Author Archives: Robin Garr

Palm / Passion Sunday A

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 5, 2020

Liturgy of the Palms A

Gospel: Matthew 21:1-11


Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday were long celebrated separately on the two Sundays before Easter, but in modern times they are combined on the Sunday that begins Holy Week.

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem (1617), oil painting by Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). Indianapolis Museum of Art. (Click image to enlarge.)

This creates a jarring experience as we begin the liturgy with Jerusalem’s crowds celebrating the arrival of Jesus as Messiah and King in the Gospel of the Palms; and then, later in the same service, we hear them shouting “crucify him!” in the Gospel of the Passion. In the Gospel of the Psalms, Matthew tells of Jesus’s triumphal procession into the city riding two animals at once, an odd image based on Zechariah’s prophecy that Israel’s shepherd-king would come “mounted on a donkey, and on a colt.” Soon Jesus will anger the authorities again when he drives the money-changers out of the temple, as the Gospel narrative leads inexorably to his passion and death on the cross.

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

We often sing this Psalm as we process into church on Palm Sunday, waving our palm leaves. This ancient hymn depicts another festive procession in honor of a righteous and merciful Lord and God. In familiar words we celebrate “the day that the Lord has made.” As we think of Jesus as Messiah, we remember the stone the builders rejected that became the cornerstone.

Liturgy of the Passion A

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a


When Christians hear Isaiah’s verses about the suffering servant, our thoughts naturally turn to Jesus Christ, our messiah and king. In our Creeds, we profess that Jesus was crucified for our sake, suffered death and was buried. Our Gospels reveal a Jesus who taught us to turn our cheeks to those who strike us, knowing that a peaceful response to enemies is no cause for disgrace. We must never forget, though, that Isaiah was not writing for Christians in the future time but to a Jewish audience in his own time. He prophesied to a people living in exile in Babylon, a suffering body of faithful servants, all hoping and praying for a Messiah and King to lead them home.

Psalm: Psalm 31:9-16

Perhaps the Psalmist who wrote these ancient verses of sorrow and lamentation had Isaiah’s Suffering Servant in mind. We also might think of Job’s suffering as we chant this litany of sorrow, distress, grief, sighing, misery, scorn, horror, dread and more. While we suffer, the Psalmist sings, our neighbors scheme; they even plot our death. But the tone changes from sorrow to hope as the Psalm continues. With faith in God, hope still glows for us like the sun breaking through clouds: We trust in God’s love. We wait to be saved.

Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11


Paul sets out these poetic verses from an early Christian hymn, an ancient confession in song that preceded the Nicene and Apostles Creed by three centuries. They declare that Christ was fully divine, yet fully human too, and willing to set aside his divinity – “emptying himself” – to bear the horrific pain of crucifixion as a vulnerable, frightened human. Jesus took on the full weight of all that suffering to show us the true exaltation of God’s love, calling us only to respond with love for God and our neighbor.

Gospel: Matthew 26:14 – 27:66


Finally Sunday’s readings reach their conclusion as we hear Matthew’s long narrative of Jesus’ passion and death. We listen through Christ’s long journey from the Last Supper to the crucifixion. There is much packed into these two chapters from Matthew, from Judas’ betrayal through the institution of the Eucharist; Jesus suffering in the garden, his arrest and trial, his journey to the cross and his death and burial. That’s a lot to grapple with all at once, so let’s reflect on one passage: When Jesus told the apostles during the Last Supper that one of them would betray him, every one of them was afraid. Every one, no matter how much he loved Jesus, wondered if he might be the traitor. Each in turn asked, ‘Surely not I, Lord?” As are we, they are human, frail and weak. And Jesus, loving us still, takes up the cross.

(As an abbreviated alternative, this Gospel may be shortened to include only verses 27:11-54. This passage recalls the events from the arrest of Jesus to his death on the cross. It ends with a foreshadowing of the resurrection with the opening of the tombs and the Roman centurion and soldiers recognizing Jesus as truly God’s Son.)

Lent 5A

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 29, 2020

First Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14


As we watch from worried isolation in a time of social distancing, Holy Week and Easter are drawing near. This week’s readings begin to tantalize our spirits with promises of victory over death through resurrection.

The Raising of Lazarus, after Rembrandt

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.)

Last week we walked with God through the valley of the shadow of death. Sunday we will remember the prophet Ezekiel’s musing on another valley, this one full of dry bones. Then in the Gospel we will go to Lazarus’ stone tomb. First, Ezekiel’s vision, an eerie and frightening sight. Was this the scene of a battle? A massacre? Through God’s power the dry bones are restored to life, revealing God’s promise to restore Israel from exile in its own land.

Psalm: Psalm 130

Psalm 130 is one of the half-dozen psalms explicitly suggested for use in the liturgy for burial of the dead. Familiarly known as “De Profundis” (“out of the depths”), 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 second reading gives us a quick look at Paul’s evolving understanding of the difference between flesh and spirit. All of us live embodied lives, and that even includes Jesus, who lived as fully human as us. But Paul sees the flesh as subject to death and ultimately displeasing to God, while 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


Jesus’ dear friends, Mary and Martha, devastated by the death of their brother Lazarus, each confront 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 beloved words, “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. 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. But then, in the verses that follow today’s reading, things take an ominous turn as John’s Gospel pivots toward the Passion and the Cross: The temple authorities, fearful about the uproar that Jesus is causing, decide that he must die.

Lent 4A

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 22, 2020

First Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1-13


So far during Lent, our readings have taken us through thoughts on temptation and sin, faith and trust, and physical and spiritual thirst. This Sunday’s lectionary reflects on light and sight: What do we see, and how do we see it?

Jesus opens the Eyes of a Man born Blind

Jesus opens the Eyes of a Man born Blind (1308-1311), tempera on wood painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Altarpiece of the Siena Cathedral, Italy, now in the National Gallery in London. (Click image to enlarge.)

First we read the Hebrew Bible account of God’s growing dissatisfaction with Saul, the first king of Israel. God directs the prophet and judge Samuel to look for the new king that God has chosen among the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite. It takes a while for Samuel to work his way down through Jesse’s seven older sons before he reaches David, the youngest, thought such an unlikely candidate that he had been left out in the fields to watch the sheep. God saw the spirit in David that the others could not see, and David becomes king.

Psalm: Psalm 23

It isn’t easy for Christians to hear the comforting verses of the 23rd Psalm without imagining the face of Jesus in the Good Shepherd. Indeed, John’s Gospel has Jesus telling his disciples, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Ancient tradition, though, holds that King David himself wrote these beloved verses, speaking of a subject that he would have known well as a boyhood shepherd. In fact, the ancient rabbis in exile most likely wrote this song, thinking of an earthly Messiah who would restore Jerusalem and the Temple. No matter how we read it, we all can rest in the joy of knowing that God’s rod and staff comfort us, and that God’s goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.

Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14


The short letter to 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. It 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 today’s Gospel about the 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, despite Jesus’ emphasis that God does no such thing. Rather, the very words that the man born blind utters upon his healing make the case for grace, not punishment, as we hear them in one of Christianity’s most beloved hymns: “I once was lost, but now am found … Was blind, but now I see.”

Lent 3A

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First Reading: Exodus 17:1-7


Sunday’s readings speak about thirst, from the thirsty Israelites in the desert to Jesus stopping for water and rest in a Samaritan town.

Christ and the Woman of Samaria at the Well

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.)

When we face such basic needs as hunger and thirst, it’s all too easy to forget to be thankful for past blessings. In the previous chapter of Exodus, God provided manna for the hungry people. Now they are angry because they 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. But its grateful tone changes key abruptly in Verse 8 when the Psalmist reminds us of the story we heard in the Exodus reading. The thirsty, angry people turned their hearts from God and put God to the test; the Psalmist imagines that these actions drove God to “loathe” these ungrateful people and leave them lost 40 years in the desert.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-11


Even though we are sinners, we are justified through faith and saved through Jesus’s death on the cross, Paul writes to the church in Rome. This congregation has known suffering. Its Jewish Christian members had been forced into exile and only recently returned; the entire congregation could be at risk for its faith. But Paul reminds them that 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


We see a very human side of Jesus in this passage from John’s Gospel. When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had discovered that he and his disciples were making and baptizing even more followers than his cousin John had done, he decided to go back to Galilee. He chose a route through the country of the Samaritans, descendants of the ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel who were no longer on good terms with the Jews. Tired and thirsty, he stopped in a Samaritan village, where he broke with custom not only by asking a Samaritan woman for a drink but by striking up a conversation with her. Much to the surprise of his disciples, he stayed in the village for two days and made believers of many of the Samaritans.

Lent 2A

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 8, 2020

First Reading: Genesis 12:1-4a


Last week as Lent began, our readings invited us to contemplate temptation in our lives. Now, in the second week of Lent, the lectionary turns to faith: Trust in God. Close your eyes, believe, and take that long leap of faith.

Christ and Nicodemus

Christ and Nicodemus (c.1896). Medium oil painting on canvas by Fritz von Uhde (1848-1911). Private collection. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our first reading, we hear the ancestral story of Abram – who God will later rename Abraham. The patriarch of the chosen people, even in the fullness of years, 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

These beautiful verses, perhaps as comforting as the beloved 23rd Psalm, continue the theme of having faith and trusting in God to watch over us 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, an ancestry 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. 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 to keep his visit secret in the darkness. He is bewildered by Jesus’ 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, but he may have found it, as he will bring spices to help bury Jesus after the Crucifixion. Next 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’ teaching surely rules out that narrow interpretation. Even the next line emphasizes that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it: all the world, all the nations that God blessed through Abraham.

Lent 1A

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 1, 2020

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


Sunday’s readings open the penitential season of Lent season with a firm scriptural grounding in the theology of temptation and sin.

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, Washington, D.C. (Click image to enlarge.)

The 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. 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, then, 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. Adam, the first of creation, gave in to the temptation of the fruit and brought death into the world. But now, Paul reminds the Romans, Jesus has been incarnated as one of us. This act of righteousness restores us all with justification and life through God’s free gift of grace.

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11


These verses come immediately after Jesus’ baptism, when he 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 we know that the Spirit works in mysterious ways. Jesus, famished after 40 days of fasting, encounters the devil – not a scary red horned creature but more like the Adversary who tested Job’s faith in the Old Testament 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.

Ash Wednesday

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Thoughts on the Lessons for Ash Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020

First Reading: Isaiah 58:1-12


On Ash Wednesday we begin Lent. Traditionally a time of penitence and sacrifice, the 40 days of Lent invite us to perform acts of devotion and sacrifice as we reflect on the wrongs that we have done, and recognize the simple truth that we will not live forever.

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.)

Ash Wednesday’s readings begin with a selection from Isaiah that we heard just a few weeks ago. The prophet, addressing the people returning from exile, makes clear that public demonstrations of fasting and prayer, sackcloth and ashes are not enough to please God unless we also show our righteousness through service and love of neighbor. In language that might have informed both Jesus and his mother, Mary, the prophet reminds the people to oppose injustice: free the oppressed, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and clothe the naked.

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


Joel ranks as one of the minor prophets. The book that bears his name is only three chapters long, and modern theologians aren’t even sure when he lived. We know that “Joel” means “The Lord is God” in Hebrew; and Joel may have prophesied after the return from exile to Jerusalem. Much of the short book deals with the people’s prayerful response to a plague of locusts, and in that setting, this alternate reading offers a liturgical look at a period of penitence and sacrifice … something to think about as we enter Lent.

Psalm: Psalm 103:8-14

Hear this in the Psalm for this day: God made us all from dust. 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 as we might fear that our sins deserve, the Psalmist assures us; rather, God shows 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

Throughout much of his shorter second letter to the people of Corinth, Paul attempts to work out an ongoing quarrel with the people of this contentious little church. In these verses he speaks of reconciliation. He lists the pain and suffering that he has endured as a servant of God, from beatings and imprisonment to sleepless nights and hunger. Accept God’s grace and work together in Christ, he urges the people, as Christ reconciled us with God by taking human form and dying for us.

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

As Lent begins, our Ash Wednesday Gospel seems ideally suited to the season. Jesus, in the middle of Matthew’s extended account of the Sermon on the Mount, teaches the crowd how best to practice almsgiving, prayer, fasting, and self-denial of worldly pleasures. All of these have become traditional Lenten practices. In words that might remind us of the day’s Isaiah reading, 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 A/Transfiguration

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 23, 2020

First Reading: Exodus 24:12-18

Significant things happen on mountain tops, where earth and heaven come close together.

The Transfiguration of Christ

The Transfiguration of Christ (c.1480), oil painting on panel by Giovanni Bellini (d.1516), Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

On Transfiguration Sunday, roughly midway between Christmas and Easter, we come to the mountain top. As we turn from the incarnate light of Epiphany toward the penitential pathway of Lent, our readings show us the awe and fear of humans encountering the divine. In the first reading we see Moses going up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from a mighty God cloaked in clouds and fire. In the verses that came just before this reading, though, Aaron and the other leaders dined and drank with a much more accessible divine being. Humanity continues to wrestle with the contrasting ideas of an intimate God who knows our deepest thoughts, and a transcendent God who surpasses human understanding.

Psalm: Psalm 2

This Messianic hymn of praise envisions God as a mighty king, and more: King of Kings, to whom earthly kings must submit with fear and trembling. Those who seek to break away from God’s power and that of God’s anointed, the Messiah, will earn only divine derision and terrifying rage, the Psalmist sings. Such actions have consequences. But when God’s anointed is set on the holy hill of Zion, the temple, the psalm concludes, happy are all who take refuge in God.

Alternative Psalm: Psalm 99

This hymn of praise offered as an alternate reading to Psalm 2 also envisions God as a mighty king, at whose appearance the people tremble and the earth shakes. Yet, recalling that Moses and Aaron received God’s law and teaching, it also shows us a forgiving and kind God, a doer of justice, equity and righteousness. It mirrors the Exodus reading in showing a God of both distant might and present love.

Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-21

Modern bible scholars generally accept that this letter, perhaps the last written in the New Testament, is not the work of Simon Peter, the apostle. It was almost certainly written in Peter’s name by a leader in the early church a century or more after the Crucifixion. Still, it opens a window into the thinking of the second-century church, when believers were trying to understand why Jesus had not returned as soon as had been expected. Everything they have heard about Jesus is true, the letter reassures them, speaking as if in Peter’s own voice: Peter himself was present at the Transfiguration. Trust in God and wait for the dawn and the morning star.

Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9

Using images that recall Moses on the mountain, in words that echo God’s approving words at Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan, Matthew’s account shows us Jesus with the ancient prophets Moses and Elijah. Jesus is transfigured, glowing in dazzling light, revealed as both human and divine. It’s no wonder that Peter, James and John were terrified to hear the voice of God, but Jesus reassures them with a loving touch. Then, for the first time in this Gospel, Jesus speaks of his coming resurrection.

Epiphany 6A

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 16, 2020

First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20

As we live through the Epiphany season, waning winter’s days are growing longer and the slant of noonday light perceptibly rises. Lent may lie just ahead, but Spring is drawing near.

Moses's Testament and Death

Moses’s Testament and Death (1481-1482), oil painting on fresco by Luca Signorelli (1450-1523). The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. (Click image to enlarge.)

In Sunday’s first reading the people have reached the banks of the Jordan after 40 years wandering in the desert. As they prepare to cross into the promised land, Moses preaches the core of Old Testament teaching: Follow God’s commandments, and you will inherit the land. Defy God’s wishes, and you will lose the land and die. From Sinai to the Jordan, he people have repeatedly heard this covenant: Be righteous, be just. Care for the poor and the weak; the widow, the orphan and the stranger. And when the people fail, the prophets will rise up to remind them of God’s promise, which will play out in the loss of the land, the destruction of the Temple, and exile.

Alternate First Reading: Sirach 15:15-20

We rarely hear readings from Sirach, one of the books known as Apocrypha that come at the end of the Old Testament. Called “The Wisdom of Jesus, ben Sirach” in the original Greek, Sirach was renamed Ecclesiasticus in Latin after the Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity as the state religion. Sirach is in the genre of wisdom literature: brisk, memorable advice akin to the Book of Proverbs. Sunday’s alternate first reading reminds us that we are given free will. God does not force us to keep God’s commandments – we may choose either fire or water – but God is all-knowing and wise and does not wish us to sin.

Psalm: Psalm 119:1-8


Today we hear only the first eight of the 176 verses that make up this, the longest of the Psalms. This introductory passage introduces us to the long psalm’s message: Torah, God’s teaching, is so wonderful that it inspires us to love it and follow it as law. Those who follow that teaching and walk in God’s ways will be rewarded. In chanting this psalm we pray that God will keep us steadfast in following this teaching, these laws.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Paul continues making his case to the quarreling factions that have formed in his little church at Corinth. Last week’s passage might have given the impression that Paul was praising the Corinthians for a spiritual maturity that enabled them to understand the ways of God. But no! Paul makes it clear in the verses we read Sunday that the Christians of Corinth still have a long way to go. Their quarreling factions, he warns, show that they are like babies not yet weaned from milk, utterly unready for spiritual food. When we work together as God’s servants, he adds, God uses us to build and grow in common purpose.

Gospel: Matthew 5:21-37


The Sermon on the Mount takes up three full chapters in Matthew’s Gospel, and in this, our third Gospel drawn from it, we are still in the first of the three! In last Sunday’s portion we heard Jesus say that he did not come to change the Law and the Prophets (the literal translation for the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible). Now, however, he begins interpreting the law as the Talmudic scholars did, reading it in new, radical, and challenging ways. It’s not just “Do not kill” but do no harm of any kind; we must even respond to our enemies in peace! Do not commit adultery? Not just that, but treat women with respect! Do not bear false witness? No, do more: Be honest, be true, say exactly what you mean!

Epiphany 5A

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 9, 2020

First Reading: Isaiah 58:1-12

To follow in God’s way, we are called to be righteous, to practice justice; to be light to the world and the salt that flavors and preserves our lives. These themes resonate through Sunday’s readings.

Sermone della Montagna (Sermon on the Mount

Sermone della Montagna (Sermon on the Mount, 1481-1482), fresco by Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507). Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. (Click image to enlarge.)

Righteousness and justice are the essence of God’s call, Isaiah insists to the people returning from exile in the first reading and Jesus, too, will ask in his Sermon on the Mount. Being righteous and just requires us to go beyond mere fasting and ritual practice to stand against oppression, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and clothe the naked. Righteousness heals our souls and lights up our lives, as the light of Epiphany that shines in winter’s darkness will illuminate the way of our God.

Psalm: Psalm 112:1-9, [10]

Take care not to hear the “Prosperity Gospel” in today’s Psalm. Yes this ancient worship hymn imagines God rewarding the righteous with earthly power and riches in exchange for their good acts. But look deeper and it echoes Isaiah’s call in the first reading: The righteousness of those who follow God and delight in God’s commandments will endure forever. Those who are gracious and merciful, who deal with others generously and act with justice, will “rise in the darkness as a light for the upright.” The wealth we gain by living justly is not measured in gold and silver but by the example we set for others, showing the way to God.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

We continue in the opening chapters of 1 Corinthians as Paul makes his pastoral case to the bickering, divided church community at Corinth. We missed the opening of this argument as we marked the Presentation of Our Lord in last Sunday’s readings; it’s worth looking back to 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 to read it in full. But we get the gist of it this week as Paul invites the people to be humble. He reminds them that Christians appear foolish in the eyes of the world because they follow a Messiah who suffered the shame of crucifixion. In reality, though, he declares, we actually share God’s hidden and secret wisdom: The Holy Spirit provides new life through the mind of Christ.

Gospel: Matthew 5:13-20

We come in to the middle of the Sermon on the Mount this week, just after Jesus has taught the crowd the Beatitudes, promising God’s kingdom to the poor, the hungry, the thirsty; those who mourn, the meek; the humble, and all who are persecuted and oppressed. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, Jesus tells the people. With those gifts comes responsibility, too: We are called to show God to the world through our good works. Jesus says he has not come to change the Torah – “the Law and the Prophets” – which calls us to be just and righteous: We are to love God, and love our neighbors as ourselves.