Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 3, 2022 (Lent 5C)

First Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21

The whole world, it seems, is divided into Marthas and Marys, and most of us know which one we are. In Sunday’s Gospel, we hear the familiar story of these two friends of Jesus and their differing ways of showing their love, as Jesus progresses toward Jerusalem and the Cross.

Christ in the House of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (c.1577). Oil painting on canvas by Jacopo Bassano (1510-1592). Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. (Click image to enlarge.)

Each of Sunday’s readings touches on the idea of progress toward a goal. In the first reading, Isaiah envisions the people in exile, defeated and hopeless, unable to get up; “extinguished, quenched like a wick.” But in God there is hope for new ways, the prophet assures us. God will make a path in the wilderness and create rivers in the desert, protecting God’s chosen people and bringing them home.

Psalm: Psalm 126

Psalm 126 is one of a series of hymns known as “Songs of Ascent” that may have been sung as the people approached the Temple in ritual procession. Celebrating the people’s return to Jerusalem from exile, the Psalm echoes the Isaiah passage: It reminds us that God’s redemption can turn our tears into shouts of joy even though life’s burdens once seemed to be more than we could bear.

Second Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

Once a proud Pharisee and persecutor of Christians, Paul thought he had a lot to boast about. But once he felt that he knew Christ, everything changed. He has lost everything that he had before, and all that is now rubbish to him, he says in his letter to this Greek convert community in Philippi. Having gained righteousness from God through faith in Jesus, his new hope rests in the resurrection. As Isaiah advised Israel, so Paul urges the Philippians: Forget what lies behind you. Press on toward the goal of resurrection and life through God’s call in Jesus.

Gospel: Gospel: John 12:1-8

Our journey through Lent with Jesus is nearing its end. In John’s Gospel, Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, and now the high priests are worried. Jesus’s miracles are getting too much attention, and the clamor might upset the hated Roman rulers. They decide to kill him if he shows his face in Jerusalem during Passover. Of course, that’s just where Jesus is headed. But first, as told in Sunday’s Gospel, he stops in Bethany to visit Lazarus, Mary and Martha, and Martha shows her love by bathing his feet extravagantly with a costly perfumed oil. Profit-minded Judas objects, but Jesus says, “Leave her alone!” The oil is for his burial, Jesus says, reminding them, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Parable of the Prodigal Son (1536) painting on oak wood by Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c.1500-c.1566). Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. (Click image to enlarge.)Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 27, 2022 (Lent 4C)

First Reading: Joshua 5:9-12

Repentance – literally, turning back from a wrong path and changing to a right one – forms a consistent theme through Sunday’s readings.

Parable of the Prodigal Son (1536) painting on oak wood by Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c.1500-c.1566). Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. (Click image to enlarge.)

From the people’s arrival at the Promised Land to the prodigal son’s joyous return home, we hear that God is with us through transition and change. In our first reading, the Israelites have come to Canaan, the land of milk and honey, after 40 years wandering in the desert. They celebrate with bread made from the produce of the promised land. Later in Joshua we will discover that people already live on the land. It will have to be taken by bloody force, a darker side of Scripture’s ancestral legends. In this passage, though, we simply share in the joy of completing a long journey.

Psalm: Psalm 32

Hear the message of Psalm 32: We don’t always do the right thing. In our hearts we know this, even as we feel the pain of knowing that we have wronged another, or hurt a loved one. When we step away from God, who loves us and who always stands ready to forgive, our guilt piles up and we groan in sorrow. When we repent – when we stop being stubborn and turn back from our wrongful ways to trust in God – we feel the comfort and joy of knowing God’s forgiveness.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Paul was dealing with an angry, troubled congregation as he wrote his second known letter to the people of Corinth. They are mad at him, and he’s not happy with them, either. But he loves them still and seeks their forgiveness. God gave us Christ to reconcile the world to God, Paul writes. Our new direction as Christians, he tells them, comes when we recognize Jesus not only as human but as the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah. In Christ everything old has passed away, he says. Everything has become new!

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

It seems easy to grasp the meaning of the parable of the Prodigal Son: 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 wait! There’s more: Look at the rest of the story. At the end of this passage, the older brother, hurt because his consistent good behavior won him no such praise, hears of his father’s loyal, long-standing love. And at the beginning of this parable, we hear why Jesus told this story: It was a response to a group of grumbling Pharisees and scribes, showing them that a sinner’s return deserves as much celebration as the recovery of a lost sheep or a silver coin.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 13, 2022 (Lent 2C)

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

Sunday’s Lectionary readings celebrate our hope in God, even in times of darkness. Last Sunday’s first reading from Deuteronomy about God’s covenant with the chosen people was easy to understand:

View of Jerusalem (1487), bookplate by Konrad Grünenberg (c.1415-1494), author and artist from Konstanz, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

Give thanks to God with the first fruits of the harvest, not just what’s left over after the feast. Be good to our neighbors and to the poor. The covenant with Abram from Genesis is a little harder to engage with modern ways of thinking, with its talk about sacrificing livestock and poultry to please the Holy One. Looking past the temple traditions of the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East, though, we see what endures: God’s promise stays with us always, even when the darkness seems deep and terrifying.

Psalm: Psalm 27

As we chant this Psalm, try to hear its pattern of trust, hope and petition. First it simply declares our trust in God, our light and salvation, whose strength is so great that nothing can stand against it to make us afraid. But then it takes a darker turn as we hear an earthly king – King David, according to tradition – imagining frightening possibilities, from flesh-eating evildoers to camps full of enemy warriors. Yes, terrible things might threaten us, but the Psalm carries on, trusting God, calling on God to have mercy and keep us safe. 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.

Second Reading: Philippians 3:17-4:1

The people of the church in Philippi in northern Greece had endured much in order to embrace the Christian way. Like the people in Psalm 27, they worried about earthly fears and persecution by their enemies. But Paul reassures them with pastoral advice that might recall 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.

Gospel: Luke 13:31-35

Since the end of the ninth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus and his followers have been on a long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, teaching and healing and arguing with opponents along the way. Now as they draw closer to their destination, some friendly Pharisees warn Jesus that King Herod wants to kill him. Jesus won’t alter his chosen course, though, even if it will lead to death in Jerusalem (which he calls the “city that kills the prophets”). His journey may threaten his life, yet he speaks of his love for the city in a nurturing, motherly image of a hen and her chicks.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 6, 2022 (Lent 1C)

First Reading: Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Lent has begun. We enter the 40-day season that our liturgy encourages us to observe through self-examination and repentance; prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.

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

Sunday’s readings, though, don’t hammer us with thoughts of punishment and penitence. They invite us, rather, to be conscious of God’s love and protection, listening for our call to follow God’s way. We begin with an ancient harvest prayer from Deuteronomy. We hear Moses, addressing the people who will cross into the Promised Land after he dies, offering a tithe of the first fruits of harvest in gratitude for God’s abundance. He outlines God’s covenant with the people, a covenant that comes down to us in the Gospel: We are called to love God and our neighbor and to care for the stranger, the poor, the weak and the oppressed.

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

In the Psalm, too, we offer grateful thanksgiving to God as our protector and provider. In a striking catalogue of many bad things that can happen to good people – evil events, plague, injury, even attacks by lions and venomous serpents – the Psalmist reminds us that we live in God’s shadow. We recognize God as our refuge and our stronghold. God will help us because we are bound to God in love. When we call on God, God will answer. Two verses within the Psalm, slightly altered in translation, are the source for Luke’s words in the 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.”

Second Reading: Romans 10:8b-13

Paul’s thoughts in this passage have often been interpreted in modern times as a call for sinful humans to gain individual salvation by accepting the resurrected Christ as their personal savior. Seen in the fuller context of Paul’s letter to the Romans, though, we recognize that this is not an individual altar call. It is a message calling on an entire community – the mixed Jewish and pagan Christian congregation in Rome – to come together in Jesus’ name. God makes no distinction between Jew and Greek, Paul writes. God, through Jesus, is Lord of all, and gives generously to all who call on God’s name.

Gospel: Luke 4:1-13

Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days. This Gospel message has echoes in the 40 years that Moses and the Israelites spent wandering in the desert, and is echoed in turn in the 40 days of Lent. Immediately after Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan, the Spirit leads Jesus into the desert, where he meets temptation while fasting in the wilderness. The devil tempts Jesus, first with food, then – quoting from Psalm 91 – with visions of power and glory, if only he will turn from God. But Jesus stands firm and the devil 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.