Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 27, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Joel 2:23-32

A persistent message of hope is heard throughout Sunday’s readings.

Pharisäer und Zöllner (The Pharisee and the Publican), baroque fresco in the Basilika Ottobeuren, a Benedictine abbey in Ottobeuren, Germany, near the Bavarian Alps. (Click image to enlarge.)

We hear it in the words of the Prophet Joel, whose short but poetic prophecy offers comfort and hope amid the threat of a locust plague that threatens famine: God is with us. Feast will follow famine. God loves us and the spirit will pour out on us as rich and bountiful harvests. Even Joel’s scary prophecy of blood and fire and columns of smoke, darkened sun and bloody moon – apocalyptic images that later writers would adopt to describe the last days – hold no fear for those who call on the name of the Lord; they will all be saved.

First Reading (Track Two): Sirach 35:12-17

The book of Sirach, The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach – later renamed Ecclesiasticus in the time of the Emperor Constantine – is one of the books known as Apocrypha that come at the end of the Old Testament. It sums up God’s teaching (“Torah”) in the brisk, memorable style of biblical wisdom literature. In Sunday’s verses, it envisions God as judge over all, a judge who is impartial in dispensing justice. Nevertheless God, the judge, pays special attention to the needs of those who have been wronged, to widows and orphans, to the oppressed who come before the judge with complaints.

Alternate First Reading (Track Two): Jeremiah 14:7-10,19-22

From Moses to Jonah, Job and beyond, the bible’s prophets are rarely reluctant to argue with God. The notion of mere mortals pushing back against God Almighty might seem strange or even disturbing, but it is a powerful way for a prophet to emphasize that the subject is important. Setting the tone of hope amid pain in Sunday’s readings, Jeremiah acknowledges that the people have done wrong, but then he mounts a powerful argument that the loving God who made covenant with the people at Sinai would surely not fail to bring them back home, even if they had wandered and sinned.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 65

This psalm of thanksgiving for earth’s bounty – one of the 73 of the 150 psalms that tradition attributes to King David – serves us doubly in this autumn season: First, it echoes Joel’s assurances that God will provide us nature’s rich harvests even after times of trouble and sin. Then it also paints a lovely word picture of God’s great outpouring, valleys and hills cloaked with crops and grain and shouting and singing for joy. Let’s hold these images in our thoughts as Thanksgiving and Christmastide draw near.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 84:1-6

Mustering poetic metaphors about birds finding safety in their nests, the Psalmist writes a hymn of trust and praise in a loving God who will protect the people and lead them home. God will watch over, favor and honor those who trust in God. As God provides nests for the small birds, so will God provide for us. As God makes pools of water available for thirsty travelers, so will God hear our prayers.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

The author of Timothy concludes his letter by imagining Paul’s last testament in beautiful, poetic words that ring through the ages. The assurance that Paul had fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith while undergoing trials and imprisonment would have been a source of strength to the people of a young church facing Roman persecution. Although some believers were deserting the cause in fear, this letter called on Christians to stand strong, proclaim the good news to all the nations, and count on God’s strength and God’s protection.

Gospel: Luke 18:9-14

This parable follows immediately after last week’s story about the corrupt judge and the persistent widow. It is helpful to think about these parables together to understand what Jesus wants us to know about prayer. Like the powerful but corrupt judge who fails to prevail against the fierce widow, the Pharisee tripped over his pride. Take note that he was not exaggerating his virtues. He truly did follow the law, pray, fast, and tithe. But the despised tax collector who stood aside, looked down, beat his breast and begged for mercy as a sinner was the one who went home justified, Jesus said, because he brought humility to his prayer.

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.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 20, 2019

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

A theme of patient persistence recurs in Sunday’s readings: Place your hope in God; and even in the face of challenges, be persistent.

The Bench (1758), oil painting on canvas by William Hogarth (1697-1764). Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our Track One first reading, Jeremiah pauses in his nearly relentless lamentation over the sins that led Israel and Judah into exile, offering words of hope and the certainty of God’s love. Using a colorful metaphor about sour grapes, he makes clear that the people fully deserved hard times. But, the prophet foretells, God will forgive them, offer them a new covenant, and return them home, just their ancestors came out of slavery in Egypt.

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

The theme of hope in God and persistence, even in the face of challenges, continues in Sunday’s Track Two first reading. In this strange narrative from Genesis, Jacob wrestles all night with an angel! Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, son of Isaac, and father to Joseph, is a key figure in the Hebrew Bible’s ancestral genealogy. 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 One): Psalm 119:97-104

The longest of all the Psalms, Psalm 119 devotes all of its 176 verses to a long, loving celebration of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The ancients understood Torah as God’s “teaching,” but in English bibles it is usually translated as “Law,” a word that we may read with a different connotation. Think of love for God’s word and get a clearer sense of the people’s patient, persistent efforts to study and learn until God’s teachings are written on their hearts in words as sweet as honey.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 121

This ancient hymn is one of the traditional “songs of ascents” thought to have been chanted by worshippers as they processed toward the Temple in Jerusalem. Its assurance of God’s protection as we lift up our eyes to the hills, seeking from where our help is to come. makes it one of the most comforting psalms 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 reading call us to be bible-thumpers, lecturing unbelievers and rebuking them if they won’t listen? Of course we don’t read it that way. This late New Testament document was written when the young church was fighting persecution. Rather than giving up, the writer advises the troubled flock, learn scripture and be persistent about proclaiming the kingdom of God. In good times and hard times alike, they are to “convince, rebuke, and encourage” in the name of Jesus, because proclaiming the kingdom was so important.

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 in spite of it all. She won’t quit pounding the corrupt and shiftless judge with her demands until he finally gives her the justice that she seeks. What does this mean for us? Jesus tells us at the beginning and the end of today’s Gospel: Pray always and do not lose heart. God will grant justice to the chosen ones who pray by day and night.

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.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 13, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Whether our lives are going well or whether things are going badly, trust in God. Trust, and be thankful for God’s blessings. This is the theme that runs through Sunday’s readings.

Guérison de dix lépreux (The Healing of Ten Lepers), 1886-1894, opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper by James Tissot (1836-1902). Brooklyn Museum. (Click image to enlarge.)

In Sunday’s Track One first reading, the Prophet Jeremiah, who in recent weeks we have heard weeping in anguish over the loss and destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, now dries his tears and, speaking on God’s behalf, gives 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. Babylon 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.

First Reading (Track Two): 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c

In Sunday’s Track Two first reading we meet Naaman, a proud commander of the Aramean army. Although he was a mighty warrior, Naaman had contracted leprosy, a disfiguring disease that in those days would have cost him not only his military rank but his high place in society. Although Aram was Israel’s enemy, Naaman took the advice of an Israelite maid to go to Israel and ask the Prophet Elisha to cure him. As it turned out, Elisha wouldn’t even see Naaman, but simply sent a servant to tell him to bathe in the Jordan, a measure that sounded too simple to be true. Naaman was beyond angry, but his servants urged him to try, and Naaman was cured; and through his cure he finds faith in Israel’s God.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 66:1-11

Sunday’s Track One psalm at first appears to be in a familiar genre. a hymn of praise for God’s glory, power and awesome deeds. It describes God’s mighty works in the Exodus, leading the people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and toward the Promised Land. But then it takes an unexpected turn: God not only leads us but tests us, too. We may groan under burdens, as Judah found in exile in Babylon. Even God’s own people may be conquered. They may suffer fire and flood. Yet after everything there is joy at the end, and praise.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 111

The Psalms, the hymnal of the ancient Temple, consist of many genres, from lament to complaint to petition to thanksgiving and praise. In Sunday’s Track Two psalm we hear a powerful song of praise and thanksgiving. We applaud God’s many acts of power and majesty, righteousness and justice; and at the end we sing our praise and gratitude for God’s gifts. All who practice wisdom have a good understanding of God, the psalm proclaims; all the wise are in awe of what God has done.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-15

The young, growing Christian movement faced frightening persecution by the Romans when this letter was written near the end of the first century in the names of Paul and Timothy. These verses contain a strong call to faith. Recalling Paul’s suffering in chains in prison and facing death, the writer reminds us that God’s word cannot be held in chains. Remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are reminded that, through we die with Jesus, we live in Christ.

Gospel: Luke 17:11-19

The Gospels give us a sense that Samaritans are bad, yet Jesus keeps showing us good Samaritans. The parable of the Good Samaritan who stops to help an injured stranger is one of the most beloved, but there’s also the story of Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman at the well in her village. Sunday’s Gospel shows us another: the single leper out of ten who comes back to thank Jesus for his healing is a Samaritan. While the other nine were healed, this one was saved. He not only became well, but Jesus opened for him the doors to the kingdom. In fascinating parallels with the story of Namaan in Sunday’s Track Two first reading, Jesus too cures the lepers at a distance, without touching them; and like Elisha, Jesus’ actions bring a despised foreigner to faith in God.

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.

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Click this link to browse more than two full three-year cycles of these weekly Lectionary reflections, online in our Illuminations archive.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 6, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Lamentations 1:1-6

Cries of suffering and lamentation echo through Sunday’s readings, confronting us with some disturbing metaphors and images that we may find difficult to consider, even in words attributed to Jesus.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed. 19th century fabric art from Kazakhstan. (Click image to enlarge.)

Perhaps our lesson this week is not to bottle up sad, hurt and angry feelings but to meditate on how we can use them to learn and grow. Our Track One first reading comes from Lamentations, a short book that was probably written in exile in Babylon. These verses poetically imagine the ruins of Jerusalem as a weeping woman sadly remembering happier times. Her princes are weak, her children captive. Her foes have won. Her enemies prosper and she fears that God brought this suffering on the people because of her wrongdoing.

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

Does Habbakuk’s name sound familiar? If not, that may be because this Track Two first reading is his only appearance in the entire three-year Lectionary cycle of Sunday readings. Habbakuk 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 hear God’s word and carry it on to humanity at God’s command, Habbakuk shouts his own warnings, then complains that even God doesn’t seem to be paying attention. God then instructs the prophet: Write your prophecy down. Make it so plain that a runner passing by can read it without slowing down. Then be patient, be just, and wait for God.

Psalm (Track One): Lamentations 3:19-26

Perhaps to provide preachers the option of avoiding the horrifying verse of Psalm 137 (see below) in which the Israelites celebrate smashing the enemy’s children on rocks, the Lectionary offers another passage from Lamentations as a Psalm-like reading in the traditional two-line verse form of biblical Hebrew poetry. In these verses from the third chapter, the tone of deep sorrow continues at the beginning. But then the language turns from pain to hope, for God’s steadfast love is unceasing and God’s mercy never ends. God is good to those who wait in quiet patience.

Alternate Psalm (Track One): Psalm 137

This ancient hymn of lamentation over the destruction of Jerusalem places the Psalmist in exile, “by the rivers of Babylon,” weeping over the lost city and temple and, in words that remain a vivid part of the Passover Seder, vowing never to forget Jerusalem. The verses then turn dark and horrifying, though, and we’re likely to react with visceral shock at the idea of Judah’s warriors joyously smashing innocent babies on the rocks. What can we possibly gain from reading these awful verses? Perhaps we are meant to see ourselves at humanity’s worst moments, and recognize how badly we can behave when hurt and frustration tempt us to lash out in anger.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 37:1-10

Sunday’s Track Two psalm fits well with God’s response to Habakkuk’s in the First Reading. The Psalmist calls us to trust in God, continue 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 pastoral letter fondly imagines the evangelist writing from prison to his beloved disciple Timothy. It likely came at a time around the end of the first century, when the young church was suffering persecution. In that context, it is not surprising that its themes remind us of the Lamentations readings and Psalm. Hold onto your faith, even when times are hard; rely on the grace of God given through Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10

In Luke’s long account of Jesus and the disciples’ journey toward Jerusalem , Jesus seems to toss one challenge after another to them – and to us. Sunday’s Gospel is no exception, with its apparently casual assumption that Jesus’ follower would routinely load down a slave with heavy work but never invite the slave to sit down at the table, much less bother to thank the slave. Perhaps we can argue that slavery was routinely accepted in that era, but it still feels uncomfortable at best to hear these ideas from the mouth of Jesus. Perhaps we have to gloss over this difficulty and consider the text as another of Jesus’ attention-getting metaphors showing that it is not easy to follow him. Jesus calls us to be humble, vulnerable, and, metaphorically at least, as obedient as slaves when we are called to follow him.

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.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 22, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

“You cannot serve God and wealth.” Jesus speaks so often about the dangers of riches and our obligation to support the poor, as he does in Sunday’s Gospel, that we really need to take this message seriously.

Parable of the Unjust Steward (c.1540), oil painting by Marinus van Reymerswaele (c.1490-c.1546). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. (Click image to enlarge.)

This obligation to forgo riches while caring for the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers in our land is deeply rooted in the Torah that Jesus knew as his bible. We hear it in Sunday’s Track One first reading, as Jeremiah grieves with profound emotion over the people’s failure of at righteousness and justice. They hoard riches and ignore the poor. The prophet mourns deeply, imagining God’s own mourning: “Is there no balm in Gilead?”

First Reading (Track One): Amos 8:4-7

It shouldn’t be lost on any of us that the ancient prophets in the Hebrew Bible often sound angry because they have to bring the same message to the same people over and over again. In Sunday’s Track Two second reading, Amos echoes this stern prophetic chorus: The people languish in exile, their city in ruins and the temple destroyed. When we fail to take care of the poor and the needy, when we lie, cheat and steal and act as if we did nothing wrong, God grows angry, Jeremiah shouts. For such acts and omissions, there are consequences!

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 79:1-9

Sunday’s Track One psalm echoes Jeremiah’s weeping prophesy as mourns for desolate and shattered Jerusalem after the Exile. Jerusalem is rubble. The unburied bodies of martyred faithful are food for birds and beasts; their blood runs like water around the city. The people are the objects of scorn, and they feel only God’s fury blazing like fire. The Psalm (including four more verses that we won’t chant on Sunday) concludes with heartfelt prayers for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 113

Even when the people won’t help the poor and the needy, the Psalmist sings, God will always do so. God is blessed through all eternity, we sing; God is worthy of praise. The psalm goes on: God sits high above all nations and above the heavens. Yet God also looks down and sees humanity … and reaches down to gently lift up the needy, the poor and the disappointed, gently placing them in seats at the tables of royalty.

Second Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Pray for everyone, and don’t neglect to pray for the kings and leaders of the community, urges the author of the first letter to Timothy. He enumerates for us four kinds of prayer: supplications, or specific requests; petitionary prayers, asking for help; intercessions, or urgent requests; and thanksgiving, expressing gratitude. Remember that God is one, the author tells us, and that Jesus – who was both divine and also human like us – gave himself for our salvation.

Gospel: Luke 16:1-13

This parable makes us stop and think, as good parables should. On the surface, it may appear to hold up dishonest behavior as a good thing because it gets results. Or does it? Jesus rarely speaks well of the rich, and particularly so in Luke. Could he be using the servant’s trickery, which deprived the rich man of part of his income, as mockery? If you cheat in small things, he says, who will trust you with serious business? Furthermore, don’t get the idea that Jesus has suddenly gone easy on the rich. In next week’s Gospel we’ll hear the parable that follows next: the familiar story about the tables turning between the rich man and the beggar Lazarus.

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.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 15, 2019

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; look on 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.

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.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 8, 2019

First Reading (Track One): Jeremiah 18:1-11

Sunday’s readings nudge us to take a closer look at our casual assumptions about God’s role in the universe and Jesus’ image as the gentle Good Shepherd.

Orthodox icon of St. Onesimus, the subject of Paul’s letter to Philemon. Onesimus is recognized as a saint in the Roman Catholic and many Orthodox traditions. (Click image to enlarge.)

In the Track One first reading, God sends Jeremiah to watch an artisan, a creator, who fashions pots from clay, who is not reluctant to smash and re-make an unsatisfactory creation over and over again. If the people of Judah do not turn from their evil ways, Jeremiah hears, then God, like a cosmic potter, will create disaster for them. Note, though, that God, the cosmic potter, tries creation over and over again. Even when humanity goes wrong, the possibility of repentance and restoration remains.

First Reading (Track Two): Deuteronomy 30:15-20

The Israelites have been wandering 40 years in the desert, according to the ancestral stories. Now we catch up with them as they reach the River Jordan at last and are preparing to cross into the Promised Land. Before this glorious passage, they pause while Moses reminds them of the covenant they made at Mount Sinai: Love God and walk in God’s ways, follow God’s laws and you will thrive and prosper. But turn away from God and you will lose the land and God’s blessings. This simple call to follow God’s way lies at the center of Scripture, and it shapes Jesus’ message to us as well.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

God knows us as intimately as Jeremiah’s potter knows his clay. Whatever we do, wherever we go, God knows our every thought, the Psalmist sings. God knows every word that we speak and every idea that we imagine. Even before we were born, God knew us. As we chant this Psalm, notice that it does not explicitly thank God for knowing our every moment, nor does it ponder how this knowledge affects our daily lives. No, the simple fact that God knows us so deeply is enough.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 1

The first of the 150 ancient hymns that make up the Psalms restates Moses’ theme at the banks of Jordan: The world is made up of two kinds of people, those who follow God’s laws and those who do not. Follow God’s laws and be happy and prosper; follow the way of the wicked and perish. Scripture is far more nuanced than this black-and-white understanding, of course. Still, “follow God’s ways and win, follow evil ways and lose,” concisely sums up the Covenant that Moses made with God for the people at Mount Sinai.

Second Reading: Philemon 1-21

Paul, having befriended young Onesimus, a slave, in prison, writes a letter about the youth to the slave’s master, Philemon. We might wish that Paul had taken a strong stand against slavery, offering clear guidance on this evil practice that would ring through the ages. But read it closely, and we see that Paul is gently guiding Philemon to a deeper truth: Christians should love each other as brothers and sisters. There is no space for slavery in that!

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

Tension is rising as Jesus continues his journey toward Jerusalem and the cross. The crowds that have been following him since he set his face toward Jerusalem are growing larger and more excited. Meanwhile, the Romans and temple leaders are nervous about this uproarious gang coming toward the capital at Passover. Jesus needs the crowd to know that it will not be easy to follow him on this journey, just as he had warned them earlier that he came not to bring peace but division. Do we really have to “hate” our families and give up everything we have to follow Jesus, though? Is Jesus exaggerating for effect? This much is sure: Jesus is warning his followers not to start a task that we can’t finish. We need to follow him nor halfheartedly but with our whole hearts.

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.