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.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 5, 2017

Malheur à vous, scribes et pharisiens (Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees) (1886-1894). Painting by James Tissot (1836-1902), Brooklyn Museum.
(Click image to enlarge.)

The people have reached the promised land, and Joshua leads them across the Jordan in a miraculous scene that mirrors their crossing the Sea of Reeds: The river rises up to make a clear, dry path. We mustn’t hear this reading, though, without acknowledging that it shows us a God who will drive out all the people who live there. This ancestral legend may sadly remind us of America’s white settlers driving back and killing our native peoples. From the standpoint of the victors, in ancient Israel and early America, this may have been seen as a good thing for God to do because our people survived and won the battle. In 2017, let’s think about how we might hope that a God of all Earth’s people might care for us all today.

First Reading (Track Two): Micah 3:5-12

We probably know the minor prophet Micah best for his memorable passage toward the end of his short book: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Here, earlier in the book, he becomes the first of the prophets to predict the coming destruction of Jerusalem, a fate that he calls inevitable as long as its leaders fail to provide justice and equity. False prophets who mislead God’s people face shame and disgrace, he shouts. Jerusalem’s leaders will see the temple plowed like a farmer’s field and the city left in ruins.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37

In a hymn of thanksgiving that echoes the ideas in our Joshua reading, we sing gratitude for God’s goodness and enduring mercy. In poetic language its stanzas recall how God redeemed the people from the hands of their foe. God gathered the people and guided them through the desert, took care of their hunger, thirst and low spirits, and delivered them to a bountiful land and a fruitful harvest.

Psalm: (Track Two): Psalm 43

The Psalmist, embattled against ungodly, deceitful and wicked people, calls on God for help and strength. Fearful that God has set him and his needs aside while the enemy oppresses him, the Psalmist prays in beautiful, poetic verses that we may recognize as one of the opening sentences used at the beginning of Morning Prayer: “Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.”

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Picking up where last week’s second reading left off, Paul continues assuring the Thessalonians that his ministry to them is reflected in his love for them, in contrast with reports of serious disagreements with his nearby community in Philippi. He remembers how he toiled with them in their labors at the same time as he was proclaiming the Gospel, to prevent his presence among them from being a burden. He loves them as a father loves his children, Paul writes; he thanks God that they accept the Gospel as God’s word at work in them.

Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12

After a series of confrontations in which the Herodians, Saduccees and Pharisees tried to trap Jesus, they finally gave up and no longer dared to ask him questions. Now he scorns his opponents, declaring them hypocrites who avoid work, dress well, and show off their purported holiness by taking the place of honor at banquets and in the synagogues. Do not do as they do, Jesus warns his followers, for they do not practice what they teach. Live and work in humility, not pride, he advises them: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

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 Today’s Lessons for Nov. 9, 2014

The Wise and Foolish Virgins. Unknown master, Flemish, oil on oak panel, c. 1480. Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

This week’s readings are challenging. They make us work to discern how these selections from Scripture might guide our lives. Here we see the people renewing their covenant with God as they enter the promised land. They recall their path out of slavery in Egypt, and they promise to be faithful to God, placing no other gods before God. But what do you think about the people’s gratitude that God drove out the Amorites who lived in the land to make a home for Israel? Does this troubling verse make you think about our treatment of the American Indians or Israel’s modern relationship with Palestine? How do you suppose God might expect us to interact with the world’s nations in modern times?


First Reading (Track 2): Amos 5:18-24

This week’s readings are challenging. They make us work to discern how these selections from Scripture might guide our lives. The prophet Amos begins with a frightening question: What if God’s judgement does not go well for us? What if God rejects our prayers and turns away? What if we run from a lion only to be eaten by a bear!? But there is hope. As the verses that surround this reading assure us, when we seek good and not evil – when our justice and righteousness flow like mighty waters – then God will be with us.

Psalm: Psalm 78:1-7

We sing only the first seven verses of a very long Psalm today. The Psalm in full goes on to recount the sins and failures of the people, a sorry narrative that ends happily, nevertheless, with the love and skillful guidance of God. Today, however, we hear good news of God’s gifts to humankind, God’s words and teachings that we should pass down to our children and their children’s children.

Psalm (Track 2): Psalm 70


Today’s Psalm, too, begins on a dark note. The Psalmist is beset by enemies who would not only kill him but enjoy his misfortune and gloat over his losses. The Psalmist wants justice: Let those enemies suffer the shame and disgrace that they seek for him! Can the poor and needy who seek God count on God’s protection? God is great. But please, God, the Psalmist begs: Hurry, God, please. Don’t make us wait!

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Hey! Is this about the Rapture? Well, not exactly. Yes, some Christians do read this passage as a literal prediction of dead and living believers all being lifted up through the clouds to meet Jesus at the last trump. But most bible scholars find a simpler explanation: Early Christians expected that Jesus would come back and establish God’s kingdom very soon, while they still lived. But now it was a generation later, and some people were dying! Would they miss Jesus? No, says Paul. Be encouraged: All will be saved.

Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

When Matthew tells us that Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven will be like this,” we can expect the following parable to challenge our expectations. Sure enough, this story is just as unsettling as the other “kingdom” parables we’ve heard recently: the outcast who had no wedding garment; the murderous vineyard workers; and the workers who were all paid the same. Here, the bridesmaids who didn’t plan ahead were locked out of the banquet, dismissed by the bridegroom, even though he was late, himself! Is Jesus telling us that the kingdom of heaven is unfair? No. Rather, the parable offers simple wisdom: Jesus, the bridegroom, is coming: Be ready!