Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 12, 2026 (Pentecost 7A/Proper 10)

Landscape with the Parable of the Sower (1552), oil painting on panel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526/1530-1569). Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, Calif. (Click image to enlarge.)

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

God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. But the ancestral legends of the chosen people show us that this outcome won’t be easy. Abraham and Sarah would not celebrate Isaac’s birth until she was 90 years old. In this first reading, we remember that Isaac and Rebekah, too, suffered through 20 barren years before their twins, Esau and Jacob, were born. Jacob, who would grow up as a notorious trickster, would persuade his moments-older twin to give up his rights as firstborn in exchange for a bit of bread and a pot of lentil stew. God, we see again and again, does not choose perfect people but works through flawed and broken humans.

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

This reading contains the concluding verses from the second of the three ancient prophets who Bible scholars believe wrote separate prophecies that were eventually combined in this memorable book. Taken as a whole, the full book of Isaiah tells of the exile to Babylon and the people’s eventual return home to Jerusalem, where they build a restored temple. In this passage, Isaiah, having assured the people that God has forgiven their failures of justice, paints a beautiful image of God as the giver of life and sustenance and all that is good. His image of seeds and the sower and Earth’s bounty sets the stage for the parable of the sower that we hear in the 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 of those verses are devoted to a long, loving celebration of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. The psalms usually translate “Torah” in this context as “law,” “ordinance,” or “decree.” 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 decrees – 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 mirrors 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 expresses praise for the overflowing richness of God’s gifts and for the joy this provides to those who receive it. This abundant seed, the Psalmist sings, has fallen on good soil and yielded 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, who declared himself a devout Pharisee and Torah scholar, righteous and blameless under the law. In his writings, we see Paul evolved a new understanding of that law in his letter to the 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, we will follow Matthew’s account of Jesus’ final journey with the apostles from Galilee to Jerusalem. In many of these Gospels, Jesus will teach by using parables as colorful, attention-getting metaphors. This week, we hear the parable of the sower, the first parable that Jesus tells in Matthew’s Gospel and the only one that Jesus goes on to explain. The seeds, it seems, are Jesus’s proclamation of God’s coming kingdom on Earth. Although Jesus proclaims it widely, it often falls on inhospitable ground and fails to take root. Only those who hear the word and understand it will indeed bear fruit and yield bountifully.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 5, 2026 (Pentecost 6A/Proper 9)

Jesus in Capernaum (1885), oil painting on canvas by Rodolpho Amoêdo (1857- 1941). Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil. (Click image to enlarge.)

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

When God calls you, listen and follow. This consistent theme in Sunday’s readings begins with Rebekah’s response to Abraham’s servant in this first reading. She reminds us of Abraham’s acceptance of God’s call. Both answered with faithful trust when they heard God’s voice. Abraham uprooted his family and moved to a new land far away. Rebekah left her home and family to marry Abraham’s son, Isaac, whom she has not yet met but who will come to love her. Abraham heard God’s promise that his offspring would become a great and mighty nation. Rebekah, with her own strong faith, heard that her children would become “thousands of myriads.”

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

In this brief passage, Zechariah – one of the last of the Hebrew Bible’s dozen so-called minor prophets – celebrates the people’s return from exile and their hope of restoring the Temple. He prophesies that a humble yet powerful king will come to reign in peace and restore the nation’s prosperity. The evangelist we know as Matthew will later imagine Jesus so vividly foretold in these verses. His gospel adopts Zechariah’s wording so precisely that it even retains the poetic repetition of Hebrew verse – “riding on a donkey; on a colt, the foal of a donkey” – in his startling image of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on two animals.

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

Psalm 45 is a blessing for a wedding. It is a love song addressed to a princess bride of Tyre (an ancient island kingdom and occasional rival to Israel), who has come to Israel to be joined in a royal marriage. This passage celebrates the pomp and joy of her coming wedding. It also highlights the Psalmist’s hope that the bride will be remembered and praised in future generations, a wish that echoes God’s promises of myriad descendants to Abraham and Rebekah.

Alternate Psalm (Track One): : Song of Solomon 2:8-13
The Song of Solomon, also known as the Song of Songs, is a lyrical collection of ancient Hebrew love poetry. Curiously, this book and the book of Esther are the only books in the Bible that do not explicitly mention God. Rather, we are invited 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 in the midst of an awakening springtime Earth speaks to our hearts even during the heat and sunshine of July.

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

Like many of the psalms, this hymn of praise is traditionally attributed to the hand of King David. It parallels the reading from Zechariah in its vision of a humble, powerful king who reigns in peace and prosperity. The Psalmist portrays this kingdom of glorious splendor not simply as a reign for here and now, but one that will be known in glory to all people: an everlasting kingdom that will endure through all the ages.

Second Reading: Romans 7:15-25a

In recent readings from Paul’s letter to the Romans, we have heard his assurances that through baptism we metaphorically die to our old lives enslaved to sin, only to be born to a new life freed from sin through the free gift of grace from God. In this passage, though, pointing to himself as a bad example of a “wretched man,” Paul declares that it’s not easy to leave sin behind, even when we want to do the right thing. He tries, but he can’t get rid of the sin that lives within him, he writes. We can’t fight sin on our own without God’s help through Jesus, who frees us from the slavery of sin.

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

Jesus seems frustrated, even angry, in the opening verses of Sunday’s Gospel. Preaching to crowds around Capernaum in Galilee, he likens them to children and infants calling out and playing. Perhaps he is feeling irritable because some of the same people who considered the ascetic John’s call for repentance crazy and judgmental are now criticizing Jesus’s joyous embrace of life as evidence that he is a glutton and a drunk. But then, after we skip over five additional angry verses not included in Sunday’s reading, Jesus pauses and thanks God. His words of hope for Israel’s children and infants turn gentle as he invites all who carry heavy burdens to come to him and find rest for their souls.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for June 21, 2026 (Pentecost 4A/Proper 7)

Hagar in the Desert (1687), oil painting on canvas by Giambattista Pittoni (1687-1767). Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice. (Click image to enlarge.)

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

Sometimes we turn to scripture for reassurance, looking for readings that bring us comfort and joy. Sunday’s readings are different: They challenge us, jolt our assumptions, and at the end, make us think about how our spirituality works. The Track One first reading offers a troubling story about Abraham, the patriarch of the chosen people. Abraham followed God’s commands with exemplary faithfulness, yet here we see him doing something disturbing as he sends his slave, Hagar, and their son, Ishmael, out into the desert to die. Happily, God intervenes, saving Ishmael and promising them a bountiful future parallel to that of Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac. Indeed, while Jews and Christians recognize Abraham as our patriarch through Isaac, the world’s Muslims trace their Abrahamic line through Ishmael.

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

In Sunday’s Track Two first reading, we find the prophet Jeremiah angry and upset. God has called him to prophesy to the people that their failure to be righteous and just will bring destruction upon them, but they will not listen. Worse, they laugh and deride him when he shouts about their impending peril. Anger builds up in 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

Like Hagar with Ishmael in the desert, the Psalmist in this portion of Psalm 86 suffers in misery. He suffers in distress despite his faith and trust in God. Recognizing that God is a God like no other, the God of all nations, who loves us even when we aren’t happy, he cries out his prayer in faith that a good and forgiving God will answer him and make his heart glad.

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

The tone of lamentation in these selections from Psalm 69 rings in harmony with Jeremiah in the first reading. Like Jeremiah, the Psalmist spoke for God only to become the subject of scorn and reproach from his own friends and family. Even drunkards and loiterers at the city gate made up mocking songs about him! The Psalmist begs God to save him from their hatred, to turn to him in compassion and rescue him from his enemies.

Second Reading: Romans 6:1b-11

Everything in our lives changes in baptism: This reassuring theme runs like a thread through Paul’s letter to the Romans. Baptism unites us with Christ so that we share in his death and resurrection, Paul writes. In baptism, we symbolically die to our old life that was enslaved by sin, and through God’s abounding grace, become alive to new life through Jesus.

Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39

We love to imagine Jesus as the Prince of Peace, but now Matthew tells us that Jesus did not come to bring peace but a sword, to set family members against each other, and to call us to leave our families behind when we follow him. These disturbing verses, following Jesus’s stern instructions to the apostles in last Sunday’s Gospel, 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 were breaking away from Rabbinic Judaism amid angry disputes over Jesus’s status as Messiah. Under those circumstances, it would have been not only hard but dangerous to follow Jesus’s Way.

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.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for June 14, 2026 (Pentecost 3A/Proper 6)

Calling of the Apostles (1481), fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio(1448-1494). Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome. (Click image to enlarge)

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)

In our Track One first readings through the Pentecost season, we will hear the Hebrew Bible’s narrative of God’s chosen people, from the patriarch Abraham through Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Joshua. Sunday’s first reading begins that story in the Book of Genesis: Abraham welcomes and offers hospitality to three mysterious strangers, who foretell that he and Sarah will have a son and that their offspring will inherit the Promised Land. Sarah finds this hilarious because of their great age, but God’s promise is fulfilled in their son, Isaac.

First Reading (Track Two): Exodus 19:2-8a

Our Pentecost first readings in Track Two usually show some relationship with the week’s Gospel in theme or theological point. This Sunday, for example, we see Moses bringing God’s words to the elders of the people, asking and receiving their agreement to be in a lasting covenant with God. “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do,” the elders say. Listen for a distant echo in Sunday’s Gospel, as Jesus gathers his 12 disciples, sending them out to heal the sick, raise the dead, and proclaim the good news.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 116:1, 10-17

This Psalm portion comes again after only a short break, as we heard it on the Third Sunday of Easter just about two months ago. In the verses designated for this reading, we sing of the transforming joy that comes with recovery and resurrection after a frightening illness. Feeling the joy of restored life, the Psalmist offers thanks to God who frees us from the snares of death.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 100

This joyful hymn is familiar to many Episcopalians as the Jubilate, one of the readings that the Book of Common Prayer offers for use in Morning Prayer of the service. It draws its exultant theme from the counsel that Moses offered to the elders: We are God’s creation, God’s own people, and – mirroring the metaphor that we know and love in Psalm 23 – the sheep of God’s pasture.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-8

In his letter to the Romans, Paul continues working out his evolving theology of Christ, the Spirit, and salvation. In a theme that recurs throughout this letter, Paul encourages the members of this Christian community, whether they come from a Jewish or Roman heritage, to love one another and heal their differences in spite of their own suffering. Reminding them that Jesus was tortured and died on the cross, he urges them to learn endurance in their own pain, remembering that even though they are sinners, they are justified through faith and saved through the cross.

Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23)

As Jesus continued his travels across Galilee, teaching and healing, Matthew writes, he felt compassion for the crowds around him “because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Now Jesus selects 12 apostles to help. He gives them power to heal and exorcise and even raise the dead, then charges them to go out to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven has come near. His rules for them are strict: Accept no pay. Take only the most basic possessions along. Don’t stay with those who don’t welcome you. Be prepared for persecution and hate, but know that the Son of Man is coming soon.

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.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for June 7, 2026 (Pentecost 2A/Proper 5)

Matthew the Apostle (c.1618-1620), oil painting on panel by Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). Rubenshuis, Antwerp, Belgium. (Click image to enlarge.)

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

Our 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. 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 Sunday’s Track One 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 begun, 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. Sunday’s first reading in this track is from Hosea, who prophesied during the 8th century BCE, when Israel’s Northern Kingdom was under threat from the Assyrians. God has turned away in anger from the people, the prophet warns; 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, we hear, 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 advises 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

As we begin this long season, we’ll take a deep dive into Paul’s Letter to the Romans that will continue into September. In this, his final letter, Paul was reaching out pastorally to a Christian community that he had not yet met. He hoped to reconcile tensions within a faith community that included both Jewish and Gentile Christians. At the time, Rome’s Jewish Christians had been exiled for several years and were just returning to a Gentile community that had gotten used to worshipping and administering the church community without them. Paul reminds them all 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

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 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 a tax collector hurried to follow Jesus … and invited him home for dinner. Then we hear Matthew’s account of Jesus healing a woman with a hemorrhage on his way to bringing a dead girl back to life. Both of these women would have been considered unclean under ritual law, but Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician.”

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.