Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for July 9, 2023 (Pentecost 6A)

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Listen for God’s call, and trust in God.

Detail from the Feast in the House of Levi (1573), oil painting on canvas by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588). Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy. (Click image to enlarge)

This theme in Sunday’s readings begins with the story of Rebekah in our Track One first reading, who responded with faithful trust to God’s call. Much as Abraham did when he took his family to a new home and a new land, Rebekah leaves home and family for an arranged marriage to Abraham’s son, Isaac, a man she has not yet met. God promised Abraham that his offspring would become “a great and mighty nation.” Rebekah hears that if she goes to Isaac her children will become “thousands of myriads.” Asked if she will accept this call, she responds simply, “I will.” Her faith may be as great as Abraham’s.

First Reading (Track Two): Zechariah 9:9-12

The prophet Zechariah, celebrating the people’s return from exile and their hope of restoring the Temple, envisions a humble yet powerful king who will come to reign in peace and restore the nation’s prosperity, a Messianic prophecy that Christians can imagine as foreshadowing Jesus. Matthew later will find Jesus so vividly portrayed in these verses that he adopts the wording precisely, including the poetic repetition of Hebrew verse – “riding on a donkey … on a colt, the foal of a donkey” – in his portrayal of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on two animals on Palm Sunday.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 45:11-18

Sunday’s portion of Psalm 45 is a wedding blessing, a hymn that the original Hebrew describes as “a love Originally written to a princess from Tyre. The princess had come to Israel from that ancient island kingdom and occasional rival to Israel to be joined in a royal marriage. These verses celebrate the pomp and joy of the coming wedding. They also highlight the Psalmist’s hope that future generations will remember and praise the bride, a prayer for future blessing that echoes God’s promise of myriad descendants to Abraham and Rebekah.

Alternate Psalm (Track One): : Song of Solomon 2:8-13
The Song of Solomon, also known as Song of Songs, is a lyrical collection of ancient Hebrew love poetry. Curiously, it, along with the book of Esther, is one of the only books in the Bible that does not explicitly mention God. Rather, we are left to find the image of God in the joy of giving and caring love. These verses are understood as a rhapsodic song of springtime, but their metaphorical evocation of love speaks to our hearts even during summer’s heat.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 145:8-15

This psalm of praise, one of the 73 psalms traditionally attributed to King David, echoes today’s reading from Zechariah in its vision of a humble, powerful king who reigns in peace and prosperity. This kingdom of glorious splendor, the Psalmist sings, is not merely a kingdom for here and now, but one that is known in glory to all people. It will be an everlasting kingdom that endures through all the ages.

Second Reading: Romans 7:15-25a

In our recent second readings, we have heard Paul assure the Christian community in Rome that when we die to our old lives enslaved to sin through baptism, we are born to a new life freed from sin through God’s grace. Now, declaring himself “a wretched man,” Paul acknowledges that it’s not easy to leave sin behind. Even when his mind wants to do what’s right, Paul confesses, he can’t get rid of the sin that lives within him. He can’t fight sin on his own – and neither can we – without God’s help through Jesus, who frees us from the enslavement of sin.

Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Jesus seems frustrated. Preaching to crowds around Capernaum in Galilee, he likens them to children bickering and whining. Perhaps Jesus feels irritable because some people who considered ascetic John the Baptist’s call for repentance crazy and judgmental are now criticizing Jesus’ joyous embrace of life as evidence that he is a glutton and a drunk, who dines with sinners and tax collectors like Matthew. But then Jesus pauses and thanks God. His words of hope for Israel’s children and infants turn gentle. Can we hear a foretaste of the Beatitudes in these words, the promise of God’s Kingdom coming to all who bear burdens and labor under a heavy yoke?

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for July 12, 2020

First Reading (Track One): Genesis 25:19-34


God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. But the ancestral legends of the chosen people show us that this outcome won’t be easy.

Landscape with the Parable of the Sower (1552), oil painting on panel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526/1530-1569). Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, Calif. (Click image to enlarge.)

Abraham and Sarah had to wait until she was 90 years old before the miracle of Isaac’s birth. In Sunday’s Track One first reading we recall that Isaac and Rebekah, too, prayed for 20 barren years before their twins, Esau and Jacob, were born. Jacob, a notorious trickster, talks his moments-older sibling, in a moment of hunger, into giving up his rights as firstborn in trade for a bit of bread and a pot of lentil stew. Jacob’s tricks reveal once more that God does not choose unbelievably perfect people, but works through flawed and sinful humans.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 55:10-13


In Sunday’s Track Two first reading we hear the concluding verses of second Isaiah. This is the second of the three ancient prophets who bible scholars believe participated in writing this memorable book. Overall, the three writers tell of the chosen people’s exile to Babylon and their eventual return home to Jerusalem, where they build a restored temple. In these verses, having assured the people that God has forgiven their failures of justice, Isaiah in these verses paints a beautiful image of God as the giver of life and sustenance and all that is good. His image of seeds and the sower and Earth’s bounty sets the stage for Jesus’ parable of the sower that we hear in Sunday’s Gospel.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 119:105-112

We hear parts of Psalm 119 a dozen times during the three-year cycle of Lectionary readings, so it will probably come as no surprise to hear that its 176 verses make it the longest of all the Psalms. All of those verses are devoted to a long, loving celebration of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. “Torah” is usually translated in this context as “law,” “ordnance” or “decree” throughout the psalms, but it might be better expressed as “teaching,” a point of view that reveals God’s loving desire for us to live in good relationship with God and each other. Following God’s decrees – God’s teaching – brings joy even in darkness and time of trouble, the Psalmist sings.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14

This psalm of praise and thanksgiving beautifully reflects Isaiah’s portrayal of God as the generous creator who made the world and all that is in it, and who provides bountiful water and grain, pastures and flocks. Perhaps originally sung as a harvest thanksgiving, it chants praise for the overflowing richness of God’s abundance and for the joy it provides to those who receive it. This abundant seed has fallen on good soil and yielded a hundredfold.

Second Reading: Romans 8:1-11


Paul, a proud Pharisee who considered himself righteous and blameless under the law, the teaching of Torah, now tells the Romans that Christ’s resurrection has freed us from the law of sin and death. If we follow the ways of the world, he warns, we are subject to sin and death. But when we accept God’s Spirit through Jesus, we gain life and peace. Our mortal bodies gain life because the Spirit dwells in us.

Gospel: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23


For the rest of the season after Pentecost we will follow Matthew’s account of Jesus’ final journey with the apostles from Galilee to Jerusalem. In many of these Gospels Jesus will teach by using parables, colorful, attention-getting metaphors. Sunday we hear the parable of the sower, the first parable that Jesus tells in Matthew’s Gospel and the only parable that Jesus explains. It is tempting to look for specific instruction in the fates of the seeds that fall on the path, on rocks, among thorns, and on fertile ground. Perhaps the message is this simple: Sow God’s word extravagantly, everywhere, and rejoice when it falls on good soil and the harvest is rich. Or are we being told to decide what kind of soil we will choose to be when we hear God’s word? The parables of Jesus don’t come straight at us. They make us think.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for July 16, 2017

Esau and Jacob (1695-96), Painting by Luca Giordano, Prado Museum, Madrid.

God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. But the ancestral legends of the chosen people show us that this may not come easily. Abraham and Sarah had to wait until she was 90 years old before the miracle of Isaac’s birth. Today we learn that Isaac and Rebekah, too, prayed for 20 barren years before their twins, Esau and Jacob, were born. Jacob, who grabs his older brother’s heel at the moment of birth, grows up to be a trickster, as we see when he talks his moments-older sibling, in a moment of hunger, into giving up his rights as firstborn in trade for a bit of bread and a pot of lentil stew.

First Reading (Track Two): Isaiah 55:10-13

The people’s exile in Babylon is coming to its end, but the long journey back to Jerusalem and the arduous work of restoring the city and rebuilding the Temple lies ahead. Having assured the people that God has forgiven the failure of justice and righteousness that earned them exile, the prophet now shows God as the giver of life and sustenance and all that is good. In these brief verses, the images of God giving seed to the sower and bread for the hungry rings in our ears as we hear Jesus’ parable of the Sower in today’s Gospel.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 119:105-112

We hear parts of Psalm 119 a dozen times during the three-year cycle of Lectionary readings, so you have probably noticed that it is the longest psalm – 176 verses – and that all those verses are devoted to a long, loving celebration of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. “Torah,” usually translated as “law,” “ordnance” or “decree” throughout this and all the psalms, may be better expressed as “teaching,” which reveals God’s loving desire for us to live in good relationship with God and each other. Even in darkness and time of trouble, the Psalmist sings, following God’s decrees brings joy.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14

This psalm of praise and thanksgiving beautifully reflects the Prophet Isaiah’s portrayal of God as the generous creator who made the world and all that is in it, and who provides bountiful water and grain, pastures and flocks. Perhaps originally sung as a harvest thanksgiving, it chants praise for the overflowing richness of God’s abundance and for the joy it provides to those who receive it. This abundant seed has surely fallen entirely on good soil and yielded a hundredfold.

Second Reading: Romans 8:1-11

Psalm 119’s love of God’s law would have had deep meaning for Paul, a devout Pharisee and Torah scholar who counted himself as righteous and blameless under the law. But as a Jewish Christian evangelist, he developed a new understanding that we see him working out in Romans: Christ’s resurrection has freed us from the law of sin and death, not of Torah but of the world. In the world and living in the way of sinful flesh, Paul reasoned, we remain subject to sin and death. But when we turn and accept God’s Spirit through Jesus, when the Spirit dwells in us because Christ is in us, we gain life and peace.

Gospel: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

For the rest of the Pentecost season we will follow Matthew’s account of Jesus’ journey with the apostles from Galilee to Jerusalem. Many of those Gospels will take the form of parables, Jesus teaching in colorful stories that teach through metaphor. Today’s parable of the sower is the first parable in Matthew and the only one for which Jesus offers an explanation. But what does that explanation call us to do? Are we the soil, seeking to be good and receptive when we hear God’s word? Or are we to join the apostles in sowing the word of the Kingdom of God extravagantly, rejoicing when the harvest is bountiful?

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 Sunday, July 20, 2014

Jacob’s Ladder (Detail), Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696-1770

Jacob, a conniving trickster, got himself in trouble and now is on the run. He fears the murderous wrath of his angry older twin Esau, whom he has tricked out of his inheritance and their father’s blessing. Now he stops to rest, dreams an amazing dream of angels, and then hears God’s voice repeating the promise that God gave to his grandfather Abraham and to his father Isaac: God is with him, and his offspring will fill the Earth. Did God reward Jacob’s trickery? No. God knows that we aren’t perfect. God works with broken, troubled people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob … and us.

Psalm: Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23

When Jacob ran from angry Esau, he might have prayed something like this Psalm that tradition attributes to the hand of King David: God loves us and knows everything about us. We may run from God, but we can’t hide. No matter where we are, God will lead us, hold us and keep us.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-25

This Pentecost season, from mid-June through mid-August, we follow Paul through his letter to the Romans as he talks about what life in the Spirit of Christ looks like. Summing up his argument in today’s passage, he reiterates: If we live by our own selfish desires, we die. But if we live in the Spirit through Christ, loving God and our neighbor even as we suffer with Christ – as the Roman Christians had suffered through persecution – we are glorified with him and become children of God.

Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Jesus was a carpenter, not a farmer, but he sure did tell a lot of parables about farming, planting, growing things. Following immediately after last week’s parable about the sower, he moves on to a discussion of weeds in the wheat field. It would be all too easy to read threats of hellfire and damnation into Jesus’ interpretation of this parable, but we don’t have to go there. Read to the end and be reminded that God will reward the righteous, those who practice the love of neighbor that Jesus asks us to practice to help create God’s kingdom on earth. Will we be weeds, or will we be ripe, nourishing wheat?