Pentecost B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 20, 2018

Pentecost

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

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

Come, Holy Spirit! It is Pentecost, and Sunday’s readings speak in many ways about the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. In our first reading from Acts, the Holy Spirit comes into the room in wind and tongues of fire. Every person in the crowd of spectators hears the apostles speaking in his or her own native tongue, signaling that Christ has come for all nations and that the word of God is heard in every language. Peter then preaches to the crowd in the apocalyptic words of the Prophet Joel, foretelling that God would pour out the Spirit on all God’s people in the last days.

First Reading (alternate): Ezekiel 37:1-14

The prophet Ezekiel imagines an eerie, deathly valley filled with dry bones. In these poetic verses, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy, and as he does so, the dry bones become connected, covered with skin, and then breathed to life as a vast multitude. Ezekiel’s prophetic vision reveals God’s promise to restore Israel from exile. In the context of this week’s readings, we may hear it as the work of the Spirit bringing forth life and a multitude of witnesses from the dust and dry bones of death.

Psalm 104:25-35,37

This Psalm of joy and thanksgiving celebrates the diversity of all God’s creation: God has filled the earth and sea with too many amazing creatures to count. Recalling the first story of creation in Genesis, the Psalmist reminds us that God’s spirit was at work in creating the Earth, and that God’s spirit remains active in making creation new again. The loss of breath ends life; new breath restores it.

Second Reading: Romans 8:22-27

Paul’s striking words describe all creation groaning in labor pains like a mother giving birth, while the Holy Spirit joins in “with sighs too deep for words” to help us pray. Like many unusual metaphors, these verses prompt us to reflection that leads to insight. Like a mother eager to hold her new infant, we are eager for the new life that God has in store for us, yet we wait patiently for something that we desire but cannot yet see.

Gospel: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

We turn again to John’s account of Jesus’ last talk with his disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus tells them that he will soon go back to God, the one who sent him, but that they will send an Advocate who will testify on God’s behalf. Even though the apostles have been with Jesus since his public ministry began, he tells them, there is still much that they don’t understand; much that Jesus has not explained. When the Advocate comes, bearing Jesus’ words, much more will be revealed, and then they will understand.

Easter 7B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 13, 2018

Election of St. Matthias

Tirage nomination de saint Matthias (Election of St. Matthias by drawing lots), 12th century painting in the parish church of the vallée de l’Aisne, France. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Three days after Ascension Thursday and one week before Pentecost Sunday, our readings for the last Sunday after Easter mark a pause in time, a moment when the world is about to turn. Our first reading from Acts finds the apostles gathering just after Jesus has been taken into heaven, lifted up into a cloud. Next Sunday we will hear of the Holy Spirit coming down like wind and fire, inspiring the apostles to take the Gospel into the world. But first, asking God’s guidance, they cast lots and choose Matthias to take the place in their numbers left by the departure of Judas, the traitor who betrayed Jesus.

Psalm 1

The first of all the Psalms begins the book with a promise: Happiness awaits those who walk in the way of God. The 150 Psalms, the ancient hymns of the Jerusalem temple, sing an emotional range from joy to fear to anger to sadness to thanksgiving, but the joy of following God provides a recurring bass line. Psalm 1 also celebrates delight in the law, the Torah, understood not as mere regulation but God’s holy teaching: God showing us how to live in love of God and neighbor.

Second Reading: 1 John 5:9-13

Our Eastertide voyage through the first Letter of John concludes today with part of its last chapter. This letter written in the spirit of John’s Gospel by later members of the Johannine community. Its consistent, uplifting theme reassures us again in these verses that we gain eternal life through God’s love given us in Jesus: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Gospel: John 17:6-19

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus spends the night before his crucifixion praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while the apostles wait and try not to fall asleep. John’s Gospel is different: Here we hear Jesus after the last supper, talking to his disciples and praying for them, preparing them to move ahead after he has gone . Having protected and guarded the apostles – losing only Judas from the flock – Jesus now asks God to protect them as Jesus sends them out into the world, as God had sent Jesus out into the world.

Easter 6B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 6, 2018

Jesus giving the Farewell Discourse to his Apostles

Detail of Jesus giving the Farewell Discourse to his Apostles after the Last Supper (1308-1311); Maestà, tempera on wood altarpiece by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 10:44-48

Sunday’s readings build on the theme that we heard last Sunday: God’s love pours out on all the world, and we are called to love each other as God loves us. Our first reading marks a key turning point in Acts: The joyful reaction of a Gentile crowd to Peter’s teaching reveals to the apostles that the Holy Spirit comes to everyone, not only Jewish Christians but Gentiles too. Everyone. Peter asks, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” The answer is clear: Baptism is for all. As we heard in last week’s reading about the Ethiopian eunuch, “Here is water. What is to prevent it?”

Psalm: Psalm 98

This triumphant hymn of faith in God’s power is consistent with the theme that we hear throughout today’s readings: God’s victory shows divine mercy and faithfulness for Israel, but it is not a victory for Israel alone. God will judge not only Israel but all the people of the earth with mercy and equity. In a resounding symphony of thanksgiving, not only the people but even the sea, the lands, the rivers and hills ring out their joy, singing to the Lord a new song.

Second Reading: 1 John 5:1-6

Our second reading and Gospel continue seamlessly where last Sunday’s readings left off, expanding on the same theme. We are commanded to love one another as Jesus loves us. Now we learn in the First Letter of John that the way to love God – to become a child of God – is by obeying God’s commandments, a direction that follows the Jewish tradition of love for God’s law and teaching. In words that echo the triumphant sentiment of today’s Psalm, we hear that our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God brings God’s victory into the world.

Gospel: John 15:9-17

Mark, Matthew and Luke all tell us that Jesus taught – in the spirit of the essential Jewish prayer, the Shema – that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and soul and strength and mind. Then Jesus connects the dots: It follows, then, that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. In John’s Gospel Jesus expands on this theme. Just as God has loved Jesus, so Jesus loves us. Therefore, he commands, “Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Through our faith we go out and bear fruit that will last, like the branches of the vine in last week’s Gospel.

Easter 5B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 29, 2018

The Baptism of the Eunuch

The Baptism of the Eunuch (1626). Oil painting on oak panel by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, Netherlands. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 8:26-40

Hear this assuring message through Sunday’s readings: God’s abiding love is open to all humankind. It showers on us as a free gift. The Acts reading offers a sweet, funny story of the young church: All are welcome, no matter who they are. To join the young Christian community through baptism, all you had to do was ask. Even an Ethiopian eunuch – a foreigner from a strange land, barred from Judaism because his physical condition made him biblically unclean – was eagerly welcomed as an equal. With mutual joy, right there on the spot, Philip baptized him as one of us.

Psalm: Psalm 22:24-30

This relatively short passage comes from a longer Psalm that begins with the memorable words that Jesus uttered from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The despair of the opening two verses quickly turns, though, to the message we hear in this reading, a statement that resonates with Philip’s warm welcome to the Ethiopian eunuch: God is the ruler of all the world’s nations: those already born and all those yet to come. We live for God, we serve God, we praise God, and we fulfill our vow to God by caring for the poor and feeding the hungry.

Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-21

Sunday’s verses from the first letter of John both reflect and add to Jesus’ unforgettable promise as told by John the Evangelist: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you … love one another as I have loved you.” (We will hear that passage, by the way, in next week’s Gospel.) This reading, like last week’s, assures us of God’s love, and in doing so it calls us to action. “Love one another” is not just a suggestion: It incorporates a covenant promise. If we can’t love our brothers and sisters, how can we make room in our hearts for God?

Gospel: John 15:1-8

For the remaining Sundays of Eastertide, our Gospel readings will draw from John’s account of Jesus’ long farewell to his disciples at the Last Supper. Here, Jesus uses the vineyard as an extended metaphor for our relationship with God through Christ. Clearly describing vineyard practices that continue with little change to this day, Jesus shows us how God cuts out weaker branches in order to make the vines strong and productive. We must abide in God as God abides in us; otherwise we risk being pruned and discarded as the weak vines are. But when we abide in God through Jesus, living in God like a sturdy branch on a nurturing vine, we will be strong and fruitful.

Easter 4B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 22, 2018

Good Shepherd

Christ as the Good Shepherd (1750), by an unknown artist from Lower Bavaria. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 4:5-12

This Sunday, coincidentally falling on Earth Day this year, is called “Good Shepherd Sunday” for its focus on God’s protective love. In our first reading from Acts, we see Peter again, brave and bold with the power of the Holy Spirit. He and John have been arrested by the Temple authorities for healing a paralyzed man and preaching that the resurrected Jesus is the Messiah. Unafraid, he reminds them that they are the ones who crucified Jesus, whom God then raised from the dead and – quoting the Psalm 118 verses that we heard on Palm Sunday and Easter – made Jesus, the stone they had rejected, into the cornerstone of salvation.

Psalm: Psalm 23

When Christians read the beloved verses of the 23rd Psalm, we may well imagine the face of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who walks beside us through the valley of the shadow of death. Indeed, John’s Gospel shows us Jesus declaring himself the Good Shepherd in today’s Gospel reading. Originally, of course, the people sang this Psalm in thanksgiving and praise for God, who brought them out of exile and led them home, serving them a lavish banquet while their vanquished enemies could only look on.

Second Reading: 1 John 3:16-24

Jesus loved us so much that he laid down his life for us. This beloved idea from John’s Gospel – which we see reflected here in the first letter in John’s name – is just about as reassuring as the 23rd Psalm. But the rest of this reading becomes challenging when we hear that we are to lay down our lives for one another too. We must not refuse help to a brother or sister in need. In short, we are to be not only sheep, but shepherds, too. Filled with God’s love, we are called to be bold, just as Peter was bold, fired by the Holy Spirit just as Peter was inspired.

Gospel: John 10:11-18

If we step back and read this chapter of John its full context, this seemingly simple narrative intriguingly mirrors today’s reading in Acts. Much like the authorities confronting Peter and John in Acts over their healing and preaching, here the Pharisees are angry and alarmed because Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath, prompting people to speak of Jesus as the Messiah. Suddenly we realize that Jesus isn’t gently reassuring us by calling himself the Good Shepherd; he is pushing back hard against the Pharisees. If the people are harmless sheep, the Pharisees are the vicious wolves who prey upon them. Jesus declares that he will lay down his life for the sheep, and that he will live again.

Easter 3B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 15, 2018

The dinner at Emmaus

La cena de Emaús (The dinner at Emmaus, 1620); oil painting by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) . The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 3:12-19

Christ, the Messiah, has come for all the world. We’ll hear this promise repeated through Sunday’s readings. In the Acts passage, Peter and John have just healed a beggar who could not walk, to the amazement of everyone who saw this once-disabled man walking and praising God. Peter tells the crowd that this man was healed through the power of Jesus, the Messiah, whom they had rejected and had killed, but who will forgive them if they turn to him. It’s best to set aside the ancient echoes of anti-Judaism that we hear now and then in Acts. Hear, rather, God’s gracious promise that forgiveness through the Holy Spirit is available to all humankind.

Psalm: Psalm 4

You may hear the lovely Taizé hymn, “When I call, answer me,” in your head as you read this Psalm. In contrast with the many angry Psalms that call on God to crush and destroy the foe, Psalm 4 raises up a more quiet and trusting confidence that’s echoed in the Taize hymn: “O Lord, hear my prayer … when I call, answer me.” We ask that the light of God’s countenance shine upon us, and we are grateful that we can sleep in peace, knowing that God is watching over us.

Second Reading: 1 John 3:1-7

In a message that resonates with Peter’s speech in Acts, the author of First John assures the people of the early church that we become the children of God through the gift of God’s love as revealed to us through Jesus. Although the world does not seem to know this yet, the writer assures his audience, the world will eventually come to do so. Meanwhile, doing what is right keeps us in relationship with God through Jesus and thus free from sin, for there is surely no sin in Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48

We turn to Luke’s Gospel for one more account of the resurrected Jesus, picking up the narrative just as the two disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus have returned to tell the rest. Suddenly Jesus is standing with them, such a shocking apparition that they respond not with joy but surprise and terror, as if a ghost had appeared! Much as he did for Thomas in John’s Gospel, Jesus invites them to examine and touch his wounds. He takes a piece of fish to eat, perhaps to show that he is no ghost but solid flesh and blood. Then he declares himself the Messiah, and declares that repentance and forgiveness of sins will go out in his name to all nations.

Easter 2B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 8, 2018

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

Incredulità di San Tommaso (The Incredulity of Saint Thomas), oil painting (1601-1602) by Michele Angelo Amerighi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). Sanssouci Palace of Frederick the Great, Potsdam, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Acts 4:32-35

Christ is risen, and we move forward with joy into the 50 days of Eastertide. Sunday’s readings offer us insights into the meaning of resurrection in our lives. Our first readings during the season come from the Acts of the Apostles, the evangelist Luke’s story of the life of the early church. Luke’s Gospel consistently emphasizes Jesus’ command to avoid riches and serve the poor and the oppressed. Now in Acts Luke shows members of the early church following Christ’s example, sharing all possessions and caring for the poor. What can we glean from this to guide life in Christ today?

Psalm: Psalm 133

Sunday’s short Psalm celebrates the joy of a community that lives together in unity like brothers and sisters, a theme that foreshadows the sharing lifestyle that Luke shows us in the early church. The earthy image of anointing oil running down Aaron’s head, beard and robe may sound less than appealing to modern sensibilities, but – perhaps akin to the Gospel accounts of the woman anointing Jesus with very expensive ointment – this reminds us that the most desirable luxuries are not to be hoarded but abundantly shared.

Second Reading: 1 John 1:1-2:2

We will hear parts of the First Letter of John every Sunday during Eastertide. This letter was written in John’s name long after his life, but its overall style is consistent with John’s Gospel, as is the emphasis that it places on love and on Jesus as the Word and the Light. If we walk in the light just as Jesus is in the light, John’s first letter tells us, we have fellowship with one another akin to the fellowship of the early apostles. We only deceive ourselves if we think we are free from sin, it goes on. But when we confess our sins, God will forgive our sins and restore our righteousness through Christ.

Gospel: John 20:19-31

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples at many times and places, the Gospels tell us, often in mysterious ways. In today’s Gospel, the terrified apostles are hiding. Suddenly Jesus is with them in a locked room! Their fear is turned to joy, but Thomas, who missed Jesus’ first appearance, refuses to believe that Jesus is alive until he sees him and his wounds for himself. Jesus doesn’t show anger but offers Thomas peace; but he also asks Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me?” Then, in words for us all to consider, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Easter Sunday B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 1, 2018

The Resurrection

The Resurrection (1665), oil painting by Luca Giordano (1634-1705). Residenzgalerie, Salzburg, Austria. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading or Alternate Second Reading: Acts 10:34-43

Christ is risen indeed! On Easter we celebrate Jesus’ victory over death through resurrection. In this reading from Acts, Luke’s story of the early church, Peter is visiting the home of the Roman Centurion Cornelius, who is considering becoming a Christian. Peter has just had a vision in which God told him that he should join the Roman family at table. No food is now to be considered unclean, a signal from God that salvation through Jesus’ life, death on the cross and resurrection is meant for everyone, not just Jewish Christians. God’s Good News in the Gospel shows no partiality, Peter tells Cornelius’ family. Forgiveness of sin through God’s saving grace is available to every nation, to Jew and Gentile alike: Jesus is Lord of all.

Alternate First Reading: Isaiah 25:6-9

The Prophet Isaiah imagines a sumptuous feast, a table loaded with rich food and fine wine, set out for all God’s people as a celebration of victory over death. Isaiah foresaw this as a national feast in the context of Israel’s dream of return from exile. It echoes through the ages for us as an image of God’s saving grace through Jesus. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; Therefore let us keep the feast.” Amid the joy of the Resurrection and Easter Day, this affirmation that we repeat at Eucharist resonates for us as we praise God in gladness and rejoice in God’s salvation.

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

This hymn of exultation in God’s goodness and mercy may have originally served as a processional hymn as the congregation came up the steps surrounding the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, singing out their gladness. Celebrating the people’s triumph as God saved them from slavery in Egypt with a mighty hand at the first Passover, it is filled with both joy and gratitude. We, too, are overjoyed at our salvation. We are delighted at our victory over death. We are grateful for God’s goodness and mercy. As with ancient Israel, God has heard our prayers, laying a new cornerstone for a just world. This is the day that the Lord has made: Let us rejoice and be glad!

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Near the end of Paul’s first long letter to the Christians of Corinth, he offers thoughts that serve well for our contemplation on Easter Sunday. Paul points to the central place of the Resurrection in Christian belief: Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day and seen by the Apostles and by hundreds of followers. Everyone who saw the risen Christ, he writes – including Paul himself, forgiven despite his unfitness as a former persecutor – now proclaims to the whole world that God’s saving grace comes to us through the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Gospel: John 20:1-18

Like four witnesses discussing a memorable event, each of the four Evangelists tells the story of the first Easter morning in a slightly different way. John’s Gospel gives particular weight to Mary Magdalene, describing her in beautiful, tender verses as the one who discovered the empty tomb and then, after the excited men had come and left, remained there and thus became the first person to witness the risen Christ. In a narrative similar to other Gospel accounts of the risen Christ’s mysterious appearances, Mary did not recognize Jesus until he called her name. Then she became the one sent to proclaim the good news of his resurrection to the rest.

Alternate Gospel: Mark 16:1-8

Mark, the earliest of the Gospels, tells of the events of Easter morning in brisk, concise language, as is the style of Mark. The sun has risen, and three grieving women get up early to take spices to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ beloved body. When they arrive, worrying about who will move the heavy stone that bars the door, they find to their amazement that it has already been rolled away! A young man dressed in white tells them, “He has been raised; he is not here. … he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” It’s not surprising that they were terrified: They ran away and told no one. And there the original version of Mark’s Gospel ends without another word, leaving us to wonder what comes next.

Palm / Passion Sunday B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 25, 2018

Procession: Liturgy of the Palms B

Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem

Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem (1320). Fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti (1280-1348). Lower Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi. (Click image to enlarge.)

Gospel: Mark 11:1-11

Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday were once celebrated on separate Sundays, but the celebrations were brought together in the time of ecumenism that followed Vatican II. As a result, we take a quick and startling turn in the course of one Sunday’s worship. First we hear of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding a donkey and greeted as a King by throngs spreading their cloaks and leafy branches in his way, shouting “Hosanna!” But then, later in the liturgy, we undergo a dramatic change of tone when we hear those same crowds angrily shout “Crucify him!” This contrast sets a tone for Holy Week as we follow Jesus to the cross: God is with us in joy. God is with us in sorrow.

Alternate to the Palm Sunday Gospel: John 12:12-16

All four Gospels tell of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, riding a modest mount and hearing the acclaim of crowds; as is always the case, each Gospel narrative tells a slightly different story. John’s version, for example, is the only one that explicitly declares Jesus the King of Israel, and the only one that tells us the disciples did not understand what is going on. But all four versions share the triumphantly waving branches – here explicitly described as palms – and the joyous shouts of Hosanna.

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

As we sing this ancient hymn of celebration and praise, traditionally titled “A Song of Victory,” imagine a joyous crowd approaching, the Temple, clapping hands and singing out as they celebrate the Lord their God, whose steadfast love endures forever. Its words of joyous praise for God’s works and God’s mercy foreshadow the words we sing in the Great Thanksgiving as our Eucharistic Prayer begins: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! … Hosanna in the highest.”

Liturgy of the Passion B

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

These familiar verses from Isaiah introduce us to “the suffering servant.” Written about the people in exile in Babylon, it prophesies a servant leader who who would receive the enemy’s blows for the people in exile, and, eventually, guide them back home. While we respect the original intent, Christian readers can hardly encounter these verses without seeing parallels with Jesus, our messiah and king, who suffered for us and taught us to give our backs and turn our cheeks to those who strike us.

Psalm: Psalm 31:9-16

Perhaps the Psalmist had Isaiah’s Suffering Servant in mind as he wrote this Psalm of lament, with its litany of sorrow, distress, grief, sighing, misery, scorn, horror, dread and more. He suffers, his neighbors scheme; they plot his death. Have you ever heard a plaint more pitiful than “I am as useless as a broken pot”? Yet amid all this misery, hope glows like the sun breaking through clouds: Trust in God, place our faith in God’s love, and wait to be saved.

Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Might Paul have been thinking of the Suffering Servant, too, as he wrote of Jesus’ death on the cross? We understand Jesus as both fully human and fully divine, and all the Gospels show us glimpses of a Jesus who knew his stature and God-sent mission. Yet in this relatively early letter of Paul, perhaps quoting an even older Christian hymn, Paul tells of a Jesus who willingly set aside his divinity, his equality with God – “emptying himself” – to bear the horrific pain of crucifixion as a vulnerable, frightened human. Jesus took on the full weight of all that suffering to show us the true exaltation of God’s love, calling us only to respond with love for God and our neighbor.

Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47

And now we come to Mark’s account of Jesus’ passion and death. The palm branches and hosannas are only memories now. We hear the dark, painful way of the Cross as we prepare to walk through Holy Week with Jesus. Watch closely as we see first Jesus’ followers, and then even his friends, slip quietly away, deserting him, leaving at the end only those few most close to him – and a Roman centurion, a pagan, a soldier of the hated empire, whose faith showed him the light and thus opens the way to us all. (This Gospel reading may be reduced to Mark 15:1-47 or even to Mark 15:1-39.)

Lent 5B

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 18, 2018

Jeremiah on the ruins of Jerusalem

Jeremia op de puinhopen van Jeruzalem (Jeremiah on the ruins of Jerusalem). Painting (1844) by Horace Vernet (1789-1863), Amsterdam Museum. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34

The consistent pattern of our Lenten Lectionary readings continues: In the Gospels we are following the life of Jesus and his disciples from the Jordan to Jerusalem. The Old Testament readings tell us about God’s series of covenants with the people. In Sunday’s first reading, from the Prophet Jeremiah, we hear that the chosen people broke the covenant promise to walk in God’s way that their ancestors made at Mount Sinai. Now Jeremiah tells of a new covenant that is to come. This one will be permanent, for it is not just written on stone tablets but directly on our hearts. Even when we struggle, we will remember the commandment to love God and our neighbor.

Psalm: Psalm 51:1-13

This familiar Psalm’s powerful narrative imagines King David wracked in repentant guilt as he confronts the great sin of sending his general, Uriah, into harm’s way in battle so he could take Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bathsheba, for himself. In poetic words that mirror the promises of the covenants, we hear of David’s shame and grief. He acknowledges inborn wickedness ad makes no excuses for that, but begs for God’s mercy and forgiveness. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” David begs: A new heart, a clean slate upon which God can write a new covenant of love.

Alternative Psalm: Psalm 119:9-16

Psalm 119, the longest of all the Psalms, carries a message of covenant throughout its many verses: Those who follow God’s laws and teaching, modeling their lives on Torah so as to walk in God’s ways, will reap rewards. Today’s verses follow a Jeremiah reading well. Its verses addressed to God, “With my lips will I recite all the judgments of your mouth,” seem to reflect Jeremiah’s first conversation with God: “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy,” to which God responded, “you shall speak whatever I command you. … Now I have put my words in your mouth.”

Second Reading: Hebrews 5:5-10

Hebrews is not a letter to a specific congregation but a broad appeal to formerly Jewish Christians who had returned to their original faith late in the first century to avoid persecution aimed at Christians by Rome. Its author argues that Jesus, as Christ, follows in the great tradition of Jewish high priests, a line that goes back through millennia to Melchizedek, the ancient king and great high priest who had blessed Abram before God offered the first covenant to Abram and Sarai. As Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation who intercedes on our behalf forever, there is no longer need for priestly sacrifice.

Gospel: John 12:20-33

In the verses just before these, Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem, riding a young donkey while joyous crowds wave palm leaves and shout loud hosannas. Now a group of Greeks, curious to meet Jesus after all this, ask Philip to arrange a meeting, and Philip and Andrew take the request to Jesus. Jesus responds by launching into a message for the world and the ages: Just as Jesus must first die in order to bear the fruit of salvation through his resurrection, we are the seeds of faith and must grow in discipleship like kernels of wheat. Do we lie fallow and die, or do we grow and bloom where we are planted, bearing fruit as we follow and serve Christ?