Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – Matthew 22:34–46 The expert in the Law who tests Jesus with a question about the greatest commandment, and is asked a question he cannot answer. My father handed me to a teacherwhen I was seven.I rose when that man entered a room for forty years,and for his teacher,and…

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – Isaiah 45:1-7 “I arm you, though you do not know me” (Isaiah 45:5). As we read through this Sunday's OT lesson (Isaiah 45:1-7), we are met by two surprises. For most of us, the first is an unfamiliar name: Cyrus. The second is the title that the Isaiah…

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – Exodus 32:1–14 And the LORD relented from the disaster that He had spoken of bringing on His people [Exodus 32:14, English Standard Version]. In my Wednesday meditation posted three weeks ago, we encountered Jonah, a prophet who had a bone to pick with YHWH. Jonah had fled from…

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – Isaiah 5:1-7 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? —Isaiah 5:4 The alternate OT reading for this Sunday begins as a love song. Someone who is loved has a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He made special plans….

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – Psalm 25:1-10 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation [Psalm 25:4-5]. Abby was a chocolate brown toy poodle, and for more than seventeen years, she was Jane’s…

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – Jonah 3:10-4:11 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry [Jonah 4:1]. Jonah’s story is among the most familiar in the Old Testament—or at least we remember its most memorable scene. There is a storm, a man thrown overboard, and an enormous fish. Many of…

High Shoals, NC 1922 Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – Exodus 14:19-31 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry…

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A — Romans 13:8–14 Owe no one anything, except to love one another. — Romans 13:8 Those of us who follow the Revised Common Lectionary sometimes forget how much work went into it. Its predecessor, the Common Lectionary, was published in 1983, three years before I entered Duke Divinity School….

Exodus 1:15-21 — The Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah who defied Pharaoh’s order to kill newborn boys. We knew the sound of first breath— that sharp cry that splits silence and announces another soul has fought its way into light. For years we had answered the call, rushing through Hebrew doorways where women labored and…

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A — Psalm 133 How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity. —Psalm 133:1 Grandson Andrew was three, perhaps four, when Jane and I gathered with Gray, April, and their brood for breakfast at one of the diners on Hilton Head Island a number of…