Jeremy Thompson

Category: Lectionary Readings

  • The Celebration of Passover in Ezra

    In today’s lectionary reading in Ezra 6, the people celebrate the Passover.  This is somewhat significant as according the Bible Background Commentary on the Old Testament there has been no mention of the Passover celebration since the time of Josiah which was more than 100 years earlier.  This is potentially an example of the idea…

  • Alright – Old Testament Lectionary Readings Back

    Thank goodness.  Old Testament lectionary readings start back again on Tuesday.  Now, I will have a little bit of structure back to my blog writing.  Not that I haven’t enjoyed the randomness.

  • I'm Glad God Doesn't Send Snakes at People Anymore

    It’s been a busy day; we are starting confirmation preparation in our parish tonight.  But, I noticed we had an Old Testament reading for the day – Numbers 21.4b-9.  Not a very pleasant one.  The people of Israel complain against God and Moses.  God proceeds to send snakes among the people to bite them and…

  • Ralph Klein's Summary of Isaiah 50.4-9 (and Free Book Chapters from Israel in Exile)

    Here is Ralph Klein’s summary of Isaiah 50.4-9 (today’s Old Testament reading)  from chapter 5 of his book Israel in Exile: 50:4-9. In this poem the servant commits himself to his vocation even in the face of opposition. Like the servant of the first poem (42:3), and like Yahweh himself (40:29-31), the servant helps and…

  • Lectionary Insertions of "Thus Says the Lord"

    I know that I have noticed this before today, but the lectionary inserts “Thus says the Lord” in places where it is not really there.  For instance, the Old Testament lectionary reading for yesterday begins: Thus says the LORD: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God,… (Is.…

  • Synonymous Parallelism – God's Name, God's Power

    One of the primary features of the Hebrew poetry of the Old Testament is parallelism.  One of these types of parallelism is called synonymous, which means that the writer is essentially saying the same thing two different ways.  In today’s responsorial Psalm, there is a potentially helpful example of synonymous parallelism.  It may demonstrate the…

  • Words for Idols

    Words for idols in Hebrew are almost always very interesting.  In the Responsorial Psalm for today, many translations of Psalm 96.6 read: “For all the gods of the people are idols…” (NRSV, NASB, among others).  Yet when one looks at the root idea of the word underlying the translation idols it appears to mean something…

  • Responsorial Psalms: One of My Favorite Parts of Being Catholic

    Okay.  So, I realize that having a daily responsorial Psalm is not distinctively Catholic.  A number of other liturgically oriented communities also have these; I say good for them.  They help to keep worship from becoming stagnant or monolithic.  I have been a music leader in various congregations and for various age groups (I am…

  • Officially No Old Testament Reading – Thinking of Starting a Series on Revelation

    Alright, I’ve had my say on the whole John Piper tornado debacle over the last couple of days (“clarification” here).  Now, back to normal blogging.  There was officially no Old Testament lectionary reading today after I jumped the gun last week.  Today’s first reading was from Revelation.  That made me think about possibly starting a…

  • Ruth the Moabite

    The lectionary reading for today is once again about Ruth.  And, I am glad because I didn’t get to post yesterday about Ruth being a Moabite, which is part of the today’s reading in Ruth 2.2.  I discussed Moab once before in a previous post I did about Moses’ death.  However, the the origins of…