Lectionary Readings
(from the Revised Common Lectionary)
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Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year B
Summary
The church always begins her year looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ. Advent is not a dramatic reenactment where the church pretends to wait for Baby Jesus to come visit us. It is an opportunity to actively anticipate Christ’s second coming at the end of time. Sermons from the Gospel reading should center on Jesus’ advice to be ready for the Day of the Lord to come very quickly, and exhort the congregation to exercise a vigilant, hopeful anticipation for that day.
It is also worth stressing that, for Christians, the Day of the Lord is now! Jesus arrives in our lives through the empowerment and conviction of the Holy Spirit, so do not wait until the end of the world to respond to his presence and promptings. Parallels may be drawn to Isaiah’s prayer, especially his fearsome description of the Lord acting with finality from on high, and his affirmation that the Lord is on the side of those who wait faithfully for him. Verses 7-8, in the 1 Corinthians reading, also reinforce the theme of hopeful and vigilant preparation to receive the Lord when he comes, noting that the source of such faith is in the grace of God, not human power.
Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year C
Summary
At the beginning of the final cycle of the church calendar, the theme of beginning at the end should be familiar. Advent’s theme isn’t a theatrical “waiting for baby Jesus,” it’s waiting for Jesus to come again at the end of time. So the posture of anticipation is not put on, but a true expectation of what is to come. Jesus’ speech about the cosmos being shaken to its core at the end of the world tells us that the visible world is transient and insecure (modern science confirms this) and only God himself is sure. The picture is of entropy, sometimes gradual, sometimes quick and disastrous. However, in the midst of this chaos, Jesus himself will intervene and redeem the faithful. Jesus offers a positive direction to change. To stand before the Son of Man is to be transformed into new life, a reverse entropy. So our lives are constantly in flux one way or another, and the surest way to lose is to remain sedentary, concerned only with settling the present cares of our lives. Jesus, on the other hand, challenges us to be on the alert for his coming, being sure that we aren’t led astray from the security of God in the transience of a dying world.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year B
Summary
Advent is a time where John the Baptist’s voice is heard most clearly. We do not need to look farther than him for an example of what it means to serve the Lord in vigilant anticipation.
In the Gospel reading, John fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy of the messenger who goes ahead to prepare the Lord’s way. How does he do this? Both the Gospel’s quotation and the text of the first reading tell us: It means making rough places smooth, filling valleys, and razing hills to make a level place. Verse 9 in the Isaiah reading speaks of the glorious and hope-filled message of the Day of the Lord from “up on a high mountain.” And so the Messenger’s job is to level any other high and prideful place that would interfere with the signal of God’s broadcast, to lift up those in low places so that they can hear the message clearly, and to straighten the winding paths of fruitless and vain pursuits that distract from attending to the Lord’s words and his presence.
Preachers may want to align John the Baptist’s vocation with that of the Christians to whom they speak. It is the job of all Christians to be messengers like John: To clear the floor so that they and those around them can hear clearly God’s promises and act accordingly.
2 Peter reminds us not to expect God’s timing in making good on these promises to line up with ours. What appears to us to be slowness (verse 9) or frightful suddenness (verse 10) results from our limited perspective. The only proper response is diligence, cultivating lives of purity, peace, and blamelessness (verse 14).
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year C
Summary
The second Sunday in Advent always focuses on John the Baptist because he is the bridge between the Old Testament and the New. Besides offering factual, historical data, Luke introduces John in exactly the same way as the Old Testament prophets “in this time and this place, under this ruler, the word of the Lord came to ”¦” (compare this with the first few verses of any of the prophetic books: Jeremiah 1:1-3, Ezekiel 1:2-3, Micah 1:1, etc.). The word from God to John is the last verbal word before the Word comes incarnate. Luke’s quotation of Isaiah’s prophecy of John emphasizes that John’s and Christ’s is a ministry of repentance: crooked paths straightening and mountains and ravines being leveled out. John’s baptismal ministry is one of repentance, turning away from wicked and slothful habits in order to stand at the ready to receive the sudden coming of the Lord (cf. Malachi 3:1-4). Hardly a one-time thing, repentance is something believers must constantly practice as sin and sloth creep into daily rhythms, so the congregation may be encouraged to consciously practice repentance for sins and habits they may have felt convicted of over the past year but have not moved to act upon. Because the Lord comes suddenly, there is no time like the present!
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year B
Summary
John the Baptist’s testimony about himself contrasts with his testimony about the Christ who is coming. It is a good opportunity to bring forward the joyful humility the Christian life brings.
It is too common today to think of the Christian’s imitation of Christ as an amplification of the self. “Jesus wants you living your best, brightest life now!” seems to be the message. But John’s confession is the opposite: A joyful renunciation of his own authority. He is not the Christ, nor does he claim the mantle of Elijah, nor the Prophet spoken of from of old. He is, instead, merely a voice that speaks of Jesus. He baptizes with water only, prefiguring the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He is not even worthy to adjust the Master’s footwear! He is not the light confirmed by his later affirmation in John 3:30 that he must decrease as Christ ascends.
Preachers may attend to the 1 Thessalonians reading to describe the content of John’s (and our) disposition toward Christ. If we empty ourselves like John, it is to make room for his infilling which produces a life attuned and alert: rejoicing, vibrant in prayer, careful in discernment, quick to give thanks, and shielded from sin.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year C
Summary
The crowds wondering whether John could be the Christ is understandable. The events of John’s life mimic the Lord’s: he comes from a miraculous birth, leads a popular movement encouraging repentance, preaches to the crowds, excoriates the religious leaders, and dies at the hands of the rulers. There is a very specific reason for the similitude. The Old Testament prophets were often commanded by God to do symbolic actions to amplify their verbal message (cf. Ezek. 4, 24). John’s very life is a “speech-act” that heralds Jesus’ life and ministry, proving the continuity between the old covenants and the new. Christians too should expect their lives to become such “speech acts” mimicking Christ’s. This is not a matter of life or career planning. John certainly didn’t plan his own trajectory, but his life nevertheless took on Christ’s shape because he was fully open to God’s molding his habits, life, and path. We too should open ourselves, day by day and moment by moment, to the Spirit’s influence. If we practice this simple way, we will find at the end of our lives that we have imitated Christ and heralded him to the people around us.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year B
Summary
The Old Testament and the Gospel, on this final Sunday before the Nativity, bear a striking contrast: God chooses a surprising and unexpected dwelling place! God refuses David’s offer to bless him with a splendid temple and chooses instead a Virgin’s womb. This contrast is fruitful ground to explore several important themes and charges. That humble and small beginnings are chosen by God in order to display his power, that luxury and power are man-made and mean nothing next to God’s might, and that God loves to lift up the poor.
The preacher should not fail to miss the Lectionary’s focus on Mary as God’s choice of temple, the means by which he accomplishes his promises to David. The Romans reading affirms that the promise to establish David extends to all Christians through the gospel.
The implications are dizzying, but the preacher may be anchored by the option to replace the Psalm with the Magnificat. Mary herself shows the best response to God’s grand and mysterious plan””joyful and total submission to God and his will.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year C
Summary
On the last Sunday of Advent, the story goes back to Mary. Luke’s special focus on women includes Elizabeth in the story which gives us the immortal story of John leaping in her womb (a detail that could only have been related by the experience of an expectant mother). Luke also points out that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. Like John witnesses Jesus, Elizabeth witnesses Mary: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.” When Gabriel tells Zechariah that God would accomplish the unlikely and that they would conceive a son even in advanced age, he doubts. But Mary, confronted with the news that God would achieve the impossible in her, believes. This great faith is the basis of all the church’s teaching on Mary and also makes her the best application for the preacher. By imitating her, we too can invite the Lord to do even the impossible through us. Replacing the Psalm with the Magnificat is an opportunity for the congregation to respond to God in faith using her words
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper I Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year B
Summary
At Christmas Eve, the preacher must be vigilant not to ease into a comforting exposition of the well-known Christmas story. As the last Christian feast our society bends around, the temptation will be to preside over the palpable sensations of hearth and home like the merry Spirit of Christmas Present. But the feast is too foundational, the Scriptures too portentous, to cover over with gauzy sentiment.
It is probably a good idea to let the Isaiah passage lead the themes and exhortations, because it gives meaning to Luke’s moment. The Lectionary gives us no room to shy away from the Christological target of the millennia-old prophecy. It is about the gladsome arrival of Jesus Christ, the promised child, surely more (and more wonderful) than anyone bargained for. The new birth is the realized hope of Israel and a light to the nations. The congregation would be well exhorted to imitate Mary as they go home to their dinners, presents, and families””to treasure these things quietly in the midst of the hubbub, that their faith may not burn off with the moment, but be confirmed by prayerful contemplation.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper I Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year C
Summary
The modern Christmas Eve service was once the midnight mass that began the three services (at midnight, dawn, and daytime) of the feast of Christmas. The preacher should pay special attention to the arc of these passages and may make use of the time of day to evoke the themes of the readings. The first reading: here at night as the world sleeps, the church witnesses light: the birth of a ruler who will bring an everlasting dominion of peace to the world which will end war and injustice forever. The second reading brings the moral dimension to the King’s salvation: setting aside sin for purity and replacing perennial human temptations with the desire for good works. The Gospel reading ends with the angel messenger bringing the “glory of the Lord” to shine around the shepherds. The theme of light casting out darkness should take center stage and provides the preacher with many real-world circumstances familiar to people: sin, oppression, fear, anxiousness. The Lord’s light breaks into all of these, casting them out as surely as light overwhelms darkness.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper II Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year B
Summary
In this first of the two Christmas day services (traditionally at dawn), the Gospel reading from Christmas Eve is (largely) repeated, however a new Isaiah reading takes center stage. God’s vow to restore Jerusalem ends with an encouragement that the “Daughter of Zion” recognize her salvation is arriving. The preacher should not be timid to draw the Marian parallel here since she is a type of the church. Salvation is indeed “with her,” literally to be found inside of her, and from her womb springs the firstborn of a redeemed, holy people. Titus spells out the terms of that salvation hinted at in the Isaiah passage: Entrance through the baptismal waters of new birth in the Spirit, justification by Christ, one great movement leading to the hope of eternal life.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper II Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year C
Summary
This Gospel of this second service in the Christmas trilogy, extended to verse 20, may focus on the shepherds’ response to the message: “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” This can be used as a teaser for the final Christmas Day service: where the John 1 reading will give full meaning to those who have followed the angels’ news to witness for themselves the glorious birth of the savior. At this early hour, however, the first reading may be an encouragement to those who have managed to pull themselves out of bed and show up at this sparsely attended service: the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem who do not rest. These are often the poor, the lonely, and those without families to celebrate with. They may be honored here as the church’s stalwart sentinels, using the eyes of faith to look ahead with the shepherds to the true light of which the comforts and consolations of the holidays are but signs and shadows.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper III Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year B
Summary
The principle text for the feast of Christmas is undoubtedly John 1. Each of the Gospels, in the sequence in which they were written, begin Jesus’ story earlier than the last. Mark begins at Jesus’s baptism, Luke at the Nativity, Matthew’s genealogy extends back to Adam himself. John, astoundingly, begins before all beginnings.
From this dizzying vantage point before and above all creation, the preacher may feel vertigo, since there is literally nothing in all the universe that is irrelevant to this text, and therefore an infinite number of possible themes to be explored, so it will helpful to follow the text of the Gospel itself to properly relate these cosmic mysteries to the church to whom they have been revealed.
John 1:14 grounds the mystery of the eternally begotten logos and the incarnation, not in an appeal to philosophical categories, but in concrete experience. “We saw his glory” (NASB) ought to be taken straightforwardly as an eyewitness report, not some sense of spiritual or intellectual “seeing.” Though Christ is above and before all things, the main message here is that he was directly experienced, and may still be today through his Holy Spirit and in prayer.
Ordinary human contact with the divine is what our faith is built upon, not clever philosophical ideas. Hebrews drives this point home, declaring that Jesus is the “perfect imprint” of the Father. The un-seeable God is made perceptible, which brings theology into simplicity, eternity into time.
Preachers ought to craft their messages with this “downward” movement in mind, not staying in the clouds of cosmic mystery, but proclaiming the gospel that the highest God has made himself fully knowable to limited beings, even little children. Our sermons ought to be just as knowable!
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper III Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year C
Summary
The Principle Service of Christmas day””which sadly has been completely replaced in modern American culture with private family gift-opening””brings definition to the blinding light of Jesus’ coming. So central is the John 1 text to the nativity that it will be repeated on the second Sunday after Christmas just to make sure nobody has missed hearing it. Here is the mystery of the nativity which Christians celebrate: not the birth of a great man but the very author of all creation, the original light that gave light to all things, entering secretly into his own creation to save it. Those who believe and turn toward him may be called the children of that light. But that Light entered his creation in a very specific way that is not to be missed: by taking flesh, indicating his mortality and the mission of death. Finally, the preacher must emphasize that in Christ the Father’s glory has been witnessed, seen by the ordinary eyes of men and women. Jesus is not a synecdoche for empty philosophical speculation on the meaning of life or inspiring and insightful motivational speeches about how to live a fulfilling, “meaningful” life. He is God from God, light from light eternal: the perfect image of the Father. This all-important fact will set the congregation up for the following feast of the Epiphany that will make manifest the character and will of God as revealed to us by the incarnate Lord.
Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday after Christmas Day—Christmas, Year B
Summary
Jesus’ purpose was also the purpose of the creation of Israel from the very beginning. Isaiah’s declaration that “the nations will see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory” was not new. God promised Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed by his offspring.
The faithful Simeon is granted the special vocation to declare that this promise has been fulfilled in the child Jesus””“a light of revelation to the Gentiles.” These words are so precious to the church that she sings them often in the Nunc Dimittis (perhaps a good tip to your worship leaders for this Sunday!). Likewise, the holy woman Anna is given that same recognition and becomes an early evangelist to a larger group of faithful Messiah-watchers.
Paul, in Galatians, spells out the mechanics of this promise: the astounding truth that the Messiah has not just brought a shining example to the non-Jewish peoples, but comes to them as an adopting father!
The preacher would do well to bring the hidden theme of the Holy Spirit forward: that the Spirit who spoke through the prophet Isaiah and revealed Jesus’ Messiahship to the prophets at the Temple, is the very same Spirit that inspires our own hearts to cry out to God the Father! This is just one of many more avenues to take through these three interlocking texts.
Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday after Christmas Day—Christmas, Year C
Summary
The very recently added feast of the Holy Family is intended to display Jesus’ family as a model for Christian families. But what we find in the scriptures are not warm paeans to the institution of the nuclear family, but rather stories of children separated from their parents. These episodes show how the human family has meaning and purpose only when it is offered up to serve God’s greater mission. Hannah’s gift of her firstborn Samuel to the Lord causes him “to grow in stature and favor both with the Lord and with men” and brings her more children. In the same way, modern parents””though beset by the pressures to mold their children into high performing “machines”””must not understand themselves as the sole custodians of their children’s upbringing. Instead, they ought to follow Hannah’s example through prayer, devoting their children to the Lord and trusting him with their children’s futures rather than their own capacities as capable parents. We see the same dynamic heightened in the gospel passage. Jesus’ answer to his parents’ understandable concern at his absence: “did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” indicates that God’s mission supersedes even the natural bonds of his earthly family. This is a good opportunity for the preacher to remind that all those who walk in faith reside in the house of the Father and compose God’s true family (cf. Mark 3:33-35; John 1:13) which brings celibates into the center of the Holy Family.
Another option: The Gospel story of Jesus in the Temple is an important Christological passage for the tradition of the church and a good opportunity for the preacher to address an often-burning question for believers: what did Jesus know as he grew up and what was he capable of as divine and human? First, Jesus’ parents find him in the temple three days after his disappearance foreshadows the resurrection, setting the episode in the context of Jesus’ mission. The passage discloses how though Jesus is conscious of his identity and mission he still had to progress in that mission by normal human means. Hence, we see him “listening and asking questions” of the rabbis. Though his identity as the Son of God seems to have made him a quick study, as we see in the teachers’ astonishment at his “answers and understanding,” he still learns as an ordinary human youth. The church’s consensus understanding of Jesus’ supernatural abilities was that they always served his mission and purpose on earth, and never allowed him to “shortcut” ordinary human travails--hence the Infancy Gospel of Thomas which shows Jesus making flippant use of his divine powers was rejected as a gnostic fabrication. This understanding is supported by Jesus’ refusal of the Devil’s temptation to relieve himself of his human constraints in the temptation in the wilderness and on the occasions where Jesus refuses or “could not” do any miraculous signs due to the lack of faith (Mk. 6:5; Matt. 13:58) and also in the Book of Hebrews’ affirmation that he was “tempted in every way as we are” (4:15). The issue was not the strength of Jesus’ power but that his power on earth had an orientation toward the accomplishment of his mission at the Resurrection--indeed the theologians thought of his earthly ministry “flowed backwards” as it were, from the Resurrection. Therefore, Jesus does no marvelous work that does not serve that mission.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Epiphany of the Lord—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
The Epiphany season focuses on three traditional manifestations: the magi (celebrated on January 6), Jesus’ baptism, and the Miracle at Cana. Luke gives a brief account, with no mention of John’s protestations, so the preacher may focus on the meaning of the scene itself. At his baptism, Jesus stands in the place of sinners. This is the most important part of the picture. Jesus’ ministry would be one of repentance and also accompaniment: he would stand with sinners and accompany them to everlasting life. Jesus’ nearness to sinners is a theme the Gospels return to again and again. Jesus shows up for them in the market and at their dinner tables, consorting with them in public and in private. His baptism shows that intent to go everywhere with them, even to be baptized, when he is the only one who needs no purification. Traditionally, the church also understood Jesus as himself “baptizing” the very waters that would go on to baptize the church, giving them their purifying power. The Holy Spirit’s descent seems to confirm this, and it is also a foreshadowing of what will happen at the baptisms of all Christians. As John says: Jesus’ baptism is not water only, but it also brings the Holy Spirit with it.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Baptism of the Lord (First Sunday after Epiphany)—Epiphany, Year B
Summary
The Epiphany, extended by Anglicans into its own season, covers the main revelations of Jesus’ life and mission to the world. Though the Magi’s popularity in the early church pushed off Jesus’ baptism to the Sunday after the main feast, this is actually the central story of the season. Each year focuses on one of each of the synoptic account, and the preacher will need all three to mine the fullness of this episode’s importance.
Mark’s account is the least detailed, but all the more singularly focused on the revelation of the Trinity. The Son is anointed by the Father (more on that next year in Matthew) and the Holy Spirit descends, hovering over the waters: At first the waters over the formless earth, and now over the waters of baptism. The theophany mirrors the creation story of the Genesis reading, where all three are present at the creation. The Father and the Spirit are easy to pick out, but where is the Son? Remarkably, he is found in a verb: “God said.” The previous Sunday establishes Christ as God’s wisdom, so God’s speech, since it always involves his wisdom is necessarily to be done through the Son.
The preacher’s challenge will be to bring these cosmic mysteries to the congregational level. A good route to take would be to note that, even though this is a special baptism of cosmic importance, Jesus’ baptism nevertheless figures our own. God’s aim in creation is to bring forth sons and daughters in whom he can be well-pleased. If Jesus, receiving John’s baptism, was answered with the voice of the Father and the descent of the Spirit, how much more can we, receiving Jesus’ baptism expect to receive from the same! Jesus’ baptism changes the rite forever; from a mere sign of repentance to fellowship with God’s own Son, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, under the radiance of the Father’s love.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year B
Summary
Jesus, revealing himself, calls his servants to him. Nathanael’s response to that call is particularly poignant for people in our age of isolation who are seeking identity: “How do you know me?” The Fathers’ opinion of Nathanael as a learned man, versed in the Scriptures, cuts an even more striking parallel to modern people. Nathanael is famous for his skepticism of how the Messiah could come from Nazareth.
But far from making him out to be a doubter like Thomas, John Chrysostom (in his Homilies on the Gospel of St. John, Homily XX) praises Nathanael for not being taken in so easily. His inquiry of how anything good could come from Nazareth reveals his attentiveness to the Scriptures””since Bethlehem, not Nazareth, is named by the prophets as the homeland of the Messiah. But still he follows Phillip’s invitation to “come and see” for himself, revealing that he is not so blinkered as to think that nothing unexpected could be true. This is an invitation to intellectually inclined modern people, both to praise the use of their minds to search the Scriptures for the truth, but also an invitation to go and directly experience the risen Lord.
Jesus also reveals that he knew Nathanael even before he got up to follow him. St. Augustine saw the fig tree spread over Nathanael as a reference to the dominion of sin. Jesus’ selection of him shows how the Lord seeks us out, by prevenient grace, to turn us to him before we could even know how (Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John, Tractate VII).
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
Cana is the final manifestation of Christ celebrated in Epiphany. Here, he reveals himself to his disciples. There is much more to the story than meets the modern eye. First, John speaks of the events transpiring on “the third day” after the fifth day of a week of Jesus’ opening ministry in chapters 1 and 2, which by ancient numbering makes it the seventh day of the week. That this miracle simultaneously happens on the “third day” and the seventh day signifies that what Jesus does here links together Jesus’ resurrection and the work of a new work of a new creation. Clearly this is more than just helping out at a party. Each detail is worth calling to the congregation’s attention. Mary’s statement “they have no wine” recalls Isaiah 24 and 25 where it is foretold that God will reverse Israel’s downfall, signified by a lack of wine, with a great feast of “well aged wine.” Jesus’ answer “what does this have to do with us?” makes clear that his miraculous power isn’t available for solving the pedestrian problem of running out of drinks. He is up to something more. By providing the wine, Jesus identifies himself as the true bridegroom of the heavenly feast, bringing out the wine to fill his people. However, the “hour” yet to come which Jesus speaks of (a recurring theme throughout John) shows that the wine foretold in Isaiah is in fact the blood of the Messiah, poured out on the Cross at the hour of his crucifixion, glorified in his resurrection, and distributed at the Eucharist at the church’s hour of prayer. In the Eucharist, the blood of the Messiah is actually consumed and the people of God partake in the eternal feast which will end with death swallowed up by God for all time. The six stone water pots for the rite of purification signify the old law’s insufficiency, since six is one less than seven, the number of completion and fullness. Here Jesus makes clear that he is not just a Josiah-like figure reforming Israel to her old ways but the generation of something new, indeed the very thing the law had always pointed to: the great feast at the end. Just as one washes one’s hands before the feast, so too did the law prepare the people for the coming of Jesus the Bridegroom.
What to take from this swirl of prophecy and portent? First, that Christ’s objective is not simply to wash the sins off of people, as at the water jars, but to fill them with God’s own life. Also that Jesus is not a guest in our lives, helping us get out of jams from time to time, rather we are guests in his life and invited to the final marriage between God and humanity.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year B
Summary
The same Spirit is at work when Jonah preaches to the Ninevites and the Lord calls the disciples. And so the same results are seen. The Assyrian people, with no background knowledge or reason to believe the word of the Israelite God, somehow believe it and turn from their evil ways. In the same way, the disciples follow Jesus without questions, responding to call of the Word. When Jesus refers to “The Sign of Jonah” in Luke 11, he means this self-authenticating property of the words of God.
This is a good opportunity for preachers to promote confidence in the simple proclamation of the Word of God. All people are God’s children and they hear and respond to their father’s voice. This is important to remember for those who are inclined to saddle the transmission of the Word of God with requirements of proper cross-cultural contact and education. God speaks on his own authority and does not need to be validated by anything outside of itself. The preacher may encourage the flock to evangelize without worrying overmuch about the vagaries of translation and context, because God’s Word carries its own authority and a natural resonance that all human beings in all places can receive.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
Jesus announces his ministry publicly by invoking the messianic prophecy in Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58. Luke reminds frequently that same Spirit that inspired Isaiah is in Jesus (cf. Lk 4:1, 4:14), emphasizing the continuity of God’s words in the Old Testament scriptures with Jesus’ teaching ministry. This claiming of the messianic mantle was misinterpreted--both in Jesus’ day and in ours, as political liberation--as a statement of political liberation. But the jubilee promised by Jesus is not immediate liberation from temporal powers but from the power of death itself. However, the gospel does have immediate temporal consequences. “The poor” are not an abstraction here, and the preacher must not spiritualize the idea. The poor are those with unfulfilled physical needs. Jesus habitually reserves special blessings for the poor, and it is to them that the gospel is primarily addressed. This does not restrict the good news from the comfortable and well off--since all are ultimately subject to the same corruption and death--but it does establish God’s focal point for his work on earth. If the message preached and ministry enacted by our churches is not good for the needy then it is good for nobody.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year B
Summary
This Sunday’s readings continue the theme of the self-authenticating Word. In Mark, Jesus teaches in the synagogue “as one having authority.” Often, the people’s reactions recorded in the Gospels tell us a great deal about Jesus. People are not astonished by sage advice or erudite commentary, as the scribes could give.
Confirmation of this power comes in the encounter with the demon. Jesus’ commands are bound to be obeyed, even by enemies, because they are the very Word of God.
The first reading in Deuteronomy confirms that Jesus’ words are the Father’s, put into his mouth by the Father. The preacher may make use of this to bring to the congregation Paul’s admonition to guard the conscience of the weak. The sort of knowledge that puffs up the knowledgeable is nothing next to the authoritative Word of God. It is better to use our knowledge as a tool to edify the church rather than adding value to ourselves, for what could we, by our cleverness, possibly add to the Word of the Father who speaks things into existence?
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
The people of Nazareth marvel at Jesus’ teachings yet they minimize his person as the “son of Joseph.” The parallel passage in Mark 6:1-3 gives more context: the people are indignant at worst, patronizing at best toward an uppity hometown boy taking up the voice of the divine. There are two lessons to be taken from Jesus’ reply: first that one’s home and family can often be the hardest mission field. Familiarity is a longtime enemy of faith: reducing the transcendent to the immanent and manipulable (Ps. 50:21). If the truth of the Word of God breaking into our immediate lives cannot be resisted then it can be minimized ad hominem by focusing on the foibles of the speaker of the word. One may hear and appreciate the word, but fail to follow the speaker since, after all, isn’t he just Joseph’s son?
The second point follows from Jesus’ rebuke of his countrymen: his mission to the Gentiles. Jesus puts himself in the line of the Old Testament prophets and highlights the several places where God blessed foreigners instead of the Jews to whom they were sent and who had rejected them. The violent reaction to this mirrors the same persecution given to the prophets, proving Jesus’ point.
From this the preacher may point out that the gospel is never comfortable with the familiarity that staid church life often brings. Home, family, and stable community are blessings and offer comfort, but the true Christian yearns to bring the gospel to strangers and those outside the glow of hearth and home. Indeed, that is where one often finds those who are eager to receive it.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year B
Summary
What with all the healings and miraculous works, one might get the impression that Jesus came as a divine doctor, and indeed he did! And yet his concern was for the body and soul of his children. Hence, after healing Peter’s mother-in-law (her quickness to serve is included as evidence that it was a full and miraculous recovery) and many others, Jesus leaves the crowds in order to pray and then tells his disciples that he came to preach in many places.
Paul follows Christ’s vocation in his famous passage that he has become all things to all people so that he may save them by his preaching. But verse 16 and 17 especially stand out when paired with the Gospel reading. Paul’s duty is to preach the gospel whether he wants to or not, but since his will does align with his vocation, his preaching is especially effective, since he molds the mores of his life in order to authenticate the gospel. Even though it was his right, Paul avoided asking for funds from the Corinthians as a proof of his sincerity.
While encouraging the congregation to pursue their vocation of preaching the gospel in their ordinary lives, Paul’s example may be emphasized. Though we are all given the duty to preach the gospel, if we do so with a willing spirit, we become especially effective ministers, since by the holiness and love in our lives we prove the message we preach.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Transfiguration Sunday (Last Sunday before Lent)—Epiphany, Year B
Summary
The Transfiguration is a dazzling display of Christ’s power and authority, but the preacher ought not leave it at that. This is one instance where the details, rather than the big picture, provide the most direct road to an application that makes the passage matter to the congregation.
First, it is significant that Moses and Elijah are the two Old Testament figures who appear there. Moses represents the Law, and Elijah the Prophets. On the mountain of the New Covenant, the fullness of the Jewish tradition acknowledges Christ as its fulfillment, while the Apostles who will lead Christ’s church look on. Perhaps when Peter recommended building three tabernacles to receive the glory there, he was not aware that it was the three of them who would be the tabernacles to take that glory into the world!
Second, this is an opportunity for the preacher to remind the congregation that the entire Bible is about Jesus, including the Old Testament. It is neither academically irresponsible nor culturally insensitive to hold this. It is simply taking the Gospels at their word. Doing so illuminates the Old Testament and breaks down any hostility between the Old Law and the New, and between Israel and the church for who could divide this heavenly court?
Other potential roads to follow up on are the revelation of the Trinity in the voice of the Father, the Spirit in the cloud, and the Son glorified. The voice of the Father calls back to Jesus’ baptism.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Transfiguration Sunday (Last Sunday before Lent)—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
Luke’s account of the Transfiguration is the only one in the Gospels which tells us that Moses and Elijah talked to Jesus about. In the first-year cycle’s Matthew account, we learned about how the cloud, the voice, and the three companions and their fear recapitulate Moses’ encounter with God at Sinai. Here, the discussion between the holy ones, coming on the heels of the passion prediction in verse 22 foregrounds Jesus’ passion and death, alluded to as his “exodus” which would take place at Jerusalem. The scene in Luke mirrors Gethsemane, pointing out that Jesus and the three disciples went to the mountain “to pray” (28). The disciples, unlike later at the Garden, successfully keep awake and witness Christ’s glory. The similitude between the two scenes gives meaning to the preceding commandment to “take up one’s cross.” To share in Christ’s passion is to share in his glory. To drink the cup of his passion is to be transformed. The apostles on the mountain surely reported what they saw to encourage the saints to see in Jesus their own destiny: to walk in the way of the Cross to share in the glorious and great power of Christ’s resurrected body.
Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year B
Summary
Lent has become something of a fad recently, invoked for themes as disparate as self-improvement projects and “shared lament.” So the preacher must take care to set the congregation’s focus and expectations squarely on repentance and reconciliation with God through Christ, by the Spirit (namely, the gospel). Fortunately, the Holy Scriptures show the way.
Jesus gives us the theme of Lent in Mark 1:15: “repent and believe the gospel.” Every deprivation and discipline we go through is for this purpose. There is an explicit connection between the 40 days of lent and the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, and we can participate in Jesus’ deprivations. The important thing about “wilderness experiences”””oft invoked, rarely understood””is to rid ourselves of distraction and pleasures so that we can subsist on God alone such that one overcomes temptation.
Reading about Jesus’ resistance to sin when under the worst temptation, rightly leads us to feel ashamed of our own performance under much less serious conditions. But this turns believers to repentance instead of despair, because the same Holy Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness and sustained him also drives us to repentance and sustains us through its stings. Christ himself accompanies us through our temptations, strengthening us by the Spirit so that we can turn in a good performance.
The first and second readings show the trajectory of judgment, hope, and salvation. God’s judgment on sin is as total as the flood, but he is slow to that kind of anger, offering every opportunity for escape. For Noah, that escape was the ark. For Christians, Peter tells us, it is our baptisms. As Noah and his family were brought through the waters of death, we too are brought through the waters of baptism and into eternal life.
It is important to start the season with these themes of hope and supernatural accompaniment, because it gives believers the reason to endure the convicting pangs of penitence.
Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year C
Summary
Jesus’ temptation is always the first scripture in Lent. In Luke’s account, the devil tests Jesus’ devotion to his saving mission. It is not accidental that, after resisting earthly power and earthly food, Jesus is taken up to Jerusalem, the site of his eventual suffering and death and instead asked to prove his divine invulnerability. We too are tempted to mistake the faith for a scheme for self-satisfaction and empowerment, when in fact the glory of the Christian life is made perfect through weakness and faithfulness through suffering. We can see also a pattern of increasing craftiness in Satan’s tempting, whereby Jesus is first offered power in exchange for worshipping Satan, the next try is to get Jesus to exalt himself and test God’s own care of him. Satan tempts us in much the same way. The familiar and explicit “deal with the devil” is rarely the tactic. Rather, we are usually tempted to worship ourselves and let God play the attendant to our desires. In Lent, we ought to remember that, though we hope in his grace, the fear of the Lord means killing in ourselves the attitude of presumption that would cheapen that grace by causing us to intentionally test its limits. God is the one who tests us, not the other way around.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year B
Summary
The Revised Common Lectionary retains the option of the more traditional Transfiguration reading for the Second Sunday of Lent, but the more recent practice of observing Transfiguration Sunday at the end of Epiphany recommends the Mark 8 reading.
Here, Peter has the unpleasant experience of being rebuked by Jesus for trying to persuade him away from his purpose of death. This even comes after Peter’s famous affirmation of Jesus as the Christ. The preacher should use this opportunity to remind the congregation of the necessity of the Cross, both in Jesus’ atonement for sin and also the believer’s life.
It is very easy to use this passage to affirm the necessity of Jesus’ death to accomplish the atonement for sin, but note that the image Jesus calls attention to is actually the carrying of the cross, which is the suffering along the way. This, Jesus says, is the vocation of every Christian.
The Cross is not an obstacle to get around, a bump in the road to a better life. The Cross is the road. What this means is that the believer ought to expect to suffer, but also to expect to suffer alongside Jesus, since he was the One who went ahead of us. Our sufferings in this life become a mysterious participation in Jesus’ suffering.
So the rebuke was for Peter’s own sake, since by diverting Jesus away from his suffering, Peter would have deprived himself of that supernatural solidarity that Christ offers to the sufferer. We risk the same when we seek our own comfort above all and avoid the hardships that can result from living the Christian life in a fallen world. In these moments, we must put our comforts behind us and walk the way of the cross with Christ, and so we will release the world and its pleasures and gain instead our souls restored by the deep and intimate connection that comes with Jesus the Suffering Servant.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year C
Summary
The Revised Common Lectionary presents a choice of Gospel readings this Sunday. The preacher will be rewarded for choosing the Transfiguration account. Though to modern ears, something rings false about Jesus’ glorification coming in the penitential season of Lent, in fact, it reveals an enormously important truth since it comes right on the heels of Jesus’ command that his disciples deny themselves and take up their cross. The message is that for both Christ and the Christian, suffering and victory go inevitably together. The glory and strength of the Christian life is sourced by its consent to weakness and willingness to sacrifice for the sake of others. The Transfiguration shows where the way of the Cross leads, to glorification on the Mountain of the Lord.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year B
Summary
Traditionally, Lent was a time when catechumens prepared for baptism and penitent sinners prepared for restoration to the life of the church, and the passages aimed at them appear in Year A. The rest of the congregation was not aloof, but stayed in solidarity with these brothers and sisters, seeing in their situations opportunities for its own instruction and progress.
In the Year B readings, Jesus’ identity as the true Temple is revealed in the light of the Exodus. In driving out the money changers, the true temple purifies the old one. In the same way, Christ purifies us, since our bodies are set aside as temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and it is fitting to see Lent as Christ clearing out the impurities in our own hearts to make us into honorable dwelling places for his Spirit.
Other avenues to explore include the self-authenticating power of the death and Resurrection of Christ (which is what Jesus means by “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”). Paul calls attention to the Jewish preoccupation with signs seen in John 2:18, adding to it the Greek obsession with wisdom, but declares that the crucifixion and resurrection is a sign apt to be missed by the sign-searchers; its wisdom seems like silliness to the philosophers. Simple faith is what unlocks the power and wisdom of God, not an attuned intellect, or a penchant for wonderworking.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year C
Summary
Jesus helps us rethink the sense of divine judgment. Jesus does not accept the theory that God sends calamity as retribution for sin. The question is not what sorts of behavior will trigger God’s lethal anger, but why he allows anyone to go on living at all. The image of the fig tree””which may be applied both to Israel and the individual believer--shows that its only purpose in taking up the soil is to bear fruit. If the tree, the human being, or the nation, does not use its resources to do good works, then sooner or later, God will cut it down and put it to other ignoble uses for which it was not created, but may nevertheless serve (cf. Matt. 7:19). The question that should be asked when faced with another’s calamity is not “what did this person do to anger God?” but rather, “what am I doing to fulfill my purpose of bearing good fruit in the world for God’s sake?” Nevertheless, God’s heart is merciful and he sends his Son the vinedresser to cultivate good works and holiness of life in us fallow trees by the nourishment of the Holy Spirit. Jesus prescribes repentance as the appropriate response to God’s saving work. It is a posture that God never despises, even in the driest trees (see Luke 23:32-43).
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year B
Summary
“Laetare Sunday,” marked by its pink (excuse me, rose) vestments is a respite from the austerity of penitence, but not from the act of repentance. The preacher should understand that this is not an opportunity to leave off the Lenten theme of repentance, but to more clearly define it from a fresh perspective.
The Gospel reading bids us look up from examining ourselves to the intentions and character of God. God loves the world so much that he gave his Son to save it. We are not abasing ourselves before a disinterested archon in order to avoid its capricious wrath. God loves his creation, opting to send the Son to save it instead of plunging it into a prompt and irrevocable judgment.
One only falls under the judgment of the God of Love by refusing to believe and accept his mission of love. God places no obstacle between himself and his creation. Instead, it is fallen creatures who obstruct their own salvation by loving the darkness instead of the light, and refusing to believe in the saving mission of the Son.
The elect are those who believe in the Son. But belief is not a passive state of mind. Jesus says that the believer is the one who practices the truth. In Ephesians, Paul reminds us that we were created for good works, and that it is our purpose to walk in them; but even these works were prepared for us by God, so the believer is not left alone to craft a moral life without divine help.
Hence, the whole Lenten movement of repentance””refusing evil and accepting the good””is seen afresh from the vista of God’s eternal love and his desire to rescue his creatures. The preacher should use this opportunity to let the people know that true repentance does not mean negating evil, but receiving good, and doing so will clear away evil deeds as surely as light repels darkness.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year C
Summary
Though the focal point in preaching the parable of the Prodigal Son has been as an allegory for repentance. However, this is hardly a very inspiring portrait. The younger brother remains entirely self-interested, cashing out his inheritance and then after squandering it all, realizing that he would be better off as his father’s hired hand. This emphasizes the love of the Father all the more--how willing he is to restore to full honor even the slightest hint of repentance. However, the overlooked and very significant focal point of the story is the father’s words to the indignant older brother: “All that is mine is yours.” The older brother’s claim that the Father does not lavish love on him for all his dedicated service shows that, in a greatly ironic twist, it is the “good” son who has failed to consider himself as a fellow heir of the Father’s estate, and instead has regarded himself as the hired hand, waiting impatiently for a wage. The father reminds him that he is an incorporated part of the family business, not an outsider hoping to earn his way into the storehouse. In this way, Jesus admonishes the Pharisees for their hardness of heart, despite their proximity to Synagogue and Temple worship. They are unwilling to join God on his saving mission to the world, and so count themselves out of heavenly blessings. The preacher may apply this parable to ourselves by reminding the congregation that each of us shares in God’s “family business” of evangelism, reconciliation, and works of mercy as beloved sons and daughters, not wag-earning slaves. This is the sort of religious posture that draws on the Father’s great storehouse of love for us, distributes it to others, and may finally rest in that eternal love.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year B
Summary
Nearing the end of the Lenten season, those faithfully fasting begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Jesus too, in the Gospel reading looks forward to his glorification, but also his passion. This dual identification between suffering and ultimate glory should be foremost on the preacher’s mind, since it also sets the pattern of life the believer is to emulate.
When Jesus refers to being “lifted up,” this is a rich, multilayered allusion. Jesus has already compared himself to the serpent lifted up in the wilderness in John 3:14””the image of death defeating death. There is also the suffering yet triumphant servant who is “lifted up” in Isaiah 52:13. So, Jesus is looking forward to fulfilling both dimensions of these scriptures by being lifted up on the cross at his death, but then also lifted up on high at the ascension.
The apparent defeat of the Cross and the victory of the resurrection are inseparable in his plan of redemption, and so suffering and victory are inseparable in the life of the believer. Since Jesus suffered, our suffering as believers becomes an opportunity to imitate the Lord. Jesus changes everything he touches, so suffering is no longer meaningless, but the path to victory.
Nowadays, people need a great deal of help to understand that suffering is made valuable by Christ’s passion. The secular world cannot see suffering as anything other than either a tragic misfortune or a preventable malady. But the way of the cross means victory through suffering. Certainly this applies to the deprivations that come from following the commandments to care for one’s parents and the poor. But also the ordinary, inevitable sufferings of this life””like medical and financial woes””become a chance to participate in the Cross.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year C
Summary
John’s account of Mary anointing Jesus for burial contains several details that can help the congregation find their posture at the close of the Lenten season and anticipating the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection.
Like his narration of Jesus’ first week of ministry, John’s Gospel sequences the final days of Jesus’ last week, announcing each day’s passing of this final week. Jesus announces the countdown at 12:23. His hour that he alludes to at his first miracle is now at hand. By the end of the week he will be glorified in his crucifixion. The eighth day, the first day of the new week, will begin the new creation heralded by his Resurrection.
Mary’s anointing of Jesus anticipates the church’s liturgy. She strikes a sacramental image, kneeling before the Lord as we do at the altar in Eucharist. The passage focuses on the sacrifice we may make of our own lives when we come to Jesus in faith to worship him. The word used for the ointment is pistikos (“pure”) deriving from the same root as “faith” (pistis) indicating that her anointing is an act that derives from her great faith. Judas’ legalistic (and also hypocritical, as John points out) criticism shows that the source of good works lie in the worship of Christ, and that extravagant worship in no way contradicts the command to give alms to the poor. Indeed, the work of worshipping God enables service to the poor. John also records the detail in Matthew and Mark about the smell filling the place, recalling the “pleasing aroma” of the sacrifices in Leviticus. Mary truly fulfills Psalm 51:17, that the sacrifices the Lord loves are “a broken spirit and a contrite heart.”
So too as the congregation prepares for Easter, they may be reminded that the effort and treasure expended in worship of Jesus at Holy Week””made more burdensome by its observance in a world in which Holy Week is just another 9-5 work week””is indeed a pleasing sacrifice to God, even a participation in his suffering, even if in a small way.
Our present situation gives us more opportunity to worship like Mary, who alone among the disciples seemed to perceive that the glorification of Christ was on the cross, not in worldly success. Similarly, the world today overlooks Easter, taking no pause to “stay with me.” The bemusement and offense taken at Mary is like what we may experience as we bow out of social gatherings, fast while others feast, or even take time away from work. This is the sacrifice God desires, even as the world may wonder why we aren’t doing something useful with our time and money. The church alone knows that Jesus’ glorification on the Cross is that great good thing from which all other goods come, for Christ alone gives life to the world.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Liturgy of the Palms—Lent, Year B
Summary
The two sets of readings at Palm or Passion Sunday can give people emotional whiplash. It’s hard to reconcile the tone of the joyous triumphal entry with the sorrowful Passion reading while still looking forward to the resurrection. All of this should also matter to the practice of the believer’s faith as more than the memorial of a great deed at a moment in time.
A traditional solution is for the preacher to focus on the Philippians passage, where Paul describes the attitude of Jesus to be emulated in the believer’s life. This makes the memory of Christ’s passion a present reality, a mystery to be participated in.
Another solution is to choose which passage to focus on. Since the Passion is covered again on Good Friday, the triumphal entry is often emphasized on the one day it is commemorated. If this is the chosen route, there are a few canards for the preacher to avoid.
The first is to use the colt to overemphasize Christ’s poverty. Kings routinely rode on donkeys, a comfortable ride in the ancient world. The meaning is found in the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 which sees the king coming to Jerusalem in peace instead of on a warhorse. Second, the waving of palms and cloaks spread on the road are not ad hoc substitutes for a more glorious entry which Jesus deliberately eschews. Rather, they recall the “festal procession” of Psalm 118:27 up to the Temple.
Jesus certainly is “lowly” and his kingdom brings justice to the poor, but the emphasis here is on his rightful authority to rule””a kingship which here is happily celebrated, but will later be rejected by the same crowd, after coming under the influence of the chief priests.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Liturgy of the Palms—Lent, Year C
Summary
The great contrast between joyful hosannas to the passion reading is a feature, not a bug, of the Palm Sunday liturgy. The preacher’s unique job is to help the congregation enter into the mystery of Jesus’ sacrifice, his crowning act of love for humanity.
Luke’s passion narrative places special focus on Jesus’ innocence. What may not be obvious to a modern audience is how Roman justice, though brutal, was generally well-regarded. To be crucified would not have made Jesus a pitiable sight but a contemptuous one. Jesus, next to the thieves, would have been thought to have deserved his fate. Luke’s painstaking reconstruction of events, quotations, and testimonies of the players involved, like one of our modern documentaries aimed at overturning a guilty verdict, is meant to show that the fix was in from the start.
What is remarkable is Jesus’ silence in verse nine. If anyone could take it upon himself to vindicate himself before men it would be the sinless Son of God. But the passage from Isaiah 50 discloses the heart of Jesus: a total reliance on the Father’s purposes that needs no vindication in the eyes of men. It is enough for Jesus that the Father knows his innocence “therefore I am not disgraced, therefore I have set my face like flint. And I know that I will not be ashamed” (v. 7).
When we are unfairly treated by others, we also can choose the way of peace instead of rancor and so enter into Christ’s humiliation, suffering with him on the way to glory.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Liturgy of the Passion—Lent, Year B
Summary
The two sets of readings at Palm or Passion Sunday can give people emotional whiplash. It’s hard to reconcile the tone of the joyous triumphal entry with the sorrowful Passion reading while still looking forward to the resurrection. All of this should also matter to the practice of the believer’s faith as more than the memorial of a great deed at a moment in time.
A traditional solution is for the preacher to focus on the Philippians passage, where Paul describes the attitude of Jesus to be emulated in the believer’s life. This makes the memory of Christ’s passion a present reality, a mystery to be participated in.
Another solution is to choose which passage to focus on. Since the Passion is covered again on Good Friday, the triumphal entry is often emphasized on the one day it is commemorated. If this is the chosen route, there are a few canards for the preacher to avoid.
The first is to use the colt to overemphasize Christ’s poverty. Kings routinely rode on donkeys, a comfortable ride in the ancient world. The meaning is found in the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 which sees the king coming to Jerusalem in peace instead of on a warhorse. Second, the waving of palms and cloaks spread on the road are not ad hoc substitutes for a more glorious entry which Jesus deliberately eschews. Rather, they recall the “festal procession” of Psalm 118:27 up to the Temple.
Jesus certainly is “lowly” and his kingdom brings justice to the poor, but the emphasis here is on his rightful authority to rule””a kingship which here is happily celebrated, but will later be rejected by the same crowd, after coming under the influence of the chief priests.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday)—Holy Week, Year B
Summary
As on Palm Sunday, the preacher has choices on Maundy Thursday. There is the servant leadership on display in the foot washing, the mandate to love one another following Christ’s example, and the all-important institution of the Lord’s Supper. But the preacher will also find a helpful application in an oft-neglected tradition of expounding the Exodus reading on the Passover, (the pasch) and how Jesus fulfills it even now in his church.
Like the Israelites, the church has gathered together for Holy Week. Our lamb is Christ the Lamb of God, a male without blemish (as Jesus was sinless). In the Eucharist, his perfect once-for-all sacrifice is mysteriously made present, and his flesh and blood nourish those gathered in the sacramental bread and wine. In this way we come “under the doorpost” of the lamb’s blood, and death passes us over. But we are also to eat this Eucharistic meal with our loins girded, our shoes on our feet, supplied for action, since we are not supposed to rest in this world but with the Lord at the end of all things.
The church is not a sedentary institution, but the embodiment of God’s Spirit which is always on the move to convict the proud, to bless the needy, and to act as guides””with staffs in hand!””to show the way to salvation.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday)—Holy Week, Year C
Summary
As on Palm Sunday, the preacher has choices on Maundy Thursday. There is the servant leadership on display in the foot washing, the mandate to love one another following Christ’s example, and the all-important institution of the Lord’s Supper. But the preacher will also find a helpful application in an oft-neglected tradition of expounding the Exodus reading on the Passover, (the pasch) and how Jesus fulfills it even now in his church.
Like the Israelites, the church has gathered together for Holy Week. Our lamb is Christ the Lamb of God, a male without blemish (as Jesus was sinless). In the Eucharist, his perfect once-for-all sacrifice is mysteriously made present, and his flesh and blood nourish those gathered in the sacramental bread and wine. In this way we come “under the doorpost” of the lamb’s blood, and death passes us over. But we are also to eat this Eucharistic meal with our loins girded, our shoes on our feet, supplied for action, since we are not supposed to rest in this world but with the Lord at the end of all things.
The church is not a sedentary institution, but the embodiment of God’s Spirit which is always on the move to convict the proud, to bless the needy, and to act as guides””with staffs in hand!””to show the way to salvation.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Good Friday—Holy Week, Year B
Summary
At the Cross, victory and agony are met, death is swallowed up in victory, and the way is opened to everlasting life. But yet sorrow is the theme of today.
Preaching on the passion and the crucifixion, the preacher is rarely without content””Christ’s death for our sins is the foundation of our salvation. Rather, it is the tone of sorrowful victory that is difficult to strike, hence the Isaiah prophecy of the Suffering Servant may be used as a framing device for expounding the passion narrative, offering many themes for the preacher to anchor the homily””and all of them intersect at the cross.
The multilayered theme of the servant “lifted up” (on the cross, in the resurrection, and at the ascension) recurs at Good Friday; his marred appearance is also his exaltation and victory. The reference to “sprinkling” in verse 15 recalls both Israel’s purification rituals and the priest sprinkling the blood of the atoning sacrifice at the altar. The double reference can be linked to the issue of water and blood from Jesus’ side and the water of baptism with which he will purify the nations of their sin.
The preacher will have no trouble finding further correlations between Jesus in John’s Passion and Isaiah’s foretelling of the cross (silent, stricken, pierced for our sins, scourged for our healing, yet sinless and blameless). But the mysterious alignment of suffering and victory in Christ’s “lifting up” at the cross is not to be missed, because it has the power to change the believer’s orientation toward suffering in this life: not as meaningless pains to be anesthetized, but as an opportunity for imitation of and intimacy with our Suffering Lord.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Good Friday—Holy Week, Year C
Summary
At the Cross, victory and agony are met, death is swallowed up in victory, and the way is opened to everlasting life. But yet sorrow is the theme of today.
Preaching on the passion and the crucifixion, the preacher is rarely without content””Christ’s death for our sins is the foundation of our salvation. Rather, it is the tone of sorrowful victory that is difficult to strike, hence the Isaiah prophecy of the Suffering Servant may be used as a framing device for expounding the passion narrative, offering many themes for the preacher to anchor the homily””and all of them intersect at the cross.
The multilayered theme of the servant “lifted up” (on the cross, in the resurrection, and at the ascension) recurs at Good Friday; his marred appearance is also his exaltation and victory. The reference to “sprinkling” in verse 15 recalls both Israel’s purification rituals and the priest sprinkling the blood of the atoning sacrifice at the altar. The double reference can be linked to the issue of water and blood from Jesus’ side and the water of baptism with which he will purify the nations of their sin.
The preacher will have no trouble finding further correlations between Jesus in John’s Passion and Isaiah’s foretelling of the cross (silent, stricken, pierced for our sins, scourged for our healing, yet sinless and blameless). But the mysterious alignment of suffering and victory in Christ’s “lifting up” at the cross is not to be missed, because it has the power to change the believer’s orientation toward suffering in this life: not as meaningless pains to be anesthetized, but as an opportunity for imitation of and intimacy with our Suffering Lord.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Day)—Easter, Year B
Summary
On Easter Day, the apex of the Christian year, it is difficult for the preacher to resist the temptation to take a victory lap or use the sermon as an orientation for the inevitable flock of visitors to the life of the local congregation. But the Resurrection itself ought to be the unbroken focus.
Easter Sunday’s most explicit proclamations of the gospel come from the 1 Corinthians reading (15:3-4) or Peter’s sermon in Acts (10:39-40). In both of these readings, it is worth emphasizing that Jesus’ death and resurrection happened “according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:4; Acts 10:43) and that the whole Old Testament points forward to Easter day.
The John passage is most interesting for how it highlights the factual reliability of the Resurrection, a special interest of modern persons. The disciples are incredulous, assuming other natural explanations. But the evidence militates against these. Jesus himself first appears to a woman, who would not have been considered a credible witness had the disciples wanted to convince the world of a hoax. The linen cloths are seen neatly laid in the tomb, something a graverobber would not have taken the time to do.
The Christian hope has always been placed on the truth of what Jesus accomplished in his resurrection, and it is enough for the preacher to point simply to this so that the people may come to its light.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Day)—Easter, Year C
Summary
It is traditional to read John’s account of the empty tomb every year (see Easter Day commentary on Year B), but the preacher does also have the option to substitute a Synoptic account.
Opting for the Luke account will give the preacher a view of Luke’s special focus on the “last being first” as the women become the “apostles to the apostles.” Two points are worth making: first this detail speaks to the veracity of the Resurrection, since an invented story would not include untrustworthy news bearers (as women were supposed to be at the time) as eyewitnesses. The second detail is to point out how the lowly are often the first to receive the gospel because of their propensity for faith. The women believe the good news immediately while the other apostles take some time. Peter rushing to the tomb is also an example of this, since he was the disciple who had denied the Lord.
Another springboard for the preacher is the image of the burial linens lying in the tomb. Not only is it another proof of the resurrection (graverobbers would not have stopped to undress the body) but it is a symbol of Jesus’ final victory over death. The image is a callback to Lazarus emerging from the tomb in Luke 16 wrapped in linen cloths, symbolizing how even though he has risen from the dead, the ultimate power of death still lies on him, since he would die again. But Jesus’ resurrection means that death, symbolized by the linens, has been put away forever. Therefore “Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him” (Rom. 6:9).
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year B
Summary
Many paths are open to the Preacher in John 20 and it is futile to rank them in order of importance. Jesus’ declaration of peace when he joins the disciples in the room is an opportunity to share that peace always accompanies the presence of Jesus. The church acts, but not randomly; speaks, but not frantically, prophesies, but not chaotically. All is guided by the spirit of peace.
Second, there is Jesus breathing on his church, granting them the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. His church now has his authority to forgive sins and from now on will act in his name. Theological emphases will vary across traditions, but the central fact in the scriptures is that the apostles are made co-laborers with Christ in sanctifying the world, a great responsibility and an exciting mission!
Thomas’ doubts are a supporting story to the above, but have lately become a popular episode to focus the entire sermon on. In attending to Thomas, the preacher should avoid the recent trend of flattering the modern skeptic by lauding Thomas’ high epistemic standard. The story is in John to highlight that the Holy Spirit must be received from Christ in faith. Thomas’ skeptical disposition divides him from his brother apostles””they have put together all of the facts that he refuses to connect: Jesus’s explicit foretelling of his resurrection, the fulfillment of the scriptures in their sight. All this he sets aside until he is given a personal sign, which the Lord graciously grants him. The proper disposition of the believer is to open the eyes of faith and waste no time falling at the feet of Jesus confessing “My Lord, and my God!”
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year C
Summary
Many paths are open to the preacher in John 20 and it is futile to rank them in order of importance. Jesus’ declaration of peace when he joins the disciples in the room is an opportunity to share that peace always accompanies the presence of Jesus. The church acts, but not randomly; speaks, but not frantically, prophesies, but not chaotically. All is guided by the spirit of peace.
Second, there is Jesus breathing on his church, granting them the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. His church now has his authority to forgive sins and from now on will act in his name. Theological emphases will vary across traditions, but the central fact in the scriptures is that the apostles are made co-laborers with Christ in sanctifying the world, a great responsibility and an exciting mission!
Thomas’ doubts are a supporting story to the above, but have lately become a popular episode to focus the entire sermon on. In attending to Thomas, the preacher should avoid the recent trend of flattering the modern skeptic by lauding Thomas’ high epistemic standard. The story is in John to highlight that the Holy Spirit must be received from Christ in faith. Thomas’ skeptical disposition divides him from his brother apostles””they have put together all of the facts that he refuses to connect: Jesus’s explicit foretelling of his resurrection, the fulfillment of the scriptures in their sight. All this he sets aside until he is given a personal sign, which the Lord graciously grants him. The proper disposition of the believer is to open the eyes of faith and waste no time falling at the feet of Jesus confessing “My Lord, and my God!”
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year B
Summary
The congregation may have noticed by now that readings from Acts have replaced the Old Testament during Easter. This is to give special emphasis on the continuity between the ministry of Jesus and that of his church””indeed the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts are one work in two volumes.
Peter’s sermon in the Acts reading is the recommended text for today. The preacher has a special opportunity here to learn gospel preaching from Peter while preparing to preach from that same text. Peter’s wastes no time to get to the central fact of the Christian gospel: the death and resurrection of Jesus. He does so using the Old Testament scriptures (v. 13; also 22-26). He attributes miraculous healing to the name of Jesus and the gift of faith in the receiver (16). He calls his hearers to repent (v. 19) and promises ultimate healing and refreshment.
Note that in this earliest gospel preaching the core message is what Jesus did. Jesus was the greatest teacher, but what Jesus accomplished on the cross for sins, and the new life that becomes possible for those with faith in him was the reason he came into the world. It is the perennial temptation for the preacher to enjoy being a curator of well phrased insights and advice. But the Christian preacher is a newsbringer first and a speaker second. Clever speech does not get the message across, but simple and direct proclamation, the call to repentance, and the assurance of new life.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year C
Summary
John 21:1-19 is a packed passage full of potential focal points that tie up threads begun earlier in John’s Gospel. So, the preacher will be well stocked for future cycles.
The great catch of fish symbolizes the apostolic mission to the world. Numbers are always important in John’s Gospel, and the one hundred and fifty-three fish is, according to Jerome, the total number of species that ancient Greek scientists had, up to that point, identified. The point is that people from every nation would be included in the church, with none left out. Also, the disciples’ need to gather their boats to assist each other in bringing in the great catch presages the episcopacy of the church, where each apostolic see would act as one though independently sent out to the corners of the world.
Verses 9-14 is the second time Jesus serves bread and fish to the disciples by the Sea of Galilee, the first being of course the Feeding of the 5,000””the verbiage in v. 13 is an abbreviation of the fourfold action “took, (blessed, broke), gave” which appears also in the Synoptics’ account of the institution of the Eucharist, and the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24. The action here confirms the link between Eucharist and the apostolic mission. The disciples are now to bring Christ’s resurrected flesh to feed the world (cf. John 6:50-58; Mark 6:37).
Jesus’ three questions to Peter recall his three denials during Jesus’ trial, restoring him. The Gospel is clear that Peter will make good on his professions of love at his martyrdom (v. 19). This passage has helped the church understand that apostasy is not an irreparable sin, provided the sinner returns and repents.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year B
Summary
The unique emphasis to highlight in this Sunday’s readings comes in John and 1 John: that Jesus is the true Good Shepherd and that his sheep, the church, recognize his voice instinctively.
The ability to tell the difference between teachers and prophets that are commissioned by the Lord, and counterfeit shepherds that only use Jesus’ name, is a gift from the Holy Spirit which all believers are given in their baptism, and their ears are tuned to it by their life of hearing the scriptures.
But identifying the Good Shepherd is not just a matter of internal sense. Christ names his willing sacrifice of his life for the sheep as the defining feature of his ministry. Gillian Welch sang it truly:
The king of heaven can be told from the prince of fools
By the mark where the nails have been
Since the call of the Christian leader is to be the image of Christ, then the way of the cross is not optional for those called to spiritual office. Thus, the sermon today may rightly take the form of a pledge that the preacher’s leadership will conform to the way of the cross and not self-service.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year C
Summary
Looking back on the Lord’s life and teachings in light of his Resurrection reveals more than could be discerned before he rose from the dead. That “the sheep hear the shepherd’s voice” is speaking of the church, who faithfully interpret the words of the Lord, because the Spirit of the Lord is in them. The Jews in the passage, by contrast, are seeking to catch Jesus in a compromising position and use his words against him. The point is that faith is the lens through which we properly hear Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels. Even mighty works and miracles cannot convince the one whose heart is set against God (v. 26). How we approach Jesus has everything to do with how we interpret his words and teachings. Faith in his resurrection unlocks the truth. Skeptics will always remain on the outside for however long they keep up the critical attitude, only ever having the experience of challenging and weighing his words and tuning out the call of the Father to his children.
Jesus, wise as a serpent, though innocent as a dove, does not always speak plainly about his status as the Messiah and Son of God to those who work against him. Yet here he does in verse 30. The lesson for Christians in the world is that we, like Jesus, are not bound to always confront the world’s impieties when the timing is unpropitious. However, when directly asked what we believe, we are bound to give a plain confession in order to bear witness to the truth before others, even if it leads to our harm or ostracism. God will provide for our bodily safety (v. 39), or else our eternal rest (v. 28).
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year B
Summary
In the final Sundays of the Easter season, the Gospel readings shift toward Jesus’ words to his disciples at the Last Supper for an important reason: this was the time that Jesus spoke most clearly about how he would remain in his church after his ascension.
The preacher’s job in these weeks is to prepare the congregation to understand the implications of the Holy Spirit’s falling at Pentecost. Two intertwined themes should occupy the preacher’s attention: the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist.
First, the fact that Jesus spoke these words at the institution of the Eucharist should set the context, and this is an excellent opportunity to inform the congregation that their own practice of the eucharistic ritual shares the same context: a special invitation for Christ to abide with us and us in him.
Second, in the Gospel reading, Jesus speaks about the essence and goal of the Christian life: continuing to abide in him so that we bear good fruit. Abiding is an ongoing process, not just a one-time decision. The 1 John reading tells us that we continue to abide in Christ by the Holy Spirit. John 15:4 should be linked with 1 John 4:13 to make clear that abiding with Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, and not our own strength. Our main job is to remain connected to the vine””and this does not come without effort!””and so be assured that the living water of the Spirit will empower us for prayer and good works.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year C
Summary
Returning to the mandatum in light of the Resurrection reveals how Jesus perfects merely human religion. Whereas Jesus gives the sage advice of the golden rule in Matthew 7:12, giving the human rule for the treatment of others, in John’s gospel the measure of Christian love from the Lord among his disciples is God’s divine love. No human code of conduct can create such a love in its followers. Only divine aid by the Holy Spirit can put this kind of love in human beings’ hearts. This is the love that brings Jesus to the Cross, referred to here as his “glorification.” Note that loving as God loves is issued as a commandment, not an optional side-quest for the Christian. This sort of love is to be the defining, glorifying feature of the Christian community.
The listener, rightly, will identify that this love is not naturally occurring in themselves. The preacher’s opportunity here is to exhort the believer to call on the aid of the Holy Spirit. The preacher will need to resist the temptation to take a detour into how Christ’s sacrifice justifies us even in our unworthiness. Though true, this passage shows how the Cross is the very model of love, the greatest work of mercy, and if anyone would come after the Lord they must take up that same cross in the spirit of that same love. The expectation of holiness should not be quenched. Rather the Spirit should be invoked to fill the void the congregants will naturally feel, careful to remind that the Lord himself walks with them along the way.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Sixth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year B
Summary
In looking forward to Pentecost, the Gospel passage this Sunday continues Jesus’ discourse on abiding at the Last Supper, but this time it is paired with the Holy Spirit falling on the house of Cornelius.
One gets the distinct impression that “abiding” is not a quiescent mysticism, but an encounter with the Spirit of God coming in power. This Gentile Pentecost, though coming chronologically later, helps prepare the congregation to consider the original event by making the link to baptism even more explicit. Though we receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism, the Spirit clearly moves first, being “poured out” on those gathered. This movement of the Spirit also preempts any assimilation to the Jewish way of life, prompting Peter to ask whether anything prevents the inclusion of these believers whom the Spirit has chosen to meet into the covenant community.
The preacher has a couple of good points of emphasis here: first, that the only qualification for baptism is repentance in faith. It is frequent for the congregation to imagine that its sole mission is to assimilate others into its own community--it is a Christian community after all! But the Spirit goes where he will, and like Peter we are called to be truthful witnesses to his work.
Second, the church is only the handmaiden to the Spirit’s work, she introduces people to Jesus and then gets out of the way to let his Spirit move!
Third, the church, above all, is called to love those outside of it with Christ’s supernatural love””itself a gift of the Spirit””as the Gospel passage says.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Sixth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year C
Summary
The preacher has the option of two passages in John. If the John 14 passage is selected, there is the opportunity to prepare the congregation for the Feast of the Ascension and its observance on the following Sunday. “I go away, and I will come to you.” In this passage Jesus promises his presence in two ways. First, by keeping Jesus’ commandments Christians prove their love for Jesus and so open themselves to become a dwelling place for God. Second, by the Holy Spirit who is sent from the Father to teach and “bring to remembrance” these words of Christ””this theme will begin preparing the congregation for Pentecost in two weeks. This last point is an especially comforting truth, since it shows how walking the Christian life in faith is not just a matter of following Christ’s good example or internalizing his teachings. It is a spiritual affair in which God himself reaches down to aid us by the Spirit.
The preacher may want to remark that this mode of Christ’s presence is superior to his presence in the body. The distance even between two familiar friends is closed by the Word in our minds and the Spirit dwelling in our hearts. It is as though in going away, Christ has commingled himself even more closely with us than he did in taking on flesh at the Incarnation. The Ascension is not Jesus’ departure but the beginning of an even more intimate presence which is available to every believer through prayer, meditation on the scriptures, and participating in the sacraments.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Seventh Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year B
Summary
On the Sunday after the Feast of the Ascension the table is set for Pentecost. Jesus’ high priestly prayer is appropriately placed here. The prayer is a hinge between Christ’s ascension and the Spirit’s falling at Pentecost. The prayer speaks to the fruitful tension in which believers live their lives.
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (v. 16). A state of constant transition between earth and heaven characterizes the church’s identity and mission. All that she has is from God, her unity is accomplished by the same love that binds the Father and Son together (this is supplied by the Spirit). The feet of the faithful are on the ground, but their eyes and hearts are turned to heaven.
The preacher should emphasize that the meaning of heaven and eternal life is not limited to life after death, but it is a present reality that believers inhabit by the Holy Spirit, a divine life. The doctrine of the divine life is perhaps the most critical thing for modern evangelicals to understand before they are prepared to understand the significance of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling at Pentecost. The Spirit brings life, and that life is lived now.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Seventh Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year C
Summary
The preacher has two options on the Sunday after the Ascension. The annual reading of John 17 is the conclusion of the high priestly prayer (see commentary in Year B). Electing instead to return to the regularly scheduled Gospel of Year C gives the opportunity to bring before the congregation an important theme in Luke’s gospel: That the Holy Spirit establishes the continuity between the Old and New Testaments.
In an age marked by a method of biblical criticism which regards as “historically responsible” bracketing out the possibility of spiritual readings of the Old Testament, it is important to hear how Jesus refers to the entire Old Testament as writings about him (v. 44) and that understanding them in this way is the illumination of God himself (v. 45). For the church, cataloguing the diversity of sources and drawing attention to the joints and seams whereby they were assembled is not an exercise that reveals the true meaning of the scriptures. The key to receiving God’s word in the Old Testament is to understand it in the light of Jesus’ Resurrection, recognizing the Holy Spirit speaking through it.
Detailing the church’s history of interpretation of the Old Testament is probably better left for a special series of teachings (e.g. 1 Peter 3, 1 Corinthians 10, among others). Sufficient for the day will be to emphasize another way that Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension leaves us better off, even than those who walked with Jesus in his earthly life: with the key to unlock all of the riches of Holy Scripture to edify and aid us as we follow Christ to the Father.
Next week, will observe when this same Spirit that spoke of Christ through the Law and the Prophets will descend on his church in power.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Day of Pentecost—Easter, Year B
Summary
The falling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the seal of the Paschal mystery, and the trailhead for the church’s present mission. The preacher will be at pains to stress that we are living today in an age inaugurated by this event.
Some key points to keep in mind is that Pentecost (the fiftieth day after Easter) is mapped over the Jewish Feast of Weeks which celebrated both the harvest and the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. Likewise, Christians celebrate the ripe harvest of souls and the giving of the law of the New Covenant, the law of love written on people’s hearts.
This year, the emphasis lies on Jesus naming the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit convicts the world of sin, not human beings. The preacher would do well to remind the congregation that the Spirit convicts, changes hearts, and calls to repentance. Human cleverness convicts and convinces no one. Also, the Spirit is our connection to the life of the Trinity. John 16:13 says that whatever the Spirit says, he hears from Jesus, and also in verse 15 that Jesus has all things from the Father. In a way, we can think of the Spirit like a radio transmission. The Father’s love is received by the Son, and transmitted to us by the Spirit. In the Spirit we are included in the very life of God here on earth.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Day of Pentecost—Easter, Year C
Summary
On the Day of Pentecost, attention naturally turns to the event of Pentecost recounted in Acts, but John is the reliable interpreter of the meaning of that event, so the latter should be used to illuminate the former.
The Spirit’s rushing upon the Apostles is not so much a discrete event as a manifestation of a reality already present. This reality which the Spirit effects is the unity between Son and Father, and us and the Son, and therefore us and the Father. Phillip’s request at the table shows that he does not yet understand this unity. Here, Jesus’ syllogism of unity between people and God comes full circle: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (14:10) and “abide in me and I in you” (15:4). The miracle of Pentecost is the Holy Spirit effecting this unity of love, and from this union, the unity of all people is realized””even across culture and language barriers””and miracles flow.
How does the preacher exhort the congregation to enter into this mystery of unity? First, it should not be missed that the John passage comes from Jesus’ discourse at the Last Supper, emphasizing how the Eucharist is one of the means by which we today continue to participate in that unity. Secondly, the preacher may point out how the Spirit is no less present today as then, and that whether in dramatic or ordinary ways, the goal is unity with Jesus who shows us the Father. Neither a one-time event in the past or a far-off goal in the future, abiding with Christ by the Spirit is a present reality that the Christian is always caught up in and enjoined to participate in. Pentecost is now.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Trinity Sunday—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
As always, Trinity Sunday should not be a dry recitation of the technical language of the Creeds. The preacher must bring out how the three Persons relate to us in their operation in order to make the doctrine vital to the congregation’s life and worship.
In Year C, the Holy Spirit takes center stage in John 16. The Spirit, often supposed in certain traditions to be the “wild child” of the Trinity, subverting church order in favor of new and strange revelations. John’s gospel tells us the opposite. The Spirit does not speak of his own accord, but reveals to the saints “all the truth” about Christ. The Father gives all to the Son, the Son gives all to the church and the Spirit illuminates the church so they can understand what is given. The Spirit glorifies the Son, only delivering and clarifying what Christ revealed in his life, death, and resurrection. So, the Trinity is not a far-off mystery but a present reality, God’s own self embracing his created people.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 6 (11)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
In Mark 4, two parables describe how the kingdom of God moves in the world. The first defines the division of labor between God and his people. We plant seeds by prayer, evangelism, and good works, but God is the one who brings success to our efforts, and it often happens very slowly. The preacher may want to use this parable to discourage the congregation from overreliance on expertise in ministry methods, and instead encourage simple acts of charity, trusting the increase to God. In the Kingdom, there is cause and result, but the connection between the two is God’s to effect. Hence, the Kingdom is not advanced in absence of effort on the part of believers, but it is not by the power or skill of those efforts that the church succeeds.
The second parable emphasizes that the kingdom is sown in humility and dishonor, but grows to grandeur and glory. This refers to the humble tree that God exalts in Ezekiel 17. The wood of the Cross, a tree of humiliation and defeat, is taken and planted on the mountain of Israel, and grows into the mighty cedar of the church. The preacher here may want to encourage the congregation not to despise small beginnings in their efforts for the kingdom. Since God brings the increase, we should sow seeds of love, especially with our unbelieving neighbors in small ways, and trust that God will bring them to superabundant fruition, just as he brought forth the mighty tree of the church from the stained wood of the Cross.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 7 (12)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
- Mark 4:35-41
- 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
- 1 Samuel 17:1-49
- Job 38:1-11
- Psalm 9:9-20
- 1 Samuel 17:57-18:16
- Psalm 107:1-32
Summary
Jesus’ command over the natural forces is met with a characteristic Markan refrain “Who then is this?” The literary effect of the text of this Gospel is to stop short of saying explicitly who Jesus is, in order to invite the congregation to respond.
God’s words in Job echo the rhetorical question. The two passages, separated by some 600 years, converge upon Christ.
Keeping in mind John 1:3, Hebrews 1:2, the preacher can make the connection to the Son as the wisdom of God through whom the natural elements were formed. The wind and the waves in the Gospel are hushed at the command of their very designer. This gives meaning to Jesus’ nap in the back of the boat. The created things cannot overcome their creator, and if we are in the boat with Jesus, they cannot overwhelm us either. Even in death, we are raised again with Christ.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 7 (12)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
This Sunday represents a crossroads for the preacher. For the rest of this year, the Gospel lectionary returns to the Gospel of Luke but the attendant Old Testament and Psalm are split between two different tracks.
Option I walks through a mostly chronological series of Old Testament texts which are not thematically linked to the Gospel passage in any way.
Option II (which is sometimes listed as Option III) is the more traditional set of Old Testament (and some Apocryphal texts) which do thematically link up with the Gospel for the day.
A third option is to follow the Epistle readings, which also run along their own track, disconnected thematically from both sets of Old Testament readings and the Gospel.
The preacher should be prepared to commit to one of these options exclusively for the rest of the Christian year, since each is designed with its own arc in mind. This guide will follow the more venerable Option II, as the theological and typological connections therein will introduce the congregation to the Christological principle of the scriptures, which will aid in their Old Testament study going forward.
The story of the demoniac liberated from the “legion” of demons is a story of Jesus’ power to defeat the darkest evils and restore those very far from God to adopted sonship. As in the other Synoptics, many of the story’s details hold up the demoniac as the prime example of the oppression of the spiritual powers of the world. The story has a Gentile context, far from the sanctity of the Jewish people. He has no clothes””a frequent biblical symbol of enslavement””and no house, no possibility of living in sanity among people; the demons often drove him out into the wilderness. Moreover, he is among the tombs, and therefore ritually unclean. The portrait is almost inhuman. After Jesus is done with him though, he is clothed and in his right mind.
The point of documenting the deliverance is straightforwardly to show Jesus’ power over evil and his ability to restore anyone in creation. The significance of the pigs could be either their ritual uncleanness””sending unclean spirits into unclean animals was appropriate””or that they were a symbol of Roman military power (the region the story takes place in happens to be nearby where a Roman legion was stationed). It is likely that the story works on both levels, showing the reader how Jesus has power over all temporal powers that oppress: spiritual, political, and otherwise. The point is that Jesus has the power to deliver all humankind from the powers that oppress them, and that no case is so far gone as to be beyond his ability to restore.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 8 (13)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
The healing of the woman with the hemorrhage on the way to the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter are two miracles linked together in order to tell an important truth: that sickness and natural death are both subject to the power of God and neither spell the end for those in Christ.
The lives of the two women healed by Jesus are two aspects of the basic situation we find ourselves in as humans. For the past twelve years, Jairus’ daughter flowered in youth before dying suddenly and for those same twelve years, the woman suffered constantly. Both are familiar tragedies in the human condition, and who can say which is worse, the ongoing experience of pain in life, or the swift onset of terminal illness snuffing out a life in the prime of its beauty?
Through faith, both are healed. Jesus’ pronouncement that the girl is only asleep is meant to show that, in the eyes of God, natural death is only a species of sickness (while the detail that those around laughed at him, confirms that the girl was truly dead, and Jesus was not speaking medically; see also John 11:4). Hemorrhage and bodily death occupy the same spectrum, and neither are final for God””unlike the second death of eternal separation from God.
If the risk of scandal is low, the preacher will be rewarded by choosing the reading from the Wisdom of Solomon to back up the Gospel. The truth that God created people for life and does not desire their death is unfortunately not a theological commonplace anymore, and for that reason alone it is worth stating explicitly.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 8 (13)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Luke’s story about the rejection at Samaria is seen through the lens of God’s saving work through Jesus. The text begins by mentioning Jesus’ ascension and that the time is drawing near. This is not the headspace the disciples are in. They are stuck in 2 Kings 1:9-16 with Elijah calling down God’s fire on his adversaries. But Jesus is not Elijah (John 1:21). His work is salvation, not death. In the same way, the church is to bear with those who reject her, not seeking their demise but their salvation and healing. The disciples eventually do understand and follow Jesus in the way of suffering and rejection by the very ones they were sent to save. The work of the modern church is no different and ought to bear with those who persecute them and reject them from society instead of rebuking them or desiring their ill.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 9 (14)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Familiarity breeds contempt. The unbelievers in Mark 6 are astonished at his teaching, asking all the right questions as to the source of Jesus’ wisdom and power. But since they were the folks Jesus grew up around, they are offended that he has raised himself up above them, like Joseph and his brothers.
Jesus’ challenge is the same as Jeremiah and Ezekiel, both prophets sent to their own people and rejected by them. The Ezekiel passage speaks directly to the difficulty with preaching repentance to one’s own people. Those who ought to listen to God, who have all the cultural background and “plausibility structures” are the ones unwilling to listen.
The preacher has a good opportunity to address how difficult evangelism can be among one’s own people and family, but to take courage, since Jesus faced the very same challenges, along with the prophets. It is a fight worth waging since everything is possible with God.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 9 (14)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Jesus sending out the seventy-two presages the church going into all the world. The preacher here has many levers to pull on in encouraging the congregation in their earthly mission.
Jesus’ declaration that he is sending them out as lambs in the midst of wolves does not mean that he expects them to be torn to pieces, but a reminder that he, the Good Shepherd, goes with them. He sends them together, two by two, reminding us that we never go into the world by ourselves, but alongside our brothers and sisters in the church. The two-by-two sending also hearkens the animals entering the ark, helping us see that the kingdom promises salvation and safety to all those who hear. For those who do not, only the flood awaits, and shaking off the dust should not be read as a positive curse but as a testimony against them, showing the inevitable result of their rejection of God unless they repent. The messengers do not have time to be waylaid by such as these, but must press on to willing hearts and listening ears. Jesus sends them to work miracles and healings, predicting the sacraments of the church.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 10 (15)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Recounting John the Baptist’s fate alongside that of the prophet Amos reminds us of the high price of the prophetic vocation. John’s martyrdom foreshadows the death of Jesus. To prophesy means to speak the Word of God truly no matter the cost, a matter of simple obedience. The rulers and wrongdoers whom the Word of God challenges are quick to apply evil intentions to the prophet. But Amos speaks to his disinterestedness in great affairs; he was a simple herdsman before God commanded him to speak his words.
Similarly all Christians, no matter their background, are called to be prophets at various times in their lives. Christians are enervated by the Holy Spirit and possess the scriptures and the sure teaching of the tradition of the church””truly the two ends on which the plumbline of God’s righteous standard for human conduct is set. All of us will be tasked at various times to speak God’s word truly even in places where it will cause us trouble or harm.
The preacher would be remiss not to mention that the word that sealed John’s martyrdom was about sexual ethics. In the very same way, ordinary Christians today face their toughest sanctions whenever they have occasion to repeat God’s prohibitions against homosexuality, transgenderism, and other perversions presently being celebrated as natural and lawful.
The preacher should know also that Mark has a double purpose in the famous story about the fateful night at Herod’s court: to counter a popular rumor that Jesus and John the Baptist were actually the same person.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 10 (15)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
“And who is my neighbor?” is a fair question for a lawyer to ask. Jews, believing that the Law came directly from the mouth of God, paid scrupulous attention to each word, careful not to miss a nuance. The Law does not say “love everyone.” Rather, it says “love your neighbor.” There were three ways that “neighbor” could be construed according to the rabbis: someone who lives next to you, a blood relation or close friend, or else a member of your clan.
The hero of the parable: a Samaritan man on a journey, explodes all of those definitions and instead gives an expansive definition of neighbor””whoever is right around you at any given time. The added detail of the Priest and Levite avoiding the man on the road also has significance under the Levitical law. Touching a dead person would make a temple functionary ritually unclean. However, the man was not dead, only gravely wounded. The religious men, then, to avoid the burden of helping him (another serious command found in the Law!) crossed to a safe distance so that they could plausibly say that they assumed he was dead, using the Law as a cover for neglecting the one in need instead of following the spirit of the Law and rushing to help. By contrast, the Samaritan, despite being outside the covenant community, fulfills the commandment lavishly, displaying the heart of the Father for sufferers.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 11 (16)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Jesus giving his life for his sheep is not contained to the single moment of going to the cross. Daily, Christ gave up his life for the lost sheep of Israel. Here in Mark 6, we see him sacrificing food and fighting fatigue in order to tend to his flock. He shows himself to be the good shepherd, the king who will act wisely, justly, and with righteousness.
Jesus shows himself to be the opposite of the bad shepherds named in Jeremiah who destroy and scatter the sheep. Instead of lording his authority over people Jesus is moved by his love for them and gives up his own goods in order to give them good things. Jeremiah is probably referring to kings here, so the application extends to earthly rulers who claim Christianity to follow Christ’s example and think of their subjects as greater than themselves.
Christ’s example is even nearer to pastors who shepherd the people of God in Christ’s name explicitly. The ones who shepherd on Christ’s spiritual authority must expect to give up goods and comfort in order to serve those in their charge.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 11 (16)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Many are puzzled by the story of Mary and Martha, and try to turn it into either promotion of rest and “self-care” or else casting Jesus as a gender radical, denigrating the traditional link between femininity and hospitality and promoting the life of theological study instead. In fact, the key verse comes in 39, where Mary listens to “his word” which he identifies as the only thing that is necessary in v. 42. It is not that the practicalities of hosting and feeding people are to be despised in favor of the life of the mind. Rather, Jesus sets the goals of life in their proper order. The Word of God comes first, since “man does not live on bread alone” (Luke 4:4), and all else will be provided for.
Martha’s complaint is understandable to anyone who has been left alone in the kitchen, but nevertheless we must learn with her that hearing and meditating on the Word of God is the path to eternal life, whereas the busyness of providing food and shelter only prolongs earthly life. Both are necessary, but it benefits no one to shut the way to eternal life in order to provide for the present one.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 12 (17)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
The Feeding of the 5,000 is one of the few episodes that both the synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John take the time to recount. The repetition of the fourfold action (took, blessed, broke, gave) is reported in every single Gospel narrative. This critical detail proves how the Gospel writers were alert to how the miracle prefigured Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist and its miraculous properties. Unique to John’s account is the identification of the bread as barley loaves, recalling Elisha’s miraculous feeding in 2 Kings 4, which places Jesus as the fulfillment of that prophetic line.
In the next episode, Jesus’ walking over the sea symbolizes how Christ’s very body subdues death. Jesus’ answer ego eimi is frequently mistranslated as “it is I” but it is actually one of Jesus’ famous “I Am” statements, identifying himself with God. When the disciples welcome him into the boat, they miraculously arrive at shore, signifying how Jesus himself is the destination for the believer. Wherever you are in life, when you’re with Jesus, you have arrived. There is no further shore.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 12 (17)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
The Fathers of the Church saw in the Lord’s prayer a microcosm of the Christian life, reading far more deeply than we, on the far side of 2,000 years of Christian tradition, are accustomed today.
In the ancient world the ability for just anyone to petition God as “Father” was an astounding promotion of humans. Those who prayed to a Father proclaim their status as sons.
“Hallowed be thy name” is a confession of holiness and the rightful fear of the God who dwells in unapproachable light.
“Thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done ...” is the confident petition of those who know the final judgment will be in their favor, having lived holy lives in the grace of Christ””those who are not would not make this petition.
“On earth as in heaven” is the request of the church to be used by Christ to do his holy work, and to imitate heaven during her time on earth.
“Daily bread” is confessing reliance on God for our daily necessities and also the request for the supernatural Bread of Life, Jesus himself, whom believers require daily to nourish their spiritual lives.
“Forgive us our sins”¦” Our forgiveness of others follows God’s forgiveness of us. If we do not forgive others’ sins against us, we are in no place to accept God’s forgiveness of our sins against him.
“Lead us not into temptation.” It should hardly come as a scandal that God sometimes leads into temptation, considering the Spirit drove Jesus himself into the wilderness “to be tempted” (Matt. 4:1). God is not the cause of evil, but rather allows us to be tested, giving us every grace and ability to overcome. Nevertheless, we are not to be brash and presume on God’s grace to go looking for opportunities to test our own faith. Rather, we ask that God keep us from these trials and preserve us. The petition is of reliance on God, rather than confidence in our strength of faith.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 13 (18)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Today begins a four part series spanning Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse, and the texts lie so close to the center of Christian worship that these commentaries will run a few dozen words longer than usual. This Scripture does not offer the preacher the latitude to pick out or hone in on one of a menu of themes. John 6:24-69 is about two essential things which the preacher should inform the congregation about up front: faith in Jesus Christ and communion with him in the Eucharist.
Fortunately for the preacher, they divide neatly: Propers 13 and 14 are more about faith, and 15 and 16 are more about receiving Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist. As we shall see, however, the two themes are inseparable. The discourse is a movement from belief in Christ to faithfully receiving him at the Table.
Today’s text sets out how death is the fundamental problem for humanity. Even a miraculous multiplication of loaves of bread only postpones the problem, since ordinary food only sustains the body. This is “the food that perishes” since it does not have the power to save it from the body’s natural death””the manna in the wilderness in Exodus was God’s provision, but it also signified the temporary quality of earthly sustenance, since it rotted overnight, leaving the matter of life over death unsatisfied. So when the crowd shows up at Capernaum asking Jesus for a sign, they are really asking for another multiplication of ordinary bread. Jesus is telling them that they are shortsighted since their minds set only on prolonging earthly life, not eternal life.
The preacher should make Jesus’ reply in v. 32-35 the center of the sermon. First, even earthly sustenance, signified by the manna, does not come from men (Moses) but from God. Second, God wants to share another kind of bread with the world that will actually give life rather than just stave off death””Jesus himself.
The difference between earthly life and eternal reward is too often simplified as a matter of location: whether we have entrance into an “upstairs” heavenly realm or we are trapped in our mortality here below. But Jesus’ offer of himself as the bread of life means life over death, both now and forever; on earth as it is in heaven.
So working only to sustain earthly life is a bad investment, since death eventually wins out no matter how well we take care of ourselves and each other. But God, who both creates and sustains all life, has given human beings the way to access the source of life through faith in Jesus Christ.
The preacher should exhort the congregation to that saving faith: which is the simple belief that Jesus has the power to give life and overcome death (just how we take Jesus up on his offer will be covered over the next few weeks). It would be a tragedy to miss that offer of eternal life in order to sustain the mortal life that will perish.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 13 (18)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Luke’s particular concern on the spiritual dimension of poverty and wealth leads him to highlight this delicious parable from Jesus. Jesus’ teaching is not mystical but practical. Significantly, it is not the desire for security that is the problem for the rich man in the story, it is that he has a poor investment strategy from God’s perspective in heaven, for “life does not consist in possessions” (v. 15). Therefore, the man has failed to provide for his own life.
Jesus’ teaching on possessions is that wealth is effervescent. Storing up the fruit of labor is indeed the “vanity of vanities” for one day, we will die, and another will benefit from the temporal goods we have labored for. Nothing may be taken with us. Therefore, the right investment for the one who has much is to give to the poor and thus be “rich toward God,” storing up heavenly treasure that may be enjoyed eternally.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 14 (19)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
God frequently uses bread in supernatural ways to sustain his people. After his literal mountaintop experience at Carmel, Elijah is at the end of his rope and ready to die. Instead, God sends him a miraculous meal in the desert, catered by an angel (eager preachers will be tempted to identify this as a Christophany but should probably refrain), which gives him strength to reach his destination at the Mount of God.
The feeding miracle recalls the manna in the desert, but Jesus also identifies himself as bread with the power to sustain his people eternally. In the Gospel reading from last Sunday, the people’s request “Lord, always give us this bread” echoes the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: “Sir, give me this water ”¦” In that episode Jesus spoke of himself as the source of the water of life””which refers to baptism. Here, Jesus makes an even closer identification with the element of bread: that he is the bread of life and that his own flesh will be given for the life of the world (it is a good idea for the preacher to include verse 51 as a teaser for next week’s sermon which will answer the question of how Jesus can offer his flesh to us as bread). For now, the necessity of faith for receiving life from Jesus should be emphasized.
The crowd here grumbles not so much because Jesus has identified himself as the bread of life, but with his statement that he came down out of heaven. Jesus’ reply leaves no room for doubt. Anyone who takes seriously the words of the prophets and the wisdom of God in the scriptures will inevitably be drawn to Jesus, since he enjoys the very life of God the Father.
Verse 47 is the key: the one who believes that Jesus is who he says he is has eternal life. This is a good opportunity to emphasize the difference between true faith in Jesus and just “doing church.” The purpose of gathering for worship, hearing a sermon, reading the scriptures, praying, and singing in worship is to stir up faith in Christ and lay hold to it. Salvation comes through faith and draws us to the altar to receive the bread of life in Holy Communion. But without faith, even participating in the Eucharist becomes an empty ritual, void of life.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 14 (19)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
The preceding week’s admonition against hoarding wealth is given an additional spiritual dimension: that one’s “heart” is to be found with one’s treasure. Therefore, giving alms is not an optional task but a spiritual necessity by carrying the heart to God and away from one’s wealth.
Luke 12:35-40 are sometimes cast in certain traditions as addressed to nonbelievers, since it is thought that Christians cannot sabotage their own salvation through negligence. However, from the word doulos (“slave”) in verse 37 and oikonomos in verse 42, it is clear that this passage is addressed to both ordinary believers and believers in spiritual authority: specifically the 12 Apostles and the others around them (v. 41). So, confessing Christians may not wiggle out of the warnings mentioned here and the preacher should encourage believers in the congregation to be diligent in prayer and good works, not because these things merit salvation, but that they keep them alert to the reality of the kingdom.
The preacher should take care to note that the master coming upon the slave is not only a reference to the end of time or one’s own death, but also the many small “comings” in our own lives: a difficult choice, a person in need. Those who have not prepared through prayer and fasting will find themselves shrinking back from the tasks God gives us. We ought to live into a habit of expecting Jesus to show up in our lives daily in these ways and so be good slaves and stewards, ready to do his will.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 15 (20)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Like Nicodemus, the people in verses 52 and 53 are incredulous: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” In that story, the answer was baptism by the Holy Spirit, and in this one points to the other great sacrament of the church: Jesus’ flesh and blood given in the Eucharist.
In the Eucharist, the impossible becomes possible and life is given to the world. Jesus giving his flesh for the life of the world is certainly referring to his sacrifice on the cross. The Eucharist completes the picture, for just as the burnt offerings of certain atonement sacrifices were distributed to the priests for their food, so is Christ’s flesh, once for all sacrificed on the cross, given to his priestly people in the church.
A great difference in Jesus’ sacrifice is the addition of blood with the flesh. To have blood with flesh was forbidden for Jews since the blood was regarded as the “life” of the animal. Jesus then is explicitly inviting the people to be filled with the life of God. This is why the ancient Fathers spoke of the Eucharist as having the power to “deify.” The point is union and unity with God. This happens mysteriously in the Eucharist, but it starts in the heart of the believer who approaches the mysteries.
This is a good opportunity to preach about the purpose of our entire lives: to draw near to God and unify ourselves to him, and then invite the congregation into intimacy with God in this special way.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 15 (20)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Jesus’ words in Luke 12 are terrifying knowing that they come from the Son of God. What does it mean that the Prince of Peace comes with fire and division? The Jeremiah passage helps us to clarify the picture. In it, God’s word is described as fire. Fire is often held up as a purifying force, consuming worthless things and purifying what is worthwhile, like gold. Jesus then brings the fire of God’s word to bear upon people and they either accept or reject it, creating division, even in the midst of households (cf. Micah 7:6). Later, in Luke 24, the disciples on the Road to Emmaus exclaim “Were our hearts not burning within us ... while he was explaining the Scriptures to us?”
The preacher may remind the congregation that the faith has never promised peace without pain, and many whose families are divided over the faith may find great comfort in that their situation was not unanticipated by the Lord.
The remaining verses are against complacency: we know that we will have to settle our account before the Lord, but this will need to be done “on the way” (i.e. in this present life). Jesus’ admonishment in verse 56 asks us to apply worldly canniness to spiritual matters. If we spent half as much time preparing for our eternal destiny as we do scheming about how to improve the conditions of our worldly life, the Way would not seem so difficult to walk.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 16 (21)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Jesus makes the staggering claim that the one who “eats me” will live forever. Any purely metaphorical interpretation of these words must be put to rest by the reactions they elicit. Jesus’ words are enough to empty the stadium of his admirers (v. 66). Likewise, his closest disciples call this a “hard saying,” not a figurative one””and the Lord does nothing to correct them.
Instead he compares the eating of his flesh to his coming ascension””an event which no believer would wave away as metaphorical. Everyone is on the same page here, the only thing that divides them is whether they will believe him or leave him.
So instead of over-explaining the history and development of the doctrine, this Sunday is an opportunity for the preacher to put the same question to the congregation as Jesus does for his disciples regarding the Eucharist: “does this cause you to stumble?” Modern persons have their own reasons for disbelieving that Christ could seriously give his flesh and blood for food. While the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist has always been a hard saying, it is also an opportunity to take Jesus at his word in faith. Jesus’ words are spirit and life, what is naturally possible by the flesh is unimportant in the presence of the author of all truth. Those who do receive the gift of real, substantial communion with him.
“What God’s son has told me take for truth I do
Truth Himself speaks truly, or there’s nothing true”
-“Adoro te Devote” by Thomas Aquinas (trans. Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 16 (21)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
That Jesus’ teaching is practical and logical is not always discussed. Here, Jesus contradicts the synagogue leader’s scrupulosity by making an argument a fortiori. If certain material goods can be provided for on the Sabbath, then certainly human beings, who are of greater worth, may be as well. This is essentially the same format as the parables in Luke 15 leading up to the prodigal son. The message is “if you would go to great lengths to go after one expensive sheep, or one month’s wage, then what about a human being? Aren’t they worth more than these?” The woman in the miracle also becomes a microcosm of the human race, bent over by sin. Jesus comes to heal from sin, and none may accuse whom he has vindicated.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 17 (22)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Human tradition is not the law of God. It is important that the preacher understand what Jesus means by setting apart the commandment of God from the tradition of men. The error of the Pharisees was that they appended additional requirements to the Mosaic Law””a practice forbidden in the reading from Deuteronomy. The ritual washing foregone by the disciples was originally only supposed to apply to priests, but the Pharisees, out of an abundance of religiosity, thought that it should apply to ordinary people as well. The Pharisees negative appraisal of the disciples’ dedication to God came by their adherence to the accretions that had grown up around the law, not the law itself.
Jesus gives the opposite appraisal: that judging others’ faith by human ritual standards only betrays the judge’s own distance from God. Christians today are just as prone to do this. Human ritualisms pop up in every tradition: as in the high traditions wherein using more casual language in the liturgy instead of historic phrasing is seen as telltale signs of cultural desiccation and irreverence, so too in evangelical ones where believers who cannot pray spontaneously or in tongues are regarded as “less spiritual.” It is not the contours of traditions themselves which offend God””these are as natural to humankind and as necessary to worship of God as speech and song. Rather, it is distraction from God’s true Word and law by human opinions and the laws of men. The antidote to all species of ritualism is the Greatest Commandment to love God with heart, soul, and mind, and one’s neighbor as oneself. As long as we are doing that, we can’t go wrong!
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 17 (22)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
In Luke 14, the eschatalogical banquet of the kingdom of God is compared with the ordinary meals that people share with each other. The latter ought to reflect the former, and the repayment for generosity in this life is to be found in the life to come.
Here is an opportunity for the preacher to explain the New Testament’s vision of charity to the poor. The act displays total reliance on God for repayment. Nothing we have in this life: either money, material goods, or time, is completely frivolous. All of it represents sustenance, enjoyment, or social capital, in short, the stuff of life itself and the things that make it worth living. People recoil from giving because they rightly perceive that they are giving away parts of their life””the only one they’ve got. Jesus, again, does not repudiate the activity of providing for oneself, but rather recommends wise investment. Eternal repayment awaits those who give to the least fortunate precisely because there is no worldly repayment. Charity is an act of faith in God, and the life to come. Only those who have shown that they believe enough to give toward that life are counted worthy to enter it.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 18 (23)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
The story of the Syrophoenician woman is one of the most misinterpreted and abused passages of Scripture today, and so the preacher must be on guard against parroting false interpretations. Jesus was not an ethnocentrist that needed his perspective widened. What is plainer in the other Gospels’ rendering of the scene is that the whole point of the episode is to display and honor the woman’s faith. Jesus’ comment about the priority of Israel is intentionally phrased in order to be offensive, but the humility she returns speaks to her single minded faith. Unlike the Jews who lorded their chosen status over the Gentiles, this Gentile woman thinks nothing of her own dignity next to the chance to receive from the Lord. Her faith far outstrips her pride.
This is the sort of faith that Israel itself needs to have in order to live up to its calling as the chosen people and get in on Jesus’ new covenant. The syrophoenician woman’s subordination of her ethnic identity to the prospect of receiving healing from Jesus is a profound challenge today, especially as various forms of “identity” have lately emerged as a sacrosanct component of the human soul. But there is nothing this woman finds more important than her faith. Her first identity is in the kingdom of God, and everything else can wait.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 18 (23)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
A misunderstanding of the word “hate” here has caused much confusion. A Hebraicism, it means the opposite of “prefer.” Jesus is not prohibiting love of family or holding possessions (v. 33) but demanding that he be put first in people’s lives. The disciple must be ready to renounce family, wealth, and anything if it comes between him and Jesus.
The idea may seem afar off to many modern Christians, but the reality is coming on quickly. It seems likely that there will be a very near future in the West which the Christian’s adherence to the moral vision of the New Testament will disqualify them for employment and social status and put them at variance with those closest to them, and whom they depend on (indeed, in many places this regime has already arrived). In these cases, Christians must soberly take account of the cost of the Way to which they have been called, not so that they may decide whether it is worth it, but so that they may steel themselves for the journey.
This is why Jesus warns against the sin of apostasy: a Christian who sets out and then stalls halfway presents a unique conundrum: if one has let go of the lifeline, then what else is there to grab hold of? We see many jaded, lapsed, former Christians today whose very history in the church inoculates them to taking hold again of grace. Jesus’ command is stark here, but believers who pass these tests may rejoice in the confirmation that they have proven themselves true disciples.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 19 (24)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Peter goes from the honor of confessing Jesus as Christ to being rebuked as Satan in the span of just a few verses. Peter confesses rightly that Jesus is the Christ, however, he rejects the idea that the Messiah would suffer. There is likely some self-interest here, since the treatment of the master will surely fall on his servants. Indeed, Jesus makes the transference explicit in verse 34. Following Jesus means taking up a cross.
Peter, at this stage in his faith, is like the plant that springs up in shallow soil, exultant to claim the victory but scandalized by the way of the cross. Many are pleased to confess Jesus as Lord, but few are willing to suffer for his sake.
The preacher will find this a hard message if the fact of Christ’s presence in suffering is left out. Jesus does not call us to suffer alone, but with him, since he has gone before us on the way and his resurrection has transformed the way of defeat into the path to victory. It is not a matter of going out looking to suffer needlessly. But if people really follow Jesus’ way, then they will find themselves opposed on every side. The believer is to bear these trials prayerfully and with patience. This is the glory of the Christian life that the believer must not reject: that patience and endurance in suffering produces intimacy with Jesus.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 19 (24)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
These parables have been unfortunately segmented off from the parable of the Prodigal Son, which they play the prelude to. Here, Jesus responds to the offense given by his attention to the dishonorable by two parables, each with the same message but aimed at a male and female audience.
The lost sheep has been often made into a sweet picture of God’s willingness to leave the great flock to go after “just one” but this gets the intent totally wrong. Sheep for a shepherd of the ancient world were about as valuable as a used car. That a shepherd would leave his flock to go after the one would have been blatantly obvious to anyone in the biz.
Next, Jesus turns to the ladies and asks which of them would not sweep their house to find a lost silver coin (worth about a month’s wages). The answer would have been the same as the first parable.
This sets the stage for the prodigal Son by moving from the lesser material things, to the more valuable human being, lost to sin, but found by God. Given the difficulty posed by the protracted pericope, the preacher may choose to simply emphasize that people are valuable to God, and so their welfare and eternal destiny ought to be as valuable to us.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 20 (25)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Jesus’ prediction of his death and resurrection once again puzzles the disciples. Here, their desire for status derails their spiritual journey. Though plainly spoken, it is natural to not understand Jesus’ statement that he will die and rise again, but the disciples are “afraid to ask him” what he meant (v. 32). Instead they busy themselves nattering about which one of them is the greatest, showing how they have set their minds on human ends, not on heavenly ones.
Here, Jesus takes the opportunity to instruct them on the values of his kingdom: that humility, not pride is to be exalted. By bringing forward a child, Jesus shows someone who is weak and helpless. Describing this powerful symbol, Theophylact wrote “a child has no desire for honor, it is not jealous, and it does not remember injuries.” Childlikeness is the opposite of the strutting the disciples had done along the way and a prerequisite for entrance into Christ’s kingdom.
The preacher will not lack for application here. The desire for recognition, even in small and trivial ways, marks the human condition from the least to the greatest. Sanctification in Christ is the expunging of these characteristics. If we follow his example on the cross, then we will not shun ignominy, suffering, and humility, since we will see that it is the road to God. Achievement and victory are gifts and blessings when they come, but they must not be grasped at or sought after as life’s chief aim. Somehow or other, the crown of victory in this life must be set aside for the crown of thorns which leads to eternal life.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 20 (25)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Those inexperienced in accounting fraud may have a hard time understanding the self-preservation strategy of the unrighteous steward. More puzzling still may be why Jesus makes a sinner the hero of the story. The message is deeply valuable and engaging, so it is worth explaining in detail.
The steward runs a classic fleecing scam, however instead of taking money for himself he accepts favors instead. He can be compared to the manager of a clothing franchise. When a customer comes to the register with a $100 dress, the manager may say “I control the cash register, so let’s just say it costs $50 and we split the difference: so you give me $25 and I make your bill come out to only $75.” However, this steward understands that his predicament is graver than that. So instead, he doesn’t ask for the difference. Instead, he will take a favor: when he is cast out into the streets, the ones whom he benefited may return the favor by taking him in.
Jesus uses this picaresque fable to demonstrate how his disciples ought to use their worldly goods: not to defraud their managers, but to give to the poor. This is not the only place where Jesus suggests that the recommendation of the poor is needed for the entry ticket into heaven. However, verse 13 is the key, lest one think Jesus is saying that charitable works by themselves merit eternal joys. The same spiritual principle is at play here as in 12:34, that how one uses their money discloses one’s true allegiance far more reliably than words.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 21 (26)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Jesus’ response to John’s report of the wayward healer shows how he draws people to himself by encouraging the good in them instead of only rebuking the evil. This is a helpful example of how the church ought to approach the splintered traditions, spiritualisms, and false theologies of the modern world.
Those earnestly convinced of Jesus’ power, but who walk apart from his church, are to be commended for their fruits first which will open a way to inform them of their faults. This is the same spirit in which Prisca and Aquila mentored Apollos, who submitted to their instruction.
However, one should not read a casual attitude toward spiritual allegiance into Jesus’ advice. Augustine points out that verse 40, “he who is not against us is for us” ought to be read alongside Luke 11:23, “he who is not with me is against me.” The “us” vs. the “me” is significant, since it is not right to make use of the power of the name of Christ without submitting oneself to his person.
Ultimately, everyone must pledge allegiance to Christ, but this is no reason to make enemies needlessly among those who are inclined to revere him.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 21 (26)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Jesus tells another dark parable against the rich who do not care for the poor. First of all, the rich man’s sin is one of omission. He fails to help Lazarus (who is named in the parable to indicate that he is written in the book of life; the rich man, on the other hand, is given no identity) and lets him die in squalor while enjoying his own life. There is no indication that the rich man actively oppressed Lazarus in any way or has behaved especially cruelly. The image is one of separateness: the rich man in his “high castle” while the poor suffers from his poverty (Prov. 10:15) and this distance is recapitulated after death as the very gulf separating the rich man from Abraham. The very fact that the poor man was beneath his notice is what condemned the rich man. The point of the parable is that ignorance is no defense, since Scripture is abundantly clear on the matter of care for the poor (cf. Deut. 15 and countless other mentions in the Prophets).
This is a frequent Lucan theme in both his Gospel and Acts, whereby the same Holy Spirit that Jesus breathes out in his life and ministry has already spoken throughout the Old Testament. This continuity is expressed in a dark way in verses 30-31, which hints at how Jesus’ miracles, even his Resurrection, does not by itself cause repentance. That must come from a changed heart, and those who are callous toward the Law and the Prophets will not be softened by even so great a sign as this. Wealthy Christians today have even less reason to plead ignorance for failing to help the poor, since we also have the pointed witness of the New Testament added to the Old. The message should not be sugarcoated: care and involvement with the poor is an essential feature of the saved person and those with means must take special care that they share them with the less fortunate as a constant discipline.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 22 (27)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Jesus’ prohibition of divorce has been sadly relaxed in Protestant circles (typically by an expansive definition of the exception of “immorality” in Matthew 19) but here in its earliest form, Jesus’ astonishing teaching on the indissolubility of marriage is stark and unqualified.
Marriage is something that God does, not people: “what God has joined together ”¦.” Likewise the sinful consequences of divorce are plain and egalitarian: if either the man or the woman chooses another partner besides the one of their God-made union, the divorce means they live as adulterers despite their second marriage. This uncompromising fidelity mirrors the relationship between Christ and his church.
In much the same way as Jesus, the preacher will face an uphill battle reintroducing this back into most congregations. Focusing on the positive side of the teaching is recommended. Lifelong fidelity in marriage images God’s fidelity to his people even though he suffered rejection, suffering, and disappointment. The congregation can be invited to see their marriages, especially unhappy ones, as opportunities to be like God, persevering in love that is not subject to circumstances.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 22 (27)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
There are two themes in the Gospel passage that the preacher may discuss. In v. 5-6, even a very little faith is capable of surprising things. Our own weak faith is all that God needs to multiply it and work wonders with it.
In v. 7-10, Jesus warns his disciples against the sort of religious presumption which leads to pride. To follow the commandments is only what is expected of a dutiful servant. The master sitting the slave down to eat with him is a reference to the eschatalogical banquet at the end of the age. Worldly honor for discipleship is as though one expects the “well done good and faithful servant” before the work has been completed. As Christians, we are not to draw attention to ourselves, as though we are anything special. Perhaps this saying is included after the first because pride is spiritual kryptonite. We are only to be regarded as slaves to God, giving him glory for things he has done through us.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 23 (28)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Another astonishing teaching: The rich, for whom everything in life is easy, face a steep challenge when it comes to entering the kingdom of God. That the total divestment of worldly possessions is not a general duty should not distract us from the fact that Jesus’ call on each of our lives does come with duties of faith and charity, which may be unique to each of us in their particulars, but by no means are they optional.
As often as we return to Christ for forgiveness and solace we will find the call to these duties renewed until we submit to them. It is not as though the kingdom of God has no use for worldly wealth, the disciples who give up lands, receive back a hundredfold in the new economy of the church (though with persecutions).
The point is that we are to put all of our worldly goods at the feet of Jesus for him to disburse the way he wants to””and this always involves blessing the poor. Investing worldly goods in heaven is the Christian way. Investing them here on earth profits us nothing.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 23 (28)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
The key detail often left out of the story of the one grateful leper was that he was a Samaritan. The foreigner returns with gratitude while the Jews feel entitled to their cleansing. God blessing foreigners outside of the Jewish fold is nothing new. The first reading about Naaman the Syrian shows how God has always intended to extend his gifts to the nations. Ironically, it is the Gentile who recognizes the Giver rather than simply going away satisfied by the gift. The nine may have been healed, but only the one was saved, because he recognized the healing of his skin as a sign of a greater restoration of his whole person.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 24 (29)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Jesus uses James’ and John’s ambitions as an opportunity to reveal another aspect of the mystery of the cross. Relinquishing honor and recognition for the sake of others is what wins the highest reward from God. Power and success do not achieve this.
Jesus himself is the exemplar. It is hard to see the bleak shame of a death on a cross for modern Christians, we are so used to seeing burnished crucifixes and decorative crosses hanging from necklaces. Roman justice, moreover, was a reliable enough institution that a crucified man would not immediately elicit pity from onlookers. “He must have deserved it” would be the default reaction.
The shame of undeserved accusation is, in many ways, the hardest part of the whole Passion: it is the polar opposite of a place of honor. But this is the cup and baptism that Jesus endured, and he offers it to us, as he did his disciples, as the path to triumph. James and John for their part would receive theirs in martyrdom and exile””see Acts 12:2 and Revelation 1:9””winning the higher honor of saints in heaven instead of rulers on earth.
In various ways throughout our lives we too are asked to endure shame and false accusations for the sake of Jesus’ name and for the good of the world. The meaning of crossing ourselves or hanging a cross around our necks is that we accept, embrace, and mark ourselves with ignobility and hardship for the sake of delivering God’s love to the world.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 24 (29)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
In another of the dark parables, Jesus uses the example of rascally, wholly irreligious characters to illustrate how they ought to practice their religion. Again, Jesus argues from the lesser to the greater: if a godless, immoral judge will finally grant a woman’s request simply to stop her from annoying him, how much more speedily will God, the source of goodness, justice, and mercy, listen and fulfill the requests of the saints? Once again “the sons of this world” are smarter in their own way “than the sons of light” (Luke 16:18). Unlike the judge, God’s will is with the poor and oppressed. But those who fail to pray do not have faith that God is their ally. The point is to encourage frequent prayer, never despairing, since we know we have an advocate in God.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 25 (30)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Bartimaeus’ faith is proved by the title he gives to Jesus: Son of David. This is an explicit confession of Jesus as messiah. Despite the fact that he could not see Jesus with his eyes, in faith he saw Jesus’ true identity more clearly even than many of Jesus’ own disciples. Like the feeding miracles which satisfied the natural hunger of the people in order to point to the supernatural sustenance of the Eucharist, Bartimaus was given natural sight as a sign of the spiritual sight he showed in his confession of faith.
There is much to be said about the eyes of faith and the all-important confession of Jesus as Christ and Lord in right belief, but the preacher might also hang an exhortation on verse 52. After Bartimaeus received his sight, he followed Jesus on his way. This also shows the genuineness of his faith, that he follows Jesus even after his eyes are opened.
For us today, the Christian life comes with great natural benefits. Habits of virtue and self-control, on balance, make life go better for us. But Jesus calls us further down the road than just living a better natural life. He calls us on to eternal life by way of the Cross. This life choice is probably why Bartimaeus is named in the Gospel. As a disciple and eyewitness to Christ he may have been known among the community of Jesus’ apostles, and could even have been a source for the very Gospel he appears in. In the same way, we will be named in the Book of Life if we not only receive benefits from Jesus, or confess him publicly once, but by following him in faith all the days of our lives.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 25 (30)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Even if one follows all of the pious practices Jesus has urged in Luke, prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor, it avails us nothing if it becomes a source of pride. On the other hand, humility paves the path to true repentance.
The Pharisee in the story imagines himself to be self-sufficient in his righteousness, having no need for God. The tax collector recognizes his need for God and reaches out to him. In another stroke of irony, Jesus declares that the one who lifts himself up will be humbled by God, and the reverse. The deeper point is that our fortunes and ultimate destiny depend on God, not us. Because it is God who justifies, and not we ourselves, the one who relies on him will be saved.
The Pharisee though, by his works, has attempted to “bribe” God, as Sirach says, maintaining a prideful distance and not come to grips with his own sorry state in comparison to the Almighty. The proper posture of humility would lead him to act in the same way as the tax collector, and embrace him as a brother, instead of deriding him as an inferior. This humility before God, then, is the basis of Christian fraternity in the church: fellow sinners saved by grace, worshipping their Savior shoulder to shoulder.
Monday, January 1, 1900
All Saints Day—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Monday, January 1, 1900
All Saints Day—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 26 (31)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
The Greatest Commandment(s) is not a discrete prescription in the law but the very principle of the whole law. What Jesus gives to the scribe is the summary statement, the anchor point around which turns the whole rest of the six-hundred odd laws and the system of temple sacrifice. The scribe, for his part, answers well and Jesus compliments him for it. It seems that the scribe’s comment that the commandments supersede the assiduous observance of sacrifices gives him a clue that he is very close to the heart of the kingdom. It is not ritual observance but the disposition of the heart that God wants.
The Christian’s heart is disposed to love both God and neighbor, indeed to do one is to do the other. If we love others, we will want God’s will for them, and if we love God then we will love his creatures who bear his image: people. The purpose of religious apparatus is to get us to this place.
This episode also reveals a bit of Jesus’ method. Like the game where children stumble around blindfolded trying to find a destination and parents say “You’re getting warmer!” Jesus guides his hearers along the path by steps. Indeed, “the way” is a common motif in Mark. Lots of things happen along “the way” or “the road.” More than establishing the setting, it gives a clue as to the nature of the gospel, more than a message, it is a walk in faith, always ongoing.
The preacher ought to take a moment to be encouraged by this. Now as then, preaching the Word of God clearly and truly is to step into the same hornet’s nest of confusion from the ambient culture. But God leads people along by steps, from the person whose faith is so weak that they cry out for help, to this lone scribe who is ready and capable of recognizing the truth that is so near to the heart of the kingdom.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 26 (31)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
It will aid the preacher to point out that the story of Zaccheus comes on the heels of the rich young ruler. That dignified, rich man went away sad because he could not part with his possessions, leading Jesus to comment on how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven but that “what is impossible with man is possible with God” (18:27).
Zaccheus’ conversion fulfills Jesus’s words. Given the Lucan themes of justice to the poor, Zaccheus ought to be singled out as a chief villain since he has made his money by defrauding the poor. Instead, he becomes the hero, repenting and restoring money to his victims. He even goes beyond both Jewish and Roman law by taking the initiative to repay fourfold anyone he has shaken down.
Jesus’ pronouncement of salvation is tied to this act. Repentance is an active thing, turning away from wrongdoing means restoring those we have wronged and pledging to sin no more. Not mere intellectual assent to Jesus’ lordship (there is no mention of that here), receiving the gift of salvation means taking action.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 27 (32)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
The wealth of faith in the poor of means is displayed in this famous story of the widow’s mite. The preacher can focus on the social dimension of unequal dignity between poor and rich if desired, but the better option would be to take the lesson of the widow about investment in heaven.
She committed her entire life to God in that act, displaying a powerful faith in his providence over and against material means. She preached her own sermon, and it does her highest honor to take its lesson: that God alone gives life, and giving toward advancing his interests, even at the expense of our own, is the surest investment we can make.
The widow is often depicted as a sweet and sad old thing at the end of her rope and nowhere to go but God. In fact, she is smart, a sharper tack than the rich around her, for she puts all of her eggs into God’s basket. By withholding nothing, she ensures that nothing of her is withheld from trusting in God’s providence. Like Zacchaeus, she pushes all of her chips in on God’s provision.
The preacher should be quick to remind the congregation that this sort of total faith is the gift of God, and he builds it into us as we go along the way of our life with him.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 27 (32)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
On All Saints’ Sunday, the texts focus on the fundamental problem of humanity, and God’s answer to it: death and eternal life.
The first reading comes from perhaps the oldest biblical text, long before any tradition of resurrection and final judgment had formed in Jewish consciousness. The arresting words of Job the sufferer that somehow, in some way, God would “awaken” him, even from beyond the grave, and that he would behold his defender with his own eyes.
The Sadducees in Jesus’ time were textual rigorists, counting as canon only the Pentateuch, which makes no mention of life beyond the grave. This is why Jesus’ reply comes from Moses: that God cannot be called both the God of the patriarchs and also “the God of the living” unless those who die “live in him.” So, the communion of saints consists not only of the presently alive, but those who have died and are alive in God. Hence, it has been traditional to pray for the dead along with the living.
Unlike most social justice movements today, this passage shows how Luke’s moral vision is grounded in supernatural reality. The life beyond the grave and the investment in that life is the basis for charity, and Jesus’ moral exhortations cannot be excised from that context.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 28 (33)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Nearing the end of the Christian year, we return to the last things, looking forward again to Advent and its portent of the return of Christ. The preacher should prepare the congregation again for that watchful posture that is proper to the coming season.
Jesus gives two warnings, one against fear of disaster and the other against false messiahs. In the near term, the destruction of the Temple came to pass in AD 70, but Jesus’ words here have always been understood to refer also to the end of the world. The upshot is that we are to remain steady in faith, awaiting the end but neither cowed nor enticed by anything. Our own fear can cause us to retreat from the work God has for us. Also, false teachings can seduce us away from the narrow way of the true gospel.
Jesus’ purpose in letting the disciples in on his divine knowledge of the end of time is to increase their fortitude and trust in God, not to turn them into a community of doomsayers. Patience in hope characterizes the Christian attitude toward life in the world, because the end has been vouchsafed by our Lord.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 28 (33)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
Jesus’ prophecy is “bifocal.” In the near term, he is predicting the destruction of the Temple at the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 (verse 21’s prophetic import has been confirmed by historical records that Christians indeed fled the city to the neighboring mountains when the Romans besieged it). On the long view, this is also a foreshadowing of the end of the world. The one prophecy is nested inside the other. In the midst of such world-shaking events, Jesus instructs his disciples, and us, of our conduct. Christians are hated and unjustly blamed for disasters. In those days, Christians must be upright and rely totally on God’s intervention.
This is not exactly the banner advertisement for becoming a Christian nowadays, especially in the West. The idea that one may be required to suffer or die without resisting is a hard pill to swallow for modern people. But, nearing the end of Luke, the people should understand that faith is not a mild thing and God’s power is not far from the weak and downtrodden.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Christ the King (Reign of Christ)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
The last Sunday of the Christian year, a relatively recent addition, recognizes Christ as the king of all: the Jews, the Gentiles, the world, all of creation, and of history.
These glimpses of the end in Daniel and Revelation are meant to identify that our faith in Jesus is as a supreme God, not a lesser deity or philosopher. Jesus does not circumscribe his authority to the realm of power politics, he is not a king in that sense. The preacher can connect Jesus’ identity to our identities as citizens of a kingdom that is not of this world (though fully in this world). Even while we are involved in the affairs of the world, and care for the world, our ultimate goal and end is beyond this world.
How this works out is best expressed in the Letter to Diognetus, a second- (or perhaps third-) century tract written on just this subject:
[Christians] live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners ”¦ They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws. They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted ”¦ In a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world ”¦ The soul dwells in the body but is not of the body; likewise Christians dwell in the world but are not of the world ”¦ The soul, which is immortal, lives in a mortal dwelling; similarly Christians live as strangers amid perishable things, while waiting for the imperishable in heaven.
-The Letter to Diognetos, in Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers 3rd ed., 2007.
And lastly, a final exhortation and benediction which the preacher may leave with the flock at the end of the year:
Let your heart be knowledge, and your life the true teaching, fully comprehended. If this is the tree you cultivate, and whose fruit you pick, then you will always be harvesting the things that God desires, things that the serpent cannot touch and deceit cannot infect. Nor is Eve corrupted; instead, a virgin is trusted. Furthermore, salvation is made known, and apostles are instructed, and the Passover of the Lord goes forward, and the congregations are gathered together, and all things are arranged in order, and the Word rejoices as he teaches the saints, the Word through whom the Father is glorified. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
-The Letter to Diognetos, in Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers 3rd ed., 2007.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Christ the King (Reign of Christ)—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Summary
On the final Sunday of the church year, Christ’s reign from the Cross is brought to the fore. The Cross shows the final Lucan irony: Jesus, executed as a common criminal is nevertheless labeled, properly, as a king.
Christ’s kingship comes from his passion. Though apparently his humiliation, the Cross is in fact Jesus’ coronation. Conquering death through laying down his life, Jesus stretches out his arms in love and restores humanity through this saving embrace. No one is beyond this salvation, not even the thief next to him who recognized his lordship as head of the kingdom.
In the Cross, God is revealed to be truly a king who can identify with the poor in their weakness, and yet his final humiliation in death opens the way to everlasting glory and life. Christ the King calls all of his subjects to shoulder their cross in the form of good works on behalf of the poor, humility before others, and meekness in suffering, and so reign with him, both now and in the age to come.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Thanksgiving Day—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Monday, January 1, 1900
Thanksgiving Day—Season after Pentecost, Year C
Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year A
Summary
Preachers familiar with the Lectionary will not be taken off guard that the very first Gospel reading to begin the church’s year is a potentially anxiety-inducing warning of the end. The Preacher is advised to lean into that shock and awe, and not ameliorate it to the images of babies in mangers already creeping into parishioners’ heads as the Christmas decorations have already gone up at the department stores. Christ’s words jolt us out of holiday complacency. The Christ Child we picture as a sweet cherub and frame with sugarplums and garlands will come at the end of all things to judge the living and the dead!
The preacher might focus on “coming” in verse 37, parousia, literally “presence,” an ordinary Greek word used for a visit by a political authority, but which the church adopted as a label for intervention by Christ in the course of history. This special sense of “coming” can be used as a single word to describe the visit of the King of Kings that we ought to use for Advent, but also to expect: At the end of the world when he will judge the living and the dead as glimpsed in our first reading, but also in the course of our own lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul speaks to us about in the second lesson. Truly every moment of our entire lives is lived in the anticipation of the advent of our Lord both now and in the age to come.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year A
Summary
The Old Testament prophets were often commanded by God to do symbolic actions to amplify their verbal message (cf. Ezek. 4, 24). John the Baptist’s entire life is a “speech-act” that heralds Jesus’ life. John’s ministry mimics the Lord’s: He leads a popular movement outside of the religious establishment, preaching repentance, claiming direct authority from God, and executed reluctantly by the rulers. Even the bodies of both men were taken by their disciples after death. In verse 4, John cuts an Elijah-like figure (cf. 2 Kings 1:8), an impression Jesus reaffirms in next week’s Gospel.
The Gospel of Matthew is uniquely focused on the continuity of Jesus with the Old Testament scriptures, and John’s special place in this Gospel’s panoply of types and allusions is as the hinge between Old Testament prophetic tradition and Jesus’ ministry. John, the Old Testament prophet, whose message points the people forward to the one who is “mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.” John’s baptism is a pledge of repentance, Jesus’ comes with supernatural gifts. Like the prophets before him, John heralds a coming judgment, and Jesus will execute it.
John the Baptist’s Christ-shaped life is also our vocation as Christians. John reflects Jesus from the B.C. side of history, we do the same from the anno Domini. In this, modern Christians have every advantage, empowered by the Spirit and intimate with Christ. This does not mean all true believers must launch a prophetic ministry in hopes of martyrdom. The Christ-shaped life is not a matter of career planning. Rather, our own lives will take on Christ’s shape when we follow John’s advice to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” The believer who does this daily, repenting of sins, and looking for opportunities to exercise the fruits of the Spirit, will find that her life has indeed come to bear Christ’s image.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year A
Summary
There are a few puzzling phrases in this week’s Gospel, perennially debated by interpreters. The occasion for John’s disciples request for clarification of Jesus’ mission is nowadays taken to mean that the Baptist himself was puzzled or disheartened while in prison, often leading to homiletical reflections on how even the strongest believers sometimes find themselves in doubt. (More likely, the bemusement came from John’s disciples, with their master electing to put them in direct contact with Jesus himself).
Verse 7 sees a tantalizing allusion to the reed symbol found on Herodian coinage of the time, sparking preachers to harp on a favorite theme of Jesus’ superiority to political authority and God’s operation on the margins of imperial power. Still more argued over is Jesus’ meaning of “the Kingdom of Heaven subjected to violence and the violent take it by force” of verse 12. This is probably a positive comment on how sinners came rushing to John’s message of repentance, bypassing all of the proper religious channels.
A more foundational sermon will focus on verses 11-15 and replace the Psalm with the Magnificat in Luke. Choosing this will cause the readings to resemble the great Deisis icon, used in the Eastern traditions since late antiquity, which sees Mary and John the Baptist flanking Jesus, gesturing toward him.
The message of the image is verse 13, which may also be the main idea of the sermon: That the spoken Word of God of the Prophets is passed through John to its perfection, the Incarnate Word born of Mary. The sermon can be an opportunity to instruct the congregation on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. The Gospel’s pride of place in liturgical services sometimes scandalizes believers who, rightly, consider all Scripture to be “God-breathed and profitable for teaching.” It may seem stranger still that the peak of the liturgy’s crescendo comes after the ministry of the word at Holy Communion. God’s Word written in the scriptures is perfected by God’s Word Incarnate: Jesus himself. Therefore, all Scripture finds its proper place by pointing to him.
This theme was especially important to the Jewish audience of Matthew’s Gospel. The Law came directly from God and the Jewish peoples’ fidelity to it defined them as a people. Then as now, honest devotion to Yahweh was nagged by the temptation to reduce God himself to the script. Modern believers, tempted in the same way toward a bare textualism in their worship, will benefit from the same reminder: That Christ is not a literary construct or on vacation in heaven, but immanent to his church by the Holy Spirit, who communes with them in a special way by way of the sacraments. All words point to the Word made flesh for us.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday of Advent—Advent, Year A
Summary
On the last Sunday before the Nativity, it is essential to focus on the mystery of the incarnation. Matthew’s Gospel sheds light on two things: Jesus’s Davidic title through the lineage of Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive father (v. 20; also the preceding genealogy is three sets of 14 generations, the numerological symbol of David), and his divine authority of God his true father evidenced by the Virgin Birth. Jesus then is Lord of both heaven and earth. Jesus declares this dual kingship explicitly at the end of the Gospel: “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” ( Matt. 28:18).
As the gauzy haze of the holidays closes in, the congregation may be exhorted to recognize that the Christ Child is not only Lord of Heaven (which is, in our secular age, a safely far-off “spiritual” idea) but his authority is over our earthly lives as well. His words, law, and church therefore, have authority over how and toward which ends we live our lives. This will prepare the congregation to receive his words in Matthew’s Gospel as news and command, rather than inspirational quotes and the off-chance of an afterlife. Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth both now on earth, and forever in heaven.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper I Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year A
Summary
At Christmas Eve, the preacher must be vigilant not to ease into a comforting exposition of the well-known Christmas story. As the last Christian feast our society bends around, the temptation will be to preside over the palpable sensations of hearth and home like the merry Spirit of Christmas Present. But the feast is too foundational, the scriptures too portentous, to cover over with gauzy sentiment.
It is probably a good idea to let the Isaiah passage lead the themes and exhortations, because it gives meaning to Luke’s moment. The Lectionary gives us no room to shy away from the Christological target of the millennia-old prophecy: It is about the gladsome arrival of Jesus Christ, the promised child, surely more (and more wonderful) than anyone bargained for. The new birth is the realized hope of Israel and a light to the nations. The congregation would be well exhorted to imitate Mary as they go home to their dinners and presents and families—to treasure these things quietly in the midst of the hubbub, that their faith may not burn off with the moment, but be confirmed by prayerful contemplation.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper II Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year A
Summary
In this first of the two Christmas day services (traditionally at dawn), the Gospel from Christmas Eve is (largely) repeated, however a new Isaiah reading takes center stage. God’s vow to restore Jerusalem ends with an encouragement that the “Daughter of Zion” recognize her salvation is arriving. The preacher should not be timid to draw the Marian parallel here since she is a type of the church. Salvation is indeed “with her,” literally to be found inside of her, and from her womb springs the firstborn of a redeemed, holy people. Titus spells out the terms of that salvation hinted at in the Isaiah passage: Entrance through the baptismal waters of new birth in the Spirit, justification by Christ, one great movement leading to the hope of eternal life.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Nativity of the Lord - Proper III Christmas Eve & Day—Christmas, Year A
Summary
The principle text for the feast of Christmas is undoubtedly John 1. Each of the Gospels, in the sequence in which they were written, begin Jesus’ story earlier than the last. Mark begins at Jesus’ baptism, Luke at the Nativity, Matthew’s genealogy extends back to Adam himself. John, astoundingly, begins before all beginnings.
From this dizzying vantage point before and above all creation, the preacher may feel vertigo, since there is literally nothing in all the universe that is irrelevant to this text, and therefore an infinity of possible themes to be explored, so it will helpful to follow the text of the Gospel itself to properly relate these cosmic mysteries to the church to whom they have been revealed.
Verse 14 grounds the mystery of the eternally begotten logos and the incarnation, not in appeal to philosophical categories, but in concrete experience. “We saw his glory” (NASB) ought to be taken straightforwardly as an eyewitness report, not some sense of spiritual or intellectual “seeing.” Though Christ is above and before all things, the main message here is that he was directly experienced, and may still be today through his Holy Spirit and in prayer.
Ordinary human contact with the divine is what our faith is built upon, not clever philosophical ideas. Hebrews drives this point home, declaring that Jesus is the “perfect imprint” of the Father. The unseeable God is made perceptible, which brings theology into simplicity, eternity into time. Preachers ought to craft their messages with this “downward” movement in mind, not staying in the clouds of cosmic mystery, but proclaiming the gospel that the highest God has made himself fully knowable to limited beings, even little children. Our sermons ought to be just as knowable!
Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday after Christmas Day—Christmas, Year A
Summary
The Gospel of Matthew is concerned to show the continuity between Jesus and the Jewish scriptures. This is displayed both in direct fulfillment of prophetic word–Hosea 11:1 fulfilled in v. 15, and Jeremiah 31:15 in v. 17–and also by revealing the archetypical form of the story. In this passage, the circumstances of Jesus’ birth closely resemble Moses’: Saved from a paranoid ruler’s decree to kill male babies, squirreled away into the heart of Egypt, and returning home after the threat is past. Jesus is the higher Moses.
Therefore, the preacher will do well to avoid simply re-telling the beats of the narrative, adding unrecorded color commentary (“We can only wonder what Joseph might have been thinking …”) in order to fashion some sort of exhortation out of the twists and turns of the plot. The Gospels do more than simply relate what happened next, they paint a portrait of Jesus which fulfills the lives of the patriarchs, faithful monarchs, and prophets of old. Like theme music, the passage illuminates Jesus’ mission by relating it to the Exodus. The salvation of the Israelites brought about by God through Moses has now been recapitulated on an even greater scale: God himself rescuing all his children from the slavery to sin and death.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Holy Name of Jesus (Mary, Mother of God)—Christmas, Year A
Summary
The Feast of the Holy name on January 1 is a fitting way to begin the calendar year: By reflecting on the identity of Jesus Christ and recommitting ourselves to participation in the mission of his church on earth.
The “name” of God in the Old Testament carries a great deal more weight than just functioning as a label. It represents authority and reputation. For instance, Yahweh often acts “for the sake of my Holy Name” (Ezek. 36:22). After the incarnation, Jesus has become “the name that is above every name” (Phil. 2:9).
The Gospel passage shows the telltale pattern of the Spirit in the church: The shepherds, receiving the gospel revelation from on high, are not content to simply receive it. They are immediately up and out on mission, rushing to the Lord, and then off to tell the world the good news. The believer’s proper response to the identity of Jesus is to rush to be near to him, and then go out with joy to do the work that he has given us to do: To spread the news to all. Mary’s response signals the church’s vocation is not just enthusiasm, but contemplation of God and his action in history. Together, the band of shepherds and family prefigure the church’s work in the world and through it, the name of Jesus is honored and proclaimed.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Epiphany of the Lord—Epiphany, Year A
Summary
The Feast of the Epiphany, in the ancient church, far outshone Christmas. The first of the three traditional manifestations of Christ observed by the church in this season is the revelation of Christ to the Magi which represented God making good on his promise to “bless the nations” through Israel, bringing the “other sheep who are not of this fold” (John 10:16) into the center of God’s saving work.
The Magi prove that the Gentiles are not an afterthought, but are major characters from the beginning, even being used by God to thwart the tyrant’s treachery. Also, the Magi bring three gifts that reveal Christ’s identity and mission: Gold—a gift fitting for his kingship, Frankincense—the priest’s provision for offering sacrifice, and Myrrh—an embalming oil, foreshadowing his crucifixion (cf. the appearance of Myrrh in Mark 15:23 and John 19:39).
Monday, January 1, 1900
Baptism of the Lord (First Sunday after Epiphany)—Epiphany, Year A
Summary
Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism, the second of the three traditional manifestations of Christ, contains John’s protest. This is included to make clear that Jesus was not an ordinary human being in need of repentance from any sin.
The church saw many layers to the reason for Christ’s baptism, each with potential pathways for the preacher to explore. It was to endorse and fulfill John’s preceding baptismal ministry. It was to show that he is “meek and lowly” (Matt. 11:19) to encourage conversion. It was to give an example of repentance for others to follow. Most profound of all, perhaps, was the suggestion that while the waters of John’s baptism symbolized the cleansing from sins, Christ himself baptized the waters he entered, inaugurating his baptismal ministry which truly forgives sins.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year A
Summary
John the Baptist, the Voice who speaks of the Word, witnesses to a few key details that clarify Jesus’ divinity.
First, John sees Jesus walking toward him, indicating that Jesus always takes the initiative. No less than at the Cross (cf. John 10:18), Jesus is the one who acts, he is not acted upon.
Second, John proclaims Jesus as the Lamb of God “who takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus is the true Passover Lamb, who is already without blemish. By coming to be baptized he is taking on the sins of the world which had, as it were, been laid down in the waters of John’s baptism, completing the Baptist’s ministry.
Third, the Holy Spirit resting on Jesus “like a dove” recalls the dove that never returned to Noah after the flood. The return of the dove signifies that Christ is the true mount that saves us from the waters of death.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year A
Summary
It is not an accident that the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Matthew comes right after John’s imprisonment. The transfer of John’s ministry to Jesus’ is now complete. From now on it is Jesus calling for repentance and the nearness of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus reverses the normal order of disciples seeking out a rabbi. Like Elijah calling Elisha, Jesus calls his disciples to him. The evocative part of this story for the preacher is in the response of the two pairs of disciples (v. 20, 22). Echoing the frequent Markan phrase, they “immediately” (without hesitation) turn from their livelihood and family, and then turn to Jesus by following him.
Usually, Christians tend to focus on the repentance from sin as the only requirement for following Jesus, but Jesus also places special calls on his followers’ lives to turn from good things and the common run of life (cf. Luke 14:26) to follow him in special ways. Missionaries and monastics spring to mind, but a call can be anything at any time: To visit a sick person, aid a poor person, or confront a friend’s sinful habits. In so many seemingly small ways, Jesus calls us out of our ordinary lives to turn toward him. Every moment is a chance to say yes.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year A
Summary
Having announced the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand in Matthew 4:17, the Lord is ready to give a new law. The Beatitudes are the introduction to the entire Sermon on the Mount, which runs from chapter five through seven.
The location and Jesus’ posture are not details to pass over. Ascending the mountain, Jesus resembles Moses on Sinai, but instead of receiving and handing down the law to the people below, he gives the new law himself to his disciples and the crowds who have ascended with him. This new law then is more excellent than the law of Moses.
Each “beatitude” declares a state of happiness for those who exhibit each of the listed virtues. The accompanying rewards for all, save the first, are promised in the future when the Kingdom of Heaven is fully realized—the poor in spirit already possess the Kingdom since they recognize their need for God, a prerequisite for the following:
- The mourners are saddened to see evil in the world; they will be comforted by the Kingdom when it comes in its fullness.
- The meek are the gentle who will inherit the earth, as opposed to the violent who own it in the present.
- Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness yearn for goodness on the level of their affections; the Kingdom will satisfy this hunger.
- Those who give mercy to others will receive the same from God (cf. 6:14)
- Those whose hearts are singularly focused on God, and unalloyed by unrighteousness will see him in a perfect, unmediated way.
- Those who promote peace, rather than just stay out of trouble, are to be counted the “sons” or heirs of eternal life.
- Those who receive abuse for their fidelity to Jesus (who is righteousness) can expect heavenly reward as opposed to vindication in the present.
Each one of these represents a valid trailhead for the preacher to follow. These are not to be taken as unachievable standards given solely for the purpose of conviction of sin and the need for constant dispensations of mercy. While this is undoubtedly true, the teaching is a high standard but not unattainable with the help of the Spirit.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year A
Summary
Salt benefits food in two ways: It flavors and preserves it. In the same way, the righteousness of Christians benefits the world by working against its tendencies toward corruption and dissolution. Christians also make life on earth enjoyable for those who encounter them. Where salt is an unseen force, light is conspicuous. Christians, although they are not to be haughty or arrogant, are not to hide their works of righteousness, since they point onlookers back to their source in God. The imagery here has been a fertile territory for sermons. The preacher should focus especially on the missional vocation of good works. Personal piety is not in view here. Godly conduct is evangelistic.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year A
Summary
Jesus is greater than the Law of Moses, preaching a more exacting standard even than that of the Pharisees. In these several sayings (delivered in the classic rabbinic style of “you have heard … but I say to you”) Jesus prescribes moral action on the level of the heart’s intention, not only on the resultant behavior. The orthopraxy of the Pharisees emphasized right action, regardless of what one may think or feel underneath. God, however, looks on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7) and his desire is for a people whose very souls are inclined toward him in all things. Therefore, those who refrain from adultery must also refrain from entertaining lustful thoughts. Refraining from murder also means quenching the anger that gives rise to it through reconciliation.
At the same time, certain practices provided for in the Law of Moses are rendered obsolete by a consistent practice of Jesus’s ethic. Divorce is sweepingly prohibited (the exception for porneia probably referred to unions that were unlawful on their face, rather than valid marriages wounded by sexual indiscretions) making its provision in Deuteronomy unnecessary. Oaths are similarly rendered moot by a straightforwardly truthful habit of life that gives no reason to suspect falsehood.
The preacher may alight on any one of these immortal sayings and extract a rich teaching on these universal human experiences. But the underlying principle must be kept in mind: that the heart’s intentions, not only the external acts make one liable to judgment. Righteousness comes from the inside-out, with the Spirit at work on the level of the heart.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Transfiguration Sunday (Last Sunday before Lent)—Epiphany, Year A
Summary
This usually misunderstood episode is not Jesus showing off his resurrection power. Rather, there are important theological truths revealed and confirmed. The presence of Moses and Elijah are significant in more than one way. First, these are the two Old Testament figures who saw God (theophany), each imperfectly, from the mouth a cave. But now from the mountain they see God perfectly in Christ. The two also declare that the Law of Moses and the legacy of the prophets culminate in the fulfilling work of Christ on the Cross. Jesus’ face also shines with the very light that made Moses’ face glow when he came down from the mountain. The “bright cloud” that envelops them recalls God’s presence in the shekinah glory of the cloud in Exodus. Here it also refers to the Holy Spirit’s future coming on the church in baptism (cf. 1 Cor. 10:1). All of this is confirmed in the presence of Peter, James, and John, the “two or three witnesses” required in the Old Testament for verifying anything. These are those who will not “taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matt. 16:28).
Constructing a sermon out of this maelstrom of resonances should center on the purpose of the episode: That Jesus himself is fully God, and to see him is to see the Father perfectly. This vision buoys believers in hope while shouldering their crosses. The Christian life is not the emulation of the example of an ordinary earthly teacher but progress toward the very glory of God. By drawing near to the Sun of Righteousness, we too may hope to be likewise transformed.
Monday, January 1, 1900
First Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year A
Summary
The recent rediscovery of Lent in many Protestant churches has left many scattered ideas about its purpose. The real theme is preparation to celebrate the great mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection at Easter. This was the period when catechumens and notorious sinners were joined by the whole congregation in fasting and preparation for baptism and reconciliation at the great Easter Vigil.
In the Lectionary, the Old Testament readings recount the salvation history of Yahweh and Israel, while the Gospels give Jesus’ perfect fulfillment of these past acts, linked together by the theology of the New Testament authors in the New Testament readings.
Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is always the first reading in Lent. In Matthew, it is possible to reflect on the virtuous example he sets in contrast to Adam’s and Israel’s past faithlessness. The “wilderness” here is an allusion to the wilderness into which humanity was cast after being expelled from the Garden by Adam’s sin of grasping at godlikeness. Jesus is our pioneer, charting the path out of this wilderness back to the Garden by succeeding where Adam failed.
The original temptation in the Garden and Satan’s tempting of Jesus follows the same pattern: Dividing our will from the Father’s by grasping at what God has already promised. The serpent suggests to Eve an alternative path to godlikeness, when that likeness had already been granted by God (Gen. 1:26). So too, Jesus’ divine sonship is questioned (“If you are the Son of God …”) but Jesus proves that status by submitting to the Father’s will instead of grasping at it himself (Phil. 2:6-8). And whereas Israel grumbled for bread in its 40-year wandering, Jesus remains faithful to the Father in his 40 day fast by refusing Satan’s temptation of bread.
The preacher should connect the Gospel passage to our 40 days in Lent as a special time to become alert to our ongoing walk of obedience throughout our lives and how temptation and testing is part of the program, not an obstacle to spiritual comfort.
Jesus’ duel of exegesis with Satan is also a good opportunity to comment on how—in our time as in our Lord’s—the letter of Scripture may be learned and accurately quoted, but deprived of its spirit of obedience toward God, it can be twisted by the devil in order to detract from its intent. As Paul emphasizes in the Romans passage, Christ succeeds where Adam fails, bringing life to the world to reverse the curse brought about by our Fall.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year A
Summary
If the Transfiguration was celebrated at the end of Epiphany, John’s Gospel may be used on this Sunday.
“Born again” in Greek wording, is literally “from above,” as in “from the top!” John’s gospel uses this play on words to describe baptism. This “second birth” is in fact receiving God’s own life from him: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Only by receiving this new life can we see our way clear to God’s will.
Nicodemus, a Pharisee and “ruler of the Jews” represents the very best Judaism had to offer, and yet cannot see past the earthly valence of these words: “Born twice” instead of “from above.” His nocturnal visit indicates that he is emerging from darkness into the light of the truth (and later in the Gospel we see Jesus gets through to him). In the same way, we in our spiritual walks are emerging from the darkness of our own understanding and into the light of truth by holding to Christ in his Word and Sacraments.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year A
Summary
Beginning on this Sunday, the three Gospels leading up to Holy Week center on elemental themes: Water, Light, and Life. The “living water” promised to the Samaritan woman at the well is nothing less than the Holy Spirit delivered by means of the grace of baptism. That the woman is reported to have been living in sin is not accidental. Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). If candidates are preparing for baptism at the Easter Vigil, the preacher will have strong catechetical material.
For the baptized, the Old Testament passage may be highlighted. The Israelites enjoyed the same sacramental signs of God’s presence and faithfulness (1 Cor. 10) and yet they still complained faithlessly. We too, even enjoying the greater grace of baptism frequently backslide into the same behavior in our own lives (and under much milder circumstances). And yet, even in this, God meets grumbling with grace: Water from the rock.
Just as he did for the woman at the well, Christ reaches out to us today even while we are in sin, renewing his offer of living water of the Holy Spirit. The proper exhortation is for the congregation to renew their baptismal vows through earnest prayer and fasting, and accept the grace that God continually offers to us.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year A
Summary
The Fathers’ term for baptism was “illumination” suggesting much more than the expiation of guilt or entrance into a covenant community. The eyes of the soul are opened, and begins to apprehend the divinity of Christ, perceiving life on earth by a light from above.
The preacher should draw attention to the details of Jesus’ activity in order to tie the miracle to its proper context of baptism and then draw out the catechetical value of them, especially for those who are preparing to receive it.
Blindness means more than a simple disability. Especially in John’s Gospel, it represents the darkness of the fallen state of humanity and its ignorance of God. Jesus heals the man’s blindness to indicate his greater purpose of healing humanity’s darkness apart from God. He does this by spitting in the dust to make clay, recalling the mixture of dew and dust from which God formed Adam (Gen. 2:6-7). This is a clear indication that Jesus is God himself, and that this healing is not a temporary solution to a local problem, but that he is working a new creation. From there, Jesus tells him to wash, indicating baptism.
After the man’s sight is restored there is a contrast between him and his interrogators. The Pharisees are the ones who think they know all about God through the Law, and yet they do not know the source of God’s power to heal (Jesus himself). The healed man does not pretend to know anything, only going so far as to report what happened to him. The two parties take opposite trajectories. The man once blind enters deeper into the Light of his Lord, and the men once illuminated by the Law, descend into the darkness of willful ignorance of the Lord.
The preacher should connect these two reactions to the congregation. Those of us who have once been illuminated in baptism ought to respond by coming before the Lord as the healed man does (v. 38). In this we continue to see more and more clearly. Otherwise, we will be darkened, and even what we know (“we know God spoke to Moses” v. 29) will avail us nothing.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday in Lent—Lent, Year A
Summary
Before going to the Cross, Jesus displays his power over death by raising Lazarus from the dead. The miracle is a “raising” not a “resurrection” in its full sense. Lazarus will die again, but Jesus, having been raised from the dead will never die again (Rom. 6:9). The hope, then is glimpsed before entering Holy Week. This death will end in victory, no matter how heavy the stone or how long the body has laid there.
The key to preaching the passage is found in Jesus’ response to Martha’s confession: “I am the resurrection and the life.” This places Jesus’ power over death in the present, not only in the future at our own deaths, or the final judgment, and not left behind in the past as a one-time miracle. Wherever Jesus is, life is there also. Abiding in him every moment is the key idea, not postponing his help for future trials nor leaving him behind as a pleasant memory. “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). It turns out that encountering God in the present is the only time to do it.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Liturgy of the Palms—Lent, Year A
Summary
The Passion reading at Palm Sunday begins the strong contrasts (joy to sorrow and then to joy again) that typify Holy Week. This can aid in any number of sermons.
Matthew’s account typifies Solomon: Jesus is the “Son of David,” a “king of peace” who comes humbly on the royal donkey (1 Kings 1:33). Jesus’ humility here is not abasement or identification with the lowly: A donkey was not a cheap ride but more like a kingly limousine. Matthew’s account of the disciples procuring the donkey highlights Jesus’ divine foreknowledge (“Immediately you will find a donkey …”) and his authority (“If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them’”). The point is that he is not coming to take his kingdom by force, but expects to be welcomed by his people. And so he is, but only for the time being.
Here the Preacher has a few options for application and exhortation, but the most compelling may be to use the Triumphal Entry with all its attendant royal resonances in contrast with the Passion reading’s preview of things to come. This further reveals the astonishing content of God’s heart for his people: How he comes expecting to die, and is willing to be feted by the very people who will call for his crucifixion a short time later. His conquest is his sacrifice on the Cross, the outpouring of love that swallows up death forever.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Liturgy of the Passion—Lent, Year A
Summary
The Passion reading at Palm Sunday begins the strong contrasts (joy to sorrow and then to joy again) that typify Holy Week. This can aid in any number of sermons.
Matthew’s account typifies Solomon: Jesus is the “Son of David,” a “king of peace” who comes humbly on the royal donkey (1 Kings 1:33). Jesus’ humility here is not abasement or identification with the lowly: A donkey was not a cheap ride but more like a kingly limousine. Matthew’s account of the disciples procuring the donkey highlights Jesus’ divine foreknowledge (“Immediately you will find a donkey …”) and his authority (“If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them’”). The point is that he is not coming to take his kingdom by force, but expects to be welcomed by his people. And so he is, but only for the time being.
Here the Preacher has a few options for application and exhortation, but the most compelling may be to use the Triumphal Entry with all its attendant royal resonances in contrast with the Passion reading’s preview of things to come. This further reveals the astonishing content of God’s heart for his people: How he comes expecting to die, and is willing to be feted by the very people who will call for his crucifixion a short time later. His conquest is his sacrifice on the Cross, the outpouring of love that swallows up death forever.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Day)—Easter, Year A
Summary
Matthew’s account of the Resurrection is laced with important details that together express an entire gospel message, not to be missed in the hubbub of a full sanctuary and lunch plans afterwards.
The Resurrection happens on the “dawn of the first day of the week” beginning the new creation promised in Isaiah 65. The women, informed by the brilliant angel, enter the tomb and see with their own eyes that Jesus is not there. The Gospel is based upon witness, not hearsay. Their thoroughness is fulfilled by Jesus himself who meets them on their way to share the news with the disciples. At this point, they “took hold of his feet” proving that Jesus was no vision or ghostly being. Jesus then immediately sends them on mission to share the news with the Apostles.
The proper response is to go and tell the news (hence the women have been referred to as “The Apostles to the Apostles”). Also, Jesus’ promise to appear to his “brothers” indicates in word and deed that he has already forgiven them for their faithlessness at the Cross and thereafter. The gospel means the forgiveness of sins, even for those guilty of the worst offenses (betrayal). These details paint a rich portrait for the preacher to use on this the highest feast day of the Christian year.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year A
Summary
The appearance to the disciples in John emphasizes the reality of the resurrected body of Christ. His body is tangible but also glorified, capable of more than ordinary human flesh. Here the disciples receive the Holy Spirit for the first time (at Pentecost the gifts of the Spirit manifest), the source of the church’s power as a vessel of Christ’s authority on earth.
Like Thomas, many are apt to doubt the incarnate reality of both Christ and his church. It is easier tolerate Jesus’ resurrection as an ideal but not the body itself. Similarly, it is easier to understand the church as an inspirational institution, rather than a custodian of spiritual realities. Doubt of Jesus’ bodily resurrection is linked to doubt of the church’s authority on earth and vice versa. But both of these together give us hope of our own bodily resurrection at the Last Judgment. In Christ and his church is real hope, not pleasant ideas or ghostly forms.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Third Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year A
Summary
The treasured story of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, only found in Luke, reveals the sources of encounter with the risen Christ, which Christians return to weekly in divine service. The two disciples (one is named, recommending the text as a probable eyewitness account) begin their journey disheartened and confused, doubtful of the woman and Apostles’ report of the resurrection.
The two disciples are in the same position in many respects as modern believers living after the time of Christ. When he appears, he begins the encounter by expounding the scriptures of the Old Testament, which are in fact about him. In the same way, divine service since the earliest times has begun by reading and expounding the holy scriptures according to the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Though their “hearts burn within them” they still do not recognize him. Instead, he is “known to them in the breaking of the bread.” That this passage has the Eucharist in view is plain from the use of the telltale four verbs “took, blessed, broke, and gave” a liturgical pattern that recurs at the Last Supper.
In the Word, disciples are instructed, whetting the appetite for the full encounter at the Table. The response, like the women at the tomb, is to go on mission: Finding the others and reporting the good news. So too do believers today respond to what they have received by telling the good news and inviting others to encounter him as well.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fourth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year A
Summary
The readings now begin to prepare the congregation for the Ascension and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. In the Gospel reading this Sunday, Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for the time of his absence in the flesh and presence by the Spirit.
There is an important distinction between true shepherds of the flock and the “strangers, thieves and bandits,” that lead the sheep into death instead of life. The details of the parable correspond to the situation of believers and leaders in the church. Christ is the gatekeeper; the shepherds are the elders of the church; the sheep are Christ’s elect; the sheepfold is the church; and the thieves, robbers, and bandits are the false teachers that would lead believers astray. The relationship between the Shepherd and his sheep is the thing that allows them to discern shepherds from bandits. Many false teachers would attempt to lead Christians away from the church, but believers only need to listen: Whose voice do they hear from their leaders? That of the gatekeeper or someone strange and novel? Only shepherds who “enter by the gate” are authentic leaders—that is to speak the words of Christ and imitate his example.
In a time where many churchgoers are concerned about poor leadership in churches, this passage can be consulted. Safety from abusive or exploitative leadership does not come from familiarity with the latest insights about trauma and psychological health, but from a deep familiarity with the words and example of Jesus Christ. Only by intimacy with the gatekeeper can the sheep know the shepherds from the wolves.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year A
Summary
As Jesus’ departure approaches, he begins to instruct them on the profound connection that they will enjoy with Jesus and the Father after his departure in the flesh. Jesus is the church’s connection to God the Father. Thomas’ and Philip’s questions both have the same answer: Jesus himself. The way to the Father, and even the Father himself, is to be found in Jesus. Thus, the church’s abiding hope: That Christ’s identity with God welcomes them into eternal life. Through this connection, even the power of God to work miracles is available to his church while on earth.
The preacher should focus on the immanence of the church’s connection with Christ. Jesus is not talking about a far off and delayed hope, but rather an immediately available source of intimacy with God himself. Christ, being God and Man is the bridge which welcomes human beings into the life of God. This is more than a future hope, but a present source of comfort and power.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Sixth Sunday of Easter—Easter, Year A
Summary
In the final Gospel before the Ascension, Jesus explicitly promises the Spirit in John 14. Here he is described as “another Parakletos.” The word’s meaning varies by context: “helper,” “advocate,” or “comforter” are all possible options. The broad semantic range is theologically instructive. The parakletos comes to the aid of another to meet different needs. In verse 26, he is the enlightener who will “teach you all things and bring to your remembrance,” Jesus’ words. In 15:26 he is a witness for Christ on our behalf. Note that the Spirit is the second parakletos mentioned in verse 16. The first is Christ himself. In any circumstance we find ourselves in the Spirit is the agent whereby Jesus works in and through us and remains present to us.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Trinity Sunday—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 8 (13)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 9 (14)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 10 (15)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 11 (16)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 12 (17)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 13 (18)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 14 (19)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 15 (20)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 16 (21)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 17 (22)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 18 (23)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 19 (24)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 20 (25)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 21 (26)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 22 (27)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 23 (28)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 24 (29)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 25 (30)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
All Saints Day—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 26 (31)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 27 (32)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 28 (33)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Christ the King (Reign of Christ)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Thanksgiving Day—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Trinity Sunday—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
Trinity Sunday is not a recitation of an abstract theological construct nor an opportunity for the preacher to invite the congregation to consider his or her doctoral thesis. Trinity Sunday is, fundamentally, about inviting the congregation into the life of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is like a dance that human beings are invited to share in.
The texts in Year B emphasize the Spirit’s role. By the Spirit, believers are born again into new life. In the famous John 3:16, Jesus reveals the heart of the Father and the gift of his Son to Nicodemus in the context of introducing him to second birth in the Spirit. Likewise, Paul tells us that it is by the Spirit that Christians experience God as Father and Christ as brother.
Through the lens of the Holy Spirit, believers find their place in the dynamic, tripartite life of God. Because of this, Trinity Sunday is an excellent time to bring up life after death, and to emphasize that whatever the afterlife looks like, our goal is to live God’s tripartite life alongside him, a dance of infinite love.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 5 (10)—Season after Pentecost, Year B
Summary
This Sunday represents a crossroads for the preacher. For the rest of this year, the Gospel lectionary returns to the Gospel of Mark, broken up by the Bread of Life discourse in John, but the attendant Old Testament and Psalm are split between two different tracks.
Option I walks through a mostly chronological series of Old Testament texts beginning in 1 Samuel which are not thematically linked to the Gospel passage in any way. Option II (which is sometimes listed as Option III) is the more traditional set of Old Testament (and some Apocryphal texts) which do thematically link up with the Gospel for the day. A third option is to follow the Epistle readings, which also run along their own track, disconnected thematically from both sets of Old Testament readings and the Gospel.
The preacher should be prepared to commit to one of these options exclusively for the rest of the Christian year, since each is designed with its own arc in mind. This guide will follow the more venerable Option II, as the theological and typological connections therein will introduce the congregation to the Christological principle of the scriptures, which will aid in their Old Testament study going forward.
After the joy of Easter and the elation of Pentecost, we return to more sobering territory. Throughout the Gospel of Mark, incomprehension and incredulity will become a common theme. The people, even his own disciples, fail to comprehend Jesus’s true identity and mission. Mark 3 speaks of the unforgivable sin, (which also appears in Luke 12:10). Since this is bound to disturb the pious””and it ought to!””the preacher must present the idea clearly, keeping in mind that the Lord stands ready to forgive any sin (1 John 1:9) and that nothing outside of us can separate us from God (Romans 8:38-39).
Jesus, however, is not talking here about a one-time offense, but a state of persistent deception that prevents the possibility of repentance. Jesus’ relatives evaluate the good works of God done through Jesus””healings, miracles, and sound teaching””and conclude that they are inspired by Satan. If we likewise determine the Holy Spirit’s acts in our own world are actually the works of the devil, then how could we possibly submit ourselves to that Spirit in repentance?
A contemporary example of this may be Christopher Hitchens’s negative appraisal of Mother Theresa’s work among the very poor. This was the nature of the original deception of Eve in Genesis 3, that God was the deceiver who secretly harbored ill will for humanity, and it is how the devil still seeks to lead believers astray.
The preacher should not sugarcoat the very real danger of the deception, but also emphasize that believers have nothing to fear, because God in his love has given us everything that we need to resist the devil’s lies. First, Christ himself is with us always by the Holy Spirit and intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand, second by the saving knowledge contained in the Holy Scriptures, and third by the wisdom of the great cloud of witnesses in the church, past and present.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 7 (12)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 6 (11)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Monday, January 1, 1900
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
The great catch of fish is a common image for the capacity of evangelism to bring about revival. What is not often remarked on is the way the disciples bring in the fish. The haul is too large for Peter’s single boat. It takes James and John’s vessels to help bring in the catch. Here we have an image of the unity of the church in the work of evangelism. The need for unity of thought, doctrine, and fellow feeling is a well-worn topic in today’s scattered denominational landscape. But the church is most effectively unified around its work for the sake of the lost and the poor. The formal causes of church unity should not be understated””especially doctrine, sacrament, and the historic hierarchy””however the work of the church on behalf of the lost and needy is the material cause of unity, and it is the place where divided believers may find the possibility for unity in other respects. The church is the only institution that exists for the sake of those outside of it and it cannot subsist without the pursuit of that primary purpose.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
There is a division nowadays between those preachers who consider Jesus’ beatitudes in Luke to be validating people in the real social condition of poverty and misery, and others who read the same as a spiritual condition. The correct answer is both. The moral exhortations in the following verses (27-38) reveal that Jesus has personal virtuous conduct in mind””and Matthew’s more popular “poor in spirit” harmonizes. However, Luke’s account is left unglossed for a reason: that the pursuit of godliness is helped, not hindered, by material poverty and suffering. This would have been news to any ancient person for whom the path to divinization was marked by those things which were like God and the gods: blessings, wealth, and long life. We are, today, similarly tempted to regard the rich and successful with the same quasi-religious admiration: as paragons of humanity since, after all, the proof of their lifestyle is plain. But Jesus reverses the typical signs of divine favor””It is poverty, hunger, mourning, and friendlessness that are the markers on the pathway to God. It is surprising and counterintuitive, but it makes sense because the lack of worldly goods makes space for God. Indeed, present worldly pleasures easily become obstacles to faith and connection with God (cf. the rich young ruler in Luke 18). For this reason, the gospel is good news to the poor and concerning news””at best””for the rich who had looked to their wealth also for eternal security, since they supposed it to be a marker of God’s favor. In reality, however, the materially poor are better off in the pursuit of godliness, and are therefore to be imitated and blessed instead of avoided and ignored.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” A requirement for following Jesus is to show the same forgiveness that Joseph showed his brothers, not only to one’s clan, but to “whomever” wrongs you. Jesus’ teaching gives the old theme of mercy and magnanimity startling new contours: bless the curser, give gifts to the robber, be gentle with the one who violates you. It has become fashionable to speak of these as components of a radically disinterested morality which regards “the other” as the moral object before whom the self-abrogates itself. But Jesus is not recommending existential abasement. Throughout, he talks about the benefits of this way of life: the credit and great reward given to those who empty themselves in this way. One way of looking at this passage is as an investment strategy: the imitation of God results in receiving God himself. God is both the creditor and reward. By imitating him, we will become like him and so receive him as our reward.
The famous Golden Rule in verse 6:31 is a diagnostic test which discloses whether we are acting in accord with this goal of imitating God. It is not presented””as it is so often misread””as a mathematical formula that describes the substance of our moral lives. Instead, it gives us a practical measure that we can apply to any situation and act toward God.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday after Christmas Day—Christmas, Year B
Summary
It is traditional to read John 1 more than once throughout the Christmas octave in order to ensure the congregation does not miss it! Such foundational truths at the beginning of the Christian year bear repeating. What differs is the supporting texts that garnish John’s declaration of the incarnation.
If the congregation has ears to hear a reading from the Apocrypha, the preacher will find special illumination in the Sirach passage. The Hebrew notion of wisdom had much in common with the logos””a connection the early church benefited from, and was fond of making. Human wisdom may be able to take the measure of a few limited things, but in God’s wisdom resides the whole architecture of all creation. The first few verses of Sirach 24 has wisdom dwelling in the highest heavens and covering the earth like a mist. But then this universal force on which everything depends somehow finds a resting place in Israel.
In John, we see God’s wisdom come to dwell, not only in a nation, but in human flesh. The mystery of how universal salvation comes through a particular place and person is a theme worth excavating, as it uncovers much about God’s character””his closeness and intimacy with his creation, and especially us. It also leaves no doubts as to the divinity of Christ, whose teachings are trustworthy for the reason that they come from the mouth of wisdom itself.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Second Sunday after Christmas Day—Christmas, Year C
Summary
Though John 1 was read on Christmas Day, the reality of sparse church attendance in modern America means that this Sunday will likely be the first time it is heard by most of the congregation, so the themes of the Christmas Day commentary may be safely repeated. The option to extend the passage to verse 18 brings a new valence for the preacher to expound: Jesus is God made visible. Though no one has seen the God the Father, Jesus, the “only begotten God” has “expressed” the Father (v. 18) perfectly. This is how Jesus can assure Philip in 14:9, that he who has seen him has seen the Father and is not in need of fuller revelation.
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 4 (9) —Season after Pentecost, Year B
Monday, January 1, 1900
Proper 5 (10)—Season after Pentecost, Year A
Summary
This Sunday represents a crossroads for the preacher. For the rest of this year, the Gospel lectionary returns to the Gospel of Matthew, but the attendant Old Testament and Psalm are split between two different tracks.
Option I walks through a mostly chronological series of Old Testament texts beginning in 1 Samuel which are not thematically linked to the gospel passage in any way.
Option II (which is sometimes listed as Option III) is the more traditional set of Old Testament (and some Apocryphal) texts which thematically link up with the Gospel for the day.
A third option is to follow the Epistle readings, which also run along their own track, disconnected thematically from both sets of Old Testament readings and the Gospel.
The preacher should be prepared to commit to one of these options exclusively for the rest of the Christian year, since each is designed with its own arc in mind.
This guide will follow the more venerable Option II, as the theological and typological connections therein will introduce the congregation to the Christological principle of the scriptures, which will aid in their Old Testament study going forward.
Jesus finds love and faith among the sinful and the sick, not the religious leaders. Matthew and his tax collector friends sit with Jesus and the woman with the flow of blood reaches out to touch him.
In reply to the questions about his behavior Jesus quotes the prophet Hosea, rendered in the first reading as: “For faithful love is what pleases me, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). The Pharisees are professional “sacrificers,” who police the ritual commandments of the Law, but for all that have not pledged their hearts to God. In their place the Gospels hold up those outcasts who welcome the Lord to their tables and reach for him for salvation. Ironically, it is these sinners and outcasts who are in a good position to pursue righteousness, even for it to exceed that of their naysayers (Matt. 5:20) because their desire is nearness to the Lord.
“Knowledge of God” in Hosea 6:3, 6 carries a deeper sense than merely collecting facts. To “know” in the Old Testament frequently connotes profound direct experience (cf. “knowing” as marital intimacy in Gen. 4:1; as exclusive fidelity in Amos 3:2). Through the Incarnation of the Son, knowing God becomes possible in a whole new way. The congregation should be encouraged to “press on” as the tax collectors and woman did, to know Christ by his word in the scriptures and his body in the sacraments. Moreover, today’s scriptures disclose the goal of these gifts: Not as one more set of rituals to be observed, but as the pathway to direct experience with God.
