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John Fairless
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  1. 2d ago

    Lectionary.pro for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 23, Year A

    And the hits just keep on coming! The Gospel for this week is another difficult parable in Matthew’s temple sequence. The parable of the wedding banquet includes a king who destroys those who refuse the invitation, an indiscriminate welcome of “both good and bad,” and a jarring ending about a guest thrown out for not wearing a wedding robe. Preachers who approach it honestly will have to handle its difficulties rather than smoothing them over. Track One brings us the golden calf — one of the most emotionally honest passages in the Pentateuch. The people grow impatient, Aaron caves, and Moses becomes the great intercessor. Track Two brings us Isaiah’s eschatological feast on the mountain — God’s victory over death and the wiping away of all tears. The Epistle gives us Paul’s famous call to rejoice and the peace that surpasses understanding. A small liturgical pleasure worth naming: Psalm 23 on Proper 23. The number is coincidence, but the pairing of the psalm’s table-in-the-presence-of-enemies with the Gospel’s wedding banquet is worth preaching toward. For preachers continuing a series: last week the wicked tenants exposed those who forgot they were tenants. This week the wedding banquet raises questions about who accepts the invitation and how they respond when they do. The Matthew arc keeps challenging the shape of our response. The Readings Exodus 32:1–14 First Reading (Track One) — The Golden Calf and Moses’s Intercession Summary Moses has been on the mountain forty days. The people grow impatient and come to Aaron: “Make us gods who will go before us.” Aaron takes their gold earrings and casts an image — a golden calf. He builds an altar and declares, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord!” The people offer sacrifices and feast. God tells Moses, “Go down at once! Your people have acted perversely.” God threatens to consume them and start again with Moses. But Moses intercedes — not for himself but for the people. He appeals to God’s reputation, to God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The text records a striking turn: “And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” Key Ideas for Preaching * The people’s impatience is the trigger. Moses had been gone forty days, and they could not stand the waiting. The golden calf is what we make when we cannot bear to wait for the real God any longer. Where in your congregation might people be making golden calves of various kinds because waiting has become unbearable? * Aaron’s role is uncomfortable. He does not refuse. He does not even hesitate publicly. He collects the gold. He shapes the image. He builds the altar. He declares a festival. And he is not punished for it in this passage. What might your sermon do with a picture of institutional leadership that caved to pressure — not with villainy, but with convenience? * Moses becomes an intercessor. God has just said “your people” to disown them; Moses throws the phrase back and says “your people, whom you brought out of Egypt.” He stands in the gap. He argues with God. He appeals to God’s own promises. Where in your congregation might people be helped by hearing that genuine intercession is not polite agreement with God but an argument on behalf of someone God is angry with? * “The Lord changed his mind.” That is a striking theological statement. Not that God is capricious, but that God is in genuine relationship. The intercession matters. What might it look like to preach a God who actually responds to the prayer of a persistent intercessor? Significant Cautions * “God changed his mind” has been used in theological controversies about divine immutability. Do not fight those debates from the pulpit. Preach the narrative; let the theology take care of itself. * Aaron’s lack of punishment here can be preached in a way that excuses institutional complicity. Do not. His failure is real; the passage simply does not resolve it here. * The golden calf has been reduced to a metaphor for “idolatry” generally. Keep the specific context — impatience with waiting — rather than letting it dissolve into generic preaching about idols. Psalm 106:1–6, 19–23 The Psalm (Track One) — Standing in the Breach Summary A recital of Israel’s history of sin and God’s mercy. The selected verses praise God’s goodness, confess that “we have sinned like our ancestors,” reference the golden calf incident at Horeb — “they exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass” — and name Moses’s role as intercessor, “standing in the breach before him, to turn his wrath away from destroying them.” Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm’s refrain of identification — “we have sinned like our ancestors” — refuses the easy move of distancing ourselves from those who failed before us. Where in your congregation has distance from historical sin been imagined as moral progress, when the psalm imagines solidarity? * “Standing in the breach” names Moses’s intercession with a specific architectural image — a human body in the gap where the wall has fallen. What might your sermon do with a picture of intercession as literal body-in-the-gap work rather than polite prayer at a distance? Significant Cautions * “Like our ancestors” has been used to minimize distinct historical responsibilities. The psalm names solidarity, not equivalence. Isaiah 25:1–9 First Reading (Track Two) — The Feast on the Mountain Summary A hymn celebrating God’s eschatological victory. The strong city of enemies lies in ruins. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. God will destroy the shroud cast over all peoples, the sheet spread over all nations. God will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces. “This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Key Ideas for Preaching * The feast is for all peoples. Not for the deserving. Not for the religious. All peoples. On God’s mountain. What might it look like to preach an eschatology that is as wide as Isaiah’s vision — a feast where every nation sits down together? * “He will swallow up death forever.” That is one of the most audacious lines in Scripture. The prophet names what God will do to death itself. Where in your congregation are people who need to hear that death — not merely their sins, but death — is what God promises to end? * “This is the Lord for whom we have waited.” The passage names waiting as the posture of faith — not passive waiting, but expectant waiting for a specific feast. What might your sermon do to help a congregation feel the specific thing they are waiting for? Significant Cautions * “Swallow up death” has been used to minimize the grief of those currently mourning. The promise is future and does not erase present pain. * “All peoples” has been used to flatten particularity. The feast is for all peoples as peoples — not for one global, generic humanity. Psalm 23 The Psalm (Track Two) — You Prepare a Table Summary The most beloved psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Green pastures, still waters, right paths. Through the valley of the shadow of death, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” The table prepared in the presence of enemies. The cup overflowing. “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Key Ideas for Preaching * “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The psalm’s table is not safe. The enemies are still there. God’s provision happens in the middle of what is still difficult. Where in your congregation have people been assuming God’s blessing requires the end of their troubles, when the psalm imagines blessing in the middle of them? * “You are with me.” That is the center of the psalm. The shepherd’s presence, not the shepherd’s protection from all difficulty, is what the psalmist celebrates. What might your sermon do with the distinction between a God who removes difficulty and a God who is with us in it? Significant Cautions * Psalm 23 has been used so often at funerals that its weight at other times can be lost. Preaching it on Proper 23 (notice the number) is a chance to let it carry fresh freight. Philippians 4:1–9 The Epistle — Rejoice; the Peace of God Summary Paul begins by naming two women in the Philippian church — Euodia and Syntyche — who have been disagreeing. He asks them to be of the same mind in the Lord, and he asks the community to help them. Then he moves into some of the most quoted lines in his letters. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything; by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise. Key Ideas for Preaching * The passage opens with specific names — Euodia and Syntyche — who are not getting along. Paul does not pretend community life is seamless. He names the conflict and asks the congregation to help. Interestingly, given the conclusion he offers in vv. 8-9, then two names mean “sweet or pleasing aroma” and “fortunate”. Hmmm…. What might your sermon do with a picture of Christian community that includes real conflict, named by name, held by the whole community? * “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.” That is not peace we achieve. It is peace that comes to us, that guards hearts and minds, that defies explanation. Where in

  2. Sep 27

    Lectionary.pro for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 22, Year A

    Hold on to your pulpits this week, preachers! The Gospel is one of the hardest parables in Matthew — and one with the most difficult history in Christian preaching. The parable of the wicked tenants has been used, throughout Christian history, to justify the church’s replacement of Israel and to fuel centuries of anti-Jewish violence, from medieval pogroms through Nazi propaganda. Preachers must handle it with unusual care. Track One brings us the Ten Commandments at Sinai. Track Two brings us Isaiah’s song of the vineyard — the direct source material for the Gospel parable. The Epistle gives us Paul’s autobiographical turn: whatever gains I had, I count as loss for Christ. For preachers continuing a series: last week’s parable of the two sons exposed the yes that did not go. This week’s parable of the wicked tenants exposes what happens when tenants forget they are tenants. The Matthew arc keeps sharpening toward the passion. The Readings Exodus 20:1–4, 7–9, 12–20 First Reading (Track One) — The Ten Commandments Summary God speaks to Moses at Sinai. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Then the commandments: no other gods. No idols. No misusing God’s name. Remember the sabbath and rest. Honor your father and mother. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not covet what belongs to your neighbor. When the people see the thunder, the lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they tremble and stand at a distance. They tell Moses: “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses reassures them: God has come to test you, so that the fear of God may be with you and keep you from sinning. Key Ideas for Preaching * The commandments begin with a verb about God, not a demand of the people. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out.” Deliverance comes first; then the shape of life among the delivered. What might your sermon do with the specific order — grace before command — that most preachers know but many congregations have never actually heard? * The commandments protect people. Do not murder protects human life. Do not steal protects property. Do not bear false witness protects reputation and truth. Do not covet protects the heart from unrest. These are not arbitrary rules; they are the shape of a community where life can flourish. Where in your congregation have the commandments been imagined as arbitrary restrictions when they are actually protections? * “You speak to us, but do not let God speak to us” — the people’s request captures a real spiritual pattern. We often prefer mediated religion to direct encounter. What might it look like to preach a God who is willing to be heard directly, and to name the tender fear that keeps us at a distance? Significant Cautions * Do not preach the commandments as if the whole ethical life of the church can be reduced to ten rules. Jesus himself will summarize them in two. * The lectionary omits verses 5–6 (the “jealous God” verses). Preachers should know what has been omitted and decide honestly whether to preach the whole passage or just the assigned selection. * The commandments have often been misused as a checklist for civic religion. Handle their communal, covenantal context carefully. Psalm 19 The Psalm (Track One) — The Heavens Are Telling Summary “The heavens are telling the glory of God.” The psalm begins with creation’s silent praise — day pours out speech to day — and moves to the law: perfect, reviving the soul; sure, making wise the simple. The psalm closes with a prayer against hidden faults and presumption, and the famous closing petition: let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm links creation and law in the same song. The heavens declare God’s glory; God’s word revives the soul. Both are revelation. Where has your congregation imagined creation and Scripture as competing sources of knowing God, when the psalm holds them together? * “Clear me from hidden faults” — the psalmist prays not for the sins he can see but for the ones he cannot. What might your sermon do with a spiritual practice that includes asking God to name what we are not yet aware of? Significant Cautions * “The heavens declare the glory of God” has been misused in the culture wars around science. The psalm is not a scientific claim; it is doxology. Isaiah 5:1–7 First Reading (Track Two) — The Song of the Vineyard Summary The prophet sings a love song about his beloved’s vineyard. God did everything for the vineyard — dug it, cleared it of stones, planted choice vines, built a watchtower, hewed a wine vat. And expected grapes. But the vineyard yielded wild grapes. So God will remove its hedge, break down its wall, make it a waste. The song ends with the interpretation: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” Key Ideas for Preaching * The prophet’s judgment on Israel is Israel’s own prophet speaking within Israel’s tradition. This is not an outside voice condemning God’s people. This is Isaiah’s love for his people speaking hard truth. What might it look like to preach a prophetic word that comes from love rather than distance? * The wordplay in Hebrew is untranslatable but worth naming. God expected mishpat (justice) but saw mispach (bloodshed); God expected tsedaqah (righteousness) but heard tse’aqah (a cry). Justice and bloodshed sound alike. Righteousness and outcry sound alike. Only one letter apart. What might your sermon do with the closeness of what God wanted and what God got? * Isaiah 5 is the direct source for today’s Gospel parable of the tenants. Jesus is not inventing a new critique; he is quoting Israel’s own prophet. Where in your congregation might people be helped by hearing that Jesus’s hardest words about religious leadership are drawn from Israel’s own tradition of self-critique? Significant Cautions * This passage should not be read as evidence that God has rejected Israel. Isaiah’s critique is a call to return, not a decree of replacement. * “He expected justice but saw bloodshed” has been quoted in ways that reduce injustice to individual sin. Isaiah is naming systemic failure of leadership, not simply personal wrongdoing. Psalm 80:7–15 The Psalm (Track Two) — The Vine You Brought Out of Egypt Summary Another vineyard psalm. God brought a vine out of Egypt, drove out the nations, and planted it. It sent out its branches to the sea, its shoots to the river. But now its walls are broken down and passersby pluck its fruit. “Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted.” Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm imagines God as the planter and Israel as the tended vine. It is a picture of intimate care — God’s own right hand doing the planting. What might your sermon do with a picture of God’s investment in the people that is this personal? * “Turn again, O God” is a psalm of return — not the people’s return to God, but a prayer that God will turn back toward them. What might it look like to preach a faith that includes asking God to notice again, when God’s face seems turned away? Significant Cautions * This psalm’s laments have sometimes been used to shame communities into thinking their difficulties are always God’s judgment. Not all suffering is discipline. Philippians 3:4b–14 The Epistle — I Count It All as Loss Summary Paul lists his credentials. Circumcised on the eighth day. Of the people of Israel. Tribe of Benjamin. Hebrew of Hebrews. A Pharisee. A persecutor of the church — by which he means he was zealous. Blameless under the law. Then the turn: whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. He counts everything as rubbish compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. He wants to know Christ, the power of his resurrection, the sharing of his sufferings. Not that he has already obtained this or reached the goal, but he presses on to make it his own, because Christ Jesus has made him his own. Forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, he presses on toward the goal. Key Ideas for Preaching * Paul’s list of credentials is not fabrication. He really did have every advantage of Jewish religious life in the first century. He is not saying his credentials were worthless in themselves. He is saying that compared to knowing Christ, they are loss. Where in your congregation has this passage been read as if Paul were dismissing Jewish life? Preach it more honestly. * Paul’s word for what he considers his gains to be is stronger than “rubbish.” In Greek it means excrement — the kind of language you would not read from the pulpit lightly. Paul is being deliberately shocking. What is your sermon doing to hold the shock of this passage rather than sanitizing it? * “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal” — Paul refuses spiritual complacency. He has been at this for years, and still he presses on. What might it look like to preach a mature Christian life that includes this specific refusal of arrival? Significant Cautions * Paul is not rejecting Jewish life. He is naming his own reordering of priorities. Do not preach this passage as if Judaism were the enemy Paul overcame; that reading has caused enormous harm. * “Forgetting what lies behind” has been misused to shame people who need to process their past. Paul is talking about not resting on his own credentials, not about pretending painful history did not happen. Matthew 21:33–46 The Gospel

  3. Sep 20

    Lectionary.pro for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 21, Year A

    Another week, another great set of readings. Let’s think about preaching! The Gospel is the confrontation in the temple. Jesus is teaching after his triumphal entry when the chief priests and elders come to challenge his authority. He refuses to answer directly. Instead, he tells a parable that exposes them — a parable about two sons, one who said no but did the work anyway, and one who said yes but did not. The parable closes with one of Jesus’s sharper lines: tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. Track One brings us the Israelites at Massah and Meribah — a story of thirst, complaint, and water from the rock. Track Two brings us Ezekiel’s rejection of the proverb “the parents have eaten sour grapes,” insisting that change is possible for anyone and ending with God’s astonishing plea: “turn, then, and live.” The Epistle gives us the Christ hymn — Christ’s self-emptying as the pattern for the church’s common life. For preachers continuing a series: last week’s parable of the vineyard workers exposed our envy of God’s generosity. This week’s parable of the two sons exposes the difference between the yes we say and the yes we do. The Matthew arc keeps sharpening. The Readings Exodus 17:1–7 First Reading (Track One) — Water from the Rock at Massah and Meribah Summary The Israelites are camped at Rephidim, and there is no water. They quarrel with Moses, demanding water. Moses asks why they are testing God. The people press harder — they and their children and their livestock are thirsty; they wish they had died in Egypt. Moses cries out to God: what am I supposed to do? They are ready to stone me. God tells Moses to take his staff, go ahead of the people to the rock at Horeb, and strike it. Water will come out. Moses does this in the sight of the elders. The place is named Massah (testing) and Meribah (quarreling), because the people asked: “Is the Lord among us or not?” Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash Key Ideas for Preaching * The people’s complaint is real. They are thirsty. Their children are thirsty. Their livestock is thirsty. The text does not shame them for being scared; it simply gives them water. Where in your congregation have people been told their complaints were faithless when what they actually needed was water? * Their question — “Is the Lord among us or not?” — is honest. It is the question we ask when we are exhausted and afraid, when God’s presence seems more theoretical than real. What might your sermon do with a God who does not answer this question with a lecture on faith, but with actual water? * The place is named Massah and Meribah, and the naming stays in the tradition. Israel remembers their doubt as part of the story, not as something to be edited out. Where in your congregation has the impulse been to erase the memory of doubt rather than name it as part of the faithful story? Significant Cautions * Do not preach this in a way that shames people who are asking honest questions about God’s presence. The people’s question is not what the text critiques; it is the testing (implying “prove yourself to us or we walk away”) that is more problematic. * Later in the Torah, Moses’s own impatience at another version of this story will cost him entry into the promised land. Do not conflate the two stories. Psalm 78:1–4, 12–16 The Psalm (Track One) — We Will Tell the Coming Generation Summary A wisdom psalm calling for the passing down of God’s works from one generation to the next. The selected verses focus on Egypt and the wilderness — the dividing of the sea, the cloud that led by day and fire by night, the water from the rock that split open like rivers. The psalmist insists this story must be told to children. Key Ideas for Preaching * “We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation.” That is a specific pastoral commitment. Where in your congregation is the passing-down of the faith going quiet, and how might this psalm invite grandparents, parents, and mentors into concrete practice? * Read alongside the Exodus reading, the psalm’s calm narration of “water flowed from the rock” flattens the tension of Massah and Meribah. Where has your congregation’s remembering of the past made the actual difficulty feel smaller than it was? Significant Cautions * Do not use the psalm to shame parents who are struggling to pass the faith on. The passing-down is a communal responsibility, not a solo parental burden. Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32 First Reading (Track Two) — Turn, Then, and Live Summary God rejects the proverb Israel had been quoting to itself: “the parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” This proverb had become an excuse — the current generation is suffering for what their ancestors did. God insists otherwise: every life belongs to God; the person who sins is the one who is accountable. If a wicked person turns from their sin, they will live. If a righteous person turns from righteousness, they will die. The people complain that God’s way is unfair; God answers that it is their ways that are unfair. And the passage closes with God’s astonishing plea: “Have I any pleasure in the death of anyone? Turn, then, and live.” Key Ideas for Preaching * The rejected proverb had become a way of avoiding responsibility — blaming the past for the present. God’s response is not “let it go” but “turn.” Where in your congregation has intergenerational blame become a substitute for actual change? * The passage insists that change is possible in either direction. A wicked person can turn. A righteous person can fall away. Neither category is permanent. What might your sermon do with a God who refuses to give up on people who have failed and who refuses to guarantee people who have succeeded? * “Have I any pleasure in the death of anyone?... Turn, then, and live.” That is God’s own posture. God is not eager for judgment; God is longing for return. Where in your congregation has God been imagined as more eager for judgment than the text depicts? Significant Cautions * The passage’s insistence on personal responsibility should not be used to dismiss the real effects of intergenerational trauma. Ezekiel is arguing against fatalism, not denying that families and communities pass down real wounds. * “The soul that sins shall die” has been used in ways that make God sound bloodthirsty. In context, this is a call to change, not a threat of eternal punishment. Psalm 25:1–9 The Psalm (Track Two) — Remember Not the Sins of My Youth Summary A psalm of trust and prayer. “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.” The psalmist asks to be taught God’s ways, remembered by God’s mercy, forgiven for the sins of youth. Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. The humble are led in what is right and taught his way. Key Ideas for Preaching * “Remember not the sins of my youth… according to your steadfast love, remember me.” That is a prayer many people in your congregation have never given themselves permission to pray. What might it look like to offer them the specific practice of asking God to remember them by mercy rather than by the mistakes they made when they were younger? * “He instructs sinners in the way.” That is a striking picture — God as a teacher of the ones who have failed. Where in your congregation has failure been imagined as the end of instruction, when the psalm imagines it as the beginning? Significant Cautions * “Sins of youth” should not be read narrowly. The point is that God’s memory of us is not our worst moments. Philippians 2:1–13 The Epistle — The Mind of Christ; the Christ Hymn Summary Paul writes to a community he loves, urging them to be of one mind, one love, one accord. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit; in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Then the great Christ hymn: let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name. The passage closes: work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, because God is at work in you. Key Ideas for Preaching * The Christ hymn is the pattern — self-emptying downward before glory. Paul asks the Philippians to have this same mind. That is a radical reframing of how a Christian community holds together. Where in your congregation has upward mobility (position, recognition, honor) been mistaken for the shape of Christian life? * “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit” is not a call to passivity — it is a call to reorient ambition itself. The Christ of the hymn is enormously active; he simply does not act for himself. What might your sermon do with the difference between Christian ambition and Christian selfish ambition? * “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you.” That paradox holds together human effort and divine work in the same sentence. Where in your congregation has one been emphasized at the expense of the other? Significant Cautions * The Christ hymn has been used to tell women, enslaved people, and the poor to accept their subjugation as an imitation of Christ’s humility. This is a horrifying misuse. Christ’s self-emptying was voluntary and toward the mission of God. It is not a template for anyone else’s forced humiliation. * “Regard others as better than yourselves” has been used to reinforce unhealthy self-abasement. The point is other-orientation, not the erasure

  4. Sep 13

    Lectionary.pro for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 20, Year A

    The Gospel is one of the most disorienting parables Jesus ever told. A landowner keeps going out throughout the day, hiring workers even at the eleventh hour, and pays everyone the same. The all-day workers grumble. The landowner responds with what may be the sharpest question in any of the parables. Track One brings us the manna in the wilderness — daily bread, given as needed, no more, no less. Track Two brings us Jonah’s anger at God’s mercy toward Nineveh, and the book’s astonishing final image: God’s concern for a great city and also its animals. The Epistle gives us Paul from prison, torn between longing for Christ and remaining for the sake of the churches — with the famous line, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” For preachers continuing a series: last week’s parable of the unforgiving servant exposed what we do when we forget the scale of mercy we have been shown. This week’s parable of the vineyard workers exposes what we do when we cannot bear that mercy being shown to others. The Matthew arc keeps turning the mirror slowly. Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash The Readings Exodus 16:2–15 First Reading (Track One) — Manna in the Wilderness Summary The Israelites, only weeks out of Egypt, complain against Moses and Aaron. They would rather have died in Egypt where they had food than starve in the wilderness. Moses hears the complaint as ultimately directed at God, not at him. God tells Moses that bread will rain from heaven — each family gathering just what they need for the day. That evening, quails cover the camp; in the morning, a fine flaky substance appears on the ground. The people look at it and ask, “What is it?” Moses tells them: it is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. Key Ideas for Preaching * The people’s complaint is honest. They are hungry and afraid. It is easy to preach against them for lacking faith, but that misses what the text is doing. God does not scold them; God feeds them. Where in your congregation have people been shamed for honest complaint when what they needed was bread? * The manna comes daily. Not weekly. Not monthly. Daily. And no one can hoard it — later verses tell us it spoiled when they tried. What might it look like to preach a faith that is fed each day, not stockpiled? * The people’s first response to the bread is “what is it?” They do not recognize it. God’s provision does not always come in a form we would have anticipated. Where in your congregation might people be missing manna because they were expecting something else? Significant Cautions * Do not preach the manna in a way that shames people who are food insecure. The text is about God’s provision to people who genuinely did not have bread, not a metaphor for what to do when a delivery is late. * “Daily bread” is a phrase Jesus takes up in the Lord’s Prayer. That connection is worth noting, but the manna story stands on its own. Psalm 105:1–6, 37–45 The Psalm (Track One) — God’s Provision in the Wilderness Summary A section of the great remembering psalm, now focused on the exodus and wilderness. God brought Israel out with silver and gold. God spread a cloud for covering, gave quails and bread from heaven, opened the rock so water gushed out. God brought the people into the promised land. The closing is a single hallelujah. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm remembers not just the dramatic deliverance but the daily provision — quails, bread, water from a rock. God’s care for the people included every meal. What might your sermon do with a picture of God’s faithfulness that includes the ordinary? * The psalm’s mode is remembering. The Israelites are being asked to keep the story alive across generations. Where in your congregation is the practice of shared remembering going quiet, and how might this psalm invite its recovery? Significant Cautions * The psalm’s cheerful retrospect flattens a lot of pain in the wilderness generation’s experience. Do not preach the calm summary as if it were the whole truth of what those people lived. Jonah 3:10–4:11 First Reading (Track Two) — Jonah’s Anger at God’s Mercy Summary God sees that Nineveh has turned from its evil ways, and God does not destroy the city. Jonah is furious. He prays a bitter prayer: this is exactly why I fled to Tarshish in the first place — I knew you were a gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. Jonah asks God to take his life. God asks, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah goes outside the city and sulks. God provides a bush for shade, which Jonah loves. Then a worm attacks the bush; it dies; Jonah is again ready to die. God asks: is it right for you to be angry about the bush? And the book ends with God’s question, unanswered: you are concerned about a bush; should I not be concerned about a great city with more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left — and also many animals? Key Ideas for Preaching * Jonah’s honesty is remarkable. He does not pretend his anger is righteous. He says plainly: I ran away because I knew you would show mercy, and I did not want you to. Where in your congregation has anger at God’s generosity been hiding, unspoken, behind more acceptable feelings? * Jonah’s theology is not wrong — his summary of God’s character (gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love) is exactly right. What has gone wrong is that he does not want that God to be that God toward these people. What does it look like to preach a Jonah-shaped hypocrisy — the theology we affirm about God we do not want extended to certain neighbors? * God’s argument at the end is unforgettable. You cared about a bush you did not plant. I care about a city with a hundred and twenty thousand people. And also many animals. That final phrase is a stunning small note. God’s concern is bigger than the human world. Where in your congregation has God’s concern been imagined as narrower than the text describes? * The book of Jonah ends on God’s question, unanswered. The reader is left to answer it themselves. What might your sermon do with the fact that Jonah is silent at the end, and we are asked to speak in his place? Significant Cautions * The book of Jonah is often preached as a story about a big fish. Do not spend the sermon on the fish. The fish is a subplot; the point is God’s mercy toward people Jonah wanted destroyed. * Do not use Jonah as a stand-in for Judaism (a common Christian misreading). Jonah is a specific prophet with a specific problem, and the book is Israel’s own honest self-critique. Handle carefully. Psalm 145:1–8 The Psalm (Track Two) — Gracious and Merciful Summary A psalm of praise. Every day I will bless you. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. One generation shall laud your works to another. The psalmist meditates on God’s greatness and steadfast love. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. Key Ideas for Preaching * “One generation shall laud your works to another” — the psalm assumes praise is handed down. Where in your congregation is the passing-down going quiet, and how might your sermon speak to grandparents, parents, and young adults about it? * The psalm’s picture of God — gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love — is the same picture Jonah quotes bitterly. The psalmist praises what Jonah resented. What does it look like to preach the difference between celebrating God’s mercy and hating that God’s mercy extends to others? Significant Cautions * “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised” has been used as an empty affirmation. Handle the language so that it lands as specific, not generic. Philippians 1:21–30 The Epistle — To Live Is Christ; Live Worthy of the Gospel Summary Paul writes from prison, torn between two things he wants. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If he continues in the body, he will keep laboring fruitfully for the churches. If he dies, he will be with Christ, which is far better. He is hard pressed between the two, but thinks it more necessary for him to remain, for their sake. So he expects to stay — for their progress and joy in faith. Meanwhile, he asks them to live in a manner worthy of the gospel: standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind, not intimidated by opponents. And he names something surprising: they have been granted the privilege not only of believing in Christ but of suffering for him. Key Ideas for Preaching * Paul’s ambivalence is remarkable. He is not pretending to want death for spiritual show, nor pretending he does not want to be with Christ. He holds both honestly. What might your sermon do with a picture of Christian maturity that includes real desire for what comes next without contempt for what is now? * “In a manner worthy of the gospel” is not a call to moral perfection. Paul’s specifics are relational — standing side by side, striving with one mind, not intimidated. Where in your congregation has “worthy of the gospel” been reduced to personal morality when Paul was describing communal courage? * “The privilege of suffering for him” is easy to skip past. Paul is describing suffering not as punishment but as proof that we belong to Christ. This is dangerous language when misused. But rightly heard, it names something real about what discipleship costs. Where has your congregation been surprised by suffering it did not expect its faith to cost? Significant Cautions * “To live is Christ, to die is gain” has been quoted in ways that shame grieving people for their grief. Paul is not saying we should not mourn death. He is naming his own particular readiness in a particular moment. * “The privilege of suffering” has been badly misused — again, to justify staying in situations of abuse and expl

  5. Sep 6

    Lectionary.pro for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 19, Year A

    Last week we heard the process for handling harm within the community. This week we hear how far the forgiveness extends. Peter asks the question we all quietly want to ask — is there a limit? — and Jesus answers by rejecting the whole counting frame, then tells one of the hardest parables in the Gospels. Track One brings us the crossing of the Red Sea and, at the preacher’s choice, either Psalm 114 or the Songs of Moses and Miriam that celebrated the crossing. Track Two brings us Joseph forgiving his brothers — a fitting Old Testament companion to the Gospel, and one of the most extraordinary reconciliation scenes in the Bible — paired with Psalm 103’s picture of a mercy as wide as the distance between east and west. The Epistle continues Paul’s practical instructions, this time on judging one another over matters of conscience: welcome those who are weak in faith, do not despise those whose consciences differ from yours, and remember that we all give an account to the same Lord. For preachers continuing a series: the Matthew 18 arc closes here. Next week brings the parable of the workers in the vineyard — a shift to the question of God’s generosity toward those who came late. The Gospel keeps exposing our secret bookkeeping. The Readings Exodus 14:19–31 First Reading (Track One) — Crossing the Red Sea Summary Israel is trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the sea. The pillar of cloud that has been leading them moves behind them, becoming a barrier between the Egyptians and the Israelites. Moses stretches out his hand; the Lord drives back the sea by a strong east wind all night, and the waters divide. Israel walks through on dry ground. Pharaoh’s chariots pursue them. In the morning watch, God throws the Egyptians into panic; the wheels of their chariots clog. Moses stretches out his hand again; the waters return; the Egyptian army is drowned. Israel sees the great work the Lord has done and believes. Photo by Miguel Lindo on Unsplash Key Ideas for Preaching * The pillar that led Israel now stands between them and their pursuers. God’s presence is not just a light for the road ahead; it can also be a wall between us and what pursues us. Where in your congregation might people need to hear that God’s presence protects as well as leads? * The sea is parted by wind and by night — a whole night of what must have looked like slow, uncertain divine work. Deliverance in this text takes time. What might your sermon do with a God whose deliverance is not always instantaneous? * The text names the Egyptians’ death honestly. This is not a story of pure joy for anyone who reads it carefully. How might your sermon hold together the reality of God’s deliverance and the sober fact that it came at cost to others? Significant Cautions * The drowning of the Egyptians has been used triumphally in ways that make God’s people cheer at the death of enemies. Rabbinic tradition teaches that God rebuked the angels for singing when the Egyptians drowned. Christian preaching should honor that restraint. * Do not press the Red Sea as a metaphor for whatever escape your people are hoping for. The text is doing specific historical and theological work; it is not a general promise about deliverance from difficulty. Psalm 114 The Psalm (Track One, primary option) — When Israel Went Out from Egypt Summary A short psalm celebrating the exodus. The sea saw and fled. The Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams. The whole earth is called to tremble at the presence of the Lord. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm imagines the whole creation reacting to God’s deliverance — the sea, the Jordan, the mountains. The natural world has skin in the game. What might your sermon do with a picture of deliverance that includes creation, not just people? * The closing line — “tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord” — is a call, not a threat. The trembling is reverence, not fear. Where has your congregation confused reverence with terror? Significant Cautions * The vivid poetry (“mountains skipped like rams”) is imagination, not physics. Do not preach a literalist reading that flattens the psalm’s exuberance. Exodus 15:1b–11, 20–21 The Psalm (Track One, alternative option) — The Songs of Moses and Miriam Summary A song celebrating the crossing. Moses and the Israelites sing that the Lord has triumphed gloriously — the horse and rider thrown into the sea. The song rehearses God’s mighty acts against Pharaoh. Then Miriam, named as a prophet, and the women take up tambourines and sing back the refrain: sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. Key Ideas for Preaching * The song is answered by Miriam and the women, dancing with tambourines. The tradition of women’s celebration is worth honoring in a church that has too often silenced it. What might it mean to preach a Miriam-shaped moment in your congregation this week? * The song is exuberant, martial, and specific. It names Pharaoh’s death by name. Later Jewish tradition will pull back from too much celebration of enemies’ death. What does it look like to sing the song faithfully in the modern moment, honoring the joy of the delivered without the cruelty of the triumphant? Significant Cautions * The song’s celebration of enemies’ destruction has been used to bless violent triumphalism in Christian history. Handle with care. Genesis 50:15–21 First Reading (Track Two) — Joseph Forgives His Brothers Summary Jacob has died, and Joseph’s brothers are afraid. They imagine that Joseph has only been kind to them because their father was alive, and that now he will finally take revenge for what they did to him. They send a message pleading for forgiveness, claiming their father commanded it before he died. Joseph weeps. When they come to him and offer themselves as his slaves, he refuses. “Am I in the place of God?” he says. “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.” And he speaks kindly to them and promises to provide for them and their little ones. Key Ideas for Preaching * Joseph’s brothers cannot believe they are forgiven. They construct a story about their father commanding it — as if forgiveness requires a legal warrant. Joseph’s tears seem to be for the fact that they still cannot receive what he has been giving them for years. Where in your congregation are people still constructing stories to make forgiveness legally binding, when what has been offered is grace? * “Am I in the place of God?” That is Joseph’s own restraint — the recognition that judgment is not his to hand out. What does it look like to preach a restraint like Joseph’s in a culture that keeps insisting we get to keep score? * “You intended it for harm; God intended it for good” is Joseph’s theological interpretation of his own suffering. It is his to offer, not ours to impose. Where has this line been forced on people whose harm has not yet been redeemed, and how might Joseph’s own timing correct the church’s misuse? Significant Cautions * “God intended it for good” should not be handed to suffering people as an explanation. Joseph earned that meaning through decades of hardship. No one else has to earn a lecture on it. * The brothers’ fear is real, and Joseph does not dismiss it. Do not preach forgiveness in a way that skips over the wounder’s guilt or the wounded’s ongoing work. Psalm 103:(1–7), 8–13 The Psalm (Track Two) — As Far as East Is from West Summary One of the tenderest psalms in the psalter. Bless the Lord, O my soul. The Lord forgives your iniquity, heals your diseases, redeems your life from the Pit, crowns you with steadfast love. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. God does not deal with us according to our sins. As far as the east is from the west, so far God removes our transgressions from us. As a parent has compassion for their children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. Key Ideas for Preaching * The images the psalmist reaches for are specific: as far as east is from west, as high as heavens above the earth, as a parent has compassion. Each is stretched to the breaking point of comparison. Where in your congregation has God’s mercy been imagined as measured, when the psalm imagines it as immeasurable? * “God does not deal with us according to our sins.” Read alongside the Gospel’s parable of the unforgiving servant, that sentence reframes the question. God is not scorekeeping. Where in your congregation are people still keeping score of their own failures with a strictness God has already refused? * The psalm opens and closes with “bless the Lord, O my soul.” Blessing is what the psalmist owes God for what God has done — not obligation, blessing. What might your sermon do to help a congregation practice the specific spiritual movement of blessing God for mercy already received? Significant Cautions * “The Lord has compassion for those who fear him” has been used to make God’s mercy conditional. Read in context, “fear of the Lord” here is closer to reverence than to terror, and the whole psalm’s argument is about mercy that outstrips deserving. Romans 14:1–12 The Epistle — Do Not Judge One Another Summary Paul writes to a community with real conflict over matters of conscience — some think one day is more sacred than another; some eat meat and others eat only vegetables. His instruction is striking. Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Do not judge those who eat what you do not; do not despise those who abstain from what you enjoy. Each is responsible to the Lord for their own conscience. We do not live to ourselves; we do not die to ourselves. We belong to the Lord. And each of us will give an account of ourselves — to God, not to

  6. Aug 30

    Lectionary.pro for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 18, Year A

    The Gospel is a practical continuation of last week’s way-of-the-cross language. If we are going to follow Jesus together, how do we handle it when we hurt each other? Matthew 18 gives us one of the most concrete passages in the New Testament about how a Christian community handles conflict — a text often preached badly and often skipped altogether. Track One brings us the institution of Passover — the community meal that will define God’s people, remembered forever. Track Two brings us Ezekiel as watchman — the prophet made responsible to warn, but not responsible for the response. The Epistle gives us the ethical grounding for all of it: owe no one anything except love, for love is the fulfillment of the law. For preachers continuing a series: last week we heard about taking up the cross and following. This week, the road brings us into a specific and hard question — what does following look like when the person following alongside us has hurt us? Photo curated by Unsplash.com The Readings Exodus 12:1–14 First Reading (Track One) — Passover Instituted Summary God gives Moses and Aaron detailed instructions for a meal — one that will mark a whole new calendar, and one that will be remembered for generations. Each household takes a year-old lamb without blemish, keeps it until the fourteenth of the month, and then slaughters it at twilight. The blood is put on the doorposts and lintel. The lamb is roasted whole, eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and the family eats in haste — dressed to travel, sandals on their feet, staff in hand. It is the Passover of the Lord. And this night is to be remembered as a festival forever. Key Ideas for Preaching * The instructions are elaborate and detailed — a whole liturgy for a meal. Israel’s freedom will begin with a shared table and a specific practice of remembering. Where in your congregation has the shared table been reduced to a formality, and how might this text restore its weight? * The lamb is to be shared — if your household is too small, join with a neighbor. Even the meal of deliverance requires community. What might it mean for your people to hear that no one is meant to eat this meal alone? * The meal is eaten “in haste, ready to travel.” This is not a celebration of arrival but a meal for the road. God’s people are being fed for a journey they have not yet made. Where in your congregation has faith been imagined as arrival, when the biblical picture is more often provision for the road? * Jesus will later use this meal as the frame for his own last supper with his disciples. Christian preachers should honor both readings — the meal as it is celebrated by our Jewish neighbors, and the meal as it has shaped the Christian eucharist — without letting the second erase the first. Significant Cautions * Do not preach the Passover in a way that reduces its meaning for Jewish communities who continue to celebrate it. The Christian tradition of reading Jesus into this meal is real, but it does not replace the meal’s own meaning. * The tenth plague, which frames this text, involves the death of every firstborn in Egypt. Do not skip this or celebrate it. It is a hard, painful part of the story that deserves acknowledgment rather than triumphalism. Psalm 149 The Psalm (Track One) — The Lord Takes Pleasure in His People Summary A short psalm of praise for the community of the faithful. Sing a new song. Praise God in the assembly. Let the faithful dance and rejoice, for the Lord takes pleasure in his people and adorns the humble with victory. The closing verses take a sharp turn toward warfare — a two-edged sword, vengeance on the nations, binding kings — that has troubled Christian readers for centuries. Key Ideas for Preaching * “The Lord takes pleasure in his people.” That is one of the most tender lines in the psalter — God as a delighted parent, not a distant judge. Where has your congregation quietly assumed God’s default posture toward them was disappointment? * “He adorns the humble with victory.” The word for adorn is not the language of grim reward — it is the language of dressing up, decorating, honoring. God does not merely permit the humble to succeed; God delights in decking them out. What might your sermon do with a God whose delight in the humble is that concrete? Significant Cautions * The closing verses about the two-edged sword and executing vengeance have been used in some of the worst chapters of Christian history — to justify religious violence, crusades, and colonial conquest. Do not preach the joyful opening without acknowledging what the closing verses have done in the world. Ezekiel 33:7–11 First Reading (Track Two) — The Watchman Summary God appoints Ezekiel as a watchman for the house of Israel. He is to warn the wicked when he hears God’s word — and if he fails to warn them and they die in their iniquity, their blood will be on his hands. But if he warns them and they refuse to turn, he has done his duty. The passage ends with a striking word from God: “As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live. Turn back, turn back... why will you die, O house of Israel?” Key Ideas for Preaching * The watchman is responsible to warn, not responsible for the response. That is a distinction many faithful people have not been given. Where in your congregation are people carrying the weight of outcomes that were never theirs to control? * “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live.” That is God’s own posture. The God we serve is not eager for judgment; God is longing for return. Where in your congregation has God been imagined as more eager to judge than the text actually depicts? * The plea “why will you die?” is the heart of this passage. It is not the voice of a wrathful judge; it is the voice of a heartbroken parent. What might it look like to preach a God who genuinely does not want the people God loves to be destroyed? Significant Cautions * The watchman role has been used throughout Christian history to justify harsh, aggressive, and self-righteous confrontation. That is a distortion. Ezekiel is not being given license to browbeat; he is being given a solemn responsibility of loving witness. * The “blood on your hands” language is meant to weigh on the prophet, not to be used to weigh on ordinary Christians who are silent for good reasons. Be careful. Psalm 119:33–40 The Psalm (Track Two) — Turn My Eyes from Vanities Summary Another section of the long acrostic psalm on God’s word. The psalmist prays to be taught God’s statutes, given understanding to keep them, turned from vanities, and given life. The prayer is not that God’s law be made easy but that the psalmist be shaped to receive it. Key Ideas for Preaching * “Turn my eyes from looking at vanities; give me life in your ways.” That is a beautiful pairing — asking to be turned from what wastes attention and asking, in the same breath, for life. Where in your congregation are people whose eyes have been captured by vanities they cannot easily look away from? * Every verb in this section is a request. The psalmist is not boasting about his obedience; he is asking to be made able to obey. What might it look like to preach a faith that begins with asking, not with claiming? Significant Cautions * The psalm’s love for God’s law is not legalism. Do not preach against a strawman the psalm never sets up. Romans 13:8–14 The Epistle — Love Fulfills the Law Summary Paul turns to specific ethical instruction. Owe no one anything except the debt to love one another — for the one who loves fulfills the law. The commandments — do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet — are all summed up in one word: love your neighbor as yourself. Then Paul shifts key. You know what time it is, he says. The night is far gone; the day is near. Wake from sleep. Lay aside the works of darkness. Put on the armor of light. Live honorably as in the day. And put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Key Ideas for Preaching * “Owe no one anything except to love one another.” Paul frames love as a debt that cannot be paid off — it is owed continually, freshly, to every neighbor. Where has your congregation quietly imagined love as a finite currency, when Paul describes it as a debt you carry always? * Love, Paul says, is the fulfillment of the law. Not its opposite. Not its softening. Its fulfillment. What does it mean for your sermon to hold together the demands of Christian ethics and the primacy of love, without letting one erase the other? * “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” is one of the most striking phrases in Paul. He treats Christ like a garment we put on each morning. Where in your congregation might people be helped by the practice of consciously beginning the day this way? Significant Cautions * “The night is far gone, the day is near” has been misused as fuel for end-times prediction. Paul is describing a posture of expectant readiness, not a timetable. * The love-fulfills-the-law language has been used to argue against Christian ethical seriousness — “as long as we love, anything goes.” That is not Paul’s argument. He names the specific commandments and says love is what actually makes them possible. Matthew 18:15–20 The Gospel — If Your Brother Sins Against You Summary Jesus gives his disciples a specific process for handling harm within the community. If a member sins against you, go first alone and speak with them privately. If they will not listen, take one or two others as witnesses. If they still will not listen, tell the church. And if they still refuse, treat them as a Gentile and a tax collector. Then Jesus repeats the binding and loosing language he gave Peter two chapters ago — but now given to the whole community. And he closes with a

  7. Aug 28

    Y’all Save the Date

    As we draw nigh unto the end of summer, we wanted to get an announcement out about the Fall… and Advent… and planning your preaching as you get ready for Christmas. It sure does roll around, don’t it? Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash John and Delmer are going to host an online workshop on October 22, 2026 — ONE DAY ONLY! — for discussing the texts for the four Sundays of Advent, complete with pastoral colleague conversation and the likely result of some sermon ideas and a goal for the holy season. If you have been to a Two Bubbas and a Bible workshop or retreat before, you know how good and pleasant it is for preaching brothers and sisters to dwell together. If you haven’t experienced what happens in one of these — well, all I can say is I highly recommend it! The workshop begins at 10 am (Eastern time) and concludes by no later than 4 pm; we’ll take a short break for lunch but most of our time will be spent getting into the texts and sharing ideas from the Bubbas and with one another. I’ve never been to a bad one of these… I guess we could offer a money-back guarantee, or some such. The cost for the day is $99… $79 if you are a paid subscriber to Lectionary.pro. (If you need to verify whether you are paid up or not, you can drop me a question in the comments below, or at john.fairless@gmail.com). You’ll get a fancy-dancy course syllabus and what we lovingly call our “text apparatus” for working with the four scriptures for each week. Heck, we may even throw in a copy of the Chilton Quadrilateral, if we can get a round tuit. More info and registration forms forthcoming; just wanted you to know about the date as you plan your calendars! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lectionarypro.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Aug 23

    Lectionary.pro for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 17, Year A

    Hold on to your seats this week — the gospel makes a hard right toward Jerusalem and never looks back! This is the immediate turn from last week. Peter has just confessed Jesus as the Messiah. Now Jesus begins to teach what that means — suffering, death, resurrection. Peter is scandalized. Jesus is direct. The way of the cross gets named, and the same disciple who was blessed six verses ago is called Satan for objecting to it. The Old Testament tracks both give us people called to hard tasks. Track One brings us Moses at the burning bush — the divine name revealed, the reluctant prophet given his commission. Track Two brings us Jeremiah’s lament — a prophet accusing God of being like a deceitful stream that goes dry when you need it most, and God’s bracing rather than soothing response. The Epistle continues Paul’s practical instructions in Romans 12. After last week’s call to living sacrifice, now come the specifics: let love be genuine, bless those who persecute you, weep with those who weep, and overcome evil with good. For preachers continuing a series: last week’s confession is followed this week by its cost. This is the turn from “who is Jesus?” to “what does following this Jesus mean?” The Readings Exodus 3:1–15 First Reading (Track One) — Moses at the Burning Bush Summary Moses is tending his father-in-law’s flock in the wilderness of Sinai. He notices a bush that is on fire but not consumed, and turns aside to look. From the bush, God calls his name. God has heard the cry of the Israelites in Egypt; God is sending Moses to bring them out. Moses offers a series of objections — starting with “who am I to go?” and moving to the deeper question, “what is your name?” God’s answer to the second is one of the most enigmatic sentences in the Bible: I AM WHO I AM — or I will be who I will be — a name whose tenses refuse to settle. Key Ideas for Preaching * The bush is on fire but not consumed. Moses turns aside to look. That turning aside is the whole beginning of the story. Where in your congregation might God be waiting for a turn of attention that no one has yet made? * Moses’s first objection is “who am I?” God does not answer that question. God changes the subject to “I will be with you.” The confidence for the task, in this text, does not come from the sender knowing anything special about himself. It comes from the promise of God’s presence. What does it look like to preach a call that does not require self-confidence, only God’s promise? * The divine name — “I AM WHO I AM” — is deliberately unfixed. The Hebrew can mean “I am who I am,” “I will be who I will be,” or “I will be what I will be.” The name refuses to settle. Where has your congregation been trying to freeze God into a definition God has refused to be frozen into? * God calls Moses by name — the same Moses whose past includes murder, exile, and running away. This is not a call to a person who has proven himself. It is a call to a person whose past is complicated. Where in your congregation are people quietly assuming their past disqualifies them from what God might be calling them to now? Significant Cautions * The burning bush has become such a familiar image that it can be preached as a metaphor for any inspiring experience. It is more specific than that — a genuine encounter at a particular time and place with a particular commission attached. * “I AM WHO I AM” is contested territory in translation. Do not preach a confident philosophical reading of the divine name; the Hebrew resists that. * Moses’s objections to the call are legitimate. He is not portrayed as faithless for offering them, and God takes them seriously. Do not use this passage to shame people who have their own honest objections to what they are being asked to do. Psalm 105:1–6, 23–26, 45c The Psalm (Track One) — Remember the Wonders Summary This section of the great remembering psalm focuses on the descent of Jacob’s family into Egypt and God’s raising up of Moses and Aaron to lead them out. The selected verses call the people to remember the wonders God has done — with Abraham, in Egypt, through Moses — and close with a single “hallelujah.” Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm remembers Moses’s story from a great distance — after everything worked out, after generations have passed. What might it mean for your congregation to make the same practice of long remembering, so that today’s uncertain calls can be trusted to become tomorrow’s remembered deliverances? * The psalm names Moses as God’s “chosen” and Aaron as the one God “sent.” This is theological language for what looked, in the moment, like the reluctant conscription of two brothers who did not want the job. Where in your congregation has “chosen by God” language obscured how much resistance actual calls have met? Significant Cautions * The psalm’s cheerful retrospect does not undo the pain the Israelites lived through in Egypt. Do not let the celebration minimize present suffering in your congregation. Jeremiah 15:15–21 First Reading (Track Two) — Jeremiah’s Lament Summary Jeremiah is in real distress. He accuses God of being unreliable — like a stream that goes dry when you need it most, “deceitful waters that cannot be trusted.” He has been faithful, he says. He has eaten God’s words. He has not sat with the merrymakers. And still he is in pain. God’s response is bracing rather than tender: if you turn back to me, I will take you back. If you utter what is precious and not what is worthless, you will serve as my mouth. And I will make you a fortified wall of bronze to this people — they will fight against you, but they will not prevail, for I am with you. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash Key Ideas for Preaching * Jeremiah accuses God to God’s face — of being unreliable, of failing him, of being like a stream that runs dry. This is not sinful speech; it is the honest lament of a prophet in pain. Where in your congregation has honest complaint to God been mistaken for faithlessness? * God’s response is not soothing. It does not include an apology or a comforting explanation. It includes a call to return and a strengthening for the road ahead. What might your sermon do with a God who does not always answer our pain with sympathy but sometimes with a call to keep going? * God promises Jeremiah he will be like a fortified wall of bronze against opposition. Not that opposition will go away. That he will be strong enough for it. Where in your congregation are people needing strength for opposition that is not going away? Significant Cautions * Jeremiah’s lament should not be preached as a warmup to a happy ending. The pain is real and the response is a call to keep going, not an assurance that the pain will end. * “Fortified wall of bronze” imagery has been used to encourage rigidity where flexibility was needed. The bronze wall is protection against opposition, not against learning. Psalm 26:1–8 The Psalm (Track Two) — I Have Walked in Integrity Summary A psalm of protested innocence and love for God’s house. The psalmist asks God to vindicate him — he has walked in integrity, he does not sit with the wicked, he washes his hands in innocence. And he loves the house where God’s glory dwells. It is a confident psalm, close to boasting, and honest about what the psalmist most wants. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalmist’s confidence sounds surprising to modern ears used to more humble language in prayer. But there is a real place in the psalter for asking God to notice when we have tried to be faithful. Where has your congregation been too shy to name, in prayer, the ways they have tried to be honest with God? * “I love the house in which you dwell, O Lord, and the place where your glory abides.” That is unabashed love for the community of worship. What might your sermon do with the specific love of the church as a spiritual practice worth honoring? Significant Cautions * The psalmist’s claim of innocence has been used to prop up self-righteousness. Read in context, it is a plea for a fair hearing, not a claim to moral perfection. Romans 12:9–21 The Epistle — Let Love Be Genuine Summary Paul continues the practical section of Romans 12 — one of the most concentrated ethical passages in his letters. Let love be genuine. Hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Be joyful in hope, patient in suffering, persevering in prayer. Extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you — bless, and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Do not repay evil with evil. So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. And the closing: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Key Ideas for Preaching * “Let love be genuine.” That is Paul’s opening. Not “let love be adequate.” Not “let love be present.” Genuine — un-performed, un-simulated, the real thing. Where in your congregation has the love been well-intentioned but not quite genuine, and how might Paul’s opening word press on that? * “Weep with those who weep” is often quoted; “rejoice with those who rejoice” is often skipped. Weeping is expected; rejoicing at someone else’s joy is harder. Where in your congregation has envy quietly kept people from rejoicing when their neighbors flourish? * The closing — “do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” — is Paul’s summary of Christian resistance. Not retaliation. Not passive absorption. Active good, offered in response to what is wrong. What might your sermon do to make that both concrete and credible in a world where retaliation feels satisfying? Significant Cautions * “Bless those who persecute you” has been used to tell people to endure abuse.

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We're new and improved! (Well, new, anyway...) lectionarypro.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    John Fairless
  • Years Active
    2013 - 2026
  • Episodes
    237
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © John Fairless
  • Show Website
    Lectionary.pro

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