Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for June 30, 2024

The Raising of Jairus’ daughter (c.1546), oil painting on canvas by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588). The Louvre, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Our journey through the story of Israel’s kings moves into the second book of Samuel. After a series of conflicts between Saul and David, King Saul has died, the battle against the Amalekites has been won, and David is king in his own right. Despite his troubled relationship with Saul, in this Track One first reading we hear David mourning Saul’s death. But that sorrow is eclipsed by David’s deep grief over the loss of Jonathan, Saul’s oldest son and David’s beloved friend. The reading concludes with a long, loving ballad that David calls the Song of the Bow, in which he declares Jonathan’s love for him “wonderful, passing the love of women.”

First Reading (Track Two): Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24

Love is so strong that it has power even over death: Our loving God desires neither death nor destruction for us. We hear these hopeful ideas in Sunday’s Track Two first reading, and they recur through the day’s Lectionary selections. First we read the Wisdom of Solomon (often simply called “Wisdom”) from the apocrypha, the 15 “extra” books included at the end of the Hebrew Bible. These verses – which follow just after a warning to an earthly ruler not to invite his own death or destruction by behaving badly – remind us that God’s creation celebrates our life, not our death. God’s creation is a thing of beauty, and righteousness lives forever.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 130

Titled “De Profundis” (“out of the depths”), this Psalm of faith in God’s redemption reminds us that we wait in hope for God’s love and grace even in times of grief, pain and despair. Even in death we await the resurrection, as in night’s darkest hours we wait for morning light. We hear this psalm three times in this Lectionary cycle; it is also suggested for use in the burial of the dead.

Psalm (Track Two): Lamentations 3:21-33

This short, song-like passage is taken not from the Psalms but from Lamentations, a short book traditionally attributed to Jeremiah. These brief verses echo the hope and trust in God’s love that we heard in the Wisdom reading. In these words we sing our hope in God’s steadfast love that never ends, love that is renewed every morning. In words that foreshadow the Sermon on the Mount, we sing of giving our cheek to the one who smites us while we wait for our loving God who will not willingly afflict us.

Alternate Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 30

According to tradition, this ancient hymn offers thanksgiving for recovery from a serious illness. There is faithful optimism in these verses as the Psalmist celebrates the gifts of God that bring joy: an end to the sadness and depression that so often accompanies illness; turning the weeping of those long dark hours of night into the celebration that comes at dawn; and turning the mourning of sickness into the dancing of health.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

To understand Paul, it is often helpful to recognize him as a pastor who loved the people of this little church, but who often found them cranky and difficult to persuade. Knowing that the congregation in Corinth included both hungry poor people and comfortable rich members who sometimes didn’t want to share, he urges them all to live by the generous example of the churches in Macedonia (mentioned in the verses just before this reading): Do your work, earn what you deserve, but give according to your means so all may have enough.

Gospel: Mark 5:21-43

Jesus and the apostles have come back home from their trip across the Sea of Galilee. Now Jesus performs two surprising healings, encountering one on his way to attend to another. The woman with the hemorrhage that has been with her for 12 years was ritually unclean because of that. She was poor and rejected by her neighbors. But she had great faith in Jesus. The 12-year-old child was the daughter of Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, an important person. When Jesus told the crowd around her bed that he could waken their seemingly dead child, they laughed at him. But Jesus did not care about approval. Calmly, without any fuss, he healed both the woman and the child.

\Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for July 4, 2021

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Last week we heard David mourn the deaths of King Saul and Saul’s son Jonathan, David’s beloved friend.

Christ in the synagogue (1868), sketch in oils by Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge (1831-1894). The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. (Click image to enlarge.)

Now David is called by all the tribes and elders to be formally anointed king over all Israel: both the Northern Kingdom with its capital at Hebron, and Judah, the Southern Kingdom, where Jerusalem is the capital. The elders, who had sworn fealty to Saul, now pledge loyalty to David, recognizing that God has called him to be shepherd over Israel. David will reign for 40 years, becoming greater and greater and earning for Jerusalem the title “City of David.”

First Reading (Track Two): Ezekiel 2:1-5

What is it like when we want to share something that’s important to us, but no one will listen … or, worse, people make fun of us for expressing our heartfelt opinion? Sunday’s Track Two readings touch in a way on this spiritual challenge. In the first reading, God calls Ezekiel to prophesy to Israel, an impudent and stubborn people who have rebelled against God. They may choose to hear or not to hear, God tells Ezekiel; but he is to speak truth all the same, so they will know that they have heard a prophet.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 48

Psalm 48 celebrates the founding narrative of Israel’s kingdom in Jerusalem, where the first temple would be built atop Zion, God’s holy mountain. The Psalmist sings praise to the greatness of God, who placed the city of the great king on this lofty hill, the very center of the world. Let the kings of the earth who might march on Zion in hope of conquest look and be astounded, the Psalmist sings. Let them writhe and tremble and run away, for God has established this citadel forever.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 123

Psalm 123 is one of many Psalms titled a “song of ascent,” traditionally regarded as processional hymns to be sung as the priests and people go up the hill toward the Temple. The Psalm calls on a merciful God to hear the prayer of a people whose voices have gone unheard by Israel’s “1 percent,” the contemptuous and scornful rich and proud.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

This passage concludes our seven-week journey in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, and it leaves us with mysterious concepts. Even bible historians and theologians aren’t sure what Paul means about the “third heaven” or the “thorn” that troubles him but that he does not describe. Perhaps the third heaven describes his own spiritual experience, and the thorn an unnamed illness or disability. But Paul leaves us with no ambiguity as to his point: Through prayer and reliance on God’s grace through Christ, we all can struggle successfully, despite our weakness, to endure hardships that come from both within and without.

Gospel: Mark 6:1-13


Growing crowds have been following Jesus around Galilee as he teaches and heals, and now they follow him back home to Nazareth. His old neighbors and friends are astounded at first, too, by his teaching and preaching in the synagogue. But then they remember that they know this guy. He’s the carpenter’s son! What makes him so high and mighty? Indeed, as Jesus said, prophets are not without honor except in their home town. Then Jesus sends out his followers, two by two, to tell the good news, but he warns them to expect more of the same. Don’t dress up, he says. Don’t act special. If people won’t welcome you for the word you bring, move on down the road until you find people who will.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for July 5, 2015

The prophet Ezekiel

What is it like when we want to share something that’s important in our hearts, but people won’t listen … or, worse, make fun of us for expressing our heartfelt opinion? It doesn’t feel good, does it? Each of today’s readings touches in a way on this spiritual challenge. In our first reading, Ezekiel, receiving God’s call to prophesy to a rebellious people, hears that he must speak truth, whether the people listen or not.

Psalm: Psalm 123

This Psalm is taken by tradition to be a “song of ascent” as the priests and people go up the hill toward the Temple in formal procession. It calls on a merciful God to hear the prayer of a people whose voices have gone unheard by Israel’s “1 percent,” the contemptuous and scornful rich and proud.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

This passage is full of mysteries! Even bible historians and theologians aren’t sure what Paul means about the “third heaven” or the “thorn” that troubles him but that he does not describe. Perhaps the third heaven describes his own spiritual experience, and the thorn an unnamed illness or disability, or even a sexual temptation. In any case, there is no ambiguity in his point: Through prayer and reliance on God’s grace through Christ, he can endure hardships that come from within and without … and so can we.

Gospel: Mark 6:1-13


Jesus’ neighbors aren’t impressed. Who is this, the carpenter’s son, to be so high and mighty? Then Jesus sends out his followers, two by two, to tell the good news, but he warns them to expect more of the same. Don’t dress up, he says. Don’t act special. If people won’t welcome you for the word you bring, move on down the road until you find people who will. This may sound harsh, but it contains an important message to them and to us: Not everyone will listen when we tell Jesus’ story, but we’re still called to work in community with others, urging all to love God and our neighbors as Jesus taught.