published with Blogger-droid v1.7...

Why does the Lectionary chop texts. Many people over the years have questioned the places texts are chopped. Others complain that texts are chopped at all. I complain that texts are chopped and others are eliminated all together. One can be corrected by the preacher on Sunday morning. He simply reads the entire text instead of the chopped portions. But there is another way. You can look to for another lectionary. Another Lectionary that does not cut texts but simply ends them. Every text or lection must eventually come to an end. Sometimes you add things to the end in order to get them in. Other times you notice things are left out, for an undetermined reason. God tells us not to add or subtract from scripture, but it is all scripture. Why does the reading need to be under 20 verses or more than 5? Length can be a good thing, but it can also go beyond the point of the text itself. This means the preacher needs to know the text and context in order to teach his sheep. The Lecti...

Mark 16 "And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." Simply connected with John 11 "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" And connected with Matthew 10, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear the him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." We are all snake handlers and poison drinkers. People do this everyday, but Christians have nothing to fear. Christians will not die, Jesus said so. Even if we die yet shall we live. Jesus promises we will not die. Fear not the snake or poison but fear that which kills the body and the soul (God). We ha...

I asked myself a long time ago why does the Church Start Sunday School in September while the Church Year starts the end of November. Many people forget when the Church Year actually starts. The first day of the New Church Year is the Sunday closest to St Andrews Day or the First Sunday in Advent. The Church Year does not start on January 1 nor the first week after Labor Day (or even a couple weeks before Labor Day like some schools). There are some suggestions to changes this problem. You can have school and sunday school all year round. This is a great idea because we all need to keep learning. Learning does not take a vacation. Some Schools in the United States have moved to a Year round school Year. They take extended breaks during Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July and Labor Day. These help to supplement being out of school for three months. But most of the Country still struggles with giving up their summers. They still cling to summer being a time for family, Vacati...