Religious Reflection - 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle B - 2nd Reading)

[gold_dragontsu]

Today's second reading is the somewhat controversial Ephesians 5: 21-32. I remember my Mom told me once that she didn't like Paul too much due to this reading

Comments

[cahlin]

I find all the thoughts you've brought up here very interesting. I am no avid church-goer... but I do go from time to time. I used to go quite frequently right after my confirmation, as I was part of a teen group at my church, but then all the leaders got replaced and all my friends stopped going so then I stopped too.

But I do like to go to church, and I feel there are a lot of very interesting conversations to be had after sermons and such... Like what you're discussing here. Am not sure I have anything very intelligent to say about it, except that I find it very interesting in trying to incorporate what was written two thousand years ago to our modern society. :)

[gold_dragontsu]

My observation has been that religious practice seems to fall away around young adulthood. I feel that as youngsters, many kids probably go to church at the behest of their parents... but once they are independent, it doesn't seem like it lasts... at least in my community. :S There are probably any number of reasons for it, but I won't get into it unless you want me to. :} It's sort of a tough topic for me to think about, honestly.

As for me... I guess I've just come to see that I really, really need God in my life. Sometimes, I feel I'm not the best person... Yet I believe morality is a positive thing. So, even if I'm messing up a lot, at least I can honestly say that I'm trying to move in a positive direction. Also, my success dealing with people has never been especially high... But despite all of my shortcomings, weaknesses, and overt sinfulness, I feel God has not rejected me. This draws me to God in the end, along with other reasons

[joedragons]

This reminds me of how on our final religion class in High School the teacher asked who was going to continue going to Church in college and I was the only person who raised my hand (co-incidentially, I don't think I was even paying attention to anyone else, probably doodling or reading, and raised it instinctually [honestly?]...if I had been paying attention I may not have just to avoid being embarassed/isolated).

Also, why when LORD is capitolized does it make me feel like I'm at Gospel Mass (is that an offensive term?). Isn't the capitol L enough?
-J

[gold_dragontsu]

"Is the majority of the class going to continue going to Mass in college? NO!" --Mr. T.

"I am the Church!" --Mr. B. K.

*chuckles* I don't find Gospel Mass an offensive term, but I'm not up on my political correctness. :}

Isn't the capitol L enough?

Good question. This is something I should probably research in more depth. I know that in my New American Bible (which actually may be your New American Bible, speaking of high school... :} ), it's actually small caps... Let's see if I can render this correctly in HTML/CSS...

The Lord

As for why they do that, I'd just venture a guess that it's in reverence to God's power and greatness... But more research would be required. :}

~GD

[joedragons]

Good write up=) Very thought provoking

[gold_dragontsu]

Might you be refering to Literal vs. Contextual interpretations of the Bible? :}

Literal vs. Contextual probably has different meaning when considering different books of the Bible. Paul's work consists of much concrete advice on living a Christian life. In that sense, I think it mostly lends itself to a literal interpretation (but more on that later). Contrast Paul's writing with Genesis, which has two different creation accounts. Since the creation accounts have differences, that alone would be a reason to suggest that the creation stories should be interpretted contextually. If they were literal, that would mean the world was created twice in two different ways, right?

As an aside, if you ever read biblical analysis of Genesis, you'll probably come across references to J, E, D, and P... The Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and Priestly sources, respectively. However, it may be impossible at this point to ever reconstruct all of the sources that had an impact on early scripture, or individual stories within scripture. The point is

[joedragons]

Indeed that's what I meant tho it's sylli since you used the word context(ual) several times in your original posts. ^^*

You've read the biblical analysis of Genesis?
That's beyond reading the Bible=) *hat_tip (if so)*

I think I got confused because you seemed to be defending Paul's writing by making it contextual and I read it as what you said in your fourth paragraph (the last sentence, the quote), it isn't really even worth making a deal about because those are things of the past. Deep reader I am not;)

I agree with the 5th paragraph and that's my experience as well.
Probably also why I enjoyed reading your post.

Gonna break up the replies over the day since there are 3=)
Bbiab (be back in a bit),
Joe

[gold_dragontsu]

You've read the biblical analysis of Genesis? That's beyond reading the Bible=)

*chuckles* Is it negative kudos if I haven't read the actual Bible first? ;) Actually, I haven't read a lot of biblical analysis... not enough to really talk about it, anyway. I did take a Bible as Literature course in college, which is where I first learned about the four sources initially.

~GD