Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 15, 2024 (Pentecost 17B/Proper 19)

Season of Creation: Act Sunday

Peter the Apostle (c.1610-1614), oil painting on canvas by El Greco (1541-1614). El Greco Museum, Toledo, Spain. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): Proverbs 1:20-33

Creation Focus: Wisdom: “Repent” before doom as hurricane
Poetry in the Hebrew Bible, including the Psalms and wisdom writings such as this passage from Proverbs, does not rhyme words or sounds as English poetry does. Rather, it rhymes ideas. Go through each verse here: Wisdom, embodied as a powerful woman, shouts out to the city and all its inhabitants: Be wise! Embrace knowledge!” Each verse is divided into two lines that support each other: The idea expressed in each first line is reflected, explained, or expanded upon in the second. Ideas rhyme. Watch for this poetic technique in the Hebrew bible, and see how meaning grows when each line builds on another to strengthen ideas.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 50:4-9a

Creation Focus: Prophets are attacked yet rely on God in obedience
What could be more important to a community than its teachers, whose words shape our growth and understanding? The Israelites understood this teacher, Isaiah’s so-called “Suffering Servant,” to represent their nation in exile, suffering and enslaved yet relying still on God. Christians later imagined an image of Christ in this figure who endures opposition, turns the other cheek, and keeps on teaching until the people hear. Speaking with the tongue of a teacher, the Servant shows us God’s way.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 19

Creation Focus: The sun and stars, night and day, speak directly of God
“The heavens declare the glory of God!” This psalm of praise sings out the beauty of creation, imagining the sun and stars themselves exulting at the glory of God at work in the universe. Mirroring the first reading’s exhortation to hear God’s word, its verses urge us to rejoice in our hearts about God’s perfect law and teaching.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 116:1-8

Creation Focus: Keep faith in deliverance, do not lose hope
Like Isaiah’s Suffering Servant, the Psalmist, too, speaks from a place of sorrow, grief, and loss of hope. In this Psalm, traditionally understood as a hymn of thanksgiving for recovery from an illness, the Psalmist is filled with despair. Entangled in the cords of death, he called out, and God responded. Now, rescued from death’s grip, his tears are wiped dry and his feet no longer stumble. Walking again in the land of the living, his heart fills with love for God, who has heard his voice in supplication.

Second Reading: James 3:1-12


Creation Focus: Tongues cursing others pollute God’s earth
The teacher’s tongue may tell God’s way, but our tongues are tricky, small but powerful. This passage from James engages in delightful wordplay, likening our tongues to other small but strong things that can control forces beyond their size: A horse’s bridle, a ship’s rudder, a spark that starts a forest fire. Watch our tongues, James warns. Our tongues can bless, but tongues may curse, too, staining not only our bodies but setting afire the whole cycle of nature. We must use them wisely to praise and bless our brothers and sisters, not to express hurtful things.

Gospel: Mark 8:27-38


Creation Focus: Lose your life[style] to gain God’s salvation for all
We are more than midway through the six-month-long season after Pentecost now. Jesus and the apostles are about to turn south on a long journey toward Jerusalem and the Cross. First, though, Jesus engages them with a challenging question: “Who do you say that I am?” Some guess John the Baptist, Elijah, or a prophet, but Peter forthrightly declares Jesus the Messiah. Jesus then speaks of his coming passion and death, and when Peter objects, Jesus rebukes him and calls him “Satan!” This is a stern, challenging side of Jesus, who tells his followers to deny themselves, to take up their cross and follow him, knowing that those who want to save their life must lose it.

Season of Creation: Pray Sunday

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 1, 2024 (Pentecost 15B/Proper 17)

The Scribe Stood to Tempt Jesus (c.1886-1894), watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper by James Tissot (1836-1902). Brooklyn Museum, New York. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): Song of Solomon 2:8-13

Creation Focus: Love of God received through nature.
Our Track One first readings now turn to the Hebrew Bible’s wisdom literature – books of thoughts and advice on wise and proper living. We begin this Sunday with a love poem from the Song of Solomon, a deeply romantic book that tradition attributes to King Solomon himself (although they were actually written centuries later). These verses sing of deep love between a woman and a man who has returned to her after a cold winter, using charming metaphors of nature and the seasons like these familiar verses, “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

First Reading (Track Two): Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

Creation Focus: God’s rules are for living on the land.
Don’t do as we say. Do as we do. We hear this simple wisdom unveiled for us throughout Sunday’s readings. In our Track Two first reading last week, we looked on as an aging Joshua, facing the end of his life, called on the people to recommit to God’s covenant once they were established in the Promised Land. Now we page back to Deuteronomy to hear Moses in his last days, uttering a similar call to the people to renew their commitment to the law and teaching as they prepare to cross into the Promised Land. Moses assures the people that by passing God’s teaching down through the generations, they will earn the right to live in the land, and they will win the world’s respect for their wisdom and discernment.n the promised land, gaining the world’s respect for wisdom and discernment.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10

Creation Focus: Beauty of creation as God’s anointing.
Following the Song of Solomon in the first reading, these snippets from Psalm 45 are framed as a love song, too, mustering metaphors of beautiful music and appealing scents. A noble song fashioned for a king on the occasion of his royal wedding, it praises the king as the fairest of men, from whose lips flow grace. Then the narrative turns to praise for God. Even above the king, God is the Holy One who has anointed and blessed the king with an enduring throne and a scepter of righteousness. God has anointed the king because God loves righteousness and hates iniquity, the psalm tells us. By carrying out God’s will, the monarch earns God’s blessings on earth.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 15

Creation Focus: The righteous as those who dwell on a holy mountain.
Mirroring the wisdom taught by Moses in the first reading, the Psalmist proclaims that those who live blamelessly and with righteousness and truth may earn God’s protection. The verses of Psalm 15 tell us how to do that: Be honest, be trustworthy, be fair; protect the innocent. Follow these ways, and you will abide upon God’s holy hill. Honesty, kindness, and love of neighbor all make a difference. The way we live matters to God.

Second Reading: James 1:17-27

Creation Focus: Creation is God’s good gift; look after it.
Tradition attributes the letter of James to the apostle identified as Jesus’s brother. Although the likely time of its writing late in the first century makes this appealing legend doubtful, the letter remains one of the New Testament’s strongest calls to the social gospel and the way that Jesus taught. In admonitions like “be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves,” and, later in the letter, “faith without works is dead,” it urges the reader to reach out as Christ’s hands in the world, to be righteous, to care for widows and orphans in their distress.

Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Creation Focus: Sustenance is God’s good gift for all.
Our six-week foray into Jesus’s extended dissertation on the bread of life in Chapter Six of John’s Gospel has come to its end, and we now return to Mark’s Gospel for the rest of this liturgical year. You might think for a moment that nothing has changed, though, as we once again find Jesus, now in Mark’s telling, jousting with a crowd of scribes and Pharisees. The law-abiding religious leaders challenged Jesus because they saw his disciples ignoring the strict ritual practice of washing before eating. In response, Jesus quotes the Prophet Isaiah, scorning those who honor God with their lips while their hearts are far away, thoughtlessly following ritual rather than living in the spirit of God’s laws. It is not eating that defiles us, Jesus proclaims, but the sins that come from our mouths and our hearts.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Aug. 18, 2024 (Pentecost 13B/Proper 15)

Christ Accused by the Pharisees (1308-1311), tempera painting on wood by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

David died after 40 years as king, we hear in Sunday’s Track One first reading, and his son Solomon ascended to the throne. Solomon, the first surviving son of David and Bathsheba, would go on to a majestic reign. Here at the beginning of his reign, though, Solomon knows well that he is young and inexperienced. When God comes to Solomon in a dream and invites him to ask for whatever he might wish, Solomon chooses wisely: He asks not for long life or riches but for the wisdom to govern well. This pleases God, who rewards Solomon with wisdom and honor, asking only that the young king walk in God’s way. All will go well for many years, but Solomon’s reign, sadly, will come to a bad end when the lure of great power corrupts him.

First Reading (Track Two): Proverbs 9:1-6

What is wisdom? What is foolishness? How do we gain the one and learn from the other? Sunday’s Lectionary readings offer insight. Wisdom is often personified in the Hebrew Bible as a truth-speaking woman of valor, who was present with God at the Creation. In this short passage from Proverbs, traditionally said to have been written by Solomon himself, we see Wisdom setting the table for a great feast, to which she invites the simple – those who lack wisdom – to come and be made wise. Through wisdom one gains insight and becomes mature, learning to walk in God’s way.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 111

This is one of the many Psalms that sing God’s praise with joy and exultation. Its verses shout thanksgiving for all of God’s work, all of God’s majesty and splendor, all of God’s justice that lasts forever. God feeds us, the Psalmist declares. God’s covenant redeems us, and the people shout “Hallelujah!” “Praise God!” And at the end, the reward is wisdom: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” exults the final verse. “Those who act accordingly have a good understanding.”

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 34:9-14

A bright young man came up with a puzzled look one morning after hearing this passage from Psalm 34. “I don’t understand about ‘fearing’ the Lord,” he said. “Are we supposed to be afraid of God?” We were quick to reassure him: Rather than being afraid, think instead of feeling awe, being awestruck by God’s love. As the Psalmist sings, follow in God’s way. Speak kindly and with truth; avoid evil and do good; work for peace.

Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20

This short passage from the letter to the Ephesians directs the hearer to pursue wisdom, not foolishness, and to fear God not in fright and alarm but with the awe that inspires love. It illustrates that point with specific advice of the kind that prompts many to view Paul as a moralistic finger-wagger: It urges the faithful to avoid drunken debauchery, turning to worship and hymns instead. (To be fair to Paul, though, this letter was almost certainly not written by Paul but by more rigid early Christians a generation or two later.) The passages that follow this reading offer more moral codes that have caused real problems in zealous modern interpretation: “Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord,” and possibly even more problematic, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ.”

Gospel: John 6:51-58

Jesus’ long narrative about the bread of life has taken a turn. Now a new crowd of Pharisees and temple leaders confronts Jesus and pushes back when he declares that everyone must “eat his flesh and drink his blood” to gain eternal life. Jesus doubles down in Mark’s telling, which uses a Greek word for “eat” that literally means “to gnaw,” “to crunch,” or “to chew.” When John’s Gospel was written after the destruction of the Temple, early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism were angrily tearing apart. In John’s frequent use of “The Jews” as a dismissive term for the temple authorities who opposed Jesus, we hear a sad refrain that fostered centuries of anti-Judaism.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Aug. 11, 2024 (Pentecost 12B/Proper 14)

The Prophet Elijah in the Desert (1464-1468), oil painting on panel by Dieric Bouts the Elder (1420-1475). Panel in an altarpiece at Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven, Belgium. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

The child born of David’s rape of Bathsheba has died, as God foretold through the prophet Nathan; and now in our Track One first reading we hear of the death of David’s son Absalom. In wildly dysfunctional dynamics of a Bronze Age royal family, Absalom had killed his half-brother, Amnon, for raping their sister, Tamar. Then Absalom went to war against his father, fighting to take over Israel’s throne. David’s soldiers find Absalom trapped in a tree, and kill him despite David’s command to deal with him gently. In spite of his son’s treasonous rebellion, David grieves him deeply. “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

First Reading (Track Two): 1 Kings 19:4-8

God provides physical and spiritual sustenance in time of trouble: This theme continues in this week’s Lectionary readings. In our Track Two first reading we find the Prophet Elijah pursued by an angry Queen Jezebel. Elijah is depressed, unwilling to get up or to eat. He goes to sleep under a broom tree and in despair asks God to take his life. God sends an angel, instead, who tempts Elijah with hot cakes and water and caring support, giving him strength to go on with his prophetic call.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 130

We often hear this Psalm of faithful hope in God; indeed, it has been only a few weeks since the last time it appeared in the Lectionary! In the context of different readings, though, we may sense its verses in new and different ways. On June 29 we heard it alongside David’s grief at the death of his friend, Jonathan. Now we sing it in harmony with David’s grief over his son Absalom’s death. God’s love and grace wait for us even when we are deep in grief. We wait for God, even as in night’s darkest hours we wait for morning light.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 34:1-8

We will read Psalm 34 in three parts over this and the next two Sundays. A Psalm of praise and thanksgiving for God’s protection in time of trouble, it is held in tradition as a hymn sung by King David after he escaped from a threatening situation in warfare. This opening portion includes an unusual sensory metaphor that has been adopted in a contemplative Taizé chant: The Psalmist tells us to “taste and see” that God is good when we are thankful for God’s protection. Happy are those who trust in God!

Second Reading: Ephesians 4:25-5:2

“Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” In its life lessons for those who lived in community in the early church, this passage from the letter to the people of Ephesus speaks good sense to us all: Tell the truth. If you’re angry with your neighbor, work it out; don’t let anger divide you. Don’t steal. Work honestly, and share with those in need. Be honest, but be positive. Be gracious. Forgive one another. And at the end of the day, love each other as Jesus loves us, and try to live as Jesus would have us live.

Gospel: John 6:35, 41-51

We gain a sense of continuity through repetition in Sunday’s Gospel. Once again we hear the beloved verse that concluded last Sunday’s reading, now as the first verse of the Gospel: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Now, though, the mood of the crowd following Jesus changes, and people start pushing back. They know Jesus. They know his parents. They watched him grow up. Who is he to be talking like this? But Jesus stands firm, and will continue to do so as we continue through John’s extended exposition of Jesus as manna, the bread of life.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Aug. 4, 2024 (Pentecost 11B/Proper 13)

The Gathering Of Manna (c.1540-1555), oil painting on panel by Francesco d’Ubertino Verdi, called Bachiacca (1494-1557). Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15

Last Sunday we heard the shocking story of King David raping the beautiful Bathsheba, then arranging to have her husband, Uriah, killed in battle so David could have Bathsheba for himself. Now we hear the rest of the story. The prophet Nathan, sent by God, tells David about a rich man who selfishly took and slaughtered a poor man’s beloved lamb. Angry, David curses the rich man and threatens to have him killed, only to hear Nathan’s charge, “You are the man!” A merciful God threatens David with serious punishments but spares his life. In the verses just after this passage, though, Nathan foretells that the child of David’s illicit union shall die.

First Reading (Track Two): Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15

From God’s gift of manna to God’s gift of grace through Jesus, our Track Two readings over the next few weeks focus on bread – the bread of life – as metaphor for God’s abundant love. In last Sunday’s First Reading, when the Prophet Elisha fed 100 people with a few small barley loaves, he recalled God promising the people that “They shall eat and have some left.” This week we turn back to the verses in Exodus of which Elisha spoke, when God provided abundant manna, a gift of bread in the desert.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 51:1-13

Echoing the context of King David’s adultery and murder, this psalm’s powerful narrative envisions David wracked in repentant guilt as he confronts his great sin. In poetic words that mirror the promises of God’s covenants with the people, David pours out his shame and grief. He makes no excuses for his wicked acts, but begs for God’s mercy and forgiveness. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” David begs: a clean slate upon which God can write a new covenant of love.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 78:23-29

Recalling God’s gift of manna to the people in the desert, the Psalmist gives thanks to the Creator, who saw the people’s need and poured down on them all the bread and quails that they could eat: God gave them what they craved and filled them up. The earlier verses of this Psalm, not included in Sunday’s reading, remember that God made a covenant with the people and led them out of slavery. Setting the scene for this passage, they recall how God cared for the people, and, despite their ungrateful complaints and rebellion, God set aside divine anger and fed them with love.

Second Reading: Ephesians 4:1-16

The author of the Letter to the Ephesians offers life lessons in poetic language. These phrases remind us of Paul’s memorable passage in 1 Corinthians, in which Paul speaks of the church as Christ’s body, within which each of us functions according to our gifts. Here, too, all are called to work together with humility and gentleness, in unity as one body and one spirit, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”

Gospel: John 6:24-35

The crowds around Jesus continue following him around the shores of Galilee. Having watched his miraculous healings and shared in the bountiful loaves and fishes, they are fascinated by this remarkable rabbi. They want to know more about him, but Jesus tells them that they just want more bread. Don’t fret about the world’s bread that does not last, Jesus tells them. Beginning an extended discussion about the bread of life that we will hear in readings from John’s Gospel through August, Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for July 28, 2024 (Pentecost 10B/Proper 12)

Feeding the Five Thousand (c.1580-590), oil painting on canvas by Marten van Valckenborch (1535-1612). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 11:1-15

Power corrupts. We see this simple wisdom amply demonstrated in the life of David. For all the reverence that David earned through his kingship and warrior victories, when he was bad, he was very, very bad. We see this in Sunday’s horrifying Track One first reading: He is so attracted by the sight of beautiful Bathsheba bathing on her roof that he summons her, rapes her – no kinder term will serve for a person with his power taking her without her consent – and then arranges for the death of her husband, Uriah, in battle.

First Reading (Track Two): 2 Kings 4:42-44

The story of the Prophet Elisha in our Track Two first reading might make us think of the familiar gospel story about Jesus encountering feeding a hungry crowd of thousands with a few loaves and fishes. As told in the Second Book of Kings, Elisha, faced with a crowd of hungry people, directs that they be fed from a sack of food that a man has brought to sacrifice. There were only 20 loaves and a bit of grain to share among 100 people, which surely didn’t seem like enough. But with God’s help it proved to be more than enough. Just as in the Gospel stories, there were even leftovers after all were fed.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 14

Psalm 14, another of the many Psalms that tradition attributes to David himself, resonates with David’s heinous behavior in the first reading. The Psalmist, speaking in the voice of a disappointed king, laments that the people have turned faithless and corrupt, foolishly denying God as they commit abominable acts. God looks down to see if any wise people remain, but there are none. Yet even in these times of evil, the Psalmist sings, God remains with the righteous. God is the refuge of the just, and eventually will deliver the people and restore their fortunes.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 145:10-19

Like many of the Psalms, this hymn of praise and thanksgiving expresses gratitude to a God who is not only powerful but faithful and merciful too. God is always prepared to gently lift up those who fall and to support those who are oppressed, we hear in this portion of Psalm 145. Echoing the bounty that God provided for the hungry people in the Ezekiel reading and the hungry crowd that Jesus feeds in the gospel stories, the Psalmist, too, celebrates God who gives us food; whose outstretched hands satisfy every living creature.

Second Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21

Sunday’s passage from the letter to the Ephesians takes a break from its pastoral advice to an early Christian community as the author kneels before God to lift up a prayer for the people being addressed. He prays that the people of Ephesus may receive strength through the Holy Spirit, and that Christ may come to live in their hearts through faith. The reading closes with a beautiful blessing that we often hear slightly reworded as a benediction in Morning and Evening Prayer: “Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”

Gospel: John 6:1-21

Beginning Sunday and continuing through the month of August, our gospel readings will turn from Mark’s Gospel to the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, in which we hear Jesus discourse at length about the bread of life. This first portion gives us John’s version of the familiar story of the loaves and fishes, which hints at the Eucharist in its imagery: Jesus first blesses the bread, then shares five barley loaves and two fish among 5,000 people. Somehow this tiny portion feeds everyone so abundantly that there is more left over than they had to start with. The crowds are so amazed that they clamor to make Jesus king, but he slips away, catching up with the startled disciples by walking miles across the choppy water to join them in their boat.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for July 21, 2024 (Pentecost 9B/Proper 11)

The Good Shepherd, (1616), oil painting on canvas by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564-1638). Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 7:1-14a

As our Track One first readings continue following the life of King David, remember that David’s genealogy is the Messianic line that Christians trace down the ages as the ancestry of Jesus. In Sunday’s Track One first reading, David – having consolidated Israel and Judah under his rule – becomes concerned that the people’s custom of keeping the Ark of the Covenant in a mere tent is insufficient to reflect the greatness of God. David decides to build a great temple to hold the Ark in a place of honor. But God, speaking through the prophecy of Nathan, dismisses this idea. God’s home, Nathan declares, is with the House of David: the dynasty of God’s people.

First Reading (Track Two): Jeremiah 23:1-6

Sunday we will read about the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23 and Mark’s allusion to the crowds following Jesus as “sheep without a shepherd” in the Gospel. First, though, the Prophet Jeremiah reminds us that, counter to the image of God as loving shepherd, there are bad shepherds who would destroy the flock and send its sheep running away. God will attend to these evildoers, the prophet says, envisioning the Temple restored on Mount Zion and a successor seated on King David’s throne. Then, Jeremiah foretells, the sheep will be gathered in when the people return to Jerusalem.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 89:20-37

This passage from the middle portion of Psalm 89 celebrates God’s covenant with David and his descendants, a royal family that God made to endure forever. David’s line would last even through war’s devastation and exile’s pain, the Psalmist sings; David’s line would remain in spite of fears of God’s wrath over the nation having broken its covenant. Yes, the people’s iniquities might bring punishment, the rod and the lash, but their actions will never take away God’s love nor prevent the rise of a new David, Messiah and King.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 23

This week we turn again to the beloved 23rd Psalm. We hear its verses so often that most of us probably can read along without looking at the words. Psalm 23 appears five times during the three-year Lectionary cycle, and it also is often chosen for funeral services. Surely it is so popular because of its assurance that God’s goodness and mercy are always with us. Reading the psalm, feeling the comforting presence of the Shepherd, puts us back in touch with God’s restoring grace.

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:11-22

The author of the letter to the Ephesians takes pains to assure this early community’s Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians that all are fully invested in the community. All have become one through Christ Jesus: Jesus is the cornerstone who brings near even those who were far away. At the time of this writing, late in the first century after the fall of the Temple, Jewish Christianity and rabbinic Judaism were splitting apart. Christianity was actively gathering in Gentile converts, and sought to emphasize the promise that all had become one in Christ.

Gospel: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

The apostles have returned from their mission to go out in pairs, healing and teaching the good news. They’re eager to tell their stories, but bone-weary, too, so Jesus invites them to go off in a boat to find a deserted place to rest. The excited crowds follow them around the shore to meet them, though, and a compassionate Jesus can’t help responding. These sheep needed a shepherd. Then (after the Lectionary skips over two familiar stories about the loaves and fishes and Jesus walking on water) they finally land at Gennesaret on the other side of the lake. Here, too, people come running like a huge flock of sheep to see Jesus, and he willingly touches and heals all who seek him.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for July 14, 2024 (Pentecost 8B/Proper 10)

Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist (1633), oil painting on canvas by Bartholomeus Strobel (c.1630-1643). Prado Museum, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

King David’s story in Second Samuel continues. David now reigns over the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It is a moment for joy as the Ark of the Covenant, which had been in the hands of the Philistine enemies, returns to Jerusalem. This portable shrine, which the people had built in the desert as a holy throne for God, stood at the heart of Israel’s worship. Its return was greeted with celebration, music and dancing; David himself leaped and danced with all his might. In one curious verse, though, we discover that Saul’s wife, Michal, saw him dancing and “despised him in her heart.” What was that about? Later verses suggest that Michal didn’t think that David was decently dressed during his dance in front of all the people of Israel.

First Reading (Track Two): Amos 7:7-15

As the Prophet Amos and John the Baptist each learned from experience, prophesying can get you in trouble even though you’re simply repeating God’s message. Amos, a humble shepherd and sycamore tender, never expected to become a prophet. But when God called him to warn Israel’s leaders that their God had measured them and found them wanting, Amos responded. When Amos warned King Amaziah to expect destruction and exile, the angry king told Amos to get out of his sight, to go back where he came from. Amos learned, as John the Baptist would discover some six centuries later, that prophecy was dangerous and could get him killed. But both prophets heard God’s call and could not refuse.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 24

Psalm 24 is one of the many that tradition attributes to King David himself. It was likely intended as a processional chant to be sung responsively as the priests and congregation approached the Temple. The priest calls out, “And who shall stand in his holy place? Who has the right to come in and worship?” “Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,” the crowd sings back, awaiting the protection of God, the King of Glory, creator of the earth and all that is in it.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 85:8-13

This beautiful passage from Psalm 85 offers us a gentle pause between the anger in Amos and the violence of John the Baptist’s death. God will speak peace to the people; the faithful people will hear peace. When Heaven and Earth meet in truth and righteousness, righteousness and peace share a tender kiss. God grants prosperity and a fruitful harvest, truth springs up, and righteousness goes before.

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14

After almost two months reading through Second Corinthians, our second readings now turn to the letter to the Ephesians for the next six weeks. A letter most likely written to the people of Ephesus in Paul’s name by a later follower around the end of the first century, it addresses an early Christian community that faced persecution. Some of its chapters include difficult passages (which we won’t hear in our Lectionary readings) that urge wives to submit to their husbands and slaves to obey their owners. Today’s reading, though, from the introductory verses, focuses on grace as God’s free gift through Jesus. We also catch a glimpse of an evolving theology: that Christ was present with God even before the creation of the Earth.

Gospel: Mark 6:14-29

When King Herod learned about the healings and miracles that Jesus and his apostles were performing in Galilee, he was both angry and afraid. In a quick Gospel flashback, Mark recalls the gory story about how Herod, at the insistence of his new wife and her daughter, ordered John beheaded and his head brought in on a platter. Now rumors are swirling about Jesus and his healing and teaching. Is he Elijah? Or a new prophet? Herod himself wonders, fearfully musing, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”