Lectionary Reading Introduction
This site provides something different: many sites and books provide a brief summary of the reading - so that people read out or have in their pew sheet an outline of what they are about to hear. They are told beforehand what to expect. Does this not limit what they hear the Spirit address them? This site provides something different - often one cannot appreciate what is being read because there is no context provided. This site provides the context, the frame of the reading about to be heard. It could be used as an introduction, printed on a pew sheet (acknowledged, of course), or adapted in other ways. This is an experimental venture and I will see how useful it appears.
Jeremiah 23:1-6
The prophecies under Jehoiakim by Jeremiah set in the late seventh century before Christ can contrast leadership of a poor shepherd with a hoped for good shepherd.
Colossians 1:11-20
Twenty Sundays ago this year we spent four weeks with this letter. Its authorship is disputed. Today we begin with perhaps a liturgical hymn of the time. Behind the text might be the concept that one begins with the final goal in mind - Christ, in the mind of God, is the first idea that God in creation has been working towards.
Luke 23:33-43
The background to today's text, skipping a couple of chapters from last week's gospel text, is the story of the temptations of the first humans in the early chapters of Genesis. Those temptations can be enumerated and compared to these. They gave in - Jesus triumphed. What they lost, Jesus regained. And more.