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Did you know that most of the time we follow a pattern of scripture readings in our worship services? It’s called “following the lectionary” and it is based upon a three-year cycle of Bible readings. Many churches follow this pattern — Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic, etc. Sometimes, we set aside the lectionary readings in order to do a sermon series based upon other Scripture readings that we would not otherwise hear in worship.

We invite you to spend some time each week “reading ahead” and pondering the readings that you will hear in upcoming worship services. If you take this challenge, think about how it will change how you hear the word in worship after you have spent reading it during the week. It’s a great way to get ready for worship by reading for worship! 

 



Sun. April 27 — Second Sunday of Easter

Readings and Psalms

  • Acts 5:27-32
    The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus
  • Psalm 118:14-29
    You are my God, and I will exalt you. (Ps. 118:28)
  • Psalm 150 (alternate)
    Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. (Ps. 150:6)
  • Revelation 1:4-8
    Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the dead, is coming
  • John 20:19-31
    Beholding the wounds of the risen Christ

Overview

Can I Get a Witness?

The texts for today explore what it means to be a witness: the power of seeing and experiencing the resurrection firsthand. For those of us who weren’t there in person to witness Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, a question persists: How do we give witness? How have we experienced Easter firsthand? What do we need to see, to touch, to hear in order to believe?

The witness given in our readings today is extraordinary. “Doubting” Thomas comes up with one of the most powerful, concise creeds in all of scripture: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Peter and the apostles affirm their belief in Christ at great risk to themselves and their families. The Spirit is at work, giving ordinary, doubting people extraordinary boldness to declare the core beliefs of Christian faith. God works in surprising ways, through unexpected people, to share the good news of Easter. With the Spirit’s help, we can give witness too.

 

Sun. May 4, Third Sunday of Easter

Readings and Psalms

Overview

Do You Love Me? Follow Me

When we encounter Jesus, we are changed and will never be the same. Jesus can be revealed in a blinding light on the road, in an abundance of fish, in breakfast on the beach. God uses all sorts of surprising things—bread, wine, water, words of forgiveness—to convert us. Like baptism, this conversion is both a once-in-a-lifetime, life-changing event and a daily process—a change that comes again and again, like Jesus’ question to Peter: “Do you love me?” Again and again, Jesus calls us to follow him. For Saul, the journey doesn’t end with the blinding light on the road. For Peter, the journey doesn’t end with breakfast on the beach. Conversion sets each of them, and each of us, on a path that continues for the rest of our life on earth—and leads into life eternal.

 

Sun. May 11 — Forth Sunday of Easter

Readings and Psalms

Overview

The Searching Sheep

Messages and information today are texted, tweeted, broadcast, e-mailed, phoned, lectured, announced, packaged, and repackaged. The means and avenues for communication are many. Yet when it comes to the person known as Jesus of Nazareth we are often left standing in the place of the Jewish people who gathered around Jesus at that portico (John 10:22-23). We long to know, Who are you, Jesus? and perhaps want to probe, What are you really about? Of course the qualification is for him to “tell us plainly” (John 10:24). As the church we have grown accustomed to the idea of Jesus seeking out the lost sheep and bringing them safely home—of knowing the sheep intimately by name. Today’s texts are rich in reframing who is searching for whom. Who is seeking after Jesus, and to what does that seeking lead? Still, will we be satisfied with any answer? The faith of Tabitha and the miracle-working Peter, the vision of saints and mythical beasts, and even Jesus’ works point to one who is in and of God. Yet we wonder if it can’t be spelled out for us more clearly. In this season of proclaiming a Christ who breaks the powers of death and whose realm is one of glory, we open ourselves to questions of exactly who this Jesus is—and see answers coming to life in story, miracles, and testimony. Today is an opportunity for us in weakness and glory, in doubt and in faith, in simplicity and awe to seek and embrace the one who is already in our midst.

 

Sun. May 18 — Fifth Sunday of Easter

Readings and Psalms

  • Acts 11:1-18
    Peter’s vision: God give the Gentiles repentance that leads to life
  • Psalm 148
    The splendor of the Lord is over earth and heaven. (Ps. 148:13)
  • Revelation 21:1-6
    New heaven, new earth: springs of living water in the new Jerusalem
  • John 13:31-35
    Jesus gives a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you

Overview

God’s Beautifully Messy Community

From abandonment to homecoming and from a narrow scope to a broader vision of God’s realm, these are the promises proclaimed. The early church and our faith communities are called to engage this reality. A community of Jewish Jesus-followers overcomes fear and expands to include the much larger Gentile world. In the hymnody of the psalm the whole creation and her people are ushered into praise and the trumpeting of a new community. An exiled follower of Jesus sees in the midst of his situation a vision of the Holy One who proclaims a new heaven and earth, stripped of tears and death. Finally, Jesus shares that he will no longer be physically present with his disciples, and points them to a new way of being a community of love for one another. Through the depth of the texts for this day, people are invited to explore the beauty and the messiness of community. The church, like any other human organization, is filled with the challenges of what it means to live together (for example, who is welcome? What rules do people need to follow? How do we care for one another?). Unlike other human institutions, however, we are called to be centered and re-centered in the unapologetic love for others. In our imperfection we are welcomed and called to invite others. We offer, in a spirit of humility, signs of welcome and love to others, just as God in Christ has been revealed to us.

 

Sun. May 25 — Sixth Sunday of Easter

Readings and Psalms

Overview

Our Home-making God

Into the midst of our anxiety and alarm we are offered a vision of a glorious future filled with promise—the promise that God will make a home with us. This is a promise of an ultimate future home—a New Jerusalem!—but also a promise of God’s daily home-making presence in the hearts of all who believe. Paul has a vision of a cry for help from Macedonia, and his beloved church at Philippi is founded in the home and household of Lydia. In Revelation, John, turning from the lake of fire, is carried up in a vision and sees the New Jerusalem coming down, centered on the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. But no longer is there separation from God, weeping, or mourning, but now a restored creation where God and God’s people are at home together. Jesus promises that though he is going away, he will come to his disciples in the power of an advocate, the Holy Spirit, and that both he and the Father will make their home in all who believe. The gathering of the faithful assembly to receive Christ’s word and sacrament is a foretaste of that New Jerusalem, where God will finally and ultimately be at home with us, even as the Holy Trinity makes a home now in the hearts of all who believe. Into the anxieties and uncertainties of our everyday life we are offered both a vision of a glorious future when God will be at home with us and we will be at home with God, and a living foretaste of that same future: “We will come to them and make our home with them. . . . Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:23b, 27a).


Sun. June 1, Seventh Sunday of Easter

Readings and Psalms

Overview

Praying for You

Today’s gospel reading is first and foremost a prayer. It is Jesus’ prayer, and we are given the privilege of listening in as he prays on behalf of his disciples and people of all times and places. Listeners are given a glimpse of Jesus’ mission for the world—that all may be drawn into the life of the triune God. On the eve of his death, Jesus entrusts this particular community of disciples—but also our communities, our lives, and our world—into the care of God.

What is it Jesus is doing when he prays? What is it the church does when it prays on behalf of the world and other people? To be prayed for by another is to know one’s life is cared for and has value to the one praying on your behalf. It is to know that much of the future is out of one’s own control but rests instead in the care of the Triune God. To be prayed for is to be vulnerable, dependent, and deeply loved.

Here is the astoundingly good news: Jesus prays for you, and for the communities in which we find ourselves. Whether your cup is empty or full, whether your community is in crisis or experiencing joy, whether your future is foggy or clear, Jesus loves you deeply and your life is bound to the God who loved you before the foundations of the world. On the eve of his death, Jesus entrusted your life and the church’s life and its entire future to the Father. What glorious good news that the future rests in the care of the Triune God, and that we, the church, are set free to make God known to the world.

 

Sun. June 8 — Day of Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

Overview

What Does This Mean?

“What does this mean?” the devout ask (Acts 2:12). For those gathered in that house, the event meant the birth of sudden, surprising, unmerited new life. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they burst from the house with a story to share about God’s wonders. But what does this event of Pentecost mean for us, today, many centuries later? God is at work here, now, in the world. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, God is walking alongside as friend, truth-teller, comforter, and guide.

The writer of John’s gospel speaks of it in this way: the Advocate, the one whom the Father will send, will teach the disciples everything they need to know. God is not yet finished revealing who God is, and the disciples are not yet finished learning. Through the Spirit of truth, the disciples will do the work of Jesus, and his life will continue through them.

In holy baptism, the Spirit rests on the heads of young and old alike. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the baptized have an old, old story to tell of Jesus and his love—and a new, new story of how God is birthing sudden, surprising, and unmerited new life all around us, every day. God is at work, here, now in the world through the lives of everyday Christians. Jesus’ work continues through the lives of all the baptized. We discover meaning from this Pentecost story today, not only for our own sake but for the sake of the world that so hungers for this life.

 

Sun. June 15 — Holy Trinity

Readings and Psalms

Overview

Drawn into Relationship, Guided into Truth

The doctrine of the Trinity invites us to consider how a God constituted by relationship—the Father with the Son, the Son with the Spirit, the Spirit with the Father—draws us into that relationship with God and one another. Gradually or suddenly, through the work of the Spirit, we come to know our belonging to the Father and to Christ’s body.

In such loving relationships, truth is discovered. But people cannot bear the truth all at once, so discipleship and faith formation are gradual processes of listening for the Spirit’s voice. Christian practices such as worship, learning, and service are occasions for people of all ages to be “guided into truth.” Such practices are rooted in baptism, in which God draws us into a lifelong relationship in which we grow into truth and love over time—guided by the Spirit, accompanied by Jesus, and having peace with the Father.

In Romans, we hear the truth of how love originates and grows in us: Poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, God’s love gives us a hope that will never disappoint. Christian community offers the delightful opportunity to experience one’s own growth in hope, faith, and love, and to witness others’ growth as they too are drawn more deeply into relationship with the triune God. Trinity Sunday offers the delightful opportunity to celebrate that growth

Sun. June 22 — Second Sunday after Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

Semicontinuous First Reading and Psalm

Overview

Proclaiming How Much Jesus Has Done

We feel powerless when life’s storms rage about us. Despite our best efforts, we cannot navigate those dangers without the hand of God to guide and free us.

In the gospel, the man with demons was unable to help himself. His affliction had caused him to be chained and shackled by his community. Yet even that could not control the raging evil within him. He remained helpless and ostracized on his own until he was emancipated by the power of God in Christ. Even though he was an outsider from the land of the Geresenes, Jesus came to his aid. He cast out the legion of demons in the man and sent them into the nearby herd of pigs, who then flung themselves off the bank. Though that dramatic event caused fear and confusion, the man was at last set free and commissioned by Jesus as a witness to his stunning liberation.

Paul reflects on the human condition of being “imprisoned” and “guarded” and the necessity of Christ to restore us. He reminds us of the power of our baptism to free and unite us. The text goes on to make the radically inclusive statement that there is no longer “Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

Together, these texts recount the journey of faith from bondage to freedom, from separation to unity, from death to new life. And this is a path open to all, no matter who we are or from whence we’ve come. The scriptures energize us to join that man in the gospel who went out proclaiming “how much Jesus had done for him,” even to those who would rather not hear it.

 

Sun. June 29, Third Sunday of Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

Semicontinuous First Reading and Psalm

Overview

Asking Everything

What does it mean to be a disciple? Today’s texts answer this question in various ways.

Elisha was given the burdensome mantle of Elijah. Up until this point he’d simply been a student of the great prophet. Then, without much warning, Elijah passed the leadership responsibility onto him and transitioned dramatically from this life into the next. Because it was an immense responsibility, Elisha asked his master for a double portion of his spirit and was given it. God generously provided for Elisha so that he could faithfully continue Elijah’s work.

Paul spells out the mission before us. Last week, he pointed out the power we’ve been given through our baptism. Now he explains that with the Spirit of God within, our lives should be different. He contrasts the work of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. We are called to use our freedom in Christ for good, so that God can transform our lives and empower us for ministry.

In the gospel, Jesus faces more resistance from those he’s called. People conjure up all sorts of excuses why they can’t start right away, but Jesus will have none of it. He’s calling and he wants a straight answer now. You’re in or you’re out. He makes it clear that answering his call and living the life of discipleship requires no less than everything.

These passages are difficult. They show how much God is demanding of those who wish to follow. Those called are asked to give everything. No wonder there is resistance. Yet, they also remind us that the Spirit will support our work and, in turn, give us everything to enable us to answer the call

 

Sun. July 6 — Forth Sunday of Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

Semicontinuous First Reading and Psalm

  • 2 Kings 5:1-14
    Elisha heals a warrior with leprosy
  • Psalm 30
    My God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health. (Ps. 30:2)

Overview

The Searching Sheep

Messages and information today are texted, tweeted, broadcast, e-mailed, phoned, lectured, announced, packaged, and repackaged. The means and avenues for communication are many. Yet when it comes to the person known as Jesus of Nazareth we are often left standing in the place of the Jewish people who gathered around Jesus at that portico (John 10:22-23). We long to know, Who are you, Jesus? and perhaps want to probe, What are you really about? Of course the qualification is for him to “tell us plainly” (John 10:24). As the church we have grown accustomed to the idea of Jesus seeking out the lost sheep and bringing them safely home—of knowing the sheep intimately by name. Today’s texts are rich in reframing who is searching for whom. Who is seeking after Jesus, and to what does that seeking lead? Still, will we be satisfied with any answer? The faith of Tabitha and the miracle-working Peter, the vision of saints and mythical beasts, and even Jesus’ works point to one who is in and of God. Yet we wonder if it can’t be spelled out for us more clearly. In this season of proclaiming a Christ who breaks the powers of death and whose realm is one of glory, we open ourselves to questions of exactly who this Jesus is—and see answers coming to life in story, miracles, and testimony. Today is an opportunity for us in weakness and glory, in doubt and in faith, in simplicity and awe to seek and embrace the one who is already in our midst.

 

Sun. July 13 — Fifth Sunday of Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

Semicontinuous First Reading and Psalm

  • Amos 7:7-17
    A plumb line will judge the people
  • Psalm 82
    Arise, O God, and rule the earth. (Ps. 82:8)

Overview

Who Are You?

Who do you identify with in the parable? This is part of what makes parables so powerful. Some days we read the story through the eyes of the priest or the Levite. Some days we feel like the Samaritan. And then there are those days when we are the man in the ditch. Some days you are the windshield and some days you are the bug, as the saying goes.

It is easy to miss the shocking nature of this parable if we start to think that this story only teaches us to imitate the Samaritan. The parable says so much more about God, our relationship to God, and the lengths to which God will go to reach out to us.

Through the image of the Samaritan, Jesus lifts up a surprising rescuer as an image of the God who relentlessly cares for those in need. Could it be that we are meant to identify not with the Samaritan or even the lawyer to whom Jesus speaks the parable, but rather with the man who is hopeless and left for dead? Could it be that Christ is the good Samaritan who embraces us with the tender compassion of God?

All of the sudden the parable is turned on its head. Jesus is not just giving us a comfortable morality tale reminding us to be nice, helpful, generous people. Instead Jesus is proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. God’s grace comes to us through the cross. God’s grace comes to us even—and especially—when we are at our worst, when we struggle in the depths and cry out for help. Even when we cannot or will not cry out, mercy and grace come into our lives through Jesus. So whether you are on the road or in the ditch, Jesus even now is coming for you.

 

Sun. July 20 — Sixth Sunday of Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

  • Genesis 18:1-10a
    The hospitality of Abraham and Sarah to three visitors of the Lord
  • Psalm 15
    Lord, who may abide upon your holy hill? (Ps. 15:1)
  • Colossians 1:15-28
    Hymn to Christ, the firstborn of all creation
  • Luke 10:38-42
    Jesus says: Martha, your sister Mary has chosen the better part

Semicontinuous First Reading and Psalm

  • Amos 8:1-12
    A famine of hearing the words of the Lord
  • Psalm 52
    I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. (Ps. 52:8)

Overview

Unexpected and Intentional Distraction

As digital tablets and smart phones keep us busy and on the go, today’s gospel reminds us of a struggle: when are we to set aside our busy calendars, duties, and to-do lists and simply rest in God’s presence, listening to what God has to say to us? This tension mounts in our gospel as Jesus addresses Martha’s busyness, worry, and distraction, juxtaposed with Mary’s contemplation, focus, and desire to sit at the feet of the great teacher. But is “quietly sitting” even possible in our age of distractions? Perhaps we can find helpful advice in our first reading, as Abraham rests in the heat of the day. In that time of rest, he was ready to receive the three guests who came bearing the news that Sarah would have a son, fulfilling God’s promise given years earlier. With the heat keeping him from moving on to other things, the guests had Abraham’s undivided attention. These readings remind us how crucial it is to set aside time to spend with God. We might even wonder what sort of things Jesus was saying to Mary. Were they profound words, akin to the “mystery” the author of Colossians addresses in the epistle? Jesus was the person in whom God was pleased to dwell, that same one who is “the hope of glory.”


Sun. July 27, Seventh Sunday of Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

  • Genesis 18:20-32
    Abraham bargains with God for the righteous of Sodom and Gomorrah
  • Psalm 138
    Your steadfast love endures forever; do not abandon the works of your hands. (Ps. 138:8)
  • Colossians 2:6-15 [16-19]
    Buried with Christ in baptism, raised with him through faith
  • Luke 11:1-13
    Jesus teaches the disciples to pray

Semicontinuous First Reading and Psalm

  • Hosea 1:2-10
    Hosea’s marriage: a message to Israel
  • Psalm 85
    Righteousness shall go before the Lord. (Ps. 85:13)

Overview

Our Persistent, Negotiating Prayer Life

Today’s readings incorporate several themes: negotiation, commands, persistence, and expectation. And surrounding all these themes is a bigger theme: boldness. Abraham is bold in speaking with God, so bold in fact that he not only negotiates with the Almighty, the Almighty willingly grants his request. Abraham had no fear in speaking in such a way to God, because he knew that God was listening and appreciating his concern. The disciples, too, speak with boldness. They don’t ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, they tell him to teach them how to pray. Their imperative sets up a pattern of imperatives as Jesus teaches them the prayer that has been prayed unceasingly in the church catholic. These themes continue in boldness as persistence is encouraged, even to the extent of being able to ask, search, and knock, knowing that the Lord says we will receive what we ask for. And God wants to give to those who ask God. We are to ask in boldness, which comes from being “rooted and built up in [Christ]” (Col. 2:7). Strengthened by the Lord’s supper, we are filled with God’s Spirit to speak boldly and to be persistent in our prayers, and to be ready to receive the things for which we ask. The question becomes, then, what is it we want and need?

 

Sun. August 3 — Eight Sunday after Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

Semicontinuous First Reading and Psalm

Overview

Dying to be Rich

“All is vanity and a chasing after wind,” says Ecclesiastes, yet we chase wealth like it will last forever, forgetting that we ourselves will one day die and that everything we have stored up here will be useless to us. Into the tragedy of our human drive to be rich in possessions, even at the cost of being poor in everything else, Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool. It is first told to brothers squabbling over an inheritance, and now it is told to us, some of us squabbling with our relatives or neighbors over wealth and possessions. The rich fool, despite his great wealth, is poor in every other way, eating alone, and even dying alone. In Jesus’ depiction of this fool our own sinful hearts are exposed. We too vainly chase after even more, sacrificing right relationship with God and neighbor in the process. Death comes to the rich fool when he least expects it, as it must come to all of us. How, then, are we to be “rich toward God”? Paul reminds the Colossian Christians of their own unexpected deaths in the waters of baptism: “you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” In baptism we are joined to Christ’s death, and we are to be dead to all foolish chasing after more possessions. We have died, not alone, but with Christ. Our lives now are hidden with Christ in God, and in Christ we share a fortune of true riches that also are good for our neighbors. Death will come, but our treasure is already secure. By faith we have acquired abounding riches above, and by faith we are freed from storing up treasures for ourselves here on earth.

 

Sun. August 10 — Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Readings and Psalms

  • Genesis 15:1-6
    God’s promise of a child for Abram and Sarai
  • Psalm 33:12-22
    Let your lovingkindness be upon us, as we place our hope in you. (Ps. 33:22)
  • Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
    A model for us: Abraham’s faith in a new home given by God
  • Luke 12:32-40
    God will give you the treasure of the kingdom; sell all that you have

Semicontinuous First Reading and Psalm

Overview

A Kingdom for the Little Flock

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Jesus promises the kingdom to us, his little flock, straining our minds with this uninhibited generosity. Even to us, so little and undeserving? Even to us, in the face of so many things to be afraid of? Suddenly everything we hold dear in this world is repriced, and the true value of things becomes plainly clear. We are being given the kingdom! So why not sell our possessions and give to those in need? We are being given the kingdom! So why not wait on expectant tiptoes for the master? When he comes he will wait on us! The Father’s free generosity calls forth in us a generosity we have never before known. Fear is now met with anticipation, and tightfistedness with open hands. We are being given the kingdom, so now we know what true treasure looks like. And yet, like our fathers and mothers in faith that the Hebrews reading speaks of, we too “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” But in Christ our heavenly country has already arrived. In him, God has freely given us the kingdom.


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