Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 6, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Lamentations 1:1-6

Cries of suffering and lamentation echo through Sunday’s readings, confronting us with some disturbing metaphors and images that we may find difficult to consider, even in words attributed to Jesus.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed. 19th century fabric art from Kazakhstan. (Click image to enlarge.)

Perhaps our lesson this week is not to bottle up sad, hurt and angry feelings but to meditate on how we can use them to learn and grow. Our Track One first reading comes from Lamentations, a short book that was probably written in exile in Babylon. These verses poetically imagine the ruins of Jerusalem as a weeping woman sadly remembering happier times. Her princes are weak, her children captive. Her foes have won. Her enemies prosper and she fears that God brought this suffering on the people because of her wrongdoing.

First Reading (Track Two): Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

Does Habbakuk’s name sound familiar? If not, that may be because this Track Two first reading is his only appearance in the entire three-year Lectionary cycle of Sunday readings. Habbakuk lived nearly 700 years before Jesus and, like many of the prophets, warned of the destruction and exile of Jerusalem. But this is a prophet with a difference. Unlike most of the prophets who hear God’s word and carry it on to humanity at God’s command, Habbakuk shouts his own warnings, then complains that even God doesn’t seem to be paying attention. God then instructs the prophet: Write your prophecy down. Make it so plain that a runner passing by can read it without slowing down. Then be patient, be just, and wait for God.

Psalm (Track One): Lamentations 3:19-26

Perhaps to provide preachers the option of avoiding the horrifying verse of Psalm 137 (see below) in which the Israelites celebrate smashing the enemy’s children on rocks, the Lectionary offers another passage from Lamentations as a Psalm-like reading in the traditional two-line verse form of biblical Hebrew poetry. In these verses from the third chapter, the tone of deep sorrow continues at the beginning. But then the language turns from pain to hope, for God’s steadfast love is unceasing and God’s mercy never ends. God is good to those who wait in quiet patience.

Alternate Psalm (Track One): Psalm 137

This ancient hymn of lamentation over the destruction of Jerusalem places the Psalmist in exile, “by the rivers of Babylon,” weeping over the lost city and temple and, in words that remain a vivid part of the Passover Seder, vowing never to forget Jerusalem. The verses then turn dark and horrifying, though, and we’re likely to react with visceral shock at the idea of Judah’s warriors joyously smashing innocent babies on the rocks. What can we possibly gain from reading these awful verses? Perhaps we are meant to see ourselves at humanity’s worst moments, and recognize how badly we can behave when hurt and frustration tempt us to lash out in anger.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 37:1-10

Sunday’s Track Two psalm fits well with God’s response to Habakkuk’s in the First Reading. The Psalmist calls us to trust in God, continue living in hope even when things aren’t going well. When the world appears dark and it seems that evil surrounds us, the Psalmist reminds us, we can put our faith in God and wait for God with patience and confident trust. Don’t lash back or strike out in anger. These things only lead to evil. But wait patiently, follow God’s ways, and we’ll be rewarded.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

Written decades after the death of Paul, this short pastoral letter fondly imagines the evangelist writing from prison to his beloved disciple Timothy. It likely came at a time around the end of the first century, when the young church was suffering persecution. In that context, it is not surprising that its themes remind us of the Lamentations readings and Psalm. Hold onto your faith, even when times are hard; rely on the grace of God given through Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10

In Luke’s long account of Jesus and the disciples’ journey toward Jerusalem , Jesus seems to toss one challenge after another to them – and to us. Sunday’s Gospel is no exception, with its apparently casual assumption that Jesus’ follower would routinely load down a slave with heavy work but never invite the slave to sit down at the table, much less bother to thank the slave. Perhaps we can argue that slavery was routinely accepted in that era, but it still feels uncomfortable at best to hear these ideas from the mouth of Jesus. Perhaps we have to gloss over this difficulty and consider the text as another of Jesus’ attention-getting metaphors showing that it is not easy to follow him. Jesus calls us to be humble, vulnerable, and, metaphorically at least, as obedient as slaves when we are called to follow him.

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 22, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

“You cannot serve God and wealth.” Jesus speaks so often about the dangers of riches and our obligation to support the poor, as he does in Sunday’s Gospel, that we really need to take this message seriously.

Parable of the Unjust Steward (c.1540), oil painting by Marinus van Reymerswaele (c.1490-c.1546). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. (Click image to enlarge.)

This obligation to forgo riches while caring for the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers in our land is deeply rooted in the Torah that Jesus knew as his bible. We hear it in Sunday’s Track One first reading, as Jeremiah grieves with profound emotion over the people’s failure of at righteousness and justice. They hoard riches and ignore the poor. The prophet mourns deeply, imagining God’s own mourning: “Is there no balm in Gilead?”

First Reading (Track One): Amos 8:4-7

It shouldn’t be lost on any of us that the ancient prophets in the Hebrew Bible often sound angry because they have to bring the same message to the same people over and over again. In Sunday’s Track Two second reading, Amos echoes this stern prophetic chorus: The people languish in exile, their city in ruins and the temple destroyed. When we fail to take care of the poor and the needy, when we lie, cheat and steal and act as if we did nothing wrong, God grows angry, Jeremiah shouts. For such acts and omissions, there are consequences!

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 79:1-9

Sunday’s Track One psalm echoes Jeremiah’s weeping prophesy as mourns for desolate and shattered Jerusalem after the Exile. Jerusalem is rubble. The unburied bodies of martyred faithful are food for birds and beasts; their blood runs like water around the city. The people are the objects of scorn, and they feel only God’s fury blazing like fire. The Psalm (including four more verses that we won’t chant on Sunday) concludes with heartfelt prayers for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 113

Even when the people won’t help the poor and the needy, the Psalmist sings, God will always do so. God is blessed through all eternity, we sing; God is worthy of praise. The psalm goes on: God sits high above all nations and above the heavens. Yet God also looks down and sees humanity … and reaches down to gently lift up the needy, the poor and the disappointed, gently placing them in seats at the tables of royalty.

Second Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Pray for everyone, and don’t neglect to pray for the kings and leaders of the community, urges the author of the first letter to Timothy. He enumerates for us four kinds of prayer: supplications, or specific requests; petitionary prayers, asking for help; intercessions, or urgent requests; and thanksgiving, expressing gratitude. Remember that God is one, the author tells us, and that Jesus – who was both divine and also human like us – gave himself for our salvation.

Gospel: Luke 16:1-13

This parable makes us stop and think, as good parables should. On the surface, it may appear to hold up dishonest behavior as a good thing because it gets results. Or does it? Jesus rarely speaks well of the rich, and particularly so in Luke. Could he be using the servant’s trickery, which deprived the rich man of part of his income, as mockery? If you cheat in small things, he says, who will trust you with serious business? Furthermore, don’t get the idea that Jesus has suddenly gone easy on the rich. In next week’s Gospel we’ll hear the parable that follows next: the familiar story about the tables turning between the rich man and the beggar Lazarus.

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 15, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Pick through scripture and you’ll sometimes find a portrait of God as righteously, stormily angry; look on another page and you’ll find an image of overwhelming, steadfast love. Here’s reassurance: Divine love ultimately prevails.

Parable of the Lost Drachma (1618-1622), oil painting on panel by Domenico Fetti (c.1589-1623). Gemäldegalerie Alte Keister, Dresden, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our Track One first reading, for example, Jeremiah shows us a vision of God erupting in emotional anger that any parent exhausted by misbehaving children can understand: “My people are foolish … they are stupid children … they have no understanding.” Look out, Jeremiah warns the people at the end of Sunday’s passage: God is angry now, and that has consequences. And yet, Jeremiah says, in all this wrath, God yet I will not make a full end.

First Reading (Track Two): Exodus 32:7-14

Can it be a coincidence that this reading falls during the same general season as our Jewish sisters and brothers celebrate the High Holidays? Rabbinical tradition teaches that Yom Kippur, the Feast of Atonement, falls on the date when Moses brought the second set of commandments down from the mountain. With atonement, God will forgive even such an idolatrous act as the Israelites’ worship of the golden calf, portrayed in Sunday’s Track Two first reading, the act that made Moses so angry that he shattered the first set of stone tablets. The lesson is one for the ages: No matter how grave our offenses, when we are truly sorry and we humbly repent, God has mercy on us and forgives us. Every single time.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 14

Sunday’s Track One Psalm offers us clear echoes of Jeremiah’s vision of God as having less than infinite patience when the people go wrong. Jeremiah’s declaration that the people were stupid and foolish recurs here in the Psalmist’s scorn for fools, corrupt people and doers of abominable deeds. Mirroring the brief pause in God’s unrelenting anger in the Jeremiah passage, the Psalm too ends on a note of hope for those who seek refuge in God.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 51:1-11

Speaking of sins like worshiping a golden calf that seem too terrible to pardon, our Track Two Psalm recalls the time when King David sent his loyal soldier Uriah into harm’s way and certain death in order to cover up David’s adulterous affair with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. Then the prophet Nathan accused David, shocking him into recognizing his great sin. The Psalmist, assumed by legend to be David himself, imagines the king’s anguished repentance and hope for God’s forgiveness.

Second Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

From now through the end of October we’ll be reading from the short first and second letters of Timothy. These are framed as letters of pastoral advice written by Paul to his associate Timothy. Bible scholars, though, believe they were actually written by a later Christian leader in Paul’s name. Composed in a time when the early church was becoming institutionalized and cautious, they tend to be more strict and dogmatic than Paul’s early letters. We’ll find none of that in Sunday’s reading, though. Here the writer speaking as Paul gives thanks that God forgave Paul’s blasphemy, persecution and violence and showered him with Christ’s faith and love.

Gospel: Luke 15:1-10

Take a moment to consider the first of these two familiar parables in a new way: Would a solitary shepherd, alone in the wilderness with predators all around and responsible for the care of a large flock, really leave 99 sheep unprotected to go out alone into the scary darkness to find just one? Well, maybe. Perhaps Jesus would. But perhaps Jesus is spinning a memorable story to make sure that everyone gets the point: God does not just forgive us when we go astray. God actively comes after us, looking for us, bringing us back, every single time.

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 8, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 18:1-11

Sunday’s readings nudge us to take a closer look at our casual assumptions about God’s role in the universe and Jesus’ image as the gentle Good Shepherd.

Orthodox icon of St. Onesimus, the subject of Paul’s letter to Philemon. Onesimus is recognized as a saint in the Roman Catholic and many Orthodox traditions. (Click image to enlarge.)

In the Track One first reading, God sends Jeremiah to watch an artisan, a creator, who fashions pots from clay, who is not reluctant to smash and re-make an unsatisfactory creation over and over again. If the people of Judah do not turn from their evil ways, Jeremiah hears, then God, like a cosmic potter, will create disaster for them. Note, though, that God, the cosmic potter, tries creation over and over again. Even when humanity goes wrong, the possibility of repentance and restoration remains.

First Reading (Track Two): Deuteronomy 30:15-20

The Israelites have been wandering 40 years in the desert, according to the ancestral stories. Now we catch up with them as they reach the River Jordan at last and are preparing to cross into the Promised Land. Before this glorious passage, they pause while Moses reminds them of the covenant they made at Mount Sinai: Love God and walk in God’s ways, follow God’s laws and you will thrive and prosper. But turn away from God and you will lose the land and God’s blessings. This simple call to follow God’s way lies at the center of Scripture, and it shapes Jesus’ message to us as well.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

God knows us as intimately as Jeremiah’s potter knows his clay. Whatever we do, wherever we go, God knows our every thought, the Psalmist sings. God knows every word that we speak and every idea that we imagine. Even before we were born, God knew us. As we chant this Psalm, notice that it does not explicitly thank God for knowing our every moment, nor does it ponder how this knowledge affects our daily lives. No, the simple fact that God knows us so deeply is enough.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 1

The first of the 150 ancient hymns that make up the Psalms restates Moses’ theme at the banks of Jordan: The world is made up of two kinds of people, those who follow God’s laws and those who do not. Follow God’s laws and be happy and prosper; follow the way of the wicked and perish. Scripture is far more nuanced than this black-and-white understanding, of course. Still, “follow God’s ways and win, follow evil ways and lose,” concisely sums up the Covenant that Moses made with God for the people at Mount Sinai.

Second Reading: Philemon 1-21

Paul, having befriended young Onesimus, a slave, in prison, writes a letter about the youth to the slave’s master, Philemon. We might wish that Paul had taken a strong stand against slavery, offering clear guidance on this evil practice that would ring through the ages. But read it closely, and we see that Paul is gently guiding Philemon to a deeper truth: Christians should love each other as brothers and sisters. There is no space for slavery in that!

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

Tension is rising as Jesus continues his journey toward Jerusalem and the cross. The crowds that have been following him since he set his face toward Jerusalem are growing larger and more excited. Meanwhile, the Romans and temple leaders are nervous about this uproarious gang coming toward the capital at Passover. Jesus needs the crowd to know that it will not be easy to follow him on this journey, just as he had warned them earlier that he came not to bring peace but division. Do we really have to “hate” our families and give up everything we have to follow Jesus, though? Is Jesus exaggerating for effect? This much is sure: Jesus is warning his followers not to start a task that we can’t finish. We need to follow him nor halfheartedly but with our whole hearts.

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 1, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 2:4-13

When we place our own interests first, we lose sight of God’s way. Listen for this theme through Sunday’s readings.

Parable of the Great Banquet (c.1525-1545), oil painting on panel by the Brunswick Monogrammist, an anonymous 16th century Dutch painter. National Museum in Warsaw, Poland. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our Track One first reading, we see Jeremiah, now reassured that his youth is no bar to being a prophet, stepping into the role. Speaking God’s words aloud to humanity, he cries out in an anguished reverie, lamenting how the chosen people could have gone astray. Did they find some wrong in God that led them to waste their lives on worthless things? More in sorrow than in anger, it seems, God reflects that the people have forsaken the living water that they were given, building cracked cisterns instead that won’t hold what the people need to slake their spiritual thirst.

First Reading (Track Two): Sirach 10:12-18

Sirach, or The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach to give its full name, is one of the deuterocanonical books (a.k.a. Apocrypha) that come at the end of the Old Testament. Written after Israel had fallen under Greek rule, Sirach had its name changed to Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with Ecclesiastes) after the reign of Constantine. It sums up Torah, God’s teaching, in the genre of wisdom literature: brisk, memorable suggests of spiritual advice. Sunday’s Track Two first reading follows the theme of the day’s readings: Pride leads to sin, and sin leads to no good end. In language that may remind us of the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, it warns that proud rulers will be overthrown, to be replaced by the lowly.

Alternate First Reading (Track Two): Proverbs 25:6-7

When Jesus offered his simple wisdom to banquet-goers in today’s Gospel, perhaps he remembered this simple, ancient wisdom in Sunday’s alternate first reading from Proverbs: “It is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” Both Luke and Matthew sum up this idea in almost identical words, “… all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 81:1,10-16

The theme of this hymn seems to flow naturally from today’s Jeremiah reading. The Psalmist shouts in joy for God’s strength, and like Jeremiah, imagines God speaking of having brought the people out of slavery in Egypt. God saw to it that they were fed and protected, only to see their stubborn hearts turn to their own ways and ignore God’s commands. Imagining God’s voice, the Psalmist laments, “O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!”

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 112

Understood in the context of today’s lessons, the point in this Psalm is clear, and it clearly restates God’s covenant with the people: Follow God’s commandments and be blessed, and remember that the sum of that commandment is to be righteous and just, serve your neighbor, share your wealth and provide for the poor. Secure in God, there is no need to live in fear.

Second Reading: Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Our four-week visit with the letter to the Hebrews concludes Sunday with beautiful, poetic words. We are to love one another as God loves us. We must remember to do good, to share with one another, and to show hospitality, remembering that the patriarch Abraham once hospitably yet unknowingly received visiting angels. These verses offer simple advice on living as God would have us live. Keep our lives free from the love of money, and be content with what we have, for God will never leave us or forsake us.

Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14

Like so many of Jesus’ parables, this one seems to have an obvious, simple, message … and then a sudden turn makes us stop and think. Don’t assume that the seat of honor is saved for you, he tells the Pharisees at this banquet table, or you’ll be embarrassed when the host directs you to move down. It’s more prudent to take a humble place, then bask in a happy glow as the host escorts you to a better place. But then we find, as we so often do with Jesus’ teachings, that there’s a deeper meaning: Next time, don’t host a banquet for wealthy, influential people at all but for the least of these: The hungry, the thirsty, the ill and the oppressed. They can’t repay you as rich friends might, but your reward will be plentiful when God’s kingdom comes.

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Aug. 25, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 1:4-10

Whenever God calls a prophet, the prophet-to-be almost invariably resists.

Heilung der gichtbrüchigen Frau am Sabbat (Healing the paralyzed woman on the Sabbath). Illumination (c.1530-1532) in the Ottheinrich Bible, now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the Bavarian state library. (Click image to enlarge.)

Moses thought he couldn’t speak well enough. Jonah just plain didn’t want to deal with the people of Nineveh. Isaiah thought his unclean lips weren’t up to the job. And Jeremiah? He just wasn’t old enough for this important job: “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy!” But God reassures him: Even before Jeremiah was born, God knew him, and knew that he would be a prophet to nations and kingdoms, with power “to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 58:9b-14

The great prophetic book of Isaiah actually contains the work of three ancient writers in sequence, bible scholars say. The first Isaiah prophesied the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple; the second Isaiah may have been written while among Israel’s exiled community in Babylon; and the third Isaiah, who speaks Sunday’s verses, prophesied soon after the exiles returned home. The city and the temple lay in ruins, and the people were having a hard time settling back in. God will help us, the prophet promises; but we must be just, share with the needy and care for the afflicted. Do all this, the prophet says, and honor the Sabbath, and Judah’s ancient glory will be restored.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 71:1-6

Sunday’s short Psalm fits well with the Track One first reading from Jeremiah. In these verses the Psalmist speaks rom a place of weakness and fear. Caught in the hand of the wicked, in the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor, he calls out to God for refuge, seeking God’s protection and help. God knows us, as God knew Jeremiah, from before our birth. God is our strength and our hope, sustaining us through all our life.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 103:1-8

This is a hymn like the people must have sung on their arrival back in Jerusalem after the exile. Its message of thanksgiving has made it a favorite from ancient times down through the ages. “Bless the Lord, O my soul!” As we sing we remember that God forgives us, heals us and redeems us. We can count on God’s mercy and grace, gentle spirit and abundant love. We know that God insists on righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

Second Reading: Hebrews 12:18-29

Last week’s reading from Hebrews celebrated the Old Testament prophets who made up the “cloud of witnesses” that now stands with us as we follow in Jesus’ way. Sunday’s reading recalls how Moses received the Ten Commandments: The people were terrified as the the sky went dark, lightning flashed, thunder roared, and the earth shook with God’s power. But now, the author declares, continuing his argument that Christianity is the better way, we have a new covenant under Jesus. God gives us through Christ a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Gospel: Luke 13:10-17

As an observant Jew and charismatic rabbi, Jesus knew well and faithfully followed the law demanding observance of the Sabbath. But his compassion for a painfully disabled woman compelled him to interrupt his teaching in order to heal her right there in the synagogue! The authorities were outraged at this breach of the Sabbath rules, but Jesus reminded them that they wouldn’t hesitate to protect their own property on the Sabbath. Why should a woman who has been in pain for 18 years have to wait even another hour? This story has a deeper subtext as we continue Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem and the cross: It reveals growing tension between Jesus and temple and state authorities that would culminate with his passion and death.

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Aug. 18, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Isaiah 5:1-7

Sunday’s gospel shows us an unexpected side of Jesus. Continuing his conversation with the disciples that we heard last week, he declares a stern and seemingly angry desire to bring fire to the earth, not ushering in peace but division that will even separate family members from each other.

When Jesus ordered Peter to put away his sword: The Capture of Christ with the servant Malchus (1616-1617), oil painting on canvas by Dirck van Baburen (c.1594-1624). Fondazione Roberto Longhi art institute, Florence, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

Sunday’s readings provide us background for this confusing passage. Isaiah frames our Track One first reading as a love song to God’s beautiful vineyard, but this lovely image goes downhill fast. Although it was thoughtfully planted and carefully tended, the vineyard produced sour, unusable grapes. God is outdone with it and will tend it no more. Then Isaiah names names: The vineyard is the house of Israel, the people of Judah. God planted them to reap righteousness and justice, but they’ve failed in this mission, and their harvest will be destruction and exile.

First Reading (Track Two): Jeremiah 23:23-29

Sunday’s Track Two first reading reminds us of the idea of panentheism (not pantheism) as described by the late theologian Marcus Borg: God is transcendent, wholly other, distinct from the world, but God is also immanent, right here, all around us and present in our lives. The Prophet Jeremiah, who spoke words of doom and warning before Israel’s destruction and exile, finds God in both places. Don’t think that God is only far off, Jeremiah warns: God is nearby, too. In words that Christians might see as foreshadowing Jesus’s words in today’s gospel, the prophet warns that God holds fire and destructive power ready at hand for those who forget God’s word.

Psalm: (Track One): Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18

In the Psalmist’s song we can hear echoes of Isaiah’s lyrics about God’s lost love for Israel. Here, too, we sing of Israel as God’s beloved, well-tended vine, one that grew fruitful and mighty. But that was then, and now it is ravaged, eaten by forest animals, burned and cut down. The Psalmist calls on God: Please return and tend this vine! Return life to the exiled people, the Psalmist pleads, and they surely won’t betray you again.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 82

The idea of God sitting in a divine council of other gods sounds strange to modern ears accustomed to the idea of monotheism. Bible historians think that this concept may be an echo of ancient Near Eastern tradition, when early Israelites understood our God as supreme over the lesser gods of enemy nations. In any event the theme of the Psalm is as relevant today as it was in the times of the ancient Temple: God insists on justice, and calls us to stand up for the weak, the orphan, the lowly, the humble and the needy.

Second Reading: Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2

Following the praise for our ancestor in faith, Abraham, in last Sunday’s reading, we now hear more vignettes about Old Testament heroes who achieved greatness through their faith and now form a cloud of witnesses that surrounds and inspires us. These witnesses, we hear, show us the way to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” as we follow Jesus, who endured the shame of crucifixion and now sits at the right hand of God.

Gospel: Luke 12:49-56

This is one of the gospel passages that make us stop and think. Isn’t Jesus kind and caring – the Prince of Peace? Doesn’t Jesus love his enemies and tell us to do the same? He told us to turn the other cheek to those who would strike us! So what’s all this angry talk about not bringing peace but fire and division? (In fact, in Matthew’s Gospel, this story is told in even stronger language: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”) What’s going on? Remember that we are following Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and the cross. Walking this hard journey with Jesus is not an easy path. The Kingdom is coming soon, and working to bring it in may divide us even from friends and family.

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.