Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 24, 2022 (Pentecost 7C)

First Reading (Track One): Hosea 1:2-10

“Your Kingdom come.” In Sunday’s Gospel we will hear Luke’s version of Jesus teaching his apostles to pray.

Jesus teaching his disciples (1684), from an Arabic manuscript of the Gospels, copied in Egypt by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib (likely a Coptic monk). The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. (Click image to enlarge.)

Sunday’s Track One readings begin, though, with a prophecy of the loss and restoration of another kingdom, Israel. Using language as grim as we heard from the prophet Amos in the past two weeks, the prophet Hosea uses the disturbing metaphor of marriage to a prostitute to warn Israel and Judah that they face destruction. Even the names of the children of this marriage, translated from the original Hebrew, hold up startling images: “God Sows,” “Not Pitied,” and “Not My People.” The concluding verses of this passage offer hope for the future, though, as “not my people” becomes “children of the living God.”

First Reading (Track Two): Genesis 18:20-32

The Track Two first reading last week told of Abraham meeting three strangers in the desert and hearing from them that he and his wife, Sarah, will have offspring as plentiful as the stars. By this point Abraham has apparently become comfortable in his relationship with God. He bargains and argues with the Creator in hope of saving Sodom from violent destruction. Why did Sodom deserve this? God’s wrath with the Sodomites did not have to do with sexual sin, but with their selfish failure to be righteous. As the Prophet Ezekiel will later declare, “Sodom and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” This covenantal call to righteous action runs through the Bible from Moses through the prophets to Jesus.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 85

Harmonizing with Hosea’s vision of an angry God, today’s Psalm speaks of a thankful people’s grateful relief. They had feared that their sins would earn God’s fury and wrathful indignation. But now they look forward to the mercy and salvation that they hope to receive from a God who remains faithful regardless of their wrongs. When we listen to God, the Psalmist sings, we hear mercy meeting truth while righteousness and peace join in a kiss.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 138

The relationship of this Psalm to the destruction of Sodom may not seem apparent at first. Listen closely, though, and you may hear a distant echo of Abraham persuading God not to give up on the people but to look to those who remain righteous and who thank God for their many blessings. God responds when we call, the Psalmist sings; we know that God’s right hand will save us; God’s steadfast love endures.

Second Reading: Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19)

The church at Colossae was a community of new believers, looking forward to being raised with Christ through faith in God’s power. But they were a Gentile community, too, still wrestling with the pagan beliefs of their Greek culture. The author of this letter, thought to be a later follower writing in Paul’s name, warns against false teachings, “philosophy and empty deceit … festivals, new moons or sabbaths.” God sets that aside with earthly rules and law. In words reflecting those of Jesus teaching his followers how to pray, the writer of Colossians assures them that God has forgiven our trespasses.

Gospel: Luke 11:1-13

Using tropes that would have been familiar to the apostles from Jewish prayers, the prayer that Jesus teaches them speaks of righteousness in terms that the prophets might have used: Honor God’s name, share our food, forgive our debts, do to others as we would have them do to us. Do these things and we help build God’s kingdom, not only in Heaven but right here on Earth. After teaching the apostles this prayer, Jesus went on in the following verses to talk about prayer in language rich in metaphor. Perhaps the demanding friend who won’t give up asking his neighbor for bread at midnight underscores the importance of sharing our bread and loving our neighbors no matter what the circumstances. Just as God opens the door when we knock, so should we do the same for our neighbor.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 17, 2022 (Pentecost 6C)

First Reading (Track One): Amos 8:1-12

In last week’s Track One first reading we heard the prophet Amos angrily warn Israel’s king and high priest of the terrible fate that would befall them and their families if they continued to be unjust.

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (c.1618), restored painting by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660). National Gallery, London.

This week, in verses immediately following that passage, we hear Amos recite a horrifying litany of curses that he says will fall upon the land whose rulers “trample the needy and bring to ruin the poor.” Let the land tremble and its people mourn as the sun goes dark and crops fail, the prophet warns. The people will hunger and thirst for God’s words as they do for food and water, but they will not find them.

First Reading (Track Two): Genesis 18:1-10a

In Sunday’s Track Two first reading the story of the chosen people begins. God, speaking through three mysterious strangers, comes to the patriarch Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. He greets these strangers with open hospitality far beyond their simple needs, killing a calf to prepare them a lavish meal. Then they reveal that he and his wife Sarah, despite their advanced age, will have a son. Later we learn that Abraham and Sarah’s offspring, as numerous as the stars, will inherit the Promised Land. Now, take your bible and turn the page. In next week’s reading, immediately following this example of gracious hospitality and its rewards, we’ll hear the story of Sodom’s failure of hospitality and the total destruction that it reaped.

Psalm: (Track One): Psalm 52

Psalm 52 harmonizes well with the prophecy of Amos: It angrily accuses an unnamed tyrant (perhaps, according to tradition, Doeg the Edomite, who conspired with Saul to kill King David) who “trusted in great wealth,” a liar who loved evil more than good. May God demolish the tyrant, the Psalmist shouts; wicked people who steal from the poor will fail, while those who trust in God’s eternal mercy will live in joy.

Psalm: (Track Two): Psalm 15

The Track Two first reading told of the beginning of God’s covenant with the people. Now Psalm 15 lays out the covenant’s fundamental premises: Who may come to the holy hill and reside in God’s tabernacle? We hear a long list of right actions: Do what is right. Don’t slander. Don’t do wrong to your friends or harm the innocent. These are simple commands. Although they may be difficult to live in full, they guide the people toward a life of righteousness.

Second Reading: Colossians 1:15-28

It is not always easy to decipher the sometimes dense prose of Paul and those who wrote letters in his name. It may help to recognize them as direct advice to a congregation – a sermon in letter form – blending both theological reflection and practical advice. After a theological meditation on Christ as image of the invisible God who made peace through his sacrifice, the author tells us that in becoming a servant of the gospel, he became a servant of the church. As a busy servant, he might remind us of Martha in Sunday’s Gospel, fretting and annoyed. But his call to reconcile ourselves to Christ and proclaim Christ’s supremacy might make us think of Mary sitting in awe at the feet of Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

In last week’s reading from Luke, we heard the Good Samaritan story and reflected on who our neighbor really is. Today, the familiar story of Mary and Martha invites us to dig deeper into this central question of our faith. Who is the good neighbor here? Martha gets busy, cleaning the house, making dinner, making sure that everything is just right for Jesus’s visit. Mary doesn’t work at all. She chooses instead to sit at Jesus’ feet, listening, learning and loving. Martha’s work is important, but Mary makes time for Jesus. Could both women’s choices represent hospitality in separate ways?

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 10, 2022 (Pentecost 5C)

First Reading (Track One): Amos 7:7-17

Love God and love our neighbors. We hear echoes of this great commandment in all of Sunday’s readings, leading up to Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan as told by Luke.

Good Samaritan (1844), oil painting on canvas by Emil Andersen (1817-1845). Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our Track One first reading, we meet Amos, a cranky prophet who prophesies to Amaziah and Jeroboam, the high priest and king of Israel. Amos warns them that God is going to lay waste to this land that God once protected. These unwilling leaders tell Amos to go back home to Judah and prophecy there, but Amos won’t stop insisting that Israel has failed to be righteous. Just as a priest and a Levite fail to help the injured man on the road to Jericho in this day’s Gospel, the people of Israel in Amos’ time failed to love their neighbors as themselves.

First Reading (Track Two): Deuteronomy 30:9-14

Our Track Two first reading reminds us of the deep history and tradition of the commandment to love God with all our hearts and with all our souls. The selected verses from Deuteronomy reminded Israel that God takes delight in assuring their prosperity because they turn to God “with all your heart and with all your soul.” These are the very words with which the lawyer in this week’s Gospel would respond to Jesus’ invitation to describe the law. Just as Jesus taught the parable of the Good Samaritan, the most basic summary of the law – Torah – is to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 82

In verses that align with the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel, the Psalmist sings of a God who presides over all nations. God reminds us of the law’s basic command: “Save the weak and the orphan; defend the humble and needy. Rescue the weak and the poor; deliver them from the power of the wicked.”

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 25:1-9

In this Psalm we lift up our souls and place our trust in God, asking for protection against our enemies and those who would humiliate us. This may seem far afield from the Good Samaritan’s action, but the Psalm soon turns, recalling God’s everlasting compassion and steadfast love. As God guides the humble and shows the lowly God’s way, so are we called to keep God’s covenant to love our neighbors as the Samaritan did.

Second Reading: Colossians 1:1-14

This week we begin the letter to the Colossians, members of a church community in Colossae in Asia Minor (now Turkey), probably written by a later follower in Paul’s name. In these opening verses, the writer greets the Colossians with hopeful, prayerful words: He prays for them constantly. He is glad that their new faith is bearing fruit. He prays that they will grow in good works and knowledge of God, that they will gain strength, and that they will be prepared to endure whatever comes their way thanks to their love of Christ.

Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

Imagine the parable of the Good Samaritan from a new perspective: Put yourself in the place of the injured person on the side of the road. You are injured, bleeding, scared. Then someone approaches you … a person you would normally cross the street to avoid. How do you feel? And then they tenderly nurse your wounds and take you for help at their expense. How would you feel? How would this experience change you? That’s Jesus’ point here. Remember the context too: Jesus tells this parable as an answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” When Jesus utters Torah’s command to love our neighbor, he means to move everyone: Not just the friend who looks and thinks and acts like us, but those who are different; even those we consider enemies.

Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 3, 2022 (Pentecost 4C)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Kings 5:1-14

In the time of the Kings, the Arameans and Israel were enemies. So Naaman, an Aramean military leader, must have been wary when his servant suggested that he go to Israel to heal his leprosy.

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy Apostles. Russian Orthodox icon, undated. (Click image to enlarge.)

But leprosy was a terrible disease, disfiguring and contagious; its victims were ritually unclean. So Naaman complied, but then the prophet Elisha wouldn’t even see him, adding insult to injury by sending out a mere servant with advice that sounded too simple to be true. But Naaman’s servants urged him to try Elisha’s proposed sevenfold bath in the Jordan, and just like that, Naaman was cured.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 66:10-14

In the final chapter of Isaiah, the people have returned to Jerusalem from exile, full of joy at their long-awaited homecoming, but facing the hard work of rebuilding the city and a new Temple. It is a time for rejoicing, the prophet declares, and it is a time for healing, too. God will shower prosperity on the city, Isaiah prophesies; and, in beautiful language envisioning God as a loving mother, he assures the people that God will nurse and carry the people as a mother comforts her child.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 30

Can you imagine Naaman praying this beloved Psalm of thanksgiving for recovery from a grave illness? The Psalmist thanks God: ”I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.” Then he urges everyone, all of us who are God’s servants, to give thanks for all God’s gifts; to be thankful for an end to the sadness that often accompanies illness. We thank God for turning the weeping of those long dark hours of night into the celebration that comes at dawn, when our mourning turns to joy.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 66:1-8

The Psalmist’s prayer echoes the trust in God’s protective power that we heard from Isaiah in the Track Two first reading. All Earth’s people are called to be joyful in God and to sing the glory of God’s name. Invoking God’s action to protect the people of Israel by turning the sea into dry land as they fled from Egypt, the Psalmist reminds us to sing in full voice to praise the God who protects us.

Second Reading: Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16

Sunday brings the final verses of our quick visit in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. We have heard Paul declare that Christ’s message is universal for all humankind: Jew and Gentile, man and woman, slave and free. In this bold assertion he was arguing against opponents who called for a more exclusive way as the early church evolved. Now Paul, approaching the conclusion of this loving letter, restates an essential principle of faith: “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Or, as Jesus and Torah alike expressed it, love your neighbor as yourself.

Gospel: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Jesus has “set his face to go to Jerusalem,” beginning his journey that we will hear in our Pentecost season Gospel passages from Luke through the end of November. Even after demanding that his followers leave their families and all their possessions behind, Jesus has no apparent difficulty in enlisting a crowd to help him spread the Good News. He calls 70 followers to hurry through the countryside, “like lambs in the midst of wolves,” to tell villagers that the Kingdom of God is drawing near. Those who reject them, like the Samaritan villagers in last Sunday’s Gospel, are rejecting Jesus. Those who welcome them are welcoming Jesus.

Pentecost 3CIlluminations on the Lectionary readings for June 26, 2022 (Pentecost 3C)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Kings 2:1-2,6-14

Because Easter was relatively late this year, we dropped into the middle of the story of the prophet Elijah in the books of Kings.

Stories of life and passion of Christ (1513), fresco by Gaudenzio Ferrari (c.1475-1546), Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Varallo Sesia, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

God chose Elijah to speak truth to King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, and to warn the kings who would follow them that disaster lay ahead. After fleeing the rulers’ anger for fear of his life – we heard about that in last week’s Track One first reading – we now look on as Elijah is taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot while his chosen successor, Elisha, and a crowd of fifty other prophets look on in amazement.

First Reading (Track Two): 1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21

The two Lectionary tracks almost converge this week, as Track Two gives us the passage that follows last week’s Track One first reading: The prophet Elijah, who had been chosen by God to speak truth to Israel’s kings and to warn them that disaster lay ahead, was despairing because he feared death at the hands of his foes. But God gave him strength and sent him on with instructions to choose Elisha as his successor. Elisha hesitates – foreshadowing the reluctant followers in Sunday’s Gospel – but then finds the will to come along.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

Stormy metaphors of dark clouds, thunder, lightning and pouring rain fill this Psalm with images of a God whose mighty deeds shout out great power and might. The Psalmist is troubled in the dark of the night. He cries out untiringly. He seeks comfort for his soul but refuses to accept it. But then he finds hope by reflecting on God’s power in the storm, remembering the way that God led the people out of slavery and protected them as they wandered in the desert.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 16

Almost exactly half of the 150 Psalms are attributed by tradition to King David, as is this one, titled “Song of Trust and Security in God” in the New Revised Standard Edition. The speaker, David or a later Psalmist writing in his name, calls out for God’s protection and guidance. Those who follow false gods will only increase their trouble, the poet sings. But by accepting God as his “portion and cup,” his heart will be glad and his spirit will rejoice, knowing that God will not abandon him to the grave.

Second Reading: Galatians 5:1,13-25

Having assured the Galatians in the verses we heard last week that we are all in one with Jesus, no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, Paul urges all of us to stand firm in faith and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to use the freedom that God gives us not to “bite and devour” one another, Paul writes, but to accept the fruit of the Spirit in “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Gospel: Luke 9:51-62

From now through the end of the Pentecost season, we will follow Luke’s account of Jesus’ long journey from his home in Galilee toward Jerusalem, his passion, and the cross. As the journey begins, after they group has a quick encounter with an unfriendly Samaritan village, we are shown a side of Jesus that may surprise us with his seeming frustration and impatience. Is his command to come and follow him so urgent that disciples must leave the dead un-buried? Is there really no time for them to bid their families farewell? Once Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem,” it seems, everything now moves toward bringing in the Kingdom of God. Nothing else is more important than that.