Lent 4C

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 30, 2025 (Lent 4C)

The Prodigal Son (

The Prodigal Son (1622), oil painting on panel by Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656). Alte Pinakothek, Munich. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Joshua 5:9-12

Fresh starts and new beginnings: These themes resonate in Sunday’s readings as we reach the midpoint of Lent. From the Israelites’ arrival at the Promised Land in the first reading to the Prodigal Son’s joyful return home in the Gospel, we remember that God stays with us through transition and change. In the first reading from Joshua, we see a people filled with joy. They have reached Canaan, the land of milk and honey. No longer reliant on manna for sustenance, they celebrate the end of 40 years in the desert with fresh bread made from the produce of the promised land.

Psalm: Psalm 32

Who hasn’t known the anguish of doing something wrong that hurt a loved one? An angry word flares. A careless act happens. And then we see that look of pain, a sob, and a burst of tears, and we feel anguish and guilt. At that point, there is just one thing to say: “I’m sorry.” When this simple response brings a smile and forgiveness, everything feels better. This is the reward of repentance: When we sin and step away from God, it hurts. But then, as we chant in this Psalm, God’s forgiveness and steadfast love can make us shout for joy.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

There is tension in Paul’s second letter to the people of Corinth. The people of this Greek Christian community have been arguing with Paul and with each other. Paul, loving them in spite of it all, entreats them to be reconciled to God on behalf of Christ. Our new direction as Christians, Paul tells them, comes when we recognize Jesus not only as human but as Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah. In Christ, everything old has passed away. Everything has become new! Through Christ, God forgives all our trespasses and reconciles the world to God.

Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The story of the Prodigal Son is surely one of the most beloved parables, and it’s easy to grasp its meaning: God forgives us when we stray and then return. Even if we have been prodigally sinful, God welcomes us home with a father’s joy and abundant celebration. But there’s more to this textured story: Consider the older brother: Hurt because his good and faithful behavior earned him no reward, he is consoled by his father’s loyal, long-standing love. It’s also easy to forget the setting for this familiar story: Jesus told it in response to a crowd of scribes and Pharisees who were upset because Jesus welcomed tax collectors and sinners at his table.

Lent 3C

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 23, 2025 (Lent 3C)

Moses and the Burning Bush

Moses and the Burning Bush (1642-45), oil painting on canvas by Sébastien Bourdon (1616-1671). The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Exodus 3:1-15

As the theologian Marcus Borg famously wrote, God is both right here and out there: as near as our thoughts and as far as the stars. Sunday’s readings stretch our imagination with ideas of a transcendent God of mighty power. In our first reading from Exodus, we recall the ancestral story of God addressing a startled Moses from a flaming bush that burned but was never consumed. The people have suffered in slavery in Egypt long enough, God tells Moses, calling Moses – despite his protests of inadequacy – to lead the people out of Egypt and bring them to a promised land flowing with milk and honey.

Psalm: Psalm 63:1-8

We began Lent by recalling the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert, defying temptation and preparing for his ministry on Earth. Psalm 63 is set in a similar arid wilderness, a barren and dry land where there is no water. The Psalmist seeks God with a thirsty soul, aching not only for liquid refreshment but for God, whose lovingkindness is better than life itself. Through prayer, the Psalmist’s hunger is satisfied. Upheld by God’s strong hand, the poet sings for joy under the shadow of God’s wings.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Paul, writing to the people of Corinth in a time when early Christians were still working out their relationship with Judaism, recalls Hebrew Bible stories in which Israelites were struck down for failing to keep God’s ways. Paul holds up these Israelites who strayed from their commitments as examples for the early Christians to consider when they felt that God was testing them with hard times. Learn from those ancestors, Paul urges. Be faithful, don’t stray, and know that when hard times test us, God will provide us strength.

Gospel: Luke 13:1-9

A group of people came to Jesus, worried about a group of Galileans whom Pilate had killed and 18 others who died when a tower at Siloam fell on them. Did these bad things happen because the victims had sinned? Absolutely not, Jesus tells them. God does not punish sin with suffering, Jesus declares, perhaps recalling the wisdom of Job. But, Jesus goes on, repentance defeats death, bringing forgiveness and eternal life. Like the gardener who defers cutting down a barren fig tree to nurture it in hope it will eventually bear fruit, we are to hope for forgiveness and another chance.

Lent 2C

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 16, 2025 (Lent 2C)

Christ and the Pharisees,

Christ and the Pharisees, from Das Plenarium (1517), hand-colored woodcut by Hans Leonhard Schäufelein (1480-1540). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Even in times of darkness and fear, hold on to hope and trust in God: This optimistic idea illuminates Sunday’s readings. In Sunday’s first reading, Abram is worried because he and his wife Sarai remain childless in old age. Will they have to adopt a slave child to receive the inheritance that God has promised? But God guides Abram through a dark and terrifying night and, in the new day, assures him that he and Sarai – who we will know as Abraham and Sarah – will begin a family that will inherit the promised land; a family as countless as the stars.

Psalm: Psalm 27

Psalm 27 resonates with the Genesis account of God’s covenant with Abraham: Even when we feel under attack, beset with dangers and real-life fears, we can place our confidence in God and ask for God’s protection. We sing of our trust in God, our light and salvation, whose strength is so great that nothing can stand against it. Yes, bad things sometimes do happen to good people. That is the way of our lives. But we ask God’s to show us the way and lead us on a level path, and we trust that God will be with us both in bad times and good.

Second Reading: Philippians 3:17-4:1

The people of the church in Philippi in northern Greece had endured much to embrace the Christian way. They wrestled with fear as they faced persecution by their enemies. But Paul – himself writing from prison in Rome – reassures them pastorally in words that might remind us of the Psalmist’s wisdom: Look to God, through Christ, for our salvation. Stand firm in our faith and find meaning in our lives by making every effort to live as Christ would have us live. Christ is the one who will transform us.

Gospel: Luke 13:31-35

Several friendly Pharisees warn Jesus that King Herod wants to kill him, and urge him to protect himself. But Jesus, calling Herod “that fox,” won’t change his chosen course, even if it will lead to death in the “city that kills the prophets.” But then this dark and foreboding passage turns comforting as Jesus describes himself as a mother hen protecting her brood under her wings. This nurturing, feminine image invites us to reflect on Jesus as a source of gentle motherly love, expanding our vision of a Christ for all humankind.

Lent 1C

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 9, 2025 (Lent 1C)

Christ Tempted by the Devil

Christ Tempted by the Devil (1818), oil painting on panel by John Ritto Penniman (1782-1841). Smithsonian American Art Museum. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Deuteronomy 26:1-11

During Lent, as we read in the Book of Common Prayer, Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” Sunday’s Lectionary readings gently guide us into this season with reminders from Scripture that God loves us, protects us, and calls us to follow God’s way. Our first reading recalls an ancient harvest liturgy, when the people would tithe the land’s bounty in thanksgiving to God who led them out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to a rich and fruitful land.

Psalm: Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

These verses that we chant in Sunday’s Psalm set the scene for the day’s Gospel: “He will command his angels concerning you … On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” This promise underscores the hopeful message of Psalm 91, and by extension the Gospel according to Matthew: Even when bad things happen – plague, injury, even attacks by lions and venomous serpents – we live in God’s shadow. God is with us when we are in trouble. God will answer when we call.

Second Reading: Romans 10:8b-13

Paul’s pastoral advice to the early Christian community in Rome, a mixed body of Jewish and pagan Christians, continues the theme of Sunday’s readings. In the Psalm, we acknowledged our trust in God’s protection. Here, Paul reminds the people of the infant Roman church that the pathway to salvation opens when we accept Jesus and the Resurrection. In the first reading, we recalled that our spiritual ancestors were foreigners in a strange land, held as slaves in Egypt. Now Paul makes it clear that there is no Jew or Greek, no insider or outsider in the way of Jesus: We are all together in one God for all.

Gospel: Luke 4:1-13

Immediately following his baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days, a period that is reflected in the 40 days of Lent. Famished at the end of his long fast, Jesus meets the devil, who tests him with the suggestion that if he is the Son of God, he could turn stones into food. Failing that, the devil tempts Jesus again with visions of power and glory if only he would turn from God. Jesus resists each temptations, warning the devil not to put God to the test. The devil then leaves him “until an opportune time.” In the verses that follow this passage, Jesus goes directly to his hometown synagogue where he will proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed.

Ash Wednesday

Thoughts on the Lectionary readings for March 5, 2025 (Ash Wednesday)

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday (1866), oil painting on panel by Charles de Groux (1825-1870). Stedelijk Museum Wuyts-Van Campen en Baron Caroly, Liere, Belgium. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Joel 2:1-2,12-17

Ash Wednesday is the first of the forty days of Lent, named for the custom of placing blessed ashes on the foreheads of worshipers at Ash Wednesday services. The ashes are a sign of penitence and a reminder that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Our readings begin with a passage from the short Book of Joel, who may have prophesied after the return from exile to Jerusalem. Much of Joel’s message deals with the people’s prayerful response to a plague of locusts, setting a scene of penitence and sacrifice for us to ponder as Lent begins.

Alternate First Reading: Isaiah 58:1-12

Lent is the liturgical season set aside for acts of devotion and sacrifice as we reflect on the wrongs that we have done and recognize that life is short. In this alternate first reading for Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the Prophet Isaiah reminds us that public demonstrations of fasting and prayer, sackcloth and ashes are not enough to please God. We should show our righteousness, rather, in service and love of neighbor. The prophet reminds us of God’s call to oppose injustice: free the oppressed, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and clothe the naked.

Psalm: Psalm 103

God made us all from dust, the Psalmist declares. God knows well that we are all only dust. We are human: broken and sinful, often wicked. Yet God’s compassion and mercy vastly exceed God’s anger. God does not punish us with the wrath that we might fear that our sins deserve. Rather, the psalm goes on, God shows a mercy wider than the world itself, forgiving our sins and welcoming us in a parent’s warm embrace.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Much of the content in Paul’s less familiar second letter to the people of Corinth is devoted to trying to work out a disagreement he is having with the people of this contentious little Greek church. In this passage, Paul speaks of reconciliation. He enumerates the many pains that he has endured as a servant of God. Then he urges the people to accept God’s grace and work together in the Christ who reconciled us with God by taking human form and dying for us.

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

We land in the middle of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount in this Ash Wednesday Gospel. We hear him teaching the crowd how to practice almsgiving, prayer, fasting, and self-denial of worldly pleasures: A catalog of actions that have become traditional Lenten practices. In words that resonate with the alternate first reading from Isaiah, Jesus urges the people to practice humble prayer: Shun hypocrisy. Don’t show off. Keep your charity, your prayers, and your fasting to yourself. Don’t brag about your fast. Don’t hoard fragile, transient earthly riches, but store in heaven the treasures that last.

Last Epiphany C/Transfiguration

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 2, 2025 (Last Epiphany C/Transfiguration)


The Transfiguration of Christ

The Transfiguration of Christ (1605), oil painting on canvas by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Musee de Beaux Arts of Nancy, France. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Exodus 34:29-35

We now reach the end of this year’s Epiphany season with the Feast of the Transfiguration. During these nine weeks, our Gospels have shown Jesus revealed to his followers as the Messiah. Now we conclude with a dramatic revelation on a mountain top: Jesus is bathed in light, joined by the prophets Moses and Elijah as the voice of God rings from the clouds declaring Jesus God’s son and chosen one. In the first reading, we remember Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, his own face transfigured in light by his encounter with the Holy One.

Psalm: Psalm 99

This ancient hymn portrays God as a powerful king before whom the people tremble and the earth shakes. Our God is great and awesome, the Psalmist declares; no petty tyrant but a mighty ruler who speaks out of clouds and fire, expects justice, and provides equity for the righteous. When Moses, Aaron, Samuel, and the leaders of the Temple called on God, God answered them. God punished them for their misdeeds, yet forgave them, for God is the Holy One.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

In his second known letter to the church community in Corinth, Paul recalls the story that we heard in the first reading, when Moses came down the mountain with his shining face hidden by a veil to protect the people from its unearthly glow. Now Paul takes that image and turns it around: Jesus unveils God’s new covenant through Christ in all its shining glory, Paul says, inspiring us through God’s transforming light.

Gospel: Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a]

Peter, John, and James, mouths dropping in awe, see Jesus in conversation with Moses and Elijah. But now it is Jesus, not Moses, who shines: His face and clothing glow in dazzling light as he is transfigured in God’s light and voice. God’s voice declares Jesus his son and chosen one. “Listen to him,” booms the divine voice, echoing the words that God spoke from a cloud in Jesus’s baptism: “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Jesus and the apostles then return down the mountain, and Jesus resumes his ministry, astounding the crowd by casting out an angry demon that had tormented a child with convulsions.

Epiphany 7C

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 23, 2025 (Epiphany 7C)


Joseph recognized by his brothers

Joseph recognized by his brothers (1863), oil painting on canvas by Léon Pierre Urbain Bourgeois (1842-1911). Musée de la Faïence et des Beaux-Arts, Nevers, France. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Throughout Sunday’s readings, we hear a clear  call to listen for God and to forgive even those who have hurt us. So it is with Joseph in our first reading. Sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers, Joseph rose through difficulties to become a chief advisor to Pharaoh. Now Joseph’s brothers, who have come to Egypt to escape a famine at home, find Joseph elevated to this powerful position. They are terrified, fearing their brother’s revenge, but Joseph forgives them amid tears and kisses.

Psalm: Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42

Trust in God and do good, the Psalmist urges the people. Don’t worry about evildoers or envy those who do wrong: They won’t last. But those who follow God’s ways will receive their heart’s desire. As we sing these verses, notice the parallels with Jesus’s instructions in Luke’s Sermon on the Plain: Be patient. Don’t strike out in anger. These things only lead to evil. Trust in God, rather, knowing that the meek shall inherit the land. Wait for God with patience and confident trust. Follow God’s ways and be rewarded.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50

In the passage we read this Sunday, Paul continues his extended theological reflection on resurrection and how it works. He sets up an opposing question, asking what kind of body the resurrected will have; then he shouts “Fool!” at his imagined debating opponent. Using the example of seeds and sowing as a metaphor, he observes that seeds of grain cannot come to life as plants unless they first die by being sown in the earth. Just as God then gives each kind of seed its own body, Paul says, so it is with resurrection: Our physical bodies perish, but what is raised cannot perish. Just as Adam, the first human, came from dust, but Christ, like a second Adam, came from heaven,  in resurrection we will bear Christ’s image.  

Gospel: Luke 6:27-38

This week we hear more of Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain as told by Luke, and its reversal of expectations continues in a more edgy and even challenging interpretation of Jesus’s words than we hear in Matthew’s Beatitudes. Moving from the blessings for those who suffer and the woes for those who revel in riches, Jesus now poses a difficult, counterintuitive challenge: Love our enemies and do good to those who hate and hurt us, doing to others as we would have them do to us. Jesus goes on to make clear that practicing this Golden Rule is not to be done in hope of reward: “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. … But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”

Epiphany 6C

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 16, 2025 (Epiphany 6C)

The Evangelist Luke

The Evangelist Luke (15th century), as imagined by a Greek Orthodox icon writer. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10

The cursed and the blessed, the wicked and the righteous, the doubters and the believers, and the woeful and the blessed: Sunday’s readings seem to portray a world forever divided. Listen closely, though, and hear a more hopeful narrative in which trust in God is amply rewarded. In our first reading, the Prophet Jeremiah separates the cursed – those who turn away from God toward trust in mortals and must wither and die – from the blessed: those who trust in God and so will be deeply rooted and nourished like plants near water.

Psalm: Psalm 1

Does the first of the 150 Psalms set a theme for the entire book of Psalms? Psalm 1 echoes the covenant that God gave to Moses, singing praise for righteousness and its rewards while warning about the dangers of following the ways of the wicked. Using metaphors that echo Jeremiah’s division of humankind in the first reading, the Psalmist promises delight for the righteous, who will thrive and bear fruit like trees planted near water. But there’s no joy for the wicked, the prophet declares: They will be doomed like chaff that the wind blows away from the good wheat.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Paul continues working out his theology of salvation through Christ’s resurrection in the closing chapters of First Corinthians. Written at least a generation before Mark, the first of the Gospels, Paul’s words offer a glimpse of the infant Christian community’s ideas largely through an oral tradition about the adult ministry of Jesus that had occurred only about 20 years before. In this passage, Paul challenges those who doubt that Christ’s resurrection means that we, too, are freed from the fear of death. If Christ was not raised, Paul tells his Corinthian congregation, then our faith has been in vain and our sins have not been forgiven. But Christ truly was raised from the dead, Paul assures them: He is the first fruit of all who die and will now live again.

Gospel: Luke 6:17-26

It is interesting to compare Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Plain with Matthew’s perhaps more familiar Sermon on the Mount. In Luke’s telling, Jesus comes down from a mountain where he has spent the night to a level place where he teaches his just-chosen disciples and a huge crowd of followers. The series of beatitudes or blessings that he offers them sound a more edgy tone than Matthew’s version: Each blessing is followed by a contrasting woe. The actual poor are blessed, in contrast with Matthew’s “poor in spirit.” The hungry are blessed, and those who weep and those who are reviled. Then we hear Jesus declaring woe on the rich, those who are full of food and wealth, those who laugh as they receive constant praise. This liberating preference for the poor and downtrodden is a constant subtext through Luke. We’ve already heard it in his stories of the Song of Mary and Jesus’ first sermon in his hometown, and we will continue hearing it all the way to the Cross.

Epiphany 5C

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 9, 2025 (Epiphany 5C)


The Miraculous Draft of Fishes

The Miraculous Draft of Fishes (1308-1311), tempera painting on wood by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

God’s call to serve is a command so powerful that it is difficult to resist. In Sunday’s Lectionary readings we see this at work in God’s call to the Prophet Isaiah; the Psalmist’s conversation with a faithful God; Paul’s call as an apostle of Christ, and Jesus calling his apostles at the Sea of Galilee. In our first reading, Isaiah is granted a terrifying vision of a gigantic God on a throne surrounded by six-winged seraphim. This vision is so majestic that Isaiah fears for his life, declaring himself an unworthy creature of unclean lips. But God sends a seraph to touch Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal, burning out his sin. Isaiah then eagerly accepts God’s call, responding faithfully, “Here I am! Send me!”

Psalm: Psalm 138

Psalm 138, a hymn of thanksgiving, reminds us that communication with God can be a two-way conversation: God responds when we call, the Psalmist tells the people. God loves us and is faithful. We often pray when we’re in need. In time of trouble and fear, we call out in our helplessness and beg God to come to our aid. Although the kings of Earth praise God, God cares for us, the lowly: God keeps us safe when we walk in the midst of trouble. The love of the Lord endures forever, the Psalmist sings. God will not abandon the works of God’s hands.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

We have come to the final chapters of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Turning to the good news of Christ’s resurrection, Paul places it in the center of Christian theology: Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, and was then seen by the Apostles and by hundreds of followers. Acknowledging his own unfitness to serve Christ because he had persecuted the church, Paul declares himself the least of the apostles, the last to see Christ, but now forgiven in spite of his sins. Paul was not chosen to serve thanks to his own merits, he says, but through God’s saving grace that comes through the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Gospel: Luke 5:1-11

Encountering a huge crowd near the lake of Gennesaret (Galilee), Jesus got into a boat owned by a fisherman named Simon so he could address the people from offshore. When Jesus finished teaching the crowd, he told Simon to head for deep water and put out his fishing nets. Simon was doubtful, knowing that they had come up empty after fishing all night. But he trusted Jesus, and to his surprise, caught more fish than the nets could hold. Peter, in a response that might remind us of Isaiah’s fearful plea to God, dropped to his knees and told Jesus to leave him, a sinful man. Jesus told him not to be afraid; and then, when Jesus called Simon and his partners James and John, they eagerly left everything behind and followed him.

The Presentation of Our Lord

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 2, 2020

Simeon’s Song of Praise, Nunc Dimittis

Simeon’s Song of Praise, Nunc Dimittis (c.1700-c.1710). Oil painting on canvas by Aert de Gelder (1645-1727). Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Malachi 3:1-4

The feast of the Presentation of Our Lord comes 40 days after Christmas. When it falls on a Sunday, as it does this year, it takes precedence over the usual liturgy for the season of Epiphany. Sunday’s Gospel reflects on the presentation of the baby Jesus and the ritual purification of his mother, Mary, in the Jerusalem temple. First, we hear the Prophet Malachi speak of purification, using the metaphor of a refiner who purifies gold and silver with heat and fire: poetic words that the composer Handel will later adopt for a beautiful aria in The Messiah. For Malachi, the refiner’s cleansing fire stands as a symbol of Israel’s duty to restore the Temple and its priesthood upon the people’s return from exile.

Psalm: Psalm 84

When we sang Psalm 84 just one month ago, during Christmastide, we added our voices to the Psalmist’s joy in knowing that God will provide protection, favor, and honor to us when we trust in God. This time, hear it again through the perspective of creation: God provides nests for the small birds, for sparrows and swallows too. God attends to the prayer of all creation, not only our personal prayers. God provides pools of water for thirsty travelers and for all creatures who thirst as they go through desolate valleys.

Alternate Psalm: Psalm 24:7-10

This passage comes from one of the many psalms that tradition attributes to King David himself. The full psalm is thought to have been a processional chant as the priests and congregation approached the Temple. In the first verses, the priest calls out, “Who shall stand in his holy place? Who has the right to come in and worship?” The crowd responds, “Those who have clean hands and pure hearts.” Then, in the brief portion that we hear on this Sunday, a joyful chorus celebrates God, the King of Glory, creator of the earth and all that is in it.

Second Reading: Hebrews 2:14-18

Christians in some parts of the Roman Empire faced frightening persecution late in the 1st century, a situation that prompted many Jewish Christians to abandon their new faith and return to Judaism, which at the time was not under such severe persecution. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews urges them to stay strong and persevere in their new faith. This passage names Jesus as Son of God and great high priest, God who became fully human like us and freed us from death through his sacrifice and resurrection. Because Jesus was so tested, the author argues, Jesus will help those who are being tested now.

Gospel: Luke 2:22-40

Now Joseph and Mary come to the Temple for her ritual purification according to Jewish law, and to present the infant Jesus in accord with the practice that a firstborn son be presented to God. They offer two small birds as sacrifice, an option reserved for poor families who couldn’t afford a lamb. Then Simeon enters. An elderly man, Simeon had heard the Holy Spirit’s promise that he would see the Messiah before he died. He joyfully takes the baby, blesses Jesus and his family, and utters the verses that we know as the Nunc Dimittis, the Song of Simeon: “Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see.”