Pentecost 4A

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Robin Garr

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Second Reading: Romans 6:1b-11

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

Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39

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

Pentecost 3A

Posted on June 12, 2023 by Robin Garr

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

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

We are now in the period that the Catholic Church (and some Episcopalians) call “Ordinary Time” because this section of the liturgical year falls outside the major seasons of the church calendar.

Christ Teaching the Disciples, from Das Plenarium (1517), hand-colored woodcut by Hans Schäufelein (1480–c.1540). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. (Click image to enlarge)

Our Gospels through this period recall the public ministry of Jesus as told by Matthew, in Galilee and along the long road to Jerusalem and the Cross. These works and words of Jesus, his teachings and healings, may seem “ordinary” in contrast with the Incarnation and the Resurrection, but they merit our attention as we learn to follow in Jesus’s way. Our readings Sunday begin in Genesis with God’s assurance, through three mysterious strangers, that Abraham and Sarah will have a son, and that their offspring will inherit the Promised Land.

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

Our Track Two first reading turns to the book of Exodus, where we find Moses in a narrative that reflects God’s covenant with Abraham and from which we hear distant echoes in today’s Gospel. Moses has gone up Mount Sinai to receive God’s instructions while the people are camped in the wilderness below. God speaks from the mountaintop, telling Moses, “If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. … you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. At God’s instruction, Moses returns to the elders of the people, quickly gaining their agreement to be in lasting covenant with God: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

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

We also heard this Psalm just two months ago, midway in Eastertide. It is a Psalm of thanksgiving, clearly intended as a grateful prayer thanking God for recovery from illness. The portion that we sing on Sunday gives thanks for the transforming joy that comes with recovery and resurrection. In the joy of restored life, we offer thanks to God, who frees us from the snares of death.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 100

This joyful hymn, which we often hear in Morning Prayer where it is called the Jubilate (“Be Joyful” in Latin, from its opening verse in the Psaltery), draws its joyous theme from the same truth that Moses taught the elders at Sinai: We are God’s creation, God’s own people, and – using a metaphor that we also hear and love in Psalm 23 – the sheep of God’s pasture.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-8

In our summerlong visit with Paul’s letter to the Romans, we will hear him memorably working out his evolving theology of Christ, the Spirit and salvation. In this passage, which we also heard recently during Lent, Paul encourages the Roman Christians to love each other and heal their differences in spite of their own suffering. He reminds them that even Jesus suffered and died by crucifixion. He urges the Roman Christians to learn endurance in their own suffering, remembering that even though they are sinners, they are justified through faith and saved through the cross.

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

As Jesus continued his teaching throughout Galilee, we hear from Matthew in Sunday’s Gospel, he felt compassion for the crowds around him “because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” He summoned the 12 apostles, sending them out among “the lost sheep of Israel” like laborers into the harvest. He told them to proclaim the good news, as he had done, that the kingdom of heaven has come near. As they went, facing possible persecution and distrust, Jesus empowered them to do the miraculous things that he himself had been doing: “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons.”

Pentecost 2A

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Robin Garr

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Second Reading: Romans 4:13-25

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

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

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

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

Pentecost A

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for May 28, 2023 (Pentecost A)

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

Fifty days after the first Easter and a week or so after the apostles watched in amazement as the resurrected Jesus was taken up into the clouds, they have gathered to celebrate Shavuot, the Jewish spring harvest festival also known as Pentecost.

Pentecost (ca. 1305). Fresco by Giotto di Bondone (c.1267-1337), Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy.

Suddenly, as we hear in this first reading from Acts, the Holy Spirit arrives like a violent wind and rests on each of them as a tongue of fire! All at once, Jesus’s promise at the Ascension is fulfilled: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth.” The apostles start shouting the Good News in many languages, prompting a startled crowd to wonder if they are drunk. Not so, says Peter. Quoting the Prophet Joel, he assures the crowd that the Spirit will be poured out for 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 recalled 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’s name. Today’s first reading tells of God’s spirit empowering Moses and his followers. The spirit came to Eldad and Medad, two of Moses’s elders who weren’t there. That didn’t seem fair to Moses’ assistant, Joshua, but Moses reassured him: “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”

Psalm: Psalm 104:25-35

This psalm of praise exults in all the works of God’s creation, including the Psalmist’s recognition that God made some creations, like Leviathan, the giant whale, just for fun: “for the sport of it.” Perhaps the message for Pentecost in this passage from Psalm 104, though, comes in these prophetic words in Verse 31: “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.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Through the Spirit we all are all as one in baptism, Paul tells the Christian community of Corinth in this much loved passage. Nationality, economic status, gender, enslaved or free: None of these things matter, Paul says. Just as the body is made up of different parts that serve different functions, we each bring our 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

If this Gospel passage seems familiar, there’s a good reason: We hear it twice in Eastertide, on the first Sunday after Easter and again on Pentecost Sunday. We return to the locked room where the disciples are hiding in fear on the first Easter. The grieving group was startled when Mary Magdalene ran back to tell them that she met a man in white at the empty tomb. She told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Nevertheless, they don’t know what to believe. And then Jesus suddenly appears among them, mysteriously entering the locked room. In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit comes to the apostles not at Pentecost but on the first Easter: Jesus shows them his wounds, wishes them peace, and then breathes on them, empowering them with the Holy Spirit and sending them 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.

Easter 7A

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for May 21, 2023 (Easter 7A)

First Reading: Acts 1:6-14

The fifty days of Eastertide are nearing their end: Pentecost Sunday is next week. In the Sunday readings since Easter we have seen the empty tomb and heard of mysterious appearances of the risen Christ, then listened as Jesus tells the apostles of God’s love and our salvation.

The Ascension (1303), a portion of the Cycle of the Life of the Christ fresco by Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy. (Click image to enlarge)

Now we arrive at the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven as told in the Acts of the Apostles. In this first reading we hear Jesus tell the apostles that the Holy Spirit is coming to send them out to the world with the Gospel. We will hear this promise fulfilled in wind and fire next Sunday.

Psalm: Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36

Hearing the first few verses of Psalm 68, many modern Christians would be troubled by the angry images of enemies fleeing in fear and perishing in fire and smoke at the hands of an angry God. But then the Psalm abruptly changes in tone, becoming a gentler hymn of praise and thanksgiving. Those who live righteously and praise our God will receive favor and blessing, the Psalmist sings, just as did God’s people traveling through the desert to the Promised Land.

Second Reading: 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

The Christian community in Asia Minor (now Turkey) was suffering under a “fiery ordeal” of persecution for their faith when they received this letter in Peter’s name. The writer cannot make their suffering cease, but reminds them that in this suffering they share not only the suffering of their Christian brothers and sisters but even of Christ himself. Stay the course and resist evil, the letter goes on, and know that God is with us and will provide support and strength.

Gospel: John 17:1-11

John’s account of Jesus’ farewell conversation at the Last Supper now reaches its conclusion. In the preceding verses Jesus had promised the disciples, “Ask and you will receive.” Then he told them that he must soon leave this world and return to the father. Now in these final verses Jesus turns from his friends at the table and addresses God directly in prayer: He declares that the hour of his death has come. He prays for the disciples, praising them for their faith and trust, and asking God to protect them, to keep them united with each other and with God, and to give them the eternal life that comes through relationship with God in Jesus’ name.

Christ the King C

Posted on November 14, 2022 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Nov. 20, 2022 (Christ the King C)

First Reading (Both Lectionary Tracks): Jeremiah 23:1-6

On this, the last Sunday after Pentecost, we mark the feast of Christ the King, a concept borrowed from modern Roman Catholic practice in the spirit of ecumenism that followed Vatican II in the 1970s.

Christ and the Good Thief (c.1566), oil painting on canvas by Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian (c.1490-1576). Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

It takes note of Christ’s messianic kingship and sovereign rule over all creation. Both Lectionary tracks join in the first reading, in which the prophet Jeremiah speaks fierce truth to the leaders of Babylon who held the people in exile. God will soon round up the remnant of his scattered flock and bring them home like a shepherd, the prophet foretells, warning the oppressors that they will be punished for their evil. Soon God will raise up a a mighty new king in David’s tradition, restoring the glory of the lost kingdoms Israel and Judah.

Psalm (Track One): Luke 1:68-79 (Canticle 16)

This week in place of a psalm we sing Canticle 16, Luke’s Song of Zechariah. Zechariah – whose wife, Elizabeth, was the cousin of Jesus’ mother, Mary – was a priest at the Temple. When he refused to believe that his elderly wife had become pregnant after an angelic visitation, he lost the power of speech. Now his voice returns as he holds the infant and names him John. The child, he declares, will be a prophet in the tradition of Abraham and Sarah – who also were blessed with a child in their old age through God’s action. The child, Zechariah proclaims, will be the prophet who will go before Jesus, the Messiah and king, to declare his way.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 46

This Psalm of praise may not explicitly speak of kings, but it reassures us that whenever terrible things happen, even when Earthly kingdoms and nations are shaken by frightening events, when mountains rock and the oceans roar and foam, God remains with us. God doesn’t promise us a world where horrors can’t happen and no one ever suffers. But even in the worst of times, God abides, inviting us to take refuge in God’s strength. Our Prayer for Quiet Confidence (BCP p.832), draws from Psalm 46 as it reminds us, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Second Reading: Colossians 1:11-20

The Christian community of Colossae in what is now Western Turkey may have felt something like Jeremiah’s remnant of Israel in exile. They lived under the constant threat of Roman persecution, fearing that they might lose their homes and even their lives for their faith. The author of this letter urges them to endure their difficulties with patience and the strength that comes from God’s glorious power expressed through Jesus. Jesus, through his incarnation as God in human flesh and the first of all creation, rescues us from the power of darkness and transfers us into the kingdom of Christ.

Gospel: Luke 23:33-43

And now at the end of Pentecost season we reach the end of Jesus’s long road to Jerusalem as told by Luke. This Gospel reading mirrors the Good Friday Gospel, reminding us of our hope for Easter and the resurrection. Jesus is crucified in the company of criminals: a horrible death reserved for Rome’s most despised evildoers, . The inscription over Jesus’ head reads “This is the King of the Jews,” not as a literal statement but an act of public shaming by Pontius Pilate. Soldiers mock him and a crowd makes fun of him. This is surely no traditional king. Meanwhile, Jesus gently invites the repentant criminal at his side into a different kind of kingdom, one for all humanity and for all time.

All Saints C

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on the Lessons for All Saints’ Day, Nov. 6, 2022
(All Saints’ Day is celebrated on Nov. 1, but may also be celebrated in the liturgy for the following Sunday.)

First Reading (Track One): Daniel 7:1-3; 15-18

We remember all saints, known and unknown, on All Saints’ Day.

Jesus Proclaims the Beatitudes (1481-1482), fresco by Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507). Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome. (Click image to enlarge.)

Our Track One first reading might remind us of Revelation. Much of the book of Daniel (one of the latest books of the Hebrew Bible) is apocalyptic literature, an imaginative genre that remained popular during early Christianity. Like our science fiction and fantasy, writing in this genre was understood as symbolic, not literal. Daniel tells of a vivid dream about four scary beasts that represent earthly kings. In later verses, we meet a winged lion, a tusked bear, a four-headed leopard, and an iron-toothed monster with 10 horns! But the nightmare ends with reassurance that resonates as we recall all who have died and gone to their eternal rest: God will win and reign forever.

Psalm: Psalm 149

Psalm 149 is one of the psalms that celebrates warlike violence in language that reflects Bronze Age sensibility in the Ancient Near East. Listen, though, and we can hear its echoes all too well in the imagery of modern warfare, shock and awe. We sing to the Lord a new song, joyously dancing and shaking tambourines to celebrate God’s gift of victory in battle, while the enemy’s kings are bound in iron chains. Before we judge too harshly, recall that the Psalms, the bible’s ancient hymnal, offer a full human range of emotion, from this warrior shout to the protective love of the Good Shepherd.

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:11-23

God has placed Christ at the right hand of the Creator and has given Christ great power to rule over us all, in the present and for all time to come. Thus the author of Ephesians assures his flock, writing in Paul’s name to the persecuted Christians of Ephesus in Asia Minor. From that time onward, all the people of God, baptized in Christ and sealed by the Spirit, are the saints of God. We are Christ’s body on earth, pledged through our inheritance through baptism to redemption as God’s own people.

Gospel: Luke 6:20-31

How well do you know the Beatitudes? Matthew’s narrative of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount comes to mind for most of us: These are memorable directions toward a life of service and neighborly love. Listen for the differences, though, in the evangelist Luke’s distinctly different view of the Beatitudes. Luke’s version in Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain is more directly focused on caring for the poor. By “poor,” Luke explicitly means those who have no money or resources, not only the “poor in spirit” who Matthew invokes. What’s more, Luke’s version expects us to give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty, not simply to stand with those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” as Matthew suggests. Don’t just turn the other cheek, says Luke: Forgive your enemies … and pray for them too.

Pentecost 21C

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Oct. 30, 2022 (Pentecost 21C)

First Reading (Track One): Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” The mournful cry of the prophet Habakkuk will turn to hope battling despair, an idea that we will hear reflected in various ways during Sunday’s Lectionary readings.

Zacchaeus in the Sycamore Awaiting the Passage of Jesus (Zachée sur le sycomore attendant le passage de Jésus, 1886-1896). Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray paper by James Tissot (1836-1902). Brooklyn Museum, New York. (Click image to enlarge.)

We only rarely hear from Habakkuk, a minor prophet who lived nearly 700 years before Jesus and, like many of the prophets, warned of the destruction and exile of Jerusalem. But this is a prophet with a difference. Unlike most of the prophets who deliver messages given them by God, Habbakuk shouts his own warnings. Then, in this Track One first reading, the prophet complains that even God doesn’t seem to be paying attention to him. But God does respond, directing Habakkuk to write his vision down so clearly that a runner can read it while racing past: “There is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.”

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 1:10-18

The book of Isaiah, one of the Hebrew Bible’s greatest prophets, gets off to a fiery start. Its first five chapters are filled with God’s angry words of wrath before we even get to God’s call to the prophet. First we must clearly hear God’s anger over the people’s failure to keep the covenant that their ancestors made through Moses at Mount Sinai. In Sunday’s Track Two first reading, God likens Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah, whose people were so vile that God hates them and their works. Nevertheless, as always is the case, there is a way to restore God’s love, and it goes back to the covenant between God and the people at Mount Sinai: “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow.”

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 119:137-144

Psalm 119 turns up fairly often in the weekly Lectionary. We read portions of this, the longest of all the psalms, a dozen times through the three-year lectionary cycle. Fun fact: Each of its sections begins with a different Hebrew letter, in order. Throughout its 176 verses, it offers a loving celebration of God’s Torah: Teaching, with the force of law. Each of the psalm’s sections brings its own message, though, and this segment fits well with Habakkuk’s prophecy: When indignation consumes us, when trouble and distress come on the people, God’s commandments are our delight.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 32:1-8

This psalm brings balm in the aftermath of a first reading that portrayed a God too angry to hear the people’s prayers or sacrifices, too outdone to give them even the least attention. This opening portion of Psalm 32 sings of the joy that comes when the separation from God that results from sin is ended, replaced with the utter delight of knowing God’s forgiveness. No longer groaning with pain that feels like withered bones, the repentant sinner is now guarded against trouble and surrounded with shouts of deliverance.

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

The people of Thessalonika in northern Greece must have been suffering and afraid when this letter was sent to their Christian community around the end of the first century. The Apostle Paul was long dead at that point, but the letter’s kind words, written in the first person as if they had come from Paul and his companions Silvanus and Timothy, must have brought them some comfort: “We ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.”

Gospel: Luke 19:1-10

Luke’s Gospel frequently introduces us to tax collectors, members of the Jewish community who, traitorously in the eyes of many, sold their services to the despised Roman occupiers and often used this position to enrich themselves. Last week we heard Jesus praise a tax collector for his humble prayer. Now we meet another tax collector – indeed, the wealthy chief tax collector, Zacchaeus – who was so eager to see Jesus that, being of short stature, he climbed a tree to see this rabbi better as he passed through Jericho. Jesus called out to Zacchaeus, invited himself to dinner at the tax collector’s home. Most of the crowd grumbled angrily about this, but Jesus went ahead, and soon joyfully heard Zacchaeus promise to give half his possessions to the poor and recompense fourfold those whom he had defrauded.

Pentecost 19C

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 16, 2022

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 31:27-34

Pay attention to Sunday’s readings, and watch for a consistent theme: Place your hope in God, be patient and then even when challenges loom, be persistent.

Portrait of a Judge (c.1620), oil painting on canvas by Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our Track One first reading, we hear Jeremiah pause in his relentless lamentation over the sins of Israel and Judah. The prophet now offers words of hope and the certainty of God’s ultimate love. In a striking metaphor about children’s teeth perceiving the sharp flavor when their parents eat sour grapes, Jeremiah assures us that children will no longer be punished for their parents’ sins. Finally, in words that Jeremiah and his readers surely understood to foretell the restoration of the temple and Israel’s kingdom (but that some Christians also interpret as foreshadowing Jesus) the prophet tells of a new covenant in which everyone will know God and all our sins will be forgiven.

First Reading (Track Two): Genesis 32:22-31

Hear this call through Sunday’s readings: Place your hope in God, and even in the face of challenges, be persistent. In this rather puzzling narrative from Genesis, Jacob fights to a draw in a night-long battle with an angel who doesn’t fight quite fairly, yet turns out to be God. This would have been a shocking development in the culture of its time, because the mere sight of God’s face was believed to be fatal to humans. Not even Moses was allowed to see God face-to-face, but Jacob – now renamed Israel – was able to do so, even while he struggled with God as with any other person.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 119:97-104

Throughout Psalm 119, the longest of all the Psalms, The psalmist exults in the study and understanding of God’s law, declaring the joy of unity with God through studious meditation and prayer. Now consider this portion the context of Sunday’s Track One first reading, in which Jeremiah declares God’s law central to God’s new covenant, saying: “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, as the author of Psalm 119 puts it, to Jeremiah’s people in exile, longing for their home.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 121

This is one of the Psalms that we love to hear when we or a loved one or friend is in trouble, fearful, looking for help, uncertain where to turn, seeking protection. Titled “Assurance of God’s Protection” in the New Revised Standard Version, it is one of the Psalms’ most comforting hymns of hope and trust. The Psalmist, not shy about calling out to God, cries out, “From where is my help to come?” We look upward, up to the hills, and find comfort in the sure protection of the Creator, who stands on constant watch, never sleeping, protecting us by night and day.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

This late New Testament letter was written in Paul’s name at a time when the young, increasingly institutional church was facing Roman persecution. Know your scriptures, the writer advises the troubled flock. Even if it’s hard, even if you have to suffer, continue to spread the Gospel’s good news. This message, written for a particular time and place, may come across differently in modern America, when Christians hold a shrinking majority and ideas of Christian nationalism (often interpreted as white Christian nationalism) lure some to use the church to wield power. Of course we are still called to spread the good news. But it should be the Gospel that Jesus taught us: Love God. Love our neighbors. Even love our enemies as we relieve the oppressed and bring good news to the poor.

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8

Luke’s Gospel often shows us Jesus slamming the rich and powerful with parables that burn: The dishonest steward! The rich man who died too soon to enjoy his barns full of treasure! The rich young man who couldn’t give away his property, even to save his soul! The rich man who burned in hell while the poor man he wouldn’t help in life now reposes in heavenly comfort! And now we meet a corrupt and scheming judge confronted by a persistent widow who will not stop demanding until he finally caves in. How are we to read this? At first glance, we might wonder: Is Jesus comparing God to a corrupt judge who won’t do his job? But Jesus is making a different point: Pray day and night, be persistent, and God will listen and quickly respond.

Pentecost 14C

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 11, 2022

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Pick through scripture and you’ll sometimes find a portrait of God as righteously, stormily angry, Turn to another page and you’ll find an image of overwhelming, steadfast love. Here’s reassurance: Divine love ultimately prevails.

Parable of the Lost Drachma (1618-1622), oil painting on panel by Domenico Fetti (c.1589-1623). Gemäldegalerie Alte Keister, Dresden, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our Track One first reading, for example, Jeremiah shows us a vision of God erupting in emotional anger that any parent exhausted by misbehaving children can understand: “My people are foolish … they are stupid children … they have no understanding.” Look out, Jeremiah warns the people at the end of Sunday’s passage: God is angry now, and that has consequences. And yet, Jeremiah says, in all this wrath, God yet I will not make a full end.

First Reading (Track Two): Exodus 32:7-14

Can it be a coincidence that this reading falls during the same general season as our Jewish sisters and brothers celebrate the High Holidays? Rabbinical tradition teaches that Yom Kippur, the Feast of Atonement, falls on the date when Moses brought the second set of commandments down from the mountain. With atonement, God will forgive even such an idolatrous act as the Israelites’ worship of the golden calf, portrayed in Sunday’s Track Two first reading, the act that made Moses so angry that he shattered the first set of stone tablets. The lesson is one for the ages: No matter how grave our offenses, when we are truly sorry and we humbly repent, God has mercy on us and forgives us. Every single time.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 14

Sunday’s Track One Psalm offers us clear echoes of Jeremiah’s vision of God as having less than infinite patience when the people go wrong. Jeremiah’s declaration that the people were stupid and foolish recurs here in the Psalmist’s scorn for fools, corrupt people and doers of abominable deeds. Mirroring the brief pause in God’s unrelenting anger in the Jeremiah passage, the Psalm too ends on a note of hope for those who seek refuge in God.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 51:1-11

Speaking of sins like worshiping a golden calf that seem too terrible to pardon, our Track Two Psalm recalls the time when King David sent his loyal soldier Uriah into harm’s way and certain death in order to cover up David’s adulterous affair with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. Then the prophet Nathan accused David, shocking him into recognizing his great sin. The Psalmist, assumed by legend to be David himself, imagines the king’s anguished repentance and hope for God’s forgiveness.

Second Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

From now through the end of October we’ll be reading from the short first and second letters of Timothy. These are framed as letters of pastoral advice written by Paul to his associate Timothy. Bible scholars, though, believe they were actually written by a later Christian leader in Paul’s name. Composed in a time when the early church was becoming institutionalized and cautious, they tend to be more strict and dogmatic than Paul’s early letters. We’ll find none of that in Sunday’s reading, though. Here the writer speaking as Paul gives thanks that God forgave Paul’s blasphemy, persecution and violence and showered him with Christ’s faith and love.

Gospel: Luke 15:1-10

Take a moment to consider the first of these two familiar parables in a new way: Would a solitary shepherd, alone in the wilderness with predators all around and responsible for the care of a large flock, really leave 99 sheep unprotected to go out alone into the scary darkness to find just one? Well, maybe. Perhaps Jesus would. But perhaps Jesus is spinning a memorable story to make sure that everyone gets the point: God does not just forgive us when we go astray. God actively comes after us, looking for us, bringing us back, every single time.

Illuminations

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

Category Archives: Pentecost