Trinity Sunday A

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 15, 2014

Seventh Day of Creation (from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle)

First Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Most Episcopalians probably join the ancient rabbis who edited the Old Testament in recognizing the creation stories of Genesis as the inspiring creation legend of our distant spiritual ancestors, not literal fact. Genesis shows us a monotheistic God as a loving creative force at work in the world. As we celebrate Trinity Sunday, look closely at the opening verses, where we can discern three persons at work in one God: Divine creator; creative Word, and Spirit wind that moves over the waters and makes the world be.

Psalm: Psalm 8

Today’s Psalm beautifully knits together the ideas that we hold up on Trinity Sunday. In it we give praise and thanksgiving for God’s creation. We remember that we hold dominion over God’s earthly creation. We accept that this duty calls us to preserve and protect “the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea.” And finally we worship the majesty of God, our Creator who made it all.

Alternate Psalm: Canticle 13

This week in place of a Psalm we mark Trinity Sunday by singing Canticle 13, “A Song of Praise,” offering praise and exaltation to God as Creator, Son and Holy Spirit. Remember the story of the three young men who danced and sang in defiance of the flames in King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace? This is what they sang in the Prayer to Azariah, an addition to the book of Daniel in the Apocrypha at the end of the Old Testament.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Paul closes his second letter to the people of Corinth in the formal style dictated for letters in 1st Century Greek culture. In brief but loving words, he urges this small, often squabbling congregation to sort out their conflicts, pay attention to each other, and love one another as God loves them. He asks this in the name of the Holy Trinity, blessing them with hope for the peace of Jesus, the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit.

Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20

Last week, Pentecost Sunday, we heard of the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples in wind and fire, inspiring them to go out to the world and tell the good news of the resurrection and eternal life. Today, on Trinity Sunday, we hear the last verses of Matthew, his only account of the risen Christ, who met the disciples in Galilee and commissioned them to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Pentecost A

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 8, 2014

Pentecost – Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308) Tempera on wood. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

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

Pentecost has come, the apostles are gathered to celebrate Shavuot, the Jewish spring harvest festival, and God’s Holy Spirit comes in a rush of wind and tongues of fire! Suddenly the Apostles are shouting out the Good News in many languages, and we recall the resurrected Christ’s promise that they would soon be “baptized in the Holy Spirit,” receiving power to be his witnesses, not only in Jerusalem but to the ends of the earth. Recalling the words of the Prophet Joel, Peter assures the crowd that the Spirit will be poured out for us all.

First Reading (alternate): Numbers 11:24-30

Seven weeks after Easter we celebrate Pentecost, the third major church holiday of the year. On Christmas we remembered the birth of Jesus. On Easter we recall Jesus’ death and resurrection. Pentecost completes the circle with God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, inspiring us to take the Gospel out to the world in Jesus’ name. Today’s first reading tells of God’s spirit empowering Moses and his followers. But the spirit came to Eldad and Medad, too, even though they weren’t there! We don’t control where the Holy Spirit goes, but wherever God’s spirit comes and moves through us, good things can happen.

Psalm: Psalm 104:25-35

Hold up these prophetic words from the middle of today’s Psalm: “You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth..” Since the first words of Scripture when God’s spirit breath blew over the face of the waters like a mighty wind and all creation came to be, God’s mighty work of creative world-building continues all around us. Sing! Sing praise to God! Rejoice!

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Through the Spirit we all are all as one in baptism. Nationality, economic status, gender: None of that matters. Just as the body is made up of different parts that serve different functions, we bring individual gifts as we work together, guided by the Spirit, for the common good. Through it all, Paul assures us, we are all moved by the Spirit as members of the body of Christ.

Gospel: John 20:19-23

Think about how it must have been for the disciples on the first Easter day. Grieving the loss of their leader, they surely felt both wild hope and fearful uncertainty when Mary Magdalene came running in to tell them that the tomb is empty and she met a man in white. “I have seen the Lord!” But how? Why? What does it all mean? Now darkness falls and Jesus is suddenly with them in the locked room. He wishes them peace, shows them his wounds. Then he breathes on them, signaling the presence of the Holy Spirit that will take them … and the church … out into the world.

Gospel (alternate): John 7:37-39

Pentecost is one of the feast days designated as especially appropriate for baptism. Indeed, its alternative name, “Whitsunday,” or “White Sunday,” alludes to the white garments worn by those being baptized. As we gather in Christian community and welcome new members into Christ’s Body in the church, we remember that through Baptism we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. Through the living water of baptism our hearts join in pouring out the good news of the Gospel to all the world’s nations.

Christ the King C

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013.

Christ in Judgment

First Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6
The prophet Jeremiah spoke these fierce words of woe to the leaders of Babylon, who were holding Jerusalem and its leaders in exile. He foresaw a mighty new King David restoring the glory of Israel and Judah, the lost kingdoms of the chosen people. It is important for us to understand these ringing verses in their original intent. But it can be reassuring for Christians, too, to see reflected in these words another promise: our hope in Jesus as both good shepherd and mighty king and savior, who reigns over all with justice and righteousness

Psalm: Psalm 46
Even when terrible things happen, God is with us. This assurance offers simple hope, and yet it can be hard to hear. When Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, surely the mountains shook in the heart of the sea as its waters roared and foamed. God does not promise us a world where horrors can’t happen and no one suffers. But even in the worst of times, God is there, inviting us to take refuge in God’s strength. Today’s verse reflects the beauty of our Prayer for Quiet Confidence (BCP p.832): “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Psalm (Track 2): Luke 1:68-79 (Canticle 16, BCP)
Zechariah, a temple priest who God had struck mute for refusing to believe that his elderly wife, Elizabeth, had become pregnant after an angelic visitation, gets his voice back when he holds and names the infant John. The child, he declares, will be a prophet in the tradition of Abraham and Sarah – who also had been blessed with a child through God’s action in their old age. We know that John, the Baptist, will proclaim the fulfillment of God’s covenant in Jesus, who will set us free as our mighty savior.

Second Reading: Colossians 1:11-20
Like Jeremiah and the Psalmist, the author of the letter to the Colossians, too, speaks to a people in trouble, the persecuted Christian community of Colossae in what is now Western Turkey. These verses urge them to endure their difficulties with patience and the strength that comes from God’s glorious power through Jesus, whose incarnation as God in human flesh makes him the first of all creation and the head of the body of the church.

Gospel: Luke 23:33-43
And so we come to the end of Pentecost season and Jesus’s long road to Jerusalem with a Gospel reading that recalls Good Friday … and our hope for Easter and the resurrection! Jesus is crucified, a horrible death reserved for Rome’s most despised evildoers, in the company of criminals. The soldiers and one criminal taunt him as a failed king, while Jesus quietly invites the repentant criminal into a different kind of kingdom, for all humanity and for all time.

Pentecost 28C

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013.

Roman depiction of the destruction of the Temple.

First Reading: Isaiah 65:17-25
Nearing the end of Isaiah’s account of the people’s loss of Jerusalem and the temple, their exile and eventual return, in this reading the prophet celebrates God’s plan for the new Jerusalem as a joy and a delight. A city with no weeping, no distress … no death in childbirth, no pain … joyous lives of 100 years of youthful strength! And, at the end, it is a holy place of peace, where the lion and the lamb rest together and none shall hurt or destroy.

Psalm: Isaiah 12:2-6 (Canticle 9 BCP)
These verses from earlier in Isaiah, read as our Psalm today, are familiar to Episcopalians as Canticle 9 in Morning Prayer. The prophet, foreseeing the destruction of the Temple, nevertheless declares God our stronghold and our sure defense, who can be trusted to save us even in threatening times when we feel frightened and vulnerable.

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
“Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” Too often we hear this harsh judgment echoed in modern times. In context, this letter, written in Paul’s name in a time of Roman persecution, calls members of a specific church community to pull their fair weight in a battle against an immediate challenge. Nowadays, however, it’s best not to judge, but to humbly heed Jesus’s urgent words in Matthew 23: “Just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”

Gospel: Luke 21:5-19
Here’s context for this scary forecast of war and destruction: The evangelist we know as Luke wrote this Gospel to a primarily Gentile audience some 70 years after the Crucifixion and 30 years after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. He is telling a known story in the form of a lesson from Jesus, bearing a truth that works as well for us as for Christians in Luke’s own time of persecution: God is with us. Even when we’re betrayed, scorned, hated and hurt, “By our endurance we will gain our souls.”

Pentecost 27C

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013.

Bride and seven brothers

First Reading: Haggai 1:15b-2:9
We can date these events precisely, as history records King Darius the Great of Persia, pinning Haggai’s narrative to 520 BCE, about five centuries before Christ. Darius was a successor to King Cyrus, who had released the people from Babylonian exile and sent them back to Jerusalem. Haggai (pronounced “Hah-guy”), one of the 12 “minor prophets,” makes clear that the restoration of the city and the Temple wasn’t easy going. But he calls the people to hang on to their courage and faith: Zion’s wealth and grandeur will be restored.

Psalm: Psalm 145
The Psalms cover a broad range of hope, lament, petition and praise, a diverse anthology that seems appropriate for all the ways that God’s people approach the divine in worship and song. Note well that the Psalms culminate with praise. As we near the final songs – this is the 145th Psalm of 150 – we can almost hear resounding chords and choruses as the people raise their voices in awe at God’s wonder. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised!”

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
This second letter to the Greek community in Thessalonika probably came a generation after the first, perhaps around 100, and was probably written in Paul’s name by a later follower. Early Christians had expected the Second Coming very soon, but many were probably hoping for reassurance by this point, when Christians faced Roman persecution with no sign of Christ’s return. The meaning of “the lawless one” is lost to history, but we can rule out any notion that this prophesies an “anti-Christ” figure in our time.

Gospel: Luke 20:27-38
Jesus and his followers have arrived in Jerusalem now, and the temple authorities would like to find a way to turn Jesus over to the state for execution. Now some Sadducees, who don’t believe in resurrection, try to trip Jesus up with a trick question: When a man who had seven wives dies and goes to heaven, which will be his wife? It may seem that Jesus responds by declaring there is no marriage in heaven, but modern theologians caution against taking this reading beyond its immediate context in this tricky conversation: We can count on eternal life in God, and that’s what matters.

All Saints C

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 4, 2013.

The Beatitudes

First Reading: Daniel 7:1-3; 15-18
This reading from Daniel, one of the last books in the Old Testament, reads a lot like Revelation. It is apocalyptic literature, a popular genre of that era that the ancients would have immediately recognized as symbolic, not literal description. Four scary beasts, representing powerful empires of earth! In later verses we learn that they were a winged lion, a tusked bear, a four-headed leopard, and an iron-toothed monster with 10 horns. Who wouldn’t be scared by a dream like that? But the nightmare ends with reassurance that God, not horrifying monsters, wins and will reign forever.

Psalm: Psalm 149
In this Psalm of praise for God’s glory, we sing in the assembly of the faithful, praising God with full hearts and voices, knowing that God takes pleasure in God’s people. But then we get those angry verses about swords and vengeance and punishment. What’s up with that? Perhaps it shows us a people burning with the memory of defeat and exile, in a book of songs that show us not only as we ought to be but as we are. Can we learn to love God and our neighbors?

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:11-23
Christ is King, and God has placed him at God’s right hand to rule over us all, the author of Ephesians assures his flock, writing to the persecuted Christians of Asia Minor in Paul’s name. There’s a role for us in this kingdom, too! As the people of God, we are Christ’s body on earth, called to help with the work of building the Kingdom of God.

Gospel: Luke 6:20-31
Ah, the familiar Beatitudes, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, guiding us toward a life of service and love. Well, not quite! That was Matthew’s version. This is Luke’s. It’s a little more edgy, and it asks more of us. These are Christian values as Luke presents them: if you are rich, full and happy, watch out. You’re not doing it right! Give what you have to the poor. Don’t just turn the other cheek but forgive your enemies … and pray for them. As Jesus commands it, “Do unto others” isn’t easy, but it’s essential. It binds us as the people of God.

Pentecost 25C

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013.

The Pharisee and the tax collector.

First Reading: Joel 2:23-32
Joel ranks as a very minor prophet. The book that bears his name is only three chapters long, and modern theologians aren’t even sure when he lived. We know that “Joel” means “The Lord is God” in Hebrew; and Joel may have prophesied after the return from exile to Jerusalem. While his prophecy is brief, however, it offers meaning and comfort that lasts through the ages. Even when terrible things happen, says the prophet, God is with us. Feast will follow famine, for God loves us and will pour out God’s spirit on us. Trust in God, be glad and rejoice, and do not fear.

Psalm: Psalm 65
This Psalm of thanksgiving for earth’s bounty, one of the Psalms that tradition attributes to King David, serves us doubly in this autumn season: While it echoes Joel’s assurances that God will provide us nature’s bounty and rich harvests even after times of trouble and sin, it also paints a lovely word picture of God’s great bounty that is worth holding in our thoughts as the Thanksgiving and holiday seasons draw near.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
While this appears to be Paul’s last testament, we should remember that this book was actually written in his name by a later follower, at a time when the church faced Roman persecution. Through that lens we can see the young church’s call to stand strong even when your supporters are deserting the cause. Proclaim the good news, and count on God’s strength and God’s protection.

Gospel: Luke 18:9-14
Bear in mind that this parable follows immediately after last week’s story about the corrupt judge and the persistent widow, and it continues Jesus’s discussion about prayer. Right in line with the widow whose persistent prayer won her quest for justice over the powerful but corrupt judge, the Pharisee – a professional pray-er – doesn’t come off so well in Jesus’s eyes, while the sinful tax collector “went home justified” because his prayer was sincere.

Pentecost 24C

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013.

Jacob Wrestles with the Angel

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:27-34
Jeremiah pauses in his nearly relentless lamentation over the sins of Israel and Judah to offer words of hope and the certainty of God’s ultimate love. In the metaphor of sour grapes he reassures us that children will not be punished for the sins of their parents. Then, in words that Jeremiah understood as the restoration of the temple and Israel’s kingdom but that Christians may also interpret as foreshadowing Jesus, he prophesies a new covenant in which everyone will know God and all our sins will be forgiven.

Psalm: Psalm 119:97-104
The Psalmist exults in the study and understanding of God’s law, declaring the joy of unity with God through studious meditation and prayer. Let’s think of this song of praise in the context of today’s First Reading, in which Jeremiah understands God’s law as central to God’s new covenant: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Surely these words were sweeter than honey to a people in exile, longing for their home.

First Reading: (Track Two) Genesis 32:22-31
Jacob wrestles all night with an angel who turns out to be God! Jacob, remember, the grandson of Abraham, son of Isaac, and father to Joseph, is a key figure in the first testament’s Ancestral Legends. Perhaps the lesson in this strange story is about persistence, as Jacob won’t surrender to this powerful stranger who injures his hip but can’t take him down: Stay the course, even when it’s hard, and you may earn God’s blessing.

Psalm: (Track Two) Psalm 121
One of the traditional “songs of ascents” thought to have been sung by worshippers as they processed toward the Temple in Jerusalem, this “Assurance of God’s Protection” is one of the Psalms’ most comforting hymns of hope and trust. Always awake, always watchful, God protects us by day and night, watching us come and go, keeping us safe today and forever.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5
Does this lesson call us to be bible-thumpers, lecturing unbelievers and rebuking them if they won’t listen? Probably not. This late New Testament document was written when the young church was fighting persecution. Know your scriptures, the writer advises the troubled flock. Even if it’s hard, even if you have to suffer, spread the good news. This message, written for a particular time and place, sounds different in modern America, when Christians hold the majority and wield power. Of course we are still called to spread the good news! But let it be the Gospel that Jesus taught us: Love God. Love our neighbors. Let the oppressed go free, and bring good news to the poor.

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
In the patriarchal world of the ancient Near East, widows were helpless, vulnerable and weak. This widow in Jesus’s parable, though, is tough. She won’t quit pounding the corrupt and shiftless judge with her demands until he finally gives her the justice that she seeks. At first glance, we might wonder why Jesus is comparing God to a sleazy judge who won’t do his job. But Jesus makes a better point: Pray day and night, and God will listen and quickly respond.

Pentecost 23C

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013.

Jesus healing the 10 lepers. Ancient icon.

First Reading: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
In recent weeks we have heard the prophet Jeremiah wail in loud anguish over the loss and destruction of Jerusalem and its temple on Mount Zion. Now, however, he dries his tears as he turns to practical advice to Judah in exile: Face your new reality. God has sent you here, so live, love and flourish as well as you can, for this is your city now, and you have a stake in its condition. But don’t forget God. Even in exile, don’t forget to pray.

Psalm: Psalm 66:1-12
At the beginning, this seems like many of the Psalmist’s hymns of praise for God’s glory, power and awesome state. It recalls the Exodus, God leading the people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and toward the Promised Land. But then its message takes an interesting turn that’s worth our attention: God tests us, too. We may groan under burdens, as Judah learned in exile in Babylon. God’s people may be conquered, may suffer fire and flood. Yet still there is joy at the end, and praise.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-15
Our readings continue this week in the Second Letter to Timothy, one of the “pastoral epistles” near the end of the New Testament, written by a later follower around the year 100, speaking in the name of Paul in prison shortly before his death. The young church faces persecution at this time, and the writer, recalling Paul’s suffering in chains and Jesus’s death and resurrection, may be addressing a specific pastoral situation with advice that’s always good for people working in church community: Avoid wrangling, and study the word of God.

Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
In Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography, John Dominic Crossan makes a fascinating point: In contrast with most Gospel accounts of Jesus touching and healing lepers, Luke here portrays Jesus as a properly observant Jew who keeps his distance from the afflicted 10, does not touch them, and sends them to the Temple, just as the law requires. And then the miracle happens! All 10 are healed! But only the solitary foreigner in the group, a hated Samaritan, comes running back to thank Jesus. All the lepers were healed, but it was only the foreigner whose faith saved him.

Pentecost 22C

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013.

Weeping Angel statuary in Cementiri del Sud-Oest on Montjuïc, Barcelona.

First Reading: Lamentations 1:1-6
Cries of suffering and lamentation surely fill today’s readings! What can we do with this? Perhaps our lesson is not to bottle up sad, hurt and angry feelings but to see how we can use them to learn and grow. Lamentations, written in exile in Babylon, poetically imagines the ruins of Jerusalem as a weeping woman recalling happier times. Her princes are weak, her children captive. Her foes have won. Her enemies prosper and – note this well – she believes God brought this suffering because of her wrongdoing.

Psalm: Psalm 137
This ancient hymn of lamentation places the poet in exile – “by the rivers of Babylon” – weeping over Jerusalem and vowing (in words that remain a vivid part of the Passover Seder) never to forget. It is at the horrifying end of this Psalm, though, that we react with visceral shock at the idea of Judah’s warriors joyously smashing innocent babies on the rocks. What can we possibly gain from recalling these awful verses? Perhaps we are meant to see ourselves at our worst, and recognize how badly we can behave when hurt and frustration tempt us to lash out in anger.

First Reading (Track 2): Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Pay attention, as this is the only passage that we will hear in the three-year Sunday lectionary cycle from Habakkuk (“Ha-ba-kuk”), one of the 12 “minor prophets” in the First Testament, who lived nearly 700 years before Jesus and who foresaw the destruction and exile of jerusalem. The prophet tells of his frustration that God doesn’t seem to be paying attention to his prophecy. God responds: Write it down. Make it so plain that a runner can read it passing by. Then be patient, be just, and wait for God.

Psalm (Track 2): Psalm 37:1-9
Today’s Psalm fits Habakkuk’s call, beautifully summoning our faith to keep us living in hope even when things aren’t going well. When the world appears dark and it seems that evil surrounds us, the Psalmist reminds us, we can put our faith in God and wait for God with patience and confident trust. Don’t lash back or strike out in anger. These things only lead to evil. But wait patiently, follow God’s ways, and we’ll be rewarded.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Written decades after the death of Paul, this short letter fondly imagines the evangelist writing from prison to his beloved disciple Timothy. It likely came at a time when the young church was suffering persecution, and in that way it mirrors our Lamentations reading and Psalm. Hold onto our faith, even when times are hard; rely on the grace of God given through Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
In Luke’s long story of Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem that we’ve been following for weeks, Jesus seems to throw us one challenge after another. Perhaps these verses are best understood in the context of the verses that come before it, which reinforce Luke’s consistent emphasis that it is not easy to follow Jesus. This short lesson about faith seems to urge us to be humble, be vulnerable, and, metaphorically at least, to be as obedient as slaves when we are called to live and work as Jesus would have us do.

Illuminations

Welcome to Illuminations. We hope these brief reflections on Sunday's readings will help you prepare thoughtfully for worship.

Category Archives: Pentecost