Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for March 22, 2026 (Lent 5A)

The Raising of Lazarus, after Rembrandt (1890), oil painting on canvas by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Suddenly much of Lent is behind us. Holy Week is next Sunday, and Easter is drawing near. Our readings for the Fifth Sunday in Lent begin to tantalize our spirits with promises of victory over death through resurrection. Last week we walked with God through the valley of the shadow of death. Now we will remember the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of another valley, this one full of dry bones. We aren’t told if this eerie and frightening sight was the scene of a battle or a massacre. But through God’s power and Ezekiel’s prophecy, the dry bones are restored to life, revealing God’s promise to restore Israel from exile to its own land.

Psalm: Psalm 130

Psalm 130, familiarly known as “De Profundis” (“out of the depths”), is one of the half-dozen psalms explicitly suggested for use in the liturgy for the burial of the dead. Its solemn cadences remind us that even when we are lost in deep grief, pain, and despair, our souls wait in hope for God’s love and grace. Even in death, we await the resurrection. We wait “more than watchmen for the morning,” the Psalmist sings, as in night’s darkest hours we watch for the first morning light.

Second Reading: Romans 8:6-11

The short passage from Romans affords us a quick look at Paul’s evolving understanding of the difference between flesh and spirit. All of us live our lives in human flesh, Paul said; even Jesus, who was just as fully human as we are. But Paul recognizes flesh as subject to death and thus, he believes, ultimately displeasing to God. Conversely, he muses, the spirit of God living in us leads us to eternal life through righteousness. When we accept God’s spirit dwelling within us through the action of Jesus, Paul says, we gain the hope of life, peace, and resurrection.

Gospel: John 11:1-45

John’s Gospel tells this familiar story of Jesus’s dear friends, Mary and Martha, devastated by the death of their brother Lazarus. Each of them confronts Jesus in turn with the words, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” To bold, brash Martha, Jesus utters the Messianic statement, “I am the resurrection and the life. … everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Then, when he sees quiet Mary crying, Jesus simply weeps with her. And then he calls Lazarus back from death. But there’s more to this story. Jesus thanks God that the amazed crowd that witnessed Lazarus rising will now believe that Jesus is the Messiah. The verses that come after this reading, though, take an ominous turn that leads to the Passion and the Cross: The temple authorities, fearful about the uproar that Jesus is causing, decide that he must die.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for March 15, 2026 (Lent 4A)

Christ Healing the Blind Man (c.1645), oil painting on panel by Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655). Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg. (Click image to enlarge)

First Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

Our Lectionary readings during Lent have invited us to reflect on light and sight: What do we see, and how do we see it? In Sunday’s first reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we hear that God has rejected Saul as king of Israel. Now God directs Samuel to take on the risky chore of finding a successor. Samuel is fearful of Saul’s anger, but he follows God’s command to go to Jesse the Bethlehemite, among whose eight sons God has chosen the next king. Samuel examines seven of the young men, one at a time, but none seems to be the chosen one. Asking if there is any other, Samuel discovers David, Jesse’s youngest son, who had seemed such an unlikely choice that he had been sent to watch the sheep while Saul examined his older brothers. But God saw the spirit in David that the others could not detect, and David would become king.

Psalm: Psalm 23

The 23rd Psalm is beloved with good reason: Its familiar verses bring comfort in times of trouble and trial, reminding us that in our darkest hours and most threatening times, God walks with us, protects us, and comforts us. Ancient tradition held that David himself wrote these verses. Most modern scholars doubt that. But kings and commoners alike can take joy from knowing that God’s rod and staff comfort us, and God’s goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.

Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14

This short letter to the people of the church in Ephesus was probably actually written by a follower in Paul’s name a few decades after his death. The full epistle contains some problems for modern Christians who take it out of its historical and cultural context. It appears to sanction slavery, for example, and it firmly puts women in their place as “subject” to their husbands. There are no such issues with Sunday’s short reading, though. This passage offers a poetic view of light against darkness, perhaps echoing John’s vision of Jesus as the light shining in the darkness, and pointing us toward the Gospel account of Jesus giving sight to a man born blind.

Gospel: John 9:1-41

Speaking of harsh ideas that linger from ancient times, the sad notion that blindness and other disabilities reflect God’s punishment for one’s sins or the sins of one’s parents has been hard to overcome even in modern times, despite Jesus’s emphasis that God does no such thing. Rather, the very words that the man born blind utters upon the restoration of his sight make the case for grace, not punishment, as we hear them reimagined in Amazing Grace: “I once was lost, but now am found … Was blind, but now I see.”

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for March 8, 2026 (Lent 3A)

Christ and the Woman of Samaria at the Well (c.1640-c.1641), oil painting on canvas by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (1591-1666). Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Exodus 17:1-7

Sunday’s readings speak about thirst. We hear about the thirsty Israelites following Moses in the desert, and we look on as Jesus stops for water and rest in a Samaritan town and has an intriguing conversation with a local woman. When we face such basic needs as hunger and thirst, it’s all too easy for us to forget to be thankful for the blessings we have already received. Our first reading from Exodus finds the people grateful that God has provided manna to ease their hunger. But now they are angry because they still have no water. They complain that they were better off in slavery in Egypt than dying in the desert. Moses is just about out of patience with them, but God provides a miracle to quench their thirst.

Psalm: Psalm 95

The 95th Psalm begins with the joyful hymn of praise that we also know as the Venite, a familiar reading in Morning Prayer, which begins “Come, let us sing to the Lord.” Its grateful tone changes key in the eighth verse, though, when the Psalmist recalls the events that we heard in the Exodus reading. Because the thirsty, angry people turned their hearts from God and put God to the test, he imagines, these ungrateful actions drove God to “loathe” them and leave them to wander for 40 years in the desert.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-11

Even though we all sin, Paul writes to the people of the church in Rome, we are nevertheless justified through faith and saved through Jesus’s death on the cross. This congregation has known suffering. Its Jewish Christian members were forced into exile and had only recently returned; now the faith of the entire congregation puts them all at risk. Even so, Paul assures them, their suffering gives them the opportunity to learn endurance and build their character through hope in the love that God pours into their hearts through the Spirit.

Gospel: John 4:5-42

Jesus was tired and thirsty after a long journey. Returning from Jerusalem to Galilee (a journey that we hear about only in John’s Gospel), he decided to pass through the country of the Samaritans, even though they were not on good terms with their Jewish neighbors. Stopping at a village well, Jesus struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman, asking her for a drink. These actions surprised her, as Jewish men of those times weren’t likely to engage with Samaritans, much less Samaritan women. Then his conversation surprised her even more, as he promised her the unending “living water” of God’s spirit, foretold an end to the differences between their people, and declared himself the Messiah.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for March 1, 2026 (Lent 2A)

Nicodemus and Jesus on a Rooftop (1899), oil painting on canvas by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937). Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Genesis 12:1-4a

Last Sunday’s Lectionary readings invited us to contemplate temptation in our lives as Lent began. This week, our Lenten lectionary turns to faith: Trust in God. Close your eyes, believe, and take that long leap of faith. In our first reading, we hear the ancestral story of Abram, who God will later rename Abraham. Even in the fullness of years, the patriarch of the chosen people trusted God’s call to uproot his home and family and begin the people’s long journey toward the promised land. For Abram’s faith, God will bless him and his family. Through him, God will bless all the families of the Earth.

Psalm: Psalm 121

The beautiful verses of Psalm 121, perhaps as comforting as the beloved 23rd Psalm, resonate with this week’s Lectionary theme of having faith and trusting in God to watch over and protect us. We lift up our eyes to the hills seeking help, the Psalmist sings; and that help comes from God. We sing our thanks and praise to God, who unfailingly, without pausing to sleep, guards us and protects us from evil, now and forever.

Second Reading: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Paul’s pastoral letter to the people in Rome draws us back to Abraham, turning the ancestral story to a new purpose: Abraham was the ancestor of the chosen people in the flesh, Paul writes, and this ancestry was passed down through generations from parent to child, not only to Israel but to many nations. God’s promise of eternal life comes to us, as it came to Abraham, through faith by grace. God does not protect us in repayment for our faith or for anything we do, Paul insists. Grace is not something due to us but a gift given to all the nations, not to Abraham’s descendants alone.

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to talk with Jesus at night, perhaps waiting until after dark to keep his visit secret from prying eyes. During their conversation, he becomes bewildered by Jesus’s mysterious words. What does it mean to be “born from above,” or, in some translations, “born again”? Nicodemus can’t grasp the distinction between being literally born of flesh as an infant and being born of the Spirit in faith. Then we hear the familiar words of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Does this mean that only Christians can be saved? Jesus’s next words, according to John, emphasize that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it: all the world, all the nations that God blessed through Abraham.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Feb. 22, 2026 (Lent 1A)

The Temptation of Christ (1854), painting by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858). Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Sunday’s readings begin the penitential season of Lent with a scriptural grounding in the theology of temptation and sin. Our first reading draws from the second creation legend in Genesis: Eve and Adam are tempted, give in, and eat the fruit that God had told them not to touch. Not even God’s warning that the fruit would bring death was strong enough to block the overpowering temptation that came with the crafty serpent’s promise: Godlike knowledge of good and evil? Yes, please! Temptation can be powerful, but so is the shame that comes with realizing that we have distorted our relationship with God and each other, a loss of loving connection that we know as sin.

Psalm: Psalm 32

Profound guilt may indeed come with the recognition that we have done wrong, failed in our trust, and separated ourselves from God through sin, as we hear in Psalm 22. Guilt’s heavy hand weighs on us, the Psalmist sings. Guilt dries us out, withering our bones, leaving us groaning in pain. But then comes the joy: the relief and glad cries that burst out when we acknowledge our wrongdoing, confess our transgressions, and receive God’s loving deliverance from the pain of sin.

Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19

In his letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul draws a direct connection between the sin of Adam and the divinity of Jesus Christ, the son of God. This would have been an important image for the members of the church in Rome as they struggled to restore relationships between the church’s pagan converts and its Jewish Christians who were returning from exile. Paul reminds this community that Adam, the first of creation, gave in to the temptation of the fruit and brought death into the world. But now, he goes on, Jesus has been incarnated as one of us. This act of righteousness restores all with justification and life through God’s free gift of grace.

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11

This passage follows immediately after Jesus was baptized by John, when Jesus hears the voice of God declaring him God’s beloved Son. Now, in what seems a startling change of direction, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This may seem a very strange thing for the Holy Spirit to do, but the Spirit works in mysterious ways. Jesus, famished after 40 days of fasting, encounters the devil – not a scary red-horned creature but a figure akin to the Adversary who tested Job’s faith in that familiar Hebrew Bible story. The devil tries to test Jesus, tempting him three times to perform miracles to help himself. But Jesus holds steadfast, resisting all the temptations and ordering Satan away.