Category Archives: Pentecost

Pentecost 2B

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for June 6, 2021

First Reading (Track One): 1 Samuel 8:4-20,11:14-15

The six-month-long season after Pentecost now begins, with its green vestments and liturgical colors. The Lectionary offers a choice of two separate tracks of first readings and psalms during this season.

Christ among the Pharisees

Christ among the Pharisees (1600s), oil painting on canvas by Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678). Sotheby’s, London. (Click image to enlarge.)

In Track One, our first readings for the next three months will recall the ancient stories of Israel’s kings from Saul to Solomon. Then, through the end of November we’ll dip into the Hebrew Bible’s wisdom literature, including the books of Job and Ruth. Sunday’s Track One first reading finds the chosen people in a time of turmoil in the Promised Land. Tired of being governed by corrupt judges, the people clamored for a king to lead them. The prophet Samuel opposed this idea, declaring that God was Israel’s king. But with God’s direct guidance, Samuel finally gave in and named Saul king, warning that the people would come to regret this decision.

First Reading (Track Two): Genesis 3:8-15

This Sunday we start the season after Pentecost, featuring the green liturgical colors that will continue until Advent begins at the end of November. During this time churches may choose either of two Lectionary tracks, each with its own First Readings and Psalms. In Sunday’s Track Two first reading, we hear the familiar story of Adam and Eve in the garden after having eaten the fruit that God forbade. They realized that they were naked, and hearing God coming, they hid because they were afraid. When God found them, they blamed each other, and then they blamed the snake. What would have happened if they refused to take the fruit? Would they have lived happily ever after in Eden? But when they lost their home in the garden, God came out with them, and stayed with a people of free will and belief through the ages.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 138

Even in the world outside Eden, a world of work and pain and hunger, we know that God remains with us. Even from on high, the Psalmist sings, God cares for the lowly. This lovely psalm of thanksgiving praises God and exults in gratitude that God stays with us when we are in trouble, and answers us when we call. In words that echo the familiar verses of the beloved 23rd Psalm, we hear that God keeps us safe even when we walk in the midst of trouble; God’s strong hand protects us from our enemies.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 130

Titled “De Profundis” (“out of the depths”), this Psalm of faith in God’s redemption reminds us that we wait in hope for God’s love and grace even in times of grief, pain and despair. Even in death we await the resurrection, as in night’s darkest hours we wait for morning light. We hear this psalm three times in this Lectionary cycle; it is also suggested for use in the burial of the dead, although it is surely chosen less often than the beloved 23rd Psalm.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

We may feel as if we live a life of affliction and wasting away in our fallen world, but that anguish is only momentary in the greater scheme of things, Paul assures the people of Corinth in his second letter to this tiny Greek seaport community. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, God will raise us, too. The pain that we feel now is only temporary; through God’s grace we will live forever in God’s glory beyond all measure.

Gospel: Mark 3:20-35

After spending much of Lent and Eastertide hearing passages from the Gospel of John, we now return to Mark’s Gospel for the rest of this Lectionary year. We find Jesus where we left him, attracting crowds in his early ministry in Galilee. He’s in trouble with just about everyone, from Pharisees upset about his healing to his neighbors and his own family. No one is happy about his healings, his teaching, all the people following him around! His neighbors think Jesus has lost his mind, or maybe has a demon of his own. His family comes out in the street to try to calm him down. His responses surely would not make his mother and brothers happy: He tells them that his followers are his family now, and his work will take him out into a broken world.

Trinity Sunday B

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 30, 2021

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

On Pentecost Sunday last week, we heard of the coming of the Holy Spirit in wind and fire. Now we mark Trinity Sunday, pondering the relationship among Creator, Redeemer and Advocate.

Christ Instructing Nicodemus

Christ Instructing Nicodemus (17th century), painting by Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678). Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique. Brussels. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our first reading, we meet another in the Hebrew Bible’s string of reluctant prophets. Like Moses, who objected to his call, saying he could not speak well enough; or Jeremiah, who worried that he was too young, or. Jonah, who simply ran away. In these verses Isaiah fears that his sinfulness – “unclean lips” – disqualifies him for God’s service. But then a mighty angel purifies Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal, whereupon he eagerly accepts God’s call: “Here I am! Send me!”

Psalm: Psalm 29

We heard this Psalm not long ago, on the first Sunday after the Epiphany in January. Now we read it again on the first Sunday after Pentecost. What is the unifying element? Both readings follow on the Sunday after we celebrate a bold manifestation of the divine: Epiphany and Pentecost. At such a time it seems appropriate, as the Psalm commands, to “ascribe to God the glory due God’s name.” The powerful metaphor of a majestic storm reflects the Holy Spirit as a great wind. A storm strong enough to break and spin mighty oaks and cedars, shoot flames, and shake the wilderness might send us running for shelter. But it also has potential to lure us outside to feel the rain and the wind on our faces as the storm rolls past.

Alternative to the Psalm: Canticle 13

Canticles, “little songs,” are scripture passages, other than Psalms, chosen for use in worship in the Book of Common Prayer. Canticle 13 incorporates parts of the “Song of the Three Young Men” who were thrown into the fiery furnace by an angry king. Protected by God, as told in Daniel and the apocryphal Song of Azariah, they survived this ordeal, walking unharmed through the fire and singing this hymn of praise to God and all creation.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-17

These verses came just before last week’s reading from Romans, in which Paul likened the hope and pain of Christians waiting for salvation to the pain and expectancy of a mother in labor. In these verses that provide context for that reading, we hear Paul building toward that image. He tells of the great gift that we are offered: Accepting life led by the Spirit, we become children of God, just as Jesus is the Son of God. With Jesus we become heirs of God, inspired by the Spirit, knowing that our suffering with Jesus opens us up to being glorified with Jesus.

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Nicodemus, a Pharisee who seems impressed by Jesus, comes to talk with Jesus at night, perhaps to keep his visit secret in the darkness. In their conversation, Nicodemus just can’t get his mind around the idea of being “born again,” a term that in the original Greek might mean “anew,” “again,” “from above,” “in the future,” or even all of those. Nicodemus, in an exchange that the author of John might have intended to draw chuckles from believers, couldn’t figure how a grown person could creep back into the mother’s body to be re-born. But Jesus understood that there is no contradiction between being born of the flesh as an infant and being “born again,” not in the flesh but through faith and the Spirit. The Gospel concludes with the familiar John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,” followed by the context of 3:17, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Pentecost B

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 23, 2021

First Reading (or alternate Second Reading): Acts 2:1-21

It is Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter. The apostles have endured Jesus’ death, encountered him in mysterious resurrection appearances, then watched him taken up into the clouds.

Pentecost

Pentecost (1545), painting by Titian (c.1488-1576). Santa Maria della Salute, Venice. (Click image to enlarge.)

They must have faced the future with wary uncertainty … and then the Spirit, the Advocate whom Jesus had promised would come, fills the room with noise and wind and fire, and everything changes! Speaking fluently in many languages, the apostles face a startled crowd and, quoting the Prophet Joel, declare the coming of God and our hope for salvation.

First Reading (alternate): Ezekiel 37:1-14

In these poetic verses, the prophet Ezekiel imagines an eerie, deathly valley filled with dry bones. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy, and as he does so, the dry bones become connected, covered with skin, and then breathed into life as a vast multitude. In this vision the prophet unveils God’s promise to restore Israel from exile. In the context of this week’s Lectionary readings, we might imagine it as the work of the Spirit bringing forth life and a multitude of witnesses from the dust and dry bones of death.

Psalm: Psalm 104:25-35,37

This joyful Psalm celebrates the diversity of God’s creation, which fills earth and sea with too many amazing creatures to count. Evoking the story of creation in Genesis, the Psalmist reminds us that just as God’s spirit – “breath” or “wind” in Hebrew – was at work in creating the Earth, God’s spirit remains active in making creation new again The loss of breath ends life; new breath restores it.

Second Reading: Romans 8:22-27

Paul’s metaphor in this passage may feel strange at first: He imagines all creation groaning like a mother giving birth, and the Holy Spirit joining in “with sighs too deep for words.” But this imaginative leap prompts us to deep reflection that yields insight. Like a mother eager to hold her new infant, we live in hope of the new life that God has in store for us. We wait patiently for something that we desire but cannot yet see.

Gospel: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

We have spent much of Eastertide hearing portions of John’s long account of Jesus’ final conversation with his apostles at the Last Supper. Now, nearing the end of this farewell discourse, Jesus speaks of an Advocate – the Holy Spirit – who may seem as mysterious as Paul’s sighing spirit in Romans. The apostles have been with Jesus since his public ministry began, yet there is still much that they don’t understand, and much that Jesus has not explained. When the Advocate comes bearing Jesus’ words, John writes, much more will be revealed and they will understand.

Christ the King A

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 22, 2020

First Reading (Track One): Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

The long Pentecost season and the year of Matthew’s Gospel come to an end on Sunday with both Lectionary tracks combined in one reading. Next week we begin Advent and a year with the Gospel according to Mark.

Weltgericht (Last Judgement

Weltgericht (Last Judgement, c.1435), centerpiece of a tempera on oak polyptych by Master Stefan Lochner (c.1410 -1451). Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

This Lectionary year concludes with a festival day (a relatively recent addition to the calendar) known as Christ the King or the Reign of Christ. For many of us, the idea of kingship and royalty may sound like an echo of older times well left behind. But Sunday’s readings show us Jesus Christ as a different kind of king: not a traditional patriarch but a loving shepherd. The first reading joins both Lectionary tracks as we hear the prophet Ezekiel speak to Israel in exile. Using the metaphor of a kingly shepherd feeding and caring for the sheep, the prophet writes that God will judge the fat sheep and the lean, protecting the lost and weak sheep while destroying the powerful sheep who ravaged them.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 100

Our Track One Psalm, a joyous hymn, is a traditional call to worship: It urges all the people to come to God with gladness and song, grateful for God’s mercy and kindness. The Psalm is likely familiar to Episcopalians who know it as the Jubilate in Morning Prayer, a reading that portrays the people as the protected sheep of God’s pasture, joyously singing thanksgiving and praise.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 95:1-7a

The words of Sunday’s Track Two Psalm likely sound familiar too: This joyous hymn is read or chanted as the Venite in Morning Prayer. These verses sing out unalloyed worship and praise to the creator and protector of all things. In harmony with today’s other readings, it celebrates God as both king of kings above all gods and loving shepherd who cares for us, the protected sheep of God’s hand.

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23

After spending a few weeks with 1 Thessalonians, perhaps the earliest of Paul’s letters, we now conclude the season with a passage from the Letter to the Ephesians. This later epistle was most likely written by a first century Christian a generation after Paul’s death. It may reflect the early church’s growing understanding of Christ and its recognition that Jesus might not return as soon as early Christians had hoped: The author declares that God the creator has placed the resurrected Jesus at God’s right hand and given him authority over all things in heaven and in the church, his body on earth.

Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46

This familiar reading, beloved by Christians who advocate for the social gospel and a theology of liberation for the poor, concludes Matthew’s series of parables on the kingdom of heaven. The next page of Matthew’s Gospel turns directly to the Last Supper and the Passion. In this reading Matthew tells us that recognizing the face of Jesus in the face of a hungry, thirsty, homeless person, sick and naked and oppressed, is the way to make God’s Kingdom happen, even if it is difficult. Then Matthew warns that those who fail to see Jesus in their hungry neighbor will earn a place in the outer darkness that also awaited the slave with the single talent and the foolish bridesmaids. This is a hard teaching, telling us that we ignore Jesus’ call to serve only at our peril. But remember, too, that the mighty king who judges us is also the loving shepherd who shows us how to love one another.

Pentecost 24A

Posted on by
2

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 15, 2020

First Reading (Track One): Judges 4:1-7

We have two more weeks before Advent begins on December 6, but in times past Advent was a 40-day season with a more penitential tone, akin to Lent.

The Parable of the Talents

The Parable of the Talents (1791-1795), etching by Jan Luyken illustrating Matthew 25:14-30 in the Bowyer Bible, Bolton Museum, Lancashire, England. (Click image to enlarge.)

Advent is shorter now, with a more hopeful tone of anticipation, but our readings still echo the longer season, pointing our imagination toward God’s final judgement and the last days. Sunday’s Track One first reading concludes our long journey through the ancestral stories of Israel in the book of Judges. The people live in the promised land but don’t yet have a king. They have settled in to an alternating cycle of behaving badly – “doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord” – then repenting, turning back, and restoring justice under a leader called a judge. In light of the Bible’s patriarchal culture it may surprise us that one of the most noteworthy judges was Deborah, a woman and a prophet, who with God’s help is not slow to order her male generals into battle.

First Reading (Track Two): Judges 4:1-7

In Sunday’s Track Two first reading, we hear the minor prophet Zephaniah foretell the destruction and exile of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, for its peoples’ and their leaders’ failure of righteousness: They pursued wealth and fell away from following God’s ways. His apocalyptic vision of the Great Day of the Lord seems to foreshadow the vision of Revelation: He imagines a horrifying Judgement Day, when their gold and riches won’t save them from reaping what they sowed: A fire of passion that will consume all the earth and all the people in it.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 123

Harmonizing with the leadership of the female judge Deborah in the Track One first reading, this brief but powerful Psalm offers worship and praise to a God clearly seen as both male and female, both master and mistress. In its brief five verses, one of the shortest of all the Psalms, we can see inspiration for a theology of liberation, too: The Psalmist implicitly calls for a preferential option for the poor, in contrast with the contempt shown them by the rich and the proud.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 90:1-12

We are very small. God is very large. And our time is nothing like God’s time: A thousand of our years pass in a moment for God, while our lives “pass away quickly and we are gone,” like grass that dries up in a day in the desert heat. The Psalmist – taken by tradition to be Moses – petitions God on our behalf, praying that God may help us learn to make good use of the time that we are allotted.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11


In last week’s second reading, Paul assured his church in Thessalonika that the Christians who had died before Christ’s return would not lose their opportunity to be with him in God’s kingdom. Now, in the last chapter, he urges them to be prepared. Using colorful metaphors – a thief in the night, and a woman’s sudden labor pains – he emphasizes that the day of the Lord may come suddenly and by surprise. Be faithful, he says; be loving; care for one another, and be ready.

Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30


Many of us would probably be just as cautious in safeguarding an angry master’s treasure as was the third slave who buried and made no profit on the valuable silver talent left in his charge. But look at the context of this parable in Matthew’s Gospel, only a day or two before Jesus is to be crucified: Jesus is focused on the last days. Just after this passage is the Gospel we will hear next week: Jesus’ account of the last judgement, when Christ as judging King will sort out those who saw the face of Jesus in the hungry, the thirsty, the oppressed, sick persons and prisoners from those who did not. Like the first two slaves, we are called to take risks, see Jesus present in the poor and the oppressed, and give of ourselves abundantly.

Pentecost 23A

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 8, 2020

First Reading (Track One): Joshua 24:1-3a,14-25

How do we follow God? When will Jesus come back? How does God save us, and what does that look like? Can we do anything to secure a place among those saved?

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (1822), by William Blake (1757-1827). Watercolour and gouache on paper. Tate Gallery, London.
(Click image to enlarge.)

Sunday’s readings grapple with these eternal questions as the Pentecost season draws to a close and Advent approaches. We have to work to discern how these selections from Scripture might guide our lives. In the Track One first reading we hear the people renewing their covenant with God as they enter the promised land. They recall their long journey from slavery in Egypt, and they promise to be faithful to God, placing no other gods before God. But what do you think about the people’s gratitude that God drove out the Amorites who lived in the land to make a home for Israel? Does this troubling verse make you think about our treatment of the American Indians or Israel’s modern relationship with Palestine?

First Reading (Track Two): Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16

The Wisdom of Solomon, often called simply “Wisdom,” is found in the Apocrypha, after the end of the Hebrew Bible. This passage echoes a memorable section of Proverbs that personifies Wisdom as a female voice, a strong woman who sits at the city gates, advises the people on right living, and was even a female presence who was with God at the moment of creation. This short Track Two first reading tells us how easy it is to find Wisdom: She meets us more than halfway and graciously meets us in our paths and thoughts.

Alternate First Reading (Track Two): Amos 5:18-24

The prophet Amos challenges us with a frightening question in this alternate Track Two first reading: What if we confidently await the day of God’s judgement, assuming that we have lived well, but learn to our shock that God has rejected our prayers and turned away? What if we run from a lion only to be eaten by a bear!? But there is hope. When we frame this passage in the verses that surround it, we find reassurance: When we seek good and not evil – when our justice and righteousness flow like mighty waters – then God will be with us.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 78:1-7

We sing only the first seven verses of a long 72-verse hymn as our Track One Psalm this week; we heard the first four verses of this same Psalm just six weeks ago. In this short passage, the psalmist begins by calling the people to listen, for God is speaking. The psalmist speaks of parables and dark sayings of old, recalling the ancient stories that were passed on to the people. What God did for the people in the past must be told to a new generation. There is power, and almost a magical feel to these words calling the listener to pay attention. God commanded the children of Jacob to teach God’s ways to their children, the Psalmist reminds us, so that the next generations would know God and not forget God’s ways.

Psalm (Track Two): Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20

This snippet from the Apocryphal book of Wisdom, offered as one of two alternate Track Two Psalm readings, follows directly after the alternate Track Two second reading. It nails down the importance of loving Wisdom and following her laws: It is the assurance of wisdom that draws us near to God and leads us to God’s kingdom.

Alternate Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 70

This alternate for the Track Two Psalm begins on a dark note to match the first reading from Amos. The Psalmist is beset by enemies who would not only kill him but enjoy his misfortune and gloat over his losses. The Psalmist wants a kind of justice that is very far from turning the other cheek: He wants to see those enemies suffer the shame and disgrace that they wish for him! The Psalmist is sure that the poor and needy who seek God can count on God’s protection, for God is great. But please, God, the Psalmist begs: Hurry, God, please. Don’t make us wait!

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Paul offers the people of Thessalonika an imaginative description of the coming of Christ, complete with an archangel’s shout and trumpet blast, the dead rising from their graves and the people of God rising into the air! These ideas, taken literally, have become the basis for a lot of colorful theories about what the return of Christ might look like. Some Christians do read this passage as a literal prediction of the last days. But most bible scholars offer a simpler explanation: At the time of this letter – the earliest in the New Testament – many Christians still thought that Jesus would return and establish God’s kingdom while they were still alive to see it. But now it was a generation later, and some people were dying! Would they miss Jesus? No, says Paul. Be encouraged: All will be saved.

Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus has concluded his long debate with the Scribes and Pharisees now and is seated with his disciples on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, from where they can see Jerusalem and the Temple. He starts telling them a parable with the words, “The kingdom of heaven will be like this,” a sure signal that what’s coming will challenge our expectations. Indeed, this story is just as unsettling as the other “kingdom” parables we’ve heard recently: the outcast who had no wedding garment; the murderous vineyard workers; and the workers who were all paid the same. In this story, the bridesmaids who didn’t plan ahead and had no oil for their lamps were locked out of the banquet. The bridegroom dismissed them, even though he was late, himself! Is Jesus trying to tell us that the kingdom of heaven is unfair? Surely not. Rather, the parable offers simple wisdom: We know that Jesus, the bridegroom, is coming, so be ready always.

All Saints A

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 1, 2020

First Reading: Revelation 7:9-17

What a stirring scene we have to begin the readings for All Saints Day, as the Lectionary turns to Revelation from the usual Hebrew Bible first reading.

All the Saints Assembled

All the Saints Assembled (c.1850). Detail from the Hexameron, a Russian Orthodox icon. (Click image to enlarge.)

The apocalyptic vision of John of Patmos reveals a countless multitude of people from every race and nation – indeed, all the saints. All the world’s people are gathered to praise the Lamb, Revelation’s allegorical image for Jesus as both sheep and shepherd, both victim and victor, and the loving protector who guides us as a single multitude in all Earth’s glorious diversity.

Psalm: Psalm 34:1-10, 22

Teach us how to pray: Many of the 150 Psalms address God in prayer, but this one is different. These verses from Psalm 34 are imagined as the words of David after he escaped a deadly situation, offering the people wise counsel in the way of prayer: As God’s saints and God’s servants, we should praise and worship God. We are small and humble. God is great and powerful. Yet when we are in trouble, when we are afraid, when we are hungry, we place our faith and trust in God and need not fear. Taste and see that God is good. Happy are we who trust in God!

First Reading: 1 John 3:1-3

The three short letters of John were probably written around the year 100 and not by the hand of the Evangelist we know as John. But they may have come from a community that had followed him. The spirit of these verses from the first letter of John does seem consistent with the theology of John’s Gospel. They celebrate the abundant love of God that showers on us and makes us all God’s children. The glory of our coming adulthood under God’s love remains to be revealed, the author of this letter tells us. But from the beginning, we are assured, all of God’s children, all of God’s saints, are brothers and sisters through God’s creative love.

Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus reveals the Beatitudes in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (and in Luke’s similar but intriguingly different version in the Sermon on the Plain), he offers a promise of hope.

The Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount (1598), oil painting on copper by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. (Click image to enlarge.)

This is a promise made in particular to those who are poor, those who mourn, those who are meek, hungry, and thirsty; the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the righteous, and the persecuted. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven,” Jesus tells the multitude. Is Jesus promising a heavenly kingdom, a reward that comes only after we die? Or is he foreseeing a kingdom of heaven on earth, a glorious kingdom that may appear when people begin to live the Beatitudes? If we consider everything that the Gospels teach us about the Way of Jesus, we might hear him calling us to join in building a kingdom that comes on earth as it is in heaven.

Pentecost 21A

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 25, 2020

First Reading (Track One): Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Moses dies, and Joshua takes command. Jesus tells the Pharisees about the greatest commandment. There is plenty to inspire our imagination in Sunday’s Lectionary readings.

The Pharisees Question Jesus

The Pharisees Question Jesus (1886-1894), medium gouache over graphite on gray wove paper by James Tissot (1836-1902). Brooklyn Museum. (Click image to enlarge.)

The Track One first reading concludes the Torah, the first five books of the First Testament, the Law. Moses has led the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph out of slavery in Egypt, received God’s commandments and made God’s covenant at Mount Sinai. He has wandered 40 years in the desert with a fractious people. Now he comes within sight of the Promised Land where he meets God again, on another mountain top. But this time Moses learns that he may see the land, knowing that God’s promise is fulfilled, but he won’t live to cross over to it.

First Reading (Track Two): Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

The overarching law that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves frames Sunday’s readings. We hear its roots in the Track Two first reading about an encounter between God and Moses. It returns fully developed in words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. In a series of instructions that restate the moral code of the commandments, God’s words to Moses in the first reading tell how to be in good relationship with our neighbors. They culminate with the summary conclusion – the first place in the bible where this is explicitly stated as a rule – that we shall love our neighbor as we love ourself.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

Tradition attributes this ancient hymn to Moses himself. While that is surely legendary, its verses of praise for God’s creation are certainly consistent with Torah, the books of teaching that believers once thought were actually written by Moses. A thousand years pass like a day in God’s continuing creation, we sing, while our short lives are as brief as the grass that turns from green to brown overnight. Then the Psalm moves from praise to petition as we ask God to hear our prayers, to turn toward us with loving-kindness and make us glad.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 1

The short Track Two psalm, the first in the book of Psalms, sings of the two paths that we may choose to take through life. In poetic verses that seem to foreshadow Jesus’ parables about the seeds that fall on variously nourishing ground, the Psalmist likens us to trees. There are the lush, fruitful and well-watered trees of the righteous who follow God’s way; and the weak trees that can’t stand straight, representing the way of the wicked. Which way shall we choose? The Psalm makes our options clear.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

It is fascinating to listen in as Paul tells the people of Thessalonika, one of his churches in Greece, about his problems with the congregation at Philippi, a neighboring community! In this letter we get a glimpse of serious problems: Someone in Philippi apparently was strongly opposed to Paul and disagreed with his teaching. Paul is grateful to the Thessalonians, though, for treating him kindly. They have built a dear friendship that Paul likens to a nurse caring for her children. Fortunately, by the time Paul wrote his later letter to the Philippians around 55 CE, maybe five years after 1 Thessalonians, all apparently had been forgiven, as he then addresses the people of Philippi with loving friendship, too.

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46

The words of Jesus about the greatest commandment may sound like a central tenet of Christianity, pouring directly from the heart of Jesus. But this teaching is profoundly Jewish, too. The commandment that Jesus declares the “greatest and first” portion, to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, exactly quotes the Shema, the most important of all Jewish prayers. The Pharisees with whom he continues arguing certainly understood this. Then the second portion, to love our neighbors as ourselves, comes directly from the priestly codes in Leviticus. Our spiritual heritage goes back a long way, and as we heard from Jesus earlier in Matthew, he did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets (that is, the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible) but to fulfill it.

Pentecost 20A

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 18, 2020

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 33:12-23

God’s power for good amazes us, and we follow in faith. We’ll find variations on this theme through Sunday’s readings.

The Tribute Money

The Tribute Money (1630s), oil painting on canvas by Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644). Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our Track One first reading, we have skipped over a bloody and horrifying narrative since we heard about God’s anger over the golden calf. In those pages, a portion of the Hebrew people were told to kill 3,000 of their brothers and sisters who had worshiped the golden idol. Now Moses worries that his troublesome flock might stray again. He asks God for assurance that God will continue to lead and guide the people. God agrees, but Moses wants more: He wants to see God in God’s glory. God warns that Moses dare not see God’s face. No human can see such glory and live. But a compromise emerges: Moses may stand in a crack in a rock, protected from danger, then open his eyes for a glimpse of God’s glory and kindness from behind after God passes by.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 45:1-7

It may seem unusual to read high praise for a Gentile king in the Hebrew Bible, but Isaiah offers just that in these verses. The prophet declares Cyrus, the king of Persia, as “God’s own anointed,” actually using the Hebrew word “Messiah.” How can this be? As usual with Scripture, historic context is everything. The people had been in exile in Babylon for 40 years, dreaming of the destroyed city of Jerusalem and the temple that they had lost. They had failed to love their neighbor and care for the weak and needy; thus they broke the covenant with God that had earned them the Promised Land. Now, led by the wise king that history knows as Cyrus the Great, the Persians have conquered Babylon, and Cyrus sent them home, showing that even a Persian king responds to God’s command.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 99

In Psalm 99 the Psalmist echoes the ideas in Exodus that we hear this day. As we sing this Psalm we sing loud praise to God’s great and awesome name. We celebrate God’s justice and equity. We remember that God, leading the people in a pillar of cloud, answered their prayers, but also punished them for their evil deeds, and finally forgave them in the end. Proclaim the greatness of the Lord, our God, the Psalmist sings.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 96:1-13

It is likely no coincidence that the Lectionary planners chose to follow Isaiah’s praise for Cyrus the great Persian king with a brisk reminder that God remains king among all kings, before whom the whole Earth trembles. God created all things and will judge all things, fairly and with equity, the Psalmist sings. Heaven and earth, thunder and lightning, all the fields and all the forest will rejoice when God comes to judge in righteousness and truth, this Psalm portion concludes.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

This Sunday we begin a five-week visit with 1 Thessalonians, a letter written by Paul around the year 50. Thus it is the earliest document in the New Testament. In its pages, Paul praises this small community in Thessalonika in Northern Greece, who had been persecuted for giving up the dominant Roman religion that Paul and the early Christians considered pagan. The Thessalonian people’s faith, Paul says, had inspired many converts, who were now waiting for Jesus to rescue them “from the wrath that is coming.” At this time, a bare 20 years after the crucifixion, early Christians still expected Jesus to come back soon to judge the world and establish the kingdom of God on Earth.

Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22

A denarius with the image of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

A denarius with the image of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The inscription on the obverse stands for “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus.” (Click image to enlarge.)

For the fourth consecutive Sunday, we find Jesus in Jerusalem in the last week before his passion and death, fencing with a group of Pharisees and temple leaders who have been plotting to have him killed after his angry encounter with the money changers in the Temple. In this familiar passage they try to trap Jesus with a trick question. Depending on his answer, they hope his answer will either anger the crowds by seemingly supporting Roman taxation, or risk treason against Rome by denying the emperor’s power. But Jesus outwits them as usual, and in addition, tricks the temple leaders to reveal that they are carrying a forbidden graven image – the head of Tiberius Caesar – on the coins in their purses. Finally, when he responds, “give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s,” Jesus leaves open the question of how much that might be … and how much of our lives, on the other hand, we should give to God.

Pentecost 19A

Posted on by
Reply

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 11, 2020

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 32:1-14



Even when we do terrible things, even when we wallow in sin, God finds a way to forgive us in a banquet of loving grace.

Dancing Around the Golden Calf

Dancing Around the Golden Calf from The Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), illustrative woodcut from the workshop of Michel Wolgemut. (Click image to enlarge.)

This beautiful promise echoes through this week’s readings, beginning with the startling story we hear in Sunday’s Track One first reading: Moses is up on the mountain, talking with the Holy One, but things are going badly wrong below. The people, scared by Sinai’s smoke and thunder, are afraid that Moses won’t come back, don’t take long to break their brand-new covenant by worshipping a golden calf! God, righteously outraged, threatens to destroy the people and start a new nation with Moses. But Moses pleads for the people, and God relents. God’s abundant love flows to a people who may not deserve it, but they will be forgiven over and over again.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 25:6-9



Using the two-line echoing of ideas that, like the Psalms, is typical of ancient Hebrew poetry, Isaiah speaks of the people’s relief from foreign domination after exile. The prophet exalts and praises a warrior God who destroyed the enemy while protecting the poor and needy. Then the narrative turns from warlike phrases to a beautiful song of hope. In verses that we often hear read at the time of burial, the prophet sings of a banquet that God will prepare: “A feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines … of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.” It will be a feast for the people of all nations, united at last in a kingdom where death and tears are no more.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

The Psalmist asks forgiveness for a people who have sinned, remembering God’s mercy even when they built and worshipped the golden calf. They forgot God, their Savior, who had watched over them in Egypt and brought them safely across the Red Sea and through the desert. They deserved destruction, the Psalmist sings, but Moses stood up for them and turned God’s wrath aside, revealing the Holy One who is good and forever merciful.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 23

And now, in the beloved 23rd Psalm, we sing of that very deep and abundant love, of God’s trusted protection. Our Good Shepherd who is always with us, comforting us and protecting us not only in the green pastures and still waters of good times, but even in those frightening times when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Just as Isaiah envisions a banquet table set for the people of God, the Psalmist, too, imagines a table of comfort spread out in the house of the Holy One.

Second Reading: Philippians 4:1-9



Paul now speaks to a specific pastoral issue in the church at Philippi. Two women, Euodia and Syntyche, have been quarreling. Without taking sides, Paul simply urges them to “be of the same mind” in Christ, perhaps suggesting that they ask, “What would Jesus do?” In beautiful language, he shows what that might look like: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Be gentle and kind; true, honorable and just, pure, pleasing, commendable and praiseworthy, he exhorts all the church, and the God of peace will be with us.

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14



What is Jesus trying to teach us about the kingdom of heaven this week? This parable might remind us of the wicked tenants in last week’s Gospel, who defied the person in charge and casually killed his messengers. Here in Matthews Gospel, as Jesus continues debating an angry group of Pharisees, he tells another strange and challenging parable: The king, angry at those who didn’t show up for his son’s wedding banquet – some of whom even killed the slaves sent to invite them – brings people off the street to take their places. Then, when one of them ungratefully refuses to put on a wedding garment, he’s tossed out into the darkness, too. We’re all invited to the kingdom of heaven, it seems. But even as welcomed guests, we’re expected to don the wedding garment by following Jesus’ way.