Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 23, 2023 (Pentecost 8A)

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 28:10-19a

God knows us. God sees us. God cares for us, and God calls us. Look for signals of love and grace throughout Sunday’s Lectionary readings.

Buckwheat Harvest, Summer (1868-74), oil painting on canvas by Jean-François Millet (1814-1875). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (Click image to enlarge)

In the first reading, Jacob is in trouble and is running away for his own safety. He is afraid of the murderous wrath of his older twin Esau, whom he has tricked out of his inheritance and their father’s blessing. In this passage Jacob stops to rest. He dreams an amazing dream about angels ascending and descending a heavenly ladder. Then he hears the voice of God, offering a promise like the one that his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac received: God is with him, and his offspring will fill the Earth. Jacob receives God’s promise in spite of his trickery. God  knows full well that humankind is far from perfect, and so God works with broken, troubled people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and on down the line.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 44:6-8

Our Track Two first reading excerpts a short, poetic prayer of praise from within Isaiah’s prophecy. The prophet assures the people that they will eventually return home to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon. Isaiah imagines the voice of God proclaiming God’s own power and majesty in these simple terms: Never mind the beliefs that their captors may hold about other gods and other prophesies. Israel need not fear or be afraid. God is not only the nation’s redeemer and leader, but the first and last of all creation. The prophet hears the Creator saying, “Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one.”

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23

If Jacob in the first reading had taken a moment of introspection and examined his conscience, he might then have lain awake on that desert night, fearing Esau’s revenge and meditating on something like these ideas from Psalm 139: Even if we run from God, we cannot hide from God. In heaven or in the grave, in darkness or in light, up in the sunrise sky or down in the deepest part of the sea, no matter where we go or how we try to hide, God knows where we are and what we are thinking. Even when we are wicked, God will lead us back onto right paths.

Alternate Psalm (Track One): Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19

The Wisdom of Solomon, a short book in the Apocrypha, was written in King Solomon’s name not long before, or even possibly during or after, the time of Jesus and the evangelists. These verses seem to echo the faith of Psalm 139 – for which this passage is available as an alternative – in their ringing praise for a powerful, righteous God who reigns over all creation. In spite of this omnipotent state, this is a God who guides the people mildly and with forbearance, showing us that to be righteous requires us to be kind.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 86:11-17

The Psalmist is grateful for God’s abundant love shown in protection against the violence and threats of enemies. Like the people in exile in the Track Two first reading from Isaiah, they face difficulties – even being pursued by a band of violent, murderous men. In the midst of fear and desperation the Psalmist turns to God with faith and trust, calling on God to respond out of grace and compassion, kindness and truth, and to have mercy, shaming the people’s foes with a sign of God’s favor.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-25

As we read portions of Paul’s letter to the Romans through this summer, you may have noticed that he uses consistent language to teach a specific idea: In flesh there is death; in the spirit of Christ there is life. Paul emphasizes these points once more in this passage: If we live by our own selfish desires, he says, we eventually die. But if we live in the Spirit through Christ, loving God and our neighbor even while we suffer with Christ – just as the early Christians of Rome suffered persecution – we are glorified with him and become beloved children of God, literally God’s adopted children and thus God’s heirs.

Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Following immediately upon last week’s Gospel about the sower and the soil, we meet another sower in another of Jesus’ parables as told by Matthew. This time the soil is good, and so is the seed. The sower is planting wheat in the rich soil of his own field. But now a new challenge arises: An unidentified enemy sneaks in at night and plants weeds among the good wheat. The sower can’t simply uproot the weeds without disturbing the wheat, so the good growth and the bad must grow together until harvest, when the weeds can finally be torn out and discarded. Jesus explains the parable in terms that may feel disturbing with his talk of hellfire and damnation for the weeds. But in a promise reminiscent of God’s covenant with Moses at Mount Sinai, Jesus makes it clear that those who live righteously will enjoy God’s kingdom.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 16, 2023 (Pentecost 7A)

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 25:19-34

Last week we heard how Rebekah became Isaac’s wife, “and he loved her.” But it soon turned out that this couple would have nearly as much trouble having children as Isaac’s parents Abraham and Sarah did:

The Harvesters (1565), oil painting on panel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530-1569). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. (Click image to enlarge)

After marrying when Isaac was 40, they found that Rebekah was barren. Faithfully, Isaac prayed, and God answered his prayer with children; but Isaac was 60 by the time that happy event occurred with the birth of Esau and Jacob! As they grew, Jacob emerged as an inveterate trickster. In this Track One first reading we see Jacob trick his twin, in a hungry moment, into giving up his rights as firstborn in trade for a bit of bread and a pot of lentil stew.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 55:10-13

The people’s exile in Babylon is coming to its end, but the long journey back to Jerusalem and the arduous work of restoring the city and rebuilding the Temple lies ahead. Having assured the people that God has forgiven the failure of justice and righteousness that earned them exile, the prophet now shows God as the giver of life and sustenance and all that is good. In these brief verses, these images of God giving seed to the sower and bread to the hungry ring in our ears as we hear Jesus’ parable of the sower in this week’s Gospel.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 119:105-112

We hear parts of Psalm 119 a dozen times during the three-year cycle of Lectionary readings, so it will probably come as no surprise to hear that its 176 verses make it the longest of all the Psalms. All these verses comprise a long, loving celebration of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. “Torah” is usually translated in this context as “law,” “ordinance” or “decree” throughout the psalms, but it might be better expressed as “teaching,” a point of view that reveals God’s loving desire for us to live in good relationship with God and each other. Following God’s teaching brings joy even in darkness and time of trouble, the Psalmist sings.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14

This psalm of praise and thanksgiving beautifully reflects the Prophet Isaiah’s portrayal of God as the generous creator who made the world and all that is in it, and who provides bountiful water and grain, pastures and flocks. Perhaps originally sung as a harvest thanksgiving, it chants praise for the overflowing richness of God’s abundance and for the joy it provides to those who receive it. These praiseful verses prepare us for the Gospel’s hope for seeds that fall on good soil and yield a hundredfold.

Second Reading: Romans 8:1-11

The love of God’s law expressed in Torah and the Psalms would have had deep meaning for Paul, a devout Pharisee and Torah scholar who counted himself as righteous and blameless under the law. As a Jewish Christian evangelist, Paul evolved a new understanding that we see him working out in Romans: Christ’s resurrection has freed us from the law of sin and death, not the law of Torah but of the world. When we are in the world and living in its way of sinful flesh, Paul reasoned, we remain subject to sin and death. But when we turn and accept God’s Spirit through Jesus – when the Spirit dwells in us because Christ is in us – we gain life and peace.

Gospel: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

For the rest of the season after Pentecost, which continues through November, our Gospels will follow Matthew’s account of Jesus’s journey with the apostles from Galilee to Jerusalem. Many of those Gospels will take the form of parables, the colorful stories that Jesus uses to teach through metaphor. Sunday’s parable of the sower is the first parable in Matthew, and it is one of the few for which Jesus offers an explanation. But what does that explanation call us to do? Are we the soil, seeking to be good and receptive when we hear God’s word? Or are we to join the apostles in sowing the word of the Kingdom of God extravagantly, rejoicing when the harvest is bountiful?

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 9, 2023 (Pentecost 6A)

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Listen for God’s call, and trust in God.

Detail from the Feast in the House of Levi (1573), oil painting on canvas by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588). Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy. (Click image to enlarge)

This theme in Sunday’s readings begins with the story of Rebekah in our Track One first reading, who responded with faithful trust to God’s call. Much as Abraham did when he took his family to a new home and a new land, Rebekah leaves home and family for an arranged marriage to Abraham’s son, Isaac, a man she has not yet met. God promised Abraham that his offspring would become “a great and mighty nation.” Rebekah hears that if she goes to Isaac her children will become “thousands of myriads.” Asked if she will accept this call, she responds simply, “I will.” Her faith may be as great as Abraham’s.

First Reading (Track Two): Zechariah 9:9-12

The prophet Zechariah, celebrating the people’s return from exile and their hope of restoring the Temple, envisions a humble yet powerful king who will come to reign in peace and restore the nation’s prosperity, a Messianic prophecy that Christians can imagine as foreshadowing Jesus. Matthew later will find Jesus so vividly portrayed in these verses that he adopts the wording precisely, including the poetic repetition of Hebrew verse – “riding on a donkey … on a colt, the foal of a donkey” – in his portrayal of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on two animals on Palm Sunday.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 45:11-18

Sunday’s portion of Psalm 45 is a wedding blessing, a hymn that the original Hebrew describes as “a love Originally written to a princess from Tyre. The princess had come to Israel from that ancient island kingdom and occasional rival to Israel to be joined in a royal marriage. These verses celebrate the pomp and joy of the coming wedding. They also highlight the Psalmist’s hope that future generations will remember and praise the bride, a prayer for future blessing that echoes God’s promise of myriad descendants to Abraham and Rebekah.

Alternate Psalm (Track One): : Song of Solomon 2:8-13
The Song of Solomon, also known as Song of Songs, is a lyrical collection of ancient Hebrew love poetry. Curiously, it, along with the book of Esther, is one of the only books in the Bible that does not explicitly mention God. Rather, we are left to find the image of God in the joy of giving and caring love. These verses are understood as a rhapsodic song of springtime, but their metaphorical evocation of love speaks to our hearts even during summer’s heat.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 145:8-15

This psalm of praise, one of the 73 psalms traditionally attributed to King David, echoes today’s reading from Zechariah in its vision of a humble, powerful king who reigns in peace and prosperity. This kingdom of glorious splendor, the Psalmist sings, is not merely a kingdom for here and now, but one that is known in glory to all people. It will be an everlasting kingdom that endures through all the ages.

Second Reading: Romans 7:15-25a

In our recent second readings, we have heard Paul assure the Christian community in Rome that when we die to our old lives enslaved to sin through baptism, we are born to a new life freed from sin through God’s grace. Now, declaring himself “a wretched man,” Paul acknowledges that it’s not easy to leave sin behind. Even when his mind wants to do what’s right, Paul confesses, he can’t get rid of the sin that lives within him. He can’t fight sin on his own – and neither can we – without God’s help through Jesus, who frees us from the enslavement of sin.

Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Jesus seems frustrated. Preaching to crowds around Capernaum in Galilee, he likens them to children bickering and whining. Perhaps Jesus feels irritable because some people who considered ascetic John the Baptist’s call for repentance crazy and judgmental are now criticizing Jesus’ joyous embrace of life as evidence that he is a glutton and a drunk, who dines with sinners and tax collectors like Matthew. But then Jesus pauses and thanks God. His words of hope for Israel’s children and infants turn gentle. Can we hear a foretaste of the Beatitudes in these words, the promise of God’s Kingdom coming to all who bear burdens and labor under a heavy yoke?

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 22:1-14

It is not our faith that saves us, but God’s faithfulness to us: Hear this theme through Sunday’s Lectionary readings.

Abraham’s Sacrifice (1653), oil painting on canvas by David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. (Click image to enlarge)

In our Track One first reading, Abraham hears a shocking command: God tells him to slay his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice. It’s hard for us to imagine a God who would order such a thing, but we rejoice with Abraham when God forbids him to kill Isaac after all, offering a ram to sacrifice instead. As an ancestral legend, this event established in law that the people should not sacrifice humans. It showed a compassionate God, once Abraham’s faith was tested: a God who would say “no” to the death of Isaac and “no” to death again in the resurrection of his own son, Jesus Christ.

First Reading (Track Two): Jeremiah 28:5-9

To place this short reading in context, go back and read the verses just before it. Jeremiah had warned the priests and people that their exile in Babylon would not be ending soon, and that any prophets who say otherwise are liars. Then the young prophet Hananiah stood up and challenged that, prophesying that God had in fact broken the yoke of the Babylonian king and would bring all the exiles home within two years. Now in Sunday’s reading we hear Jeremiah respond. HeOU agrees that God will indeed end the exile some day, but only when peace prevails and war, pestilence and famine come to an end.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 13

The opening verses of this short Psalm might not seem appropriate to comfort a person who is grieving or afraid. But it does provide insight into the profound pain that exists at the depths of fear and loss. It would be only too human to be afraid that we have been forgotten, that God’s face is turned away and hidden, leaving us defenseless and alone, victim to our enemies. But even in utter darkness, the Psalmist assures us, hope remains when we trust in God’s mercy. God has dealt with us fairly, and we can take joy in God’s saving help.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 89:1-4,15-18

In these two brief excerpts from a longer Psalm, the Psalmist celebrates God’s covenant with King David as a royal lineage that God established to last forever as a sign of God’s righteousness and never-ending rule. Those who walk in God’s way and rejoice in the divine name will be full of joy, the Psalmist sings, for they know that God is their ruler. The Holy One of Israel is everlasting king.

Second Reading: Romans 6:12-23

Who would want to be enslaved? It is hard to imagine anyone who would willingly embrace this state, as Paul makes clear by using the idea of enslavement to make a telling point: Our baptism spares us from the enslavement of sin, freeing us to embrace a better way: the joyful enslavement of willing submission to God through Christ. In this way, Paul says, we receive the free gift of grace that brings eternal life.

Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42

This Sunday we hear the third and final passage from Matthew’s long account of Jesus teaching his recently commissioned apostles about the challenges and rewards of discipleship. In recent Gospel readings we have heard Jesus’s troubling warnings about how he came not to bring peace but a sword, and that his followers must leave friends and family behind in order to follow him. But now at last Jesus turns his attention to the rewards of following his way. Echoing the Psalmist’s assurance that God is loving, just and fair, Jesus promises that those who practice justice in God’s name – even in such small ways as offering water to a child – will earn their reward.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for June 25, 2023 (Pentecost 4A)

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 21:8-21

Even the greatest Bible heroes are hardly plaster saints. Sometimes they seem the furthest thing from role models.

The banishment of Hagar and Ishmael (1653-1654), oil painting on canvas by Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667). Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, The Netherlands. (Click image to enlarge)

From Adam and Eve’s taste for forbidden fruit down through Joseph, Jacob, Moses and King David to doubting Thomas and denying Peter, the great figures in Scripture are just about all flawed and broken. Yet God loves them all the same, just as God loves us. In Sunday’s Track One first reading we hear a particularly troubling story about Abraham. Even the patriarch of the Judeo-Christian family, we discover, was capable of such disturbing behavior as sending his slave, Hagar, and their son, Ishmael, into the desert to die. But God intervened, and promised them a future as bountiful as that of Abraham and Sarah’s own son, Isaac.

First Reading (Track Two): Jeremiah 20:7-13

The prophet Jeremiah is angry and upset. God has called him to prophesy to the people about the destruction that their failure to be righteous and just will bring upon them, but they will not listen. Worse, they laugh and deride him when he shouts about their impending peril. Anger scorches his bones like a burning fire, and he cannot hold it in. Even his close friends wait for him to stumble. But Jeremiah knows that it is his persecutors who will stumble, for God is with him like a warrior at his side.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

As our Genesis reading reminds us that God loves us even when we aren’t very nice, the Psalmist sings out the prayerful assurance that God loves us even when we aren’t very happy. Poor and needy, fearing death, the Psalmist cries out, trusting in a good and forgiving God to answer their prayers and make their hearts glad.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 69: 8-11, (12-17), 18-20

This Psalm echoes the themes in the Jeremiah reading that we hear just before it. Like Jeremiah, the Psalmist spoke for God, only to become the subject of scorn and reproach from his own friends and family, and even had songs sung about him by drunkards at the city gate. The Psalmist calls on God to save him from their hatred, to turn to him in compassion and save him from his enemies.

Second Reading: Romans 6:1b-11

If Paul’s tone in this short passage from his letter to the early church in Rome seems intense, that may be because Paul so fiercely wants us to grasp his theological point: In baptism, everything changes, and that matters! Baptism unites us with Christ so that we share in his death and resurrection. In baptism we symbolically “die” to our old life enslaved by sin. In baptism we are born to a new life, freed from sin through God’s abounding grace, dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus.

Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39

We think of Jesus as the Prince of Peace, yet here we find him telling his disciples that he has not come to bring peace but a sword! Family members will be set against each other, he goes on, warning his followers that they must leave their families to follow him. These disturbing verses continue Jesus’s stern instructions to the apostles that we heard last Sunday. This may reflect the difficult times when the evangelist we know as Matthew was writing his Gospel: The Roman Empire had crushed a Jewish rebellion, leaving Jerusalem shattered and the Temple in ruins. Jewish Christians and Rabbinic Judaism were splitting apart in angry rivalry. In such a time it would have been not only difficult but dangerous to follow Jesus’s Way.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for June 11, 2023 (Pentecost 2A)

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 12:1-9

The church’s vestments and liturgical colors are green again: The six-month-long stretch of Sundays after Pentecost will continue until Advent begins in November. Churches may follow either of two Lectionary tracks, each following a different set of First Readings and Psalms.

La vocación de San Mateo (“The Calling of St. Matthew,” 1661), oil painting on canvas by Mikeal Juan de Pareja (c.1606-1670). Museo del Prado, Madrid. Juan de Pareja, who pictured himself on the far left of this painting, was a Black artist and the senior assistant to the famous artist Velazquez. (Click image to enlarge)

In Track One, the first readings will follow the Hebrew Bible’s story of God’s chosen people, from the patriarch Abraham to Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Joshua. In our first reading, we meet Abram, whom God will later rename Abraham. Even at the advanced age of 75, Abram’s faith empowers him to follow God’s challenging call to uproot his family and begin a long journey from his home in Ur (in present-day Iraq) toward the promised land. In return, God will bless Abram and his family, and through them, all the families of the Earth.

First Reading (Track Two): Hosea 5:15-6:6

Through the long stretch of Sundays after Pentecost that has now begins, churches may choose to follow either of two Lectionary tracks, with separate First Readings and Psalms. The Track Two first readings from the Hebrew Bible show a theme or theological point related in some way to the week’s Gospel. We begin with a reading from the Hosea, who prophesied while Israel’s Northern Kingdom came under threat from the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE. God has turned away in anger from the people, not to return until they repent, acknowledge their guilt and seek God’s face. In beautifully poetic terms, the prophet imagines God’s voice: “What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 33:1-12

Psalm 33 is a hymn of praise and thanksgiving for a just and faithful God who inspires the people’s songful worship and their fearful awe. The Psalmist sings of a God who loves righteousness and justice, who fills the Earth with steadfast love. Through God’s word the heavens and earth and all that fills them were made: “He spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm.” Happy is the nation, the Psalmist sings, whose God is the Lord. Happy are those who are chosen as God’s heritage.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 50:7-15

Echoing God’s righteous anger against the people as prophesied by Hosea in the Track Two first reading, the portion of Psalm 50 that we read this Sunday warns that God has high expectations of the chosen people and will not hesitate to punish those who stray from the right path. The Psalmist imagines these fearful words: “O Israel, I will bear witness against you, for I am God your God.” How can the people do God’s will? Don’t sacrifice bulls and goats, the Psalmist advices worshipers at the ancient temple. Rather, offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and make good your vows to the Most High.

Second Reading: Romans 4:13-25

Our second readings this summer will offer us a deep dive into Paul’s Letter to the Romans that will continue into September. In this, his last letter, Paul is reaching out pastorally to a Christian community that he had not yet met. He hopes to reconcile tensions within a faith community that included both Jewish and Gentile Christians at a time when the Jewish Christians had been exiled and were just now returning to a Gentile community that had gotten used to worshipping without them. Paul reminds both parties that Abraham’s descendants received God’s promise under the law, while Gentiles who become Christians now receive it through their new faith. We are all children of Abraham and Sarah now, Paul assures them, through faith in Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

After having spent much of Lent and Eastertide hearing selections from John’s Gospel, we now return to Matthew for the remainder of the Lectionary year. Sunday’s Gospel tells of the calling of Matthew. Jesus had a bad reputation for hanging out with sinners, outcasts and people the authorities considered mighty suspicious: Prostitutes, drunks and lepers; women, foreigners, and maybe worst of all, tax collectors, those despised collaborators who extracted the Roman empire’s taxes from their neighbors. People like Matthew, who despite his outcast status as tax collector hurried to follow Jesus … and invited him home for dinner. Jesus shows us how to love our neighbors – all of our neighbors – not just the ones who look and think like us. Then we skip ahead a few verses and hear Matthew’s account of Jesus healing a woman with a hemorrhage and returning a dead girl to life. Both of these women would have been considered unclean under ritual law, but as Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

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.