All Saints A

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 5, 2023 (All Saints A)

The Sermon on the Mount (1598), oil painting on copper by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. (Click image to enlarge.)

We remember all saints, known and unknown, on All Saints Sunday. The Episcopal Church recognizes that saints are not only historic figures recognized by the early church, but that Christ makes it possible for us to be saints as we share his life. Sunday’s readings begin with the apocalyptic vision of John of Patmos, who imagine all the saints, robed in white and gathered in a heavenly throne room. A countless multitude of every race and nation, they are all assembled to praise the Lamb, Revelation’s allegorical image for Jesus as both sacrificed sheep and messianic shepherd; victim and victor, the loving protector who leads us as a single multitude that shows all Earth’s glorious diversity.

Psalm: Psalm 34:1-10, 22

Most of the Psalms address God in prayer, but this portion of Psalm 34 is different: The Psalmist here, imagined as the voice of King David after he had feigned madness to escape a deadly threat, sings directly to the people, offering wise counsel: As God’s saints and as God’s servants, we praise and worship God. We are small and humble. God is great and powerful. Yet when we are in trouble, when we are afraid, when we are hungry, we place our faith and trust in God and need not fear.

Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-3

Biblical scholars believe that the three short letters of John were written neither by John the apostle, John the evangelist, nor John the author of Revelation. After all, John was – and is – a very common name! Still, these verses from the first letter of John celebrate the abundant love of God that showers on us and makes us all God’s children in language that seems consistent with the theology of John’s Gospel and may have come from a later community devoted to John the Evangelist’s tradition. The glory of our coming adulthood under God’s love remains to be revealed, the author of this letter tells us. But from the beginning, we are assured, all of God’s children, all of God’s saints, are brothers and sisters through God’s creative love.

Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12

The Beatitudes, the beloved verses in Matthew’s telling of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, have become so familiar that we sometimes don’t pause to give them the deep reflection that they deserve. In eight quick statements, Jesus turns the world upside down: It is not the rich who are blessed, but the poor. It is not the successful and the proud who win God’s blessing, but mourners, the meek, the hungry; the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the oppressed. This is good news for the poor, and it is earth-shattering. It is also a theme that Jesus repeats again and again until it is difficult to understand why we have such a hard time getting it.

Pentecost 22A

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 29, 2023 (Pentecost 23A)

Testament and Death of Moses (1482), fresco by Luca Signorelli (1450-1523) and Bartolomeo della Gatta (1448-1502). Sistine Chapel, Rome. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): Deuteronomy 34:1-12

In Sunday’s Track One first reading we reach the end of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as Torah. Moses has led the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph out of slavery in Egypt, received God’s commandments and made God’s covenant at Mount Sinai. He has wandered 40 years in the desert with a fractious people. Now he comes within sight of the Promised Land where he meets God again on another mountain top. But this time Moses learns that he may see the land, knowing that God’s promise is fulfilled, but he won’t live to cross over to it. His successor, Joshua, will lead the people across the Jordan into Canaan.

First Reading (Track Two): Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

Leviticus, the book of the Levites, the hereditary Temple priests, is full of rules, regulations and teachings that govern behavior and Temple liturgy. We turn to Leviticus in our Track Two first reading as God instructs Moses in the ways in which we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. God’s teaching – Torah – leads directly to Jesus’ teaching in this week’s Gospel. In a series of instructions that restate the moral code of the commandments, God’s words to Moses in this reading tell us how to be in good relationship with our neighbors. They culminate with the summary conclusion – the first place in the bible where this is explicitly stated as a rule – that we shall love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

This psalm, attributed by tradition to Moses himself, sings praise for God’s eternal ongoing creation in which a thousand years pass like a day. In comparison, our lives are as evanescent as the grass that turns from green to brown overnight. Then the narrative turns from praise to petition as we ask God to hear our prayers, to turn toward us with loving-kindness and make us glad.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 1

This, the first of all the psalms, sings of two paths that we may choose to take through life. In poetic verses that might remind us of Jesus’ parables about seeds that fall on variously nourishing ground, the Psalmist likens us to trees. The well watered trees of the righteous who follow in God’s way grow lush and fruitful. But the way of the wicked yields weak trees that can’t stand straight. Which way to choose? The Psalm makes the fruitful choice abundantly clear.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Paul’s first letter to the Christian community in Thessaloniki in Macedonia, Norther Greece, is the earliest Pauline letter that has come down to us. Paul repeatedly speaks of his love and family feeling for this community. Intriguingly, he contrasts this by writing openly about his problems with the congregation in nearby Philippi! The Philippians had some serious problems at this time, and someone there seemingly didn’t treat Paul well. With the people of Thessalonika, though, Paul developed a dear friendship that he likens to a nurse caring for her children. (Happily, things had evidently cleared up a few years later, when Paul’s letter to the Philippians was kind and generous, too.)

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46

We may think of Jesus’ words about the greatest commandment as profoundly Christian, deeply reflecting everything we know about Jesus. And this is true. But we should never forget that these words are deeply Jewish too. The “greatest and first” commandment, by Jesus’ own statement, directly quotes part of the Sh’ma, the most important Jewish prayer; the second comes straight from the Holiness Code in Leviticus. Our spiritual heritage goes back a long way, and as we heard from Jesus earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets (that is, the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible) but to fulfill it.

Pentecost 21A

Posted on October 16, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 22, 2023

The Tribute Money (1424), fresco by Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, known as Masaccio (1401-1428). Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 33:12-23

Even when we the people stray from God’s way, our faith brings us back again to rest in God’s infinite capacity for forgiveness. Listen for this theme in Sunday’s readings. In our Track One first reading, the Lectionary planners have spared us a bloody and horrifying narrative that followed last Sunday’s passage about the people worshipping a golden calf: Their leaders were ordered to kill 3,000 of their brothers and sisters who had worshiped the idol. As we return to the narrative, God has relented, graciously agreeing to continue leading and guiding the people. Moses asks one thing more: To see God in God’s glory. But it would be fatal for Moses to see God’s face, so God stations Moses in a crack in a rock, protected from danger, offering only a glimpse from behind after God passes by.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 45:1-7

The people have been in exile in Babylon for 40 years, dreaming of their lost city and temple. Isaiah and the other prophets had warned them that they had no one but themselves to blame for their exile. They had failed to love their neighbor, forgotten to care for the weak and needy, and thus broke the covenant with God that had brought them to the Promised Land. But now the Persians have conquered Babylon, led by the wise king that history knows as Cyrus the Great. Cyrus will allow the people to return home to Jerusalem. In celebration, the prophet sings high praise to Cyrus, celebrating the Persian Gentile king as God’s own anointed, a Messiah.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 99

The Psalmist celebrates the story of the people’s flight from slavery in Egypt as told in Exodus. Psalm 99 celebrates God’s justice and equity. Its verses celebrate God’s having led the people in a pillar of cloud. God answered the people’s prayers and, while justly punishing them when they strayed, forgave them in the end. Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God, we sing!

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)

Cyrus may have been a great king, as we heard in the Track Two first reading. But the Psalm that follows quickly reminds us that God is king among all kings, before whom the whole Earth trembles. God created all things and will judge all things, fairly and with equity, we sing. Heaven and earth, thunder and lightning, all the fields and all the forest will rejoice when God comes to judge in righteousness and truth.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Paul praises this small community of former pagans in Thessalonika in Northern Greece, who had been persecuted by Rome for having given up the state religion. Their faith, Paul said, had inspired many converts, who were now waiting for Jesus to rescue them “from the wrath that is coming.” Over the next several weeks we will hear more from 1 Thessalonians. Thought to be Paul’s first known letter, it was written perhaps 20 years after the crucifixion. At this time, early Christians still expected that Jesus would come back soon to judge the world and establish the kingdom of God on Earth.

Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22

This familiar story continues our recent narrative from Matthew: Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for what would be the final week before his crucifixion, and he quickly got in trouble. First he angrily threw the money changers out of the Temple. Then, in one encounter after another, he fences with the Pharisees who, in Matthew’s account, want to shut this trouble-maker down. Now they try to trap Jesus with a trick question, but he outwits them again. In his wise statement, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus leaves open the question of how much the emperor’s share might amount to. Thinking about the Gospels overall, though, that small coin alone may be Caesar’s portion. Jesus clearly points our priority toward God.

Pentecost 20A

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 15, 2023

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 32:1-14

The uninvited wedding guest (1631), oil painting on panel by Vincent Malo (c.1602-1644). Muzeul Naţional Brukenthal, Sibiu, Romania. (Click image to enlarge.)

No matter how badly God’s people behave, it seems that our loving Creator manages to find ways to forgive us. In our Track One first readings in this liturgical season, we have followed the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph as they escaped slavery in Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, trekked through the desert, and received the 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai, making a covenant with God. But now things have gone wrong. Fearful of Sinai’s smoke and thunder and afraid that Moses won’t come back from the mountain, they fashion and worship a golden calf. God, outraged, threatens to destroy the people. But Moses pleads for them and God’s abundant love flows in forgiveness to a people who may not deserve it, but who will be forgiven again and again.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 25:6-9

Isaiah prophesies in the context of Israel’s relief from foreign domination after its Assyrian exile. Isaiah exalts and praises a God seen as a warrior who destroyed the enemy while protecting the poor and needy. Then the narrative turns to a beautiful song of hope: In verses that we often hear as a reading in our liturgy for burial, the prophet sings of a banquet that God will prepare: “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines … of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.” This is to be a feast for the people of all nations, united at last in a kingdom where death and tears are no more.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

The Psalmist looks back at the people’s wickedness in worshipping the golden calf, recalling how in this way they threw away the great gift that they had just received. They forgot God, their Savior, who had watched over them in Egypt and brought them safely across the Red Sea and through the desert. They deserved destruction, the Psalmist sings. Yet Moses stood up for them and turned God’s wrath aside.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 23

Is there any more beloved song of God’s deep and abundant love than the 23rd Psalm? Our Good Shepherd is always with us, comforting us and protecting us. Our Shepherd is with us not only in the good times when we walk in the green pastures, but all the more in those frightening times when we must walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Just as Isaiah spoke of a banquet table set for the people of God, the Psalmist, too, sees a table of comfort spread out for us in the house of the Lord.

Second Reading: Philippians 4:1-9

Paul shows his pastoral side as he addresses an issue in his flock involving two women leaders in the church at Philippi – Euodia and Syntyche – who have been quarreling. Without taking either side, he urges both of them to “be of the same mind in the Lord.” In beautiful language, he shows how that might look: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Be gentle and kind; true, honorable and just, pure, pleasing, commendable and praiseworthy, Paul exhorts this community, and the God of peace will be there.

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

We follow last week’s account of the wicked tenants with yet another challenging parable. It’s easy enough for us to grasp the king’s anger at the people who didn’t show up for his son’s lavish wedding banquet, even if destroying the people and burning their city seems more than excessive. But then, after he invited people off the street to take the place of their ungrateful predecessors, this wrathful king angrily ties up and throws out a man who had failed to put on a wedding garment. To put all this in context, remember that we are still in Matthew’s narrative in which Jesus uses a series of striking parables to lecture an angry group of Pharisees. If there is any deeper message, it may be that we are called to follow Jesus fully, wedding garment and all.

Pentecost 19A

Posted on October 2, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 8, 2023

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Moses the Prophet, Eastern Orthodox icon from the 1590s, depicts Moses holding the tablets of the Ten Commandments. We hear the Exodus account of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments in our Track One first reading this week. (Click image to enlarge.)

God commands. We the people try to obey; but it isn’t always easy. Listen for this theme in Sunday’s Track One readings. In our first reading we find Moses at Mount Sinai in the desert, where Moses has met God face-to-face on the mountain and brought the Ten Commandments down to the people. Establishing their identity and their hope, the people join in covenant with God, accepting the commandments that will guide their lives and ensure their righteousness in relationship with God and others.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 5:1-7

In Isaiah’s poetic song God plants a vineyard and cares for it with love. But the harvest yields wild grapes: “stinking, worthless, sour” fruit in the original Hebrew. What happened? The vines metaphorically stand for the people, who disappointed God by failing to be just and righteous. Now God will trample down the vines, destroying the vineyard. Early in Isaiah’s long book of prophecy he is already setting the scene for a people defeated in war, their city destroyed, sent into exile. Listen for vineyard metaphors through Sunday’s Track Two readings and ponder their relationship.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 19

God’s commandments are a wonderful gift, a gift that shows God’s glory in such a shining light that all the heavens sing: All the skies reveal the work of God’s hand! This triumphant Psalm begins with mighty praise for the beauty of all God’s creation. Then the theme turns to a hymn of praise for the commandments, God’s law and teaching. True, just and righteous, God’s commandments stand even above the earthly creation that we have just celebrated. They are sweeter than honey, more precious than gold.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 80:7-14

The Psalmist might well have had Isaiah in mind while writing these poetic verses. Isaiah had warmed that a disappointed, angry God, loathing the sour fruit, would demolish the vineyard, tearing down its wall and hedge and ordering a drought to lay it waste. This Psalm imagines a people who brought a vine out of Egypt, made it mighty, but then neglected it and let it wither. But now we beg a compassionate God to regard and restore the bountiful vines, bringing in a hint of hope that is not found in the dark verses of our Isaiah reading.

Second Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

Paul has left his church community in Philippi to travel onward. Now other Christians preaching a more conservative Jewish view of Christianity have come to this church in Greek Macedonia and told the people that, despite Paul’s teaching, if they wish to be Christians they must follow Jewish law – including purity laws and circumcision. Paul pushes back in this letter. He points out that he is a devout Jew himself, and a Pharisee too, observant and righteous. But now. he says, everything has changed: The old commandments, he says, mean nothing without Christ.

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-46

Jesus challenges the temple authorities with one of his difficult parables involving vineyards and the people who work in them. When this vineyard owner went to another country, he hired tenants to produce the grapes for him while he was away. But when he sent slaves to pick up the produce, the tenants beat them up and killed them. Next, remarkably, they did the same to the owner’s own son! What, Jesus asked, would the owner do? Surely he will kill the evil tenants, the priests and Pharisees respond. But Jesus turns the parable back on them: It is those who work to produce fruit who will inherit the Kingdom of God. Angered, the temple leaders start plotting to arrest Jesus.

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 18A

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Oct. 1, 2023

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 17:1-7  

The Holy Children with a Shell (John the Baptist on the right with the child Jesus.) Painting c.1670 by Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo (1617-1682). Prado Museum, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

The people in their journey through the desert continue being hard to satisfy, quarreling with Moses and doubting whether God is really watching over them. In last week’s reading we saw God responding to their hunger with daily rations of quail and manna. Now they have no water, and even if their whining seems to annoy Moses, it’s hard to blame them for grumbling in their thirst. God instructs Moses to go ahead with some of the elders to strike a rock with the rod that he had used to part the Red Sea’s waters. He complies, and when he hits the rock, water comes gushing out to slake everyone’s thirst.

First Reading (Track Two): Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

Three weeks ago we heard the Prophet Ezekiel warning the people that although God does not want to kill them, they surely must die if they do not repent, turning back from their wicked ways. Today, we hear a similar, longer exhortation from earlier in the book, another stern warning that contains a glimpse of hope. Again Ezekiel sees repentance as the necessary response to a dangerous pattern of behavior: Fail in righteousness, refuse to be just, and you must die. But repent, turn away from wickedness, and enjoy life in the grace of God, who takes no pleasure in your death or that of your children. “Turn, then, and live.”

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16

Writing centuries after the ancestral story of the people’s exodus from Egypt and their journey through the wilderness to freedom, the Psalmist joyfully recalls that narrative with no hint of the quarrelsome, complaining times when the people forgot God’s blessings. In this hymn of praise that “declares the mysteries of ancient times,” these verses echo to future generations how God’s power and marvels opened the sea, led the people toward freedom, and, indeed, brought water gushing out of a cliff like a river.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 25:1-8

The five or six Psalms that follow immediately after the beloved 23rd Psalm also sing praise and gratitude to a loving God who cares for us and protects us from our enemies. Echoing the ideas that Ezekiel expressed, when we sing this Psalm we remember that, though we may have sinned, transgressed God’s love and hopes for us, we nevertheless trust in our loving, saving God to remember us with compassion, protect us, and guide us toward right paths in spite of our errors.

Second Reading: Philippians 2:1-13

We hear more of Paul’s beautiful letter to his dear friends, the Philippians, from his prison cell in Rome. Be encouraged and consoled by the life and love of Christ, he exhorts them. Be as humble and unselfish as Jesus, placing the needs of others before our own ambition; and in doing so, live as Jesus lived. Then he turns to the poetic phrases of an ancient Christian hymn, proclaiming that Jesus – although made in the form of God – “emptied himself” in utter humility, taking instead the form of a slave, obediently accepting death by crucifixion; and in so doing became exalted as our anointed Lord and master.

Gospel: Matthew 21:23-32

We have skipped over several chapters and a great deal of activity since last week’s Gospel. Jesus and his disciples have reached Jerusalem, entered the city with palm-waving, cheering crowds, and angrily thrown over the money changers’ tables in the temple. Now it is a new day, Jesus has come back to the temple, and the wary high priests try to trap him by asking with whose authority he teaches, heals and speaks. But Jesus traps them back with his own trick question about John the Baptist that they can’t answer either way without getting into trouble. Then Jesus moves on to a parable that, as parables do, asks a thought-provoking question: Is it better to walk the walk or talk the talk?

Pentecost 17A

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 24, 2023

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 16:2-15  

Gleichnis von den Arbeitern im Weinberg (Parable of the workers in the vineyard, 17th century), painting on panel by Jacob Willemsz de Wet (1632–1675). Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary. (Click image to enlarge.)

God showers us with abundant good, even when we have done nothing to deserve it: This is the gift of God’s amazing grace, and we hear about it throughout Sunday’s readings. In our first reading, the Israelites are in the wilderness. They may have been saved from the Egyptian army by God’s mighty hand at the Red Sea, but they are unhappy now, six weeks later, bitterly complaining because they have nothing to eat. They wish God had just killed them in Egypt, where at least they could eat their fill. But God provides, promising them meat in the evenings and bread in the mornings, which prove to be quail in the evenings and, in the mornings, the miraculous flaky manna that falls to the earth like dew.

First Reading (TrackTwo): Jonah 3:10-4:11  

Last week we heard in Matthew’s Gospel about the parable of the king who forgave a slave’s debt – until that slave declined to forgive his debtor in turn. Now in the Hebrew Bible we find more insight into God’s desire to forgive. Jonah had fiercely resisted God’s call to prophesy to Israel’s ancient enemies in Nineveh until God sent him there, despite his refusal, via the famous giant fish. Arrived in the ancient capital of Israel’s Assyrian enemies, Jonah prophesied as ordered. Much to his surprise, the people of Nineveh changed their minds and gained God’s favor. Rather than being joyful, though, Jonah has an extended tantrum because God declined to destroy the city. “Just kill me now,” Jonah shouts. But God stands firm, choosing mercy and forgiveness over revenge on a city of 120,000 innocent people and all their animals.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45

We read the first few verses of this same Psalm just three weeks ago. This Sunday, though, after the introductory praise to God’s holy name, we jump ahead to verses that remember Israel in the desert: The cloud and fire that led them; the quail and bread that fed them, and the water that flowed from the rock. All this is placed in the context of the covenant that God made with Moses and the people at Mount Sinai: God will give the people land and wealth. The people will follow God’s teaching and laws, living lives of righteousness and justice.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 145:1-8

Like a great symphony that ends with a mighty coda, the book of Psalms comes to a triumphant close with six joyous hymns of praise for God’s great glory. Psalm 145, which serves as a transition to that finale, reinforces the message that we heard in Jonah: The Psalmist exults in God’s righteousness, grace, generous mercy and steadfast love. We ponder the glorious splendor of God’s majesty and all God’s marvelous works, as the Psalmist exults in God’s righteousness, grace, generous mercy and steadfast love.

Second Reading: Philippians 1:21-30  

After spending the past three months reading Paul’s letter to the Romans, we will now devote four Sundays to getting to know his letter to the people of Philippi. This was a Gentile community in Macedonia, Northern Greece, largely populated by the descendants of Roman soldiers. It was Paul’s first church in Europe, and his affection is apparent throughout the short letter. He is thought to have written this letter from prison in Rome, where his execution was a real possibility; and this may have inspired his reflections on life and death. If he lives, he says, he will take joy in continuing to spread the Gospel; but he is just as willing to die, for he understands death as being with Christ forever.

Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16  

The parable of the workers in the field makes us stop and think, as the parables of Jesus are supposed to do. How would we feel if we had worked all day for our pay, only to see some other people who came in late and worked for only an hour getting the same amount as we had? Unfair! If we had stood on a street corner in a day-labor market, though, waiting for someone to offer us work, we’d probably be overjoyed at the unexpected generosity of our wage. God’s ways, as we see so often in Scripture, are not our ways. We all earn God’s grace in equal measure, no matter who we are or what we have done. What God gives to others takes nothing away from God’s gifts to us. We should joyfully celebrate God’s abundance, not jealously grumble about it.

Feast of St Matthew

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Robin Garr

Illuminations on the readings for Sept. 24, 2023 (Feast of St. Matthew)

First Reading: Proverbs 3:1-6

Matthew the Apostle (c.1360), painting by Master Theodoric of Prague (c.1328-c.1381). National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic. (Click image to enlarge.)

The feast of a church’s patron may be transferred from its usual date to the closest Sunday, so we celebrate the Feast of St. Matthew, which normally falls on September 21, this Sunday in place of the 17th Sunday of Pentecost. The readings chosen for this day reflect the tradition of Matthew as a tax collector elevated to apostle and evangelist. In our first reading, the Book of Proverbs advises us to keep God’s commandments and use them to guide our lives, If we do so, Proverbs assures us, we will be amply rewarded with a good life and good reputation.

Psalm: Psalm 119:33-40

The Psalmist’s message, a brief snippet drawn from the longest of all the psalms, echoes the Proverbs reading: Learn God’s laws and commandments and follow them faithfully. God’s way turns us away from what is worthless, we sing: God’s way gives life.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

The second letter of Timothy, one of several short pastoral epistles written by later followers in Paul’s name, offers guidance to a growing church. It mirrors the Psalmist’s call for unity in tradition, guided by Scripture. As you read or hear it, though, bear in mind that when it was written in the late first century or early second, the New Testament was not yet assembled into a book, and the Gospels had only recently been written down. “Scripture” meant the Old Testament, summarized in Torah’s command to love God, love our neighbor, and care for the poor and the alien.

Gospel: Matthew 9:9-19

Matthew’s Gospel portrays him as a tax collector, a position that would have made him roundly despised in ancient Israel. The tax collector preyed on his neighbors on behalf of the hated Roman empire. Nevertheless, when Jesus called him, Matthew followed … and then they sat down to dinner in Matthew’s house. Having mercy and calling sinners is Jesus’s way, not self-righteously looking down on those we consider beneath us.

Pentecost 16A

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 17, 2023

The Children of Israel Crossing the Red Sea (c.1855), oil on canvas by Frédéric Schopin (1804-1880). Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 14:19-31

Themes of hope and forgiveness resonate through Sunday’s Lectionary readings. In the first reading, God sends a powerful east wind that divides the sea, allowing the Israelites to cross on dry ground. When they reach safety, the water rushes back at Moses’ command, and Pharaoh’s entire army is drowned. The people are amazed, and fear the Lord. But now begins a pattern of alternating joy and anger that will repeat itself often during the people’s journey through the wilderness: When Pharaoh’s army had them trapped at the water’s edge just before this miracle, they had been angry at Moses and at God, and demanded to be taken back to the relative safety of slavery in Egypt.

First Reading (Track Two): Genesis 50:15-21

In a reading last month, we read about Joseph’s brothers arriving in Egypt, fleeing famine but terrified that Joseph, who had risen to a position of great power as Pharaoh’s chief advisor, might seek revenge against them for the way they had threatened to kill him, then sold him into slavery. Now more years have passed. Their father Jacob (later called Israel) has died, so they are worried. Without their father’s protection, will Joseph finally turn on them? They weep and beg Joseph’s forgiveness for their crime. But Joseph, weeping as well, reassures them: God has chosen their family to be a great nation.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 114

One of the many Psalms of praise – its ringing “Hallelujah,” literally, means “Praise the Lord” in biblical Hebrew – Psalm 114 is well chosen to read after today’s first reading: It reflects on events of the Exodus and sings out praise for God’s acting to bring the people out of slavery to the promised land. When God commands, the seas flee. Rivers turn back. Even mountains and hills skip like mighty rams and little sheep. The entire earth trembles when God appears.

Alternate to the Psalm (Track One): Exodus 15:1b-11,20-21

This ancient song of victory follows immediately after the narrative of the parting of the waters in Exodus. Imagined as a hymn of triumph sung by Moses and all the people, it praises and exalts God as a powerful military leader whose glorious strength shattered the enemy, drowning their threats of vengeance and destruction as quickly as lead sinks in water. Then, in the closing verses, the prophet Miriam leads the women in a triumphant dance of exultation with drums and tambourines.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 103:1-13

Just as Joseph forgave his brothers, God forgives us, heals us and redeems us. God pours out so much goodness on us, the Psalmist sings, that our youth is restored, our infirmities wiped away, and our lives brought back from the edge of the grave. Even when our sins arouse God’s anger, we are forgiven; we don’t suffer the punishment that our wickedness deserves. Instead, God showers us with mercy, loving us like a mother loves her children even when they misbehave.

Second Reading: Romans 14:1-12

Last week we heard Paul tell the Christians of Rome that the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves, as Jesus had taught, is the greatest commandment, including all the other commandments within it. Now, in the last reading from Romans that we will hear this season, Paul teaches that loving our neighbors obliges us not to judge our neighbors. Don’t be critical of our neighbors because they do things differently than we do. Even if our neighbor makes us angry, he says, we are to forgive, standing together in giving glory to God, leaving judgement to God.

Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35

Peter, perhaps thinking about Jesus’ instructions in last week’s Gospel about working out disagreements in the church, wants to know exactly how many times he must continue forgiving a person who sins against him repeatedly. Is seven times enough? No, Jesus responds, not just seven times but 77 times, and it’s reasonable to assume that he really means to continue forgiving always. Then Jesus tells of a slave who, forgiven a crushing debt, cruelly fails to forgive another slave’s smaller debt. The slave is punished, and we are left to remember how Jesus taught us to pray: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Pentecost 15A

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Robin Garr

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Sept. 10, 2023

First Reading (Track One): Exodus 12:1-14

God loves us. God is faithful to us. In times of turmoil and of fear, these simple ideas that we hear through Sunday’s readings offer reassurance.

The First Passover (1562), painting by Huybrecht Beuckelaer. Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, Maastrich, The Netherlands. (Click image to enlarge.)

In the Track One first reading, we see the origin of Passover: Having fought hard-hearted Pharaoh through a dozen plagues with God’s help, the people are now ready to escape from slavery in Egypt. But first they must be saved – literally by the blood of the lamb – from the bloody savagery that is about to strike the children and animals of Egypt and their pagan gods. The details of this gory sacrifice may belong to a different time and culture, but they reveal the grace through which God’s people march toward freedom.

First Reading (Track Two): Ezekiel 33:7-11

Our Track Two lectionary readings continue taking us on a walk through the prophets and the ancestral stories. This week we meet Ezekiel, a prophet who tradition identifies as a priest taken to Babylon in exile after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Why did this terrible thing happen after God had made covenant with the people and given them the promised land? God is punishing them for their wickedness, the prophet cries out, carrying God’s words to the people. God has no desire to punish the people, and wishes only that they would save their lives by turning back – repenting – from their evil ways.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 149

Sunday’s Psalm, like the first reading, celebrates warlike violence in language that reflects Bronze Age sensibility in the Ancient Near East, yet 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.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 119:33-40

Here we are again singing a portion of Psalm 119, the longest of the Psalms, which turns up often in our Sunday readings. The entire Psalm celebrates Torah – God’s laws and teaching, the first five books of the Bible – as a glorious gift to humankind. Consistent with the theme of God’s love and protection that infuses this week’s readings, it finds joy in knowing that the path of the commandments is the way of life.

Second Reading: Romans 13:8-14

The commandment to love one another incorporates all the commandments, Paul tells the Christians in Rome. Love, he says, in words that remind us of his beloved passage on love in 1 Corinthians, does no wrong to those around us. If we love our neighbors, we won’t hurt our neighbors. We won’t kill them, we won’t steal from them, we won’t be jealous of what they have. Love fulfills the law. Hoping that Christ would soon return – salvation grows nearer every day, he reminds them – Paul urges his flock to live honorably, not behaving badly or gratifying earthly desires, but “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20

This Gospel reminds of of Jesus’ promise that we remember with joy whenever we approach the Communion table: He will be there among us, conscious of our deepest wishes, whenever we gather in his name, in prayer and in the real presence of the Eucharist. We also get a glimpse of the way that early Christians tried to work out disagreements through small group conversations before taking the matter to the full church to be resolved only as a last resort. We’re probably relieved that we don’t sort out one another’s sins this way any more, but let’s take note of a deeper message: When we gather together, in celebration or in conflict, Jesus is with us and shows us the way.