Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 24, 2019

First Reading: Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Do not judge. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Throughout Sunday’s readings, culminating in another portion of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, we hear a clear call to listen for God and to forgive even those who have hurt us.

The Recognition of Joseph by His Brothers (1816-17), fresco by Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867). Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. (Click image to enlarge.)

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 there is famine across the land, and Joseph’s brothers flee to Egypt, where they find Joseph in his new, powerful position. They are terrified, fearing revenge, but Joseph forgives them, just as God forgave the wrongs of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The ancestral line of the Bible’s patriarchs will live on, going on down to King David and eventually to Jesus.

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

Trust in God and do good, the Psalmist urges us. 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 through these verses, notice the parallels with Jesus’ instructions in the 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

Paul approaches the conclusion of his theological reflection on resurrection and how it works, setting up an opposing question about what kind of body the resurrected will have, then shouting “Fool!” at his imagined opponent in debate. Using seeds and sowing as metaphors, he observes that seeds of grain cannot come to life as plants unless they die through being sown in the earth. Just as God then gives each kind of seed its own body, 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, and in resurrection we will bear his image.

Gospel: Luke 6:27-38

We hear more of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, and it becomes even more challenging in its reversal of expectations. Moving from the blessings for those who suffer and the woes for those who revel in riches, he now poses the difficult, counter-intuitive challenge to love our enemies and do good to those who hate and hurt us, doing to others as we would have them do to us. He 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.”

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 17, 2019

First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10

Because the date of Easter varies, and with it the number of Sundays after the Epiphany, we get to hear Luke’s version of the Beatitudes only occasionally.

The Sermon on the Plain (1481-1482), fresco by Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507). Northern wall of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. (Click image to enlarge.)

It appears in our Sunday readings only when Easter falls after the first week of April during the years when the Lectionary turns to Luke’s Gospel. Thus, this is our first time to hear it since 2007, and that’s too bad, as its contrasts with Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes gives us plenty to think about. Sunday’s other readings offer us similar food for thought. In our first reading, the Prophet Jeremiah separates the cursed – who turn from God to trust in mortals and must wither and die – from the blessed, those who trust in God and 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 mirror precisely the words of Jeremiah in the first reading, the Psalmist promises delight for the righteous, who will thrive and bear fruit like trees planted near water. Not so for the wicked, the verses continue, who will be doomed like chaff that the wind blows away.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

We continue listening in as Paul works out his theology of our salvation through Christ’s resurrection in the closing chapters of First Corinthians. Remember that these letters were written at least a generation before Mark, the first of the Gospels. Paul’s words offer us a glimpse at the ideas evolving in an infant Christian community with a largely oral tradition of stories going back to the adult ministry of Jesus less than 20 years before. Here 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 says, then our faith has been in vain and our sins have not been forgiven. But in fact Christ was raised from the dead. He is the first fruit of all who die and will now live again.

Gospel: Luke 6:17-26

It is interesting to compare Matthew’s narrative of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount with Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Plain. After having spent the night on a mountain in silent prayer, Jesus comes down to a level place and talks to his just-chosen disciples and a huge crowd of followers, not only from Galilee but throughout the region. Offering them a series of beatitudes, he adds a more edgy tone by following a series of blessings with a series of woes. Blessed are the poor (the actual poor, in contrast with Matthew’s “poor in spirit”); the hungry, those who weep and those who are reviled. But Luke shows Jesus also declaring woe at 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 Luke’s subtext; we’ve already heard it in his stories of the Song of Mary and Jesus’ first sermon in his home town. This focus shows most strongly in Luke’s Gospel, and it continues all the way to the Cross.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 10, 2019

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 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.

Le prophète Isaïe (The Prophet Isaiah), oil painting on canvas (1968) by Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Nice, France, Musée National Marc Chagall. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our first reading, Isaiah is granted a terrifying vision of a gigantic God on a throne surrounded by six-winged seraphim, an event so majestic that the prophet fears for his life, being an unworthy creature of unclean lips. But God sends a seraph with a hot coal to touch Isaiah’s lips and thus blot out his sin. Now Isaiah eagerly accepts God’s call, responding faithfully, “Here I am! Send me!”

Psalm: Psalm 138

Sunday’s Psalm of thanksgiving reminds us that our communication with God can be a two-way conversation. God responds when we call. God loves us and is faithful to us. 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. But it’s important, too, to remember to thank God. We may give specific thanks for a specific blessing, or broad thanks for our blessings in general, remembering that all the kings of earth may sing praise to God, but God cares for the poor and lowly.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Approaching the end of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul turns to the good news of Christ’s resurrection, declaring its central place in 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 unfitness to serve Christ as one who 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 chosen to serve not through his own merits, he declares, but through God’s saving grace that comes through the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Gospel: Luke 5:1-11

In Sunday’s Gospel Luke recalls the time when Jesus called his apostles. Jesus had been teaching a huge crowd near the lake of Gennesaret (Galilee), and got into Simon’s boat so he could address the people from just offshore. When Jesus finished talking, he told Simon to head for deep water and put out his fishing nets. Simon was dubious, 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, though, told him not to be afraid; and when Jesus called them, Simon and his partners James and John eagerly left everything behind and followed him.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 3, 2019

First Reading: Jeremiah 1:4-10

As many of the biblical prophets learned, it is not easy to hear God’s call and shout it out to crowds that don’t want to hear it. But when God calls us, God stands with us. God knows us even before the moment of our birth.

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630), oil painting on oak panel by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. (Click image to enlarge.)

In Sunday’s first reading we hear of Jeremiah, one of the major Hebrew Bible prophets who saw destruction and exile coming for Israel because the people had abandoned their covenant to follow God’s way. God called Jeremiah when he was only a boy. Jeremiah thought he was too young for such a responsibility. He feared his message would anger his hearers. But God put words in his mouth and strength in his spine and sent him out all the same.

Psalm: Psalm 71:1-6

The Psalmist sings in harmony with God’s reassurance to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” In the Psalm, too, we sing gratitude to God who sustains us and provides our strength since before we were born, since we were carried in our mother’s womb. We sing only the first seven of the entire Psalm’s 24 verses, but its message is consistent: God is our rock and refuge. We sing thanksgiving for God’s presence and protection. Our trust in God’s strength gives us hope.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

This week we hear Paul’s beloved celebration of love! Paul is not speaking of romantic love here but the gentle but powerful selfless love (from the Greek word “agape”) that binds us all as worshipers in Christian community, giving us the strength to carry out God’s work together. These words complete the readings that came before it, in which Paul spoke of the way that God gives us all different gifts and calls us to different duties, all working together like the parts of the body, each important and all necessary. Now we hear that love is the glue that holds the community together. Faith, hope and love abide, but love is the most important of all.

Gospel: Luke 4:21-30

We hear the second part of the Gospel account that began last Sunday, when we heard Jesus telling his neighbors in the synagogue at Nazareth that he had come to fulfill Isaiah’s call to bring good news to the poor. Now, as Luke’s account continues, Jesus pushes a little too hard. First, he predicts that his neighbors will reject him because they knew him as a child, adding, “no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town.” Then he recalls two Bible stories in which God’s grace was given not to the chosen people but to Gentiles. This is clearly the last straw, as the entire synagogue congregation rises up, drives him out of town and tries to throw him off a cliff! Jesus slips away safely, and in the next chapter he and the apostles will move along to Capernaum on the shores of Galilee to begin his public ministry.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Jan. 27, 2019

First Reading: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

The idea of Torah – God’s teaching so holy and beloved that it is understood as law – runs like a stream through Sunday’s readings.

Christ preaching in the synagogue. Fourteenth century fresco in the Visoki Decani monastery in Kosovo. (Click image to enlarge.)

We hear it from the prophet Nehemiah reading the Torah to the people returned from exile in the first reading, to Jesus opening the Torah to begin his ministry with Isaiah’s call to justice in the Gospel. In the first reading, it is a holy moment when the prophet Ezra opens the Torah and spends the entire morning reading and interpreting the text to a people who weep with joy at this revelation.

Psalm: Psalm 19

First in this Psalm we sing the glory of God. Then we sing the glory of God’s law, which the Psalmist understands as the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament that set out God’s covenant with the people. These are the holy scrolls that the scribe Ezra read to the community in the first reading and that Jesus will read in the synagogue in the Gospel. The heavens and the skies themselves pour out the glory of God and of God’s work in the law.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a


Today’s reading immediately follows and builds on last Sunday’s declaration that every member has individual gifts and is called to specific services in the church using those gifts. Paul now likens the people of Corinth – and every Christian community – to the body of the risen Christ in the world. All the parts of the body are needed. Every part is important, and all of them have to work together. The eye, the hand, the ear, the leg … none can go it alone. What is true of our bodies is true of church: We’re all joined together in the work of the community. We need each other and we must respect one another.

Gospel: Luke 4:14-21

Jesus’ public ministry has begun. Driven by the Spirit that came down at the time of his baptism and sent him to be tested in the desert, he now returns to the synagogue in his childhood home, Nazareth. Unrolling the Torah scroll to the Prophet Isaiah, he reads verses that will define his mission, ideas that echo his mother’s song and God’s covenant with the people at Sinai. This scripture is fulfilled in him, he declares, claiming as his own the duty to bring good news to the poor and the oppressed, and to declare the year of Jubilee in which slaves are freed and debts are forgiven.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Jan. 20, 2019

First Reading: Isaiah 62:1-5

As we continue discovering Jesus during our Epiphany journey, this Sunday’s Gospel gives us John’s account of Jesus’ first miracle, changing water into wine for the wedding feast at Cana.

The Marriage Feast at Cana (1500), oil painting on panel by Juan de Flandes (1450-1519). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. (Click image to enlarge.)

In Sunday’s first reading we are nearing the end of Isaiah’s great book of prophecy. The people’s long exile is over. They have returned to Jerusalem, to Mount Zion, where the ruins of the first temple lie in rubble. The celebration of return is over now, and the people recognize that a long, hard time of rebuilding lies ahead. “I will not keep silent … I will not rest,” proclaims the prophet. He will call unceasingly on God’s help until the temple and the city are rebuilt. In words that set the scene for the Gospel’s wedding feast, Isaiah personifies Zion and the people as a bride and groom united in joy.

Psalm: Psalm 36:5-10

Sunday’s Psalm starts in the middle, at verse 5, just as its narrative takes a sharp turn. The first verses were discouraging: The Psalmist sung in lament of being surrounded by wicked and deceitful people who fear neither God nor evil. But we come in just as the song turns from sadness to chords of hope. In contrast with human wickedness, we sing, God showers us with amazing grace and abundant love. God’s protection and faithfulness come to us all, in that day and in this day.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

We will spend the remaining Sundays after Epiphany in a close reading in three particularly beautiful chapters in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Today and next week we’ll hear Paul’s discourse about the people of God as Christ’s body, with each member of the church enjoying certain gifts and being responsible for particular duties, much as each part of one’s body has its own function. This little Greek community probably consisted of fewer than 100 people; but that small group had plenty of problems with cliques, differences of opinion, and arguments. In this pastoral letter written from far away, Paul reminds the congregation that every member is blessed with God’s grace; every member has a role in bringing the good news of Jesus to the world.

Gospel: John 2:1-11

In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus has met John the Baptist, been baptized, and assembled his twelve apostles. Now they go out into the world, and their first stop is at a lively wedding feast, where John paints a picture of a gathering in which the wine flowed so freely that the host’s supplies ran dry. When Jesus’ mother calls on him to save the situation, he complies somewhat grudgingly, revealing new wine that’s much better than the old. There’s plenty of symbolism to work with here, but consider this point of view: Jesus’ very first miracle, according to John, occurs at a social event of feast and fellowship, where he and his disciples enjoy good food and good drink with family and friends.