Proper 9A July 5, 2026

Prayer

To the childlike, O God, you reveal yourself, and on those who are meet and humble of heart you bestow the inheritance of your kingdom.  Set our hearts free from every burden of pretension and refresh our weary souls with the teaching of Christ, that with him we may shoulder the gentle yoke of the cross, and proclaim to everyone the joy that comes from you. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 11:16-30

"It is not that Jesus invites us to a life of ease. Following him will be full of risks and challenges, as he has made abundantly clear. He calls us to a life of humble service, but it is a life of freedom and joy instead of slavery."

Commentary, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"In the end, I am tempted to the same kind of apathy and indifference as the people in Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida. The problems are too big, too complicated, other people don't seem to be as bothered as I am, so why don't I get on about my business and fish?"

"Are You Paying Attention, Capernaum?" Tod Weir, Bloomingcactus, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text



There are several sections to this reading; and in fact many will only read portions of the whole series.

The first section begins with the end of a discourse on John the Baptist (11:16-19). The second section is made up of a prophecy of "woe" (11:20-24). Then we have a series of praises to God for his revelation (11:25-30).

We know that John is Jesus precursor, that he decreases as Jesus influence and power increases, and we know that John's career runs parallel with Jesus. This framework gives way in the end to our text today wherein it is clear that Jesus' work and mission is not being responded to and our verses this Sunday offer a key crossroads for the community. (Allison & Davies, Matthew, vol 2, 294ff)

16“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ 18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

For those hearing Jesus they have a decision to make will they follow Jesus or John the baptist. For those hearing Matthew's Gospel there is some question as to whether they will follow Jesus or the old ways of their community. For us today we stand at a perpetual crossroads in our daily life, in our communications, and in our relationships wherein we are challenged to follow Jesus.  We are not given a utilitarian outlook on life when we choose to follow and love Jesus. We are changed by the Gospel and changed by those whom God embraces.  When we embrace and choose the path of Jesus we are choosing a more difficult yet very interesting road.

The next section is a prophecy from Jesus about what happens when we do not respond.

21“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”

The last section is a section that deals with a thanksgiving to God for revelation. I found it interesting in Allison and Davies commentary to read these words, "...11:25-30 is a capsule summary of the message of the entire gospel."  This passage is as important a text as John 3.16 - famously known as the Gospel in miniature: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.."

In this passage Jesus is clear:

1. He is the one who is responsible for revelation to the family of God who are in their infancy growing into the discipleship community they were created to be.
2. He is the meek and humble one (fulfilling the sermon on the mount's blessings) - he is the servant of Israel; he is the Messiah.
3. He is the embodiment (the Word made flesh) of both the law (he is the righteous one) and wisdom (he is the revealer).
4. He has come to make know and to act out the perfect will of God, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

It is interesting how our 1928 Book of Common Prayer, and our Rite One service use these two passages together.

They both reveal to us who Jesus is and who we are called to be. His message is profoundly different than that of the baptist; it is for both the old and the new Israel. In this manner we remember the mosaic motif of the evangelists words in describing Jesus and his ministry. He is the one who reveals God's holy law to us and it is similar to the law revealed by moses and it is given to us on a mount not unlike Moses' own delivery. Jesus, like Moses continues the tradition of righteousness and wisdom inherited from the great mosaic tradition. Matthew is clear Jesus is the living word that revealed to Moses the law; now in the flesh he fulfills it. But the new Israel is an expanded version of the old. There is more to it, not in that it is new to God, but rather that it is new to us. In Jesus the purposes of God are more fully revealed. We are to learn and study that with Jesus provides for us but we are to be meek as we become more fully aware of this revelation and we are to be transfigured and transformed by our experience of this revelation.

Not unlike the Matthean Gospel in miniature we are to live out the revelation of Jesus Christ and become the discipleship community creation was intended to bring forth.We are to be servants of all if we are friends of Jesus. We are the meek. Our lives and relationships are to be different than those around us for the purpose of God's revelation. The words we receive we are to proclaim and enact for others, receiving the weary, carrying their heavy burdens, giving others rest. We are to take Jesus' yoke and to learn and while being humble and gentle we are to help others find rest for their souls.

Some Thoughts on Romans 7:13-25

"The tone of these chapters is reflective, meditative. Yet, no portion of the epistle is more challenging to understand than these four chapters."

Commentary, Romans 7:15-25a, Marion L. Soards, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"Paul's dilemma is the human dilemma -- all of us struggle in the battle between good and evil, right and wrong choices, thoughts and actions."

"The Blame Game," Bill O'Brien, The Christian Century, 2005.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

So lets take a look at Romans.  Paul has been setting up this conversation over the last two readings and today it becomes a bit clearer to understand if not a bit more difficult to undertake.  There are essentially two ways of being in the world.

The first way of being is the old way. This is the way of the law.  The problem with the law is that because of sin humans are constantly breaking it. In point of fact humans cannot keep the law fully; the only thing that one can expect for sure from a life lived by the law is a life of sin and continuity in its breaking.  What this means is that humanity is therefore dependent upon God to help reconcile them.  This dependence comes from the understanding that without God's intervention humanity, a community of law breakers, will have no spiritual life upon their death.

The second way of being in the world is the way provided by God in Christ Jesus.  This other way of making our way in the world is attained through the sacrament of baptism, where in we participate in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  By doing so we have life in Christ Jesus.  This new reality formed in the grave and redeemed means that upon our death we too will be raised like Jesus.  The craziness is that after baptism death brings life - instead of simply death.

Paul then explains that the problem here is not the law itself - important to understand - but it is humanity who is at fault.  Here is how it works.  Humans live in constant tension between their action and their inner self - the mind or will.  Humans desire good and to be good; they desire to live by he law.  As creatures we are created to live by God's ways explains Paul.  YET, and it is a big yet, humans understand that what they do is not what they will to do. There are many things you can will yourself to do and still fail to do them.  I bet you and I could come up with several things right now on our list of "I will do but don't do."  This is sin - that I do the things I do not wish to do - no matter how hard I will it.  Paul says this is sin.  You and I can will ourselves to obey God but in the end we just aren't very good at overcoming the sin that is in us.

This is a key element in theology because what it offers is that humanity is not going to get better - we are continually going to be at war with ourselves and one another. We will do things we should not do and we will leave things undone which we should have done. We will hurt others, hurt ourselves, and even allow others to hurt others on our behalf.  

We might well remember that this does not negate our action to try and be different; this does not negate our response to God's grace, love, and mercy.

Paul is highlighting for us that we are utterly dependent upon God to save us. We are dependent upon God in Christ Jesus to forgive us. We are dependent upon God to be a power greater than ourselves to restore order and sanity into our lives. Our response to this sorry state of affairs and God's salvation is true gratitude.

Track 1: Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Finally, the fact that God is considered to be not above the ordinary life events with which people busy themselves; the challenges of finding a suitable life partner or the joy of finding one's soul mate offers an important theological perspective regarding a God who is a personal God; a God who is deeply committed to and involved with God's creation.

Julianna Claasens, Working Preacher

"Now in truth, like Rebecca, we often have little idea where our Lord is asking us to go. Our people and our father's house can look very good indeed if we find ourselves, as Rebecca did, in the desert on the back of a camel wondering who that strange person was who was coming her way. We may begin by thinking that going to church is not such a big deal, but before you know it we are in Lithuania... so it is we discover our most passionate desire is to be desired."

Stanley Hauerwas, Disrupting Time

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text 

The story of the beginning of Isaac's life with Rebecca is one that is tied deeply with other such narratives and typologies of the Israel's beginning - including Jacob and Rachel. For the early Christian this appears to have two important allegorical offerings for the preacher. 

The first is that the image of the continued linking of the Gentile mission with the inheritance of Abraham. Just as these stories of groom and bride play a natal part of the story of Israel, so they are to become the stories of provision and searching and desire for the ever expanding Christian mission to those who are to be wed into the Gospel narrative. It also prefigures Jacob and Rachel, and therefore is tied to Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman, and it prefigures Jesus at our wells. 

God indeed desires us, and is willing to come after us. God invites us and we go. Though where we will go with our groom is unknown.

Now, I wish to offer a suggestion that the preacher takes this passage in a different way, not from the angle of Isaac but rather with a focus on Rebecca.

Rebecca is one of the great matriarchs of our faith. She is a matriarch of our inheritance - as in the line of Abraham and then Isaac. She plays an important role and is a very strong personality. She is courageous because she leaves her family. Sharon Pace Jeansonne writes, "Her life is detailed from her betrothal as a young woman through her death, and it is developed much more than those of her husband Isaac. The qualities of hospitality and forwardness which Rebekah lays as a girl carry over into her life as a matriarch. Rebekah's actions attest to a certain degree of female autonomy in the biblical world".  (Jo Anne Davidson, Matriarchs of Genesis) In this way when we read the passage assigned we are able to highlight such characteristics, wisdom, and courage. 

Rebecca prefigures then the Christian life...not simply as something or someone to be desired by God...but to be a person who is a champion of God. Courageous to go where God leads, to work for the purposes of God, and to live out a faithful life with God.

Proper 8A, June 28, 2026

Prayer

Pour forth into our hearts, strong and faithful God, the wisdom and daring of your Spirit, that we may take up the cross and follow Christ, willing to lose our lives for his sake and to manifest to the world the hope of your kingdom. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 10:40-42

"What would happen if we stopped expecting people to come on their own initiative through our church doors, and instead took seriously our calling to bring the gospel to them?" 

Commentary, Matthew 10:40-42, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Who knows how the awareness of God's love first hits people. Every person has his own tale to tell, including the person who wouldn't believe in God if you paid him."

"Salvation," Frederick Buechner, Buechner Blog.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel


It is important when reading this text that we read the word which comes just before as they are intimately tied together, the one giving way to the other.

34“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

In the Jewish tradition of the day, there was an understanding that in the last days of "tribulation," households would be divided. This is the reality of the time.  Allison & Davies write, "The absence of peace and the presence of the sword is a sign of the great tribulation. And it is in this great tribulation that the Matthean church must carry on its mission." (Allison & Davies, Matthew 219ff)

Our text for Sunday expands upon this theme, bridging and fully quoting Micah 7.6.

4The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. 5Put no trust in a friend, have no confidence in a loved one; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your embrace; 6for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; your enemies are members of your own household.

Here too it is important to read what comes next in Micah's prophecy to understand the fullness of the words that Jesus is speaking to his followers.  Micah proclaims

7But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. 8Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

Just as Micah looks to the Lord for guidance in the time of trial, the disciples must look upon the Lord and his example and come after him.  In a time of division, one can not look for allies in the field but rather to be allied with Christ.  "For Matthew, the cross is, as 10.39 makes plain, the outstanding symbol of self-denial."  (Allison & Davies, 221)  Central throughout the Gospel, the cross is this profound moniker of discipleship.  This text is universally attributed to Jesus. Irenaeus in Adv. Haer. 4.5.4 wrote: Righteously also do we, possessing the same faith as Abraham and taking up the cross as Isaac did the wood, follow Him (The Word)."

The purpose of this challenge and call is linked not to violence but rather to service.  The disciples are to engage selflessly in Christian service.  This may include death, as it certainly did for many martyrs.  But it is also about justice, food, clothing, and all of human life.  When one orients one's life to Jesus, one chooses something more profound than a utilitarian manner of life which serves ego and bodily desires and hungers as the primary source of direction.  It is a profoundly different way of thinking about life. Rather than making a life based upon one's doubts, fears, or suspicions, one is choosing to affirm the life of Jesus and to choose intentionally to try and live out a life which reflects the glory of God and immolates Jesus and his compassion and blessings for others.

To choose to live life as a follower of Jesus means to give meaning to one's existence. It is to live the life we were created to live: loving, caring, and creating community one with another.

Our mission is the mission of Jesus, as so clearly stated in the Gospel of Matthew and exemplified by Jesus in Chapter 9.  We are to go about all the cities and villages. We are to gather people and teach.  We are to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God out in the world.  We are to be about the work of healing people's lives, their hearts, and their bodies. We are to have compassion for all we find out there or who walk through our doors. Jesus says to all those who would do this work and come after him, taking up their cross and denying themselves: "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore, ask teh Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest."  (9.35-38 and 10.5-15)

We are given authority by God to do this work. (10.1)

We are sent out in the midst of a crisis and a time of fear and injustice. (10.16ff)

We are to be like the teacher and have no fear and to live our Christian lives out in the open (10.26f)

This is our work.

Now that the missionary message is clear, Jesus turns his attention to teaching about welcoming missionaries.  Returning again to Allison & Davies:

Those who welcome the eschatological messengers of Jesus in effect welcome Jesus himself and gain for themselves reward.  With this thought, which makes the decision for or against the missionaries equivalent to the decision for or against Jesus..." (225)

With these words, Matthew closes Jesus' discourse on the life of discipleship and what it means to place one's mind on heavenly things even in the midst of living in this world.  The kingdom and reign of God is possible in this place. We are able to fulfil our purpose if we are courageous and deny that which "draws us from the love of God."  In some way, we are challenged to decide what the earth's purpose and our place upon it hold within the schema of God's action.

Joshua chooses to follow the Lord, as we do as Christians decide that the purpose of creation is to fulfil God's will and that we are to join in that work proactively and intentionally. Our work is not a utility that serves me or to make life smooth and easy, but it is to serve the utility of God. Jesus reminds us, "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other." (Mtt 6.24)

Take up your cross and follow me.

Some Thoughts on Romans 6:12-23

"The passage reminds us that we are still vulnerable to sin and death, post-baptism. And so the issue becomes: which slavery do we want--slavery to sin that leads to death or slavery to Christ that leads to life?"

Commentary, Romans 6:12-23, Walter F. Taylor, Jr., Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Christ followers in Africa, Asia and Latin America have no problem with the Christian metanarrative. The way they read the Bible leads to the marriage of word and deed, faith and action. Why do their churches look and act so different from churches in the West?"

"Slave Wages," Bill O'Brien, The Christian Century, 2005.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

We continue this week's reading through Romans. We remember that Paul has been clear with his readers that baptism has given them a new life.  Even though humanity continues to try and use the law to be close to God, all that did was empower false rulers and religious leaders. The law simply made it even more difficult for reconciliation between God and man to occur.  So God responds by loving even more - this is grace.

But, while they have this new life and sin/death are forever beaten by Christ and his cross - we are still subject to sin.  We are still going to be tempted, and we will even fall into our passions.  But we must focus on the life in us - this righteousness.  Sin will not win the day - rather - Jesus' death and our baptism will prevail.  

He then returns to this idea of lawlessness. Can we do whatever we like? Nope.

He uses then the image of ancient slavery to explain the ways in which we make our course through the world.  You cannot serve two masters, he says...you can only serve the one or the other - life or death.  Through your baptisms, you are now servants or slaves (people bound to) God.  This boundedness to God is unbreakable, and our hearts seek to respond in thanksgiving for salvation.

Paul says...look you was focused on the wrong things that didn't bring you life or liberty.  Your payment for serving these things and these other masters was death. Now God frees you. God frees you to a new life without death.  God invites you to respond and to serve a different master.

We must be very careful as we work through this passage given our Western history with slavery.  But like our brothers and sisters in other cultures, we should not shy away from speaking about how God frees us, and we have an opportunity to respond. We should proclaim the reality that God's grace and love have forever linked us to the divine life and that there is nothing we can do to escape it.  And, should we wish to speak on how the meta-narrative offers an ethical life - then engage by all means. But be clear that the narrative is not one that invites new slavery to a new law that empowers men and women and society. Instead, our ethical work is the just and proper use of creation, the freedom of captives, the visitation of the sick, and the clothing and sheltering of the poor.  We have a new life of response to God's grace, which is to BE God's grace in the world.

Track I, Genesis 22:1-14

The story of the Akedah makes a claim on us: All that we have, even our own lives and those of the ones most dear to us, belong ultimately to God, who gave them to us in the first place. The story of the akedah assures us that God will provide, that God will be present.

Kathryn M. Schifferdecker, working preacher

Stanley Hauerwas, a seminary professor, theologian, says: “Christ bids a person to come and die,” and even if he meant that metaphorically, it is still not easy. Are we willing to engage in that struggle, are we willing to make that sacrifice, are we willing to take that journey with Abraham and Isaac? God is waiting to find out, and God is patient and will wait as long as it takes.

Dan Bryant, First Christian Church, "An Uncalled For Sacrifice"

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament 

In the generations of religious following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, there was a direct connection between the Temple mount as the site of the binding of Isaac. (Levenson, Zion, 94-95) It is that on this mount, God comes near and is seen. In this way, the tradition dating back to the time of the Judges was that this mountain site, like other shrines in Israel, was a place where in God could be seen. The Temple itself became the chief place where God was present among God's people.

What takes place over the centuries is captured well in the writing of Jon D. Levenson in his book Sinai and Zion. He writes, "The Sinai tradition [that associated with the covenant of Moses and the shrines of Israel]...represents the possibility of meaningful history, of history that leads toward an affirmation, Zion [the tradition of David and the Temple] represents the possibility of meaning above history, out of history, through an opening into the realm of the ideal. (Ibid, 141-142)

Here then, is the meaning for the early Christians of the story of Isaac. For the early Christian, the idea that a beloved son of the family would be brought into violence was, in fact, a thematic reality - an "archetypal" account, if you will. (Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 43) In this way, it is not that Jesus was the required sacrifice as the latter centuries would propose but that it was natural for the beloved son to come to a violent end. In fact, in the rabbinic tradition, it is the very act of this violence to the sons of Israel that over and over again plays a redemptive role in the great Sinai story of historical affirmation.

We want to be careful, though. The religious theologian and philosopher are quick to remind us that while there are particular traditions that place God as the actor requiring Jesus' death, this is an offensive theology. Perhaps rooted in the story of Isaac, we know that Isaac's story itself is about how God wishes not to have a child sacrifice.

René Girard writes:

Far more than we moderns generally realize, human sacrifice was a fact of life among the peoples of the ancient Near East in tension with whom Israel first achieved cultural self-definition. Israel's renunciation of the practice of human sacrifice took place over a long period of time, during which intermittent reversions to it occurred. No biblical story better depicts how the Bible is at cross-purposes with itself on the subject of sacrifice than does the story of Abraham and Isaac. ... We are told that God bestowed the blessing and promise on Abraham after the "test" on Mount Moriah because Abraham had been willing to do what God had intervened to keep him from doing -- sacrificing his son. This understanding may have had a certain coherence in the dark world of human sacrifice to which it hearkens back, and it may have some psychological pertinence, but the true biblical spirit has little nostalgia for the sacrificial past and almost no interest in psychology. What we must try to see in the story of Abraham's non-sacrifice of Isaac is that Abraham's faith consisted, not of almost doing what he didn't do, but of not doing what he almost did, and not doing it in fidelity to the God in whose name his contemporaries thought it should be done. (Violence Unveiled, p. 140)

So what are we left with? Jesus, the son, falls victim to worldly sacrifice, as did so many sons and daughters during the time of child sacrifice before God said, "Stop." This is complete victimhood to the memetic, the repeating, sacrificial offerings of humanity to the lesser gods. The God we worship desires not child sacrifice and instead redeems Isaac and stops it...just as God puts an end to death in the resurrection of Jesus.

Today we will spend a good measure of time in our pulpits speaking of the near sacrifice of Isaac and questioning how faithful are we willing to be? Are we willing to journey to Mount Moriah or the mountain top of our choosing and lay down our life? Meanwhile, the true question of faith remains for us. As followers of Jesus, are we willing to lay down our violence and willingness to sacrifice our brothers and sisters on the altar of social wars, global un-mandated wars, and doctrines of our supposed protection when the Christ we worship dies as a peacemaker and invites those who would come after to take up their cross and lay down the crosses intended for others.

Girard challenges us:

Nearly four thousand years ago, Abraham passed this test. He heard the voice of the true God telling him to stop, don’t kill. And now almost two thousand years after the voice of our risen Savior forgiving us for our numerous slaughters, all those brought together on his cross, are we ready to pass the test, too? Are we ready to stop the killing? What could happen in our world if two billion people who claim Abraham as their father could finally recognize what this test of faith is really all about?

Track II, Jeremiah 28:5-9

WorkingPreacher.org, 2014."Which way is up? The answer to that question would appear obvious, but not so if one is underwater inside a capsized vessel." 

Commentary, Jeremiah 28:5-9, Bo Lim, Preaching This Week, 

Are there false prophets around today? The preacher will have to reflect on that question, in his or her own context and in the light of the words of Jeremiah."

Commentary, Jeremiah 28:5-9, James Limburg, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009."

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament 

Let us dive deep into the problems between Jeremiah and Hananiah. Now some of you will have read the whole account recently (wise if you are going to preach on it), but here is the 'cliff notes' version. Remember that the whole tale includes chapters 26-29, though we have not brought this to your attention yet.

The debate is this: what does it mean to be the people of the Lord, and who do we trust as prophets? This is a great text for our contexts across the globe.

You may remember that Micah and Hezekiah have all been preaching the destruction of the Temple and there was a lot of trouble brewing. This is not the truly powerful part of the prophecy of Jeremiah, who echoes both these other two, but more of an awareness of what was happening in the world around them. Babylon was coming. Like in our own time, we can see what is happening, but sometimes it takes someone to tell us and interpret the signs. Jesus even says something about knowing the weather and season without knowing the moment of opportunity in which we live.

Jeremiah even warns Zedekiah and others not to believe those who offer a merely optimistic view of the prophetic future, promising that it will all be ok in the end. Nebuchadnezzar will return your stuff - they are saying.

This really isn't what gets folks so up in arms, and it isn't what upsets prophet Hananiah. What pricks at their conscience is this: the king is weak. That was a line in the sand for Hananiah. So Hananiah claims Jeremiah is wrong and a puppet of Babylon - something many even question today. Moreover, Jeremiah should be killed. The king will rise and break the power of Babylon. Jeremiah withdraws.

God tells Jeremiah, 'Nope.' And we see that Jeremiah is told by God this is going to get worse before it gets better.

Unfortunately, as we come to our passage today, we are discovering the folks didn't listen to Jeremiah but chose Hananiah, and so - boom! We are off to the Babylonian gardens. 

What we are seeing transpire in the text is the great wrestling match of history. How do we understand our part in the past? Remember last week's work of the prophet of hope? It is to help people see what their part in the past is. So, here is Jeremiah helping the people understand there were other choices that could be made, but that, in part, their lack of listening and repentance from pride has led them into a long sojourn in Babylon.

I am giving a little bit of the story away here, but it is important to the context for today.

Now, many will choose to understand our prophecy to teach us that the other - Babylon - is being used by God to teach the people a lesson. That is a historic way of reading the passage. It makes this a stark reading, to be sure. It helps in clarifying the evil from the good. 

Yet, two things happen when we read and preach from this perspective. The first is that we see God's problematic use of human evil. This is deeply debated, and there is a particular way of reading this text for those who deny free will. The second way of reading makes it permissible to see the others as nemesis or opponents. This plays into the memetic notion that our brother/sister or a sibling is in competition with us. In this preaching style, we set up differences intentionally, and more so - that difference is evil.

We might go back to our last post about the prophets of hope to regain some ground on the approach to the text.

The Methodists and Episcopalians both have good theological hermeneutical principles. Yet, we are left without a lens sometimes to read the text. Both hermeneutics take into consideration scripture, the reasoned approach over years of tradition (with a particular view of the first 300 years of interpretation), and the communal discernment of the present time with reason. 

In the vain of other theologians over the many years, from Augustine of Hippo to Malcolm Guite, our lens is the body of Jesus. Where does Jesus go, who does Jesus visit with, and what does Jesus do there? These three questions suggest not a Jesus-centric view of the scripture or supersessionism. Instead, it takes into consideration that Jesus continues the tradition of the prophets and the mission of God. Here we might suggest that the scripture of Jeremiah is, in fact, the work of hope and the mission of God for the people to multiply God's peace and blessing in the world and to be a blessing.

Returning then to our passage, we might see Jeremiah suggesting first that indeed we all have an optimistic hope that all will be returned to us, he says to Hananiah. And, AND, says Jeremiah, God is concerned with the least. God is concerned for the people. We must return to our work of being a blessing of shalom as we have not been at our best. And that we must believe in being a blessing of peace here in this land or whatever land. So, Jeremiah says peace be to this land and suggests that those who find themselves in line with the most-high God will be found true. I quote Jeremiah's last phrase, 'As for the prophet who prophesies peace when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.'

Proper 7A, June 21, 2026

Prayer

Prayer was written by pastor Kurt Struckmeyer on discipleship:

God of love,
source of mercy and compassion,
weave your dream for the world
into the fabric of our lives.


Remove the scales from our eyes
and lift the indifference from our hearts,
so that we may see your vision –
a new reign of justice and compassion
that will renew the earth.

Transform our lives,
so that we may accomplish your purpose.

Anoint us with your Spirit
that we might bring good news to the oppressed,
bind up the brokenhearted,
and proclaim release to the captive.

Give us a new urgency
and a new commitment
to feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
shelter the homeless,
and visit those who live in isolation.

Help us to reach out to those
whom no one else will touch,
to accept the unacceptable,
and to embrace the enemy.

Surround us with your love,
fill us with your grace,
and strengthen us for your service.

Empower us to respond to the call of Jesus –
to deny ourselves,
to take up our crosses,
and to follow.

Make us your disciples.

Amen

Some Thoughts on Matthew 10:24-39

"We all know how to lose our life so that it is lost. The trick is to figure out how to lose one's life so that it will be found. And the key to that mystery is to lose our life for Jesus' sake. For Jesus' purpose, aim, or end."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew Matthew10:24-39 David Ewart, 2011.


"...Reconcilers must remind themselves moment to moment to stay grounded in God's love. Remember just how much and how unconditionally God loves and values you, and you won't be thrown off-center by anyone's attempts to make you feel as worthless as they do. Remember just how powerful God's love is to heal, and you won't have to flee from things that remind you of your own vulnerabilities and wounds."

Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Proper 7. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


This week we move back in time in Matthew's gospel.  Jesus is preparing his disciples to carry on his ministry of proclaiming the Good News of salvation.  He is here in Matthew's Gospel portrayed as a wise teacher and also as a master of creation.  Remember, in Matthew's Gospel Jesus is about the work of remaking all of creation.  The disciples, intimately connected and loosely affiliated, are near him to learn - they are his students.  As we read last week, they are to take on his mission.  

The great commission which begins our readings for the summer last week is the cornerstone and lens for all that is to follow.  

Those who follow Jesus, though, while continuing the mission, are not to be like the authorities and teachers of the world. They are not to set themselves over and against others but rather to be guides. There is a lot to learn, after all.  

This form of ministry is very scary to the religious teachers and authorities of the day, and they are even calling him names.  Jesus is clear - don't be scared. The love and mercy of God that is even now remaking the world will reveal in time the reality of these efforts and how they are not any good.  Don't worry about those against you- focus on the work before you.  Everything will be revealed.

Jesus then interprets scripture for them. He uses a verse from Micah 7.6.  This was a prophecy that told the ancient Hebrews that a society which is not of God and destroys the creatures and people of God is not only unholy, but it is passing.  The gospel will prevail.  

Setting up next week's passage, we are told this Gospel of mercy and love will have repercussions. People will be against you.  You, though, must be clear. You must follow and be loyal to the call you have been given. You are already participating in a part of a kingdom that is gaining its foothold in the world.

It is hard today to see the hope in some of this...  Yet here it is. God's mission will prevail. God's kingdom will win the day. Love, mercy, kindness, healing, feeding, clothing, sheltering, and caring are the eternal revelatory truths of the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus.  Anything that looks like something else probably is...

It is true that nothing will undo this mission.  Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Mtt 16)  I believe that what is falling away in the church today is the parts of it that do not reflect this new creation.  It isn't that the kingdom of God or the church is dying, but rather the human misrepresentation that has more in common with the religious institutions of Jesus' day is continuing its ever-dying dance. 

Some Thoughts on Romans 6:1-11

"Lesslie Newbigin once said that if you do not see the kingdom it's because you are facing the wrong direction."

"Dying to Live," Bill O'Brien, The Christian Century, 2005.

"When he spoke of what happened to him on the Damascus Road, Paul never knew whether to call it being born or being killed. In a way, it felt like both at the same time. Whatever it was, it had something to do with letting go."

"Letting Go Down Here," William Willimon, The Christian Century, 1986. AtReligion Online.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

This passage from Romans is a classic conversation between the Romans and the Protestants even today!  In fact, I was engaged in just such a conversation not two weeks ago.  Paul is clear God is a lover of humanity and creation. God gives us grace, grace, grace.  Christ's death was a final blow that freely released grace into the world.  Grace has a simple equation in Paul's writings: the more there is sin, the more grace abounds!  This is good news, my friends...this is THE GOOD NEWS.

So Paul says, rhetorically, so does this mean that we can or should sin even more in order to receive grace?  We need to remember that one of the charges against early Christians and their communities was that they were lawless.  This argument posed would certainly lead to lawlessness.  Paul's answer to himself is, "Of course not."  

He then clarifies that through baptism, we die to sin and become inextricably linked to Christ's death and resurrection.  We are raised by God and made to walk in the world around us in new life.  Paul is clear that as we rise up into this new life, we are to respond to God's grace with (what one scholar called) "conscience-based ethical conduct."  We would not want or desire to respond intentionally to God's love, mercy, and grace with behaviour other than that which builds up the body of Christ and reflects well upon the God who saved us.

Paul was clear to himself - new life means new behaviours. Just as death with Christ is given, so is life, and so our lives will reflect this new behaviour - our lives will look like the life of Jesus.  I think Chris Haslaam of Canada does an excellent job of capturing the Gospel of Paul as laid out in Romans with this "cliff notes version":

Just as we have been grafted on to Christ in his death, so we too will share with him through a resurrection like his (v. 5). We know that we ceased to be dominated by sin and divine wrath (“our old self”, v. 6) when we were baptised. This removed the effects of our waywardness, our enslavement to sin, but makes us ethically responsible for our actions. This is what baptism does (v. 7). Dying with Christ also includes living with him. Because Christ has risen, he will “never die again” (v. 9) – this is unique, once-for-all-time act, an anticipation of the age to come. And then the answer to the question in v. 2: Christ “died to sin” in the sense that sinless, he died rather than disobey the Father, and in the context of a sinful world. He was raised by the Father (v. 4) in order that he might live “to God” (v. 10, as he has always done.) So, as Christ is the model for our lives, and it is he upon whom our lives are grafted, we too must leave sin behind and be “alive to God” (v. 11) in Christ.

The miracle of life with Christ is that though we are never free from sin, we are always one step away from complete forgiveness because our God continues to reach out to us with Grace.  Paul believes that those who follow Jesus will live an intentional life - through a grace-filled one.  Moreover, the grace received is the grace in turn offered to all those whom we meet. We, like Christ, are to be forgiving and grace-filled vessels in the world.  It is not enough to live a life full after baptism. It is to reflect and be grace agents in the world around us - ultimately enabling others to discover their grafted ness into the life of God in Christ Jesus.

Track I, Genesis 21:8-21

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament 

In our passage assigned for this Sunday, we continue with the story of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham and Sarah have had a child, and Abraham and Hagar have had a child. Sarah's son is, of course, Isaac, and Ishmael is Hagar's. Things aren't going well in the household between Sarah and Hagar, so God promises to help Abraham by offering to solve things.

What this ultimately means is that Hagar and Ishmael will be sent away. This is very sad, and Abraham is sad too. Nevertheless, Hagar and Ishmael leave and almost die of starvation and thirst. But God provides for them too. In the end, Ishmael is to marry an Egyptian and become a wandering nomad. This is all part of God's plan to continue Abraham's line and build on the relationship. 

Ishmael is a name that means "God listens". The tradition is that Ishmael is a great prophet in Islam. Moreover, he helped Abraham to build the Kaaba in Mecca. Some ancient stories place Ishmael at the sacrifice and not Isaac. 

J. Kristen Urban is associate professor of political science at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, writes in her essay entitled Isaac and Ishmael: Opportunities for Peace within Religious Narrative the following:

As children of Abraham, Jews and Muslims draw upon rich moral traditions embedded within a shared past recorded in Genesis of the Hebrew Bible and referenced in the Qur’an. It is a past that identifies Ishmael as the father of the Arabs, while his half-brother Isaac becomes the progenitor of the biblical Israelites. What we read in the Genesis account, however, is not an idyllic story, but as Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin observes, the story of a dysfunctional family: “It is the eternal pattern of the book of Genesis: damaged, shattered relationships between siblings and within families.” Indeed, the great drama of Genesis, according to Salkin, is the battle between brothers, whether we talk about Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, or Jacob and Esau".

In this way, the story is part of the creation stories seeking to answer, "Who are we?" and "Who are they?" and "How are we related?" The story is an origin story for the people of Israel and Islam. 

For Paul, the passage was an allegory in his preaching to the Gentiles, who had nothing in common with Isaac and more in common with Ishmael. It was a sign that the gentile mission was a mission to those who, through Christ, had once been far off but were being brought near. The gentile, despite the notions of the religion of the day, were not those driven off by God but instead those who were to inherit the promise of Abraham. (Galatians 4:28-31) This was a radical notion that undermined the day's traditional religious ideas. 

We might ponder for a moment who is it that is our Ishmael? Who do we believe has been cast out? And, is God not listening to them in their desert wanderings? Is God not providing water for them? The discovery that waits for them is that God hears them and loves them. In fact, they are Abraham's offspring, all through God's grace. No longer are they to wander in the desert or feel like second-class citizens in the houses of God. God has restored not only the fortunes of Israel through the cross of Christ but also the fortunes of those who feel they are God's step sons and daughters. 

Track II, Jeremiah 20:7-13

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament 

I invited Walter Brueggeman to visit with the clergy of the diocese many years ago. I was reminded of his comment given the prophet Jeremiah and this passage - when Israel was defeated, the prophets spoke to and for them. 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, may his memory be a blessing, suggests that Jeremiah is a prophet of hope when the people needed hope.

Sometimes, in our tradition, we think the prophet brings the words of doom to the powers that be. And, perhaps some prophets do. But from a pulpit perspective, I wonder about Sack's saying and Brueggeman's. 

According to Sacks, a prophet of hope comes in the worst times of one's life, in the worst time of a community's life. When the world is at its bleakest, the prophet comes. Not with optimism - optimism is not hope, it is something else. Optimism is confidence about the future - especially that "things will get better." (Sacks on Prophets of Hope) He goes on to remind us that optimism does not require courage. Instead, the prophet of hope brings "courage, wisdom, a deep understanding of history and possibility, and the ability to communicate." (Ibid.) 

At this moment amidst a great epoch of change, we are to be prophets of hope.

Another characteristic of hope is that any criticism is delivered in love, out of love for the people, the person, and the community. Prophets care about who they speak for and to whom they speak - prophets love people. (Ibid.) 

A prophet of hope must speak about the role of the people (to whom they are speaking) in the context of humanity as a whole. (Ibid.)  It is ultimately about becoming the humans God imagined in creation - ones that multiply blessings and peace in the world. We see others as kin as Moses and Jesus taught us. 

The prophet of hope also reminds the people that they are to seek the good of the whole. This work of kinship is not merely about us, it is ultimately about God and all people. “Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its prosperity you shall prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7). This is "the first statement in history of what it is to be a creative minority," writes Sacks. (Ibid.)

Christianity, as in its other Abrahamic siblings, is not chauvinist - displaying excessive and prejudiced support for their own cause or group. Optimism has no problem with narrow expectations for the many to benefit the few - most often, that is how it seeks to promise a future state.

Sacks wrote:

Great leaders are great not just because they care for their own people – everyone except a self-hater does that – but because they care for humanity. That is what gives their devotion to their own people its dignity and moral strength.

To be an agent of hope, to love the people you lead, and to widen their horizons to embrace humanity as a whole – that is the kind of leadership that gives people the ability to recover from crisis and move on. It is what made Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah three of the greatest leaders of all time.

Our passage from Jeremiah speaks of the difficulty of his task and the weight of the burden of undertaking this work on God's behalf. It speaks of God's love pouring into him, yet because of his countercultural voice, he is derided. The task of the prophet of hope is not without its own pain and suffering. Yet, in the last verses chosen for today, we seek a bit of hope to be found elsewhere in Jeremiah. 

Moreover, the prophet of hope is human and still wants God to punish the evil-doer someday. That is some real 100% stuff right there. But I think you have to ask yourself what God's overarching plan is? What does God promise in the end? What is the trajectory of God's narrative? And, you must ask, what do the people need here at this moment in this time?

Proper 6A, June 14, 2026

Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servants, the twelve disciples, who you called to preach the Gospel to all people. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, p. 257.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 9:35-10:8

"On one level...it is true that only the unqualified should present themselves for the church's ministry. No one can be qualified. Everyone who serves does so as the Twelve did, by Jesus' authorization given them by Jesus."

"The Unqualified Twelve," Beverly R. Gaventa, The Christian Century, 1993.


"Jesus then instructs his disciples on how to live as itinerants, what to expect, and how to handle difficulties. These teachings were important because his followers would only have known village life - relying on family and kin for sustenance - and would be totally unfamiliar with the social realities of being an outsider."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 9:35- 10:8, (9-23), David Ewart, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel

We arrive at the scene of our gospel story in chapter 10 following Jesus' modelling of ministry. Jesus has looked out and seen the crowds, he has been moved in his belly towards them, he has been at work healing and freeing people from that which binds them.

The harvest is now made ready for harvesting, and Jesus is prepared to send out people to do the work of the mission. This work is work that immolates his own work. And, it works whereby those first followers are sent, no longer to be led this way and that but to lead and to do the work of ministry.

Before Jesus sends them out, he gives them his authority. Jesus lays upon them his spirit and gives them the same power to heal and cast out. To hold and to release. The word here literally is the word "sent", they are sent, they are apostles. They are no longer disciples. They are in this moment to go out to all those without a shepherd. This is not yet the gentile expansion of the mission, but it is an expansion of the mission nonetheless. 

The religion of the day was a religion that required the faithful, if they were faithful, to come to the centres of faith. God was in God's house, and the faithful came to make their offerings and to support the central religious faith over and against any local or dispersed religiosity. One could only be faithful in direct pilgrimage with the one shrine on the holy mount. So what Jesus does in sending out disciples is quite radical. It undermines a central religious system and takes faith, spirit, and the unbinding of burdens into the field where the people are. 

The image of a harvest is an image of a great dispersed faithful people being gathered. Lost because of the abandonment of their religious shepherds in favour of a "come and see", "come and get" religious system of exchange. Faithfulness bequeathed to the pilgrim, faithfulness given to the generous who gave of themselves to the house of God. Jesus and his apostles change this - the Gospel comes near to you...not you to the Gospel.

Furthermore, this radical movement that is to take place in and among the people is to be one that does not require great scholarship or participation in the schools of the wise. There is no need to go and study at the religious centres. In fact, a fisherman can do this work. Here again, Jesus undermines the religious systems of hierarchical reason and wisdom training in order to be a leader in the faith. Jesus sends them out as apostles with very little training...other than watching him. 

He sends them out without plans. Go and depend on the kindness of others. Go to people's homes. Sure, people will be uninterested in your work and good news. That is ok. Pass on by. Pass on by.  

This mission is so radical that Jesus prepares them by telling them that the religious leaders may even come down hard on the apostles. He charges them not to worry about what to say to the homeowner or to the religious who seek to undermine their ministry. God will give them good words at the best time. 

They will be accepted, and they will be reviled. They will be brought in under people's roofs, and they will be cast out. But this journey of Good News unleashed on the world and in the streets, and people's homes is one that, for the apostle, will teach them to depend on the grace of God. Their humility and mimicking of the ministry of Jesus and his compassion and love will reveal to the world exactly who they follow. Their actions, grace, mercy, healing and release will reveal God to the world. 

Some Thoughts on Romans 5:1-8

"As the prophetic tradition affirms, the Spirit is God's gift of the new creation making the people of God ready for the new age."

Commentary, Romans 5:1-5, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"The past and the future. Memory and expectation. Remember and hope. Remember and wait. Wait for him whose face we all of us know because somewhere in the past we have faintly seen it, whose life we all of us thirst for because somewhere in the past we have seen it lived, have maybe even had moments of living it ourselves. Remember him who himself remembers us as he promised to remember the thief who died beside him. To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping."

"Hope," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog. Justification, from Whistling in the Dark.

"So for Paul peace is about being in a right relationship with God, not as some distant judge nor as someone who is trying to draw us up into himself, but as one who is expansively living love out into the universe."

"First Thoughts on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Trinity, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.


Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Paul writes to the church in Rome that all that we are invited to do is to have faith. We are invited to have faith that God has intervened for us. We are to be at peace about what will happen, and even our own judgment, for God in Christ Jesus, has justified us by the work on the cross. Grace is not given to us by faith, but in faith, we have the grace given to us.

As Jonah speaks to God in chapter 4: "I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing." While Jonah was bemoaning that we shouldn't even bother calling people to repentance, the fact is and shall always be that God is a God of grace, and it is upon that grace that we stand. We boast in our hope in this very real faith that is in us. 

In our need for endurance, in our suffering, in our lives, we come to understand that grace, the grace that enables us to take risks, is the grace that gives us hope. Our very character is formed by our dependence upon God's grace in sure and certain hope we will not be disappointed. Paul writes in Vs. 5: "And hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

We, as humans, are quick to change all of this, though. We love our religion. We love to turn our faith into religion. In this way, we begin to pretend that God is working on some kind of exchange system. We begin telling ourselves that we must act, do, and talk right. In this way, we can earn God's love. Sure, we tell ourselves God is grace-filled, but no slacker Christian will he tolerate. But this is to remake God into a lesser god, a demigod who likes to barter and exchange devotion and adoration for love and acceptance. Our god, this God of Paul and the scriptures, is no such God. This God does not need our love, devotion, and adoration to exist. 

No, this God does not wait for humans to get their act together. This god does not wait for me to get my act together. Paul writes, "For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person, someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners." What? That is right. God in Jesus Christ saves us while we were yet sinners. God saved us, all people, once and for all by God's mighty work of the cross. To deny this fact or make God into a god of exchange is to create a god in our own image - a god who is no god. To make God into a god of no sovereign power to save those God wishes to save. And, it turns out, God wishes to save not the righteous, clean, and faithful but the lost, the least, the unseen, and the sinner. 

That, my friends, is good news indeed.

Track I

Some Thoughts on Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

"Abraham has received a seemingly impossible promise, but his animated efforts on behalf of these strangers under adverse conditions suggest that he still trusts that God can and will do the impossible."

Commentary, Genesis 18:1-10a (Pentecost +8), Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"Grace always comes first. Because that grace is there, God's people can respond with their best."

Commentary, Genesis 18:1-10a (Pentecost +9), Sara Koenig, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Along the way, Abraham learns that no one person has a monopoly on God's covenant, and that great endeavors require great partners."

"A Great Partner for a Great Endeavor," Torah Commentary by Wendy Amsellem. BeliefNet.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

This is a chunk of scripture. But it is good stuff. God has called Abram out of the land of Uhr. Abram has followed God and set up altars along the way. God has given him and Sarai new names for his work and pilgrimage. Furthermore, God has continued to journey with him even into the land near the oaks of Mamre. 

We are told that God appears there in the person of three men. God is then received, the three men are received by Abraham and Sarah, and they are welcomed and fed. Before God leaves, God promises that they will have a son. This seems impossible, but God makes the promise that it will, in fact, happen before God is with them again. Indeed God keeps God's promise. 

This event is often depicted in the great masterpiece of the Trinity as written in the icon my Rublev. The icon is entitled "The Hospitality of Abraham."

Now the passage itself is important for many reasons. Certainly, it is important in the origin stories of the people of Israel, for it speaks to God's special relationship with Abraham. It is also important because it speaks to God's relationship with God's people and God's willingness for those people to prosper and to multiply.

The passage cannot be divorced from the Genesis desire on God's part that the people multiply themselves. Nor can it be separated from God's continued desire to walk with his creation on the eve of the day beneath the trees of his garden.

Mary translates her pregnancy from the story of God delivering God's people but also the story of God's promise to Abraham. This links the past to the present in the Gospel narrative, the old with the new. Jesus calls his followers to the work of the hospitality of Abraham. In fact that they are the inheritors, the very real progeny of the Gospel and covenant of Abraham, says Peter in Acts. Paul invites his hearers to understand they are inheritors of the relationship Abraham had with God.

Track II

Some Thoughts on Exodus 19:2-8a

"How do you keep God's promise? How can you pass that promise on to others?"

"A Kingdom of Priests," Larry Broding's Word-Sunday.Com: A Lectionary Resource for Catholics.

"But suppose today we ask ourselves the question, 'What would it mean for us to hear these Ten Sayings directed also to our community, our society, as a whole?'"

"If We Stood at Sinai Together/Yitro," Arthur Waskow & Phyllis Berman, The Shalom Center.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

We often read back into our Old Testament the poor theological ideas we have received both from our Christian texts, subtle antisemitic cultural heritage, or subtle xenophobic effects of the last century. In this way, we disjoin our understanding of holiness in baptism from the great tradition from which we came. We wrestle with a new Christian message rather than seeing that Christianity has flowed from the very beginning of people's experience with God, especially Judaism. Christ came as part of that tradition. So, with fresh eyes, let us examine this passage and its idea of the "kingdom of priests" from the vantage point of its own tradition and not one which sets its heritage aside.

In the book of Leviticus, we get an inkling of what God means here in Exodus. In Leviticus, God tells the people they are to be holy as God is holy.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, may his memory be a blessing, wrote this, 

"This is ... so inclusive an address is commanded. The Sages explained this to mean that the contents of the chapter were proclaimed by Moses to a formal gathering of the entire nation (hakhel). It is the people as a whole who are commanded to “be holy”, not just an elite group of priests. It is life itself that is to be sanctified, as the chapter goes on to make clear. Holiness is to be made manifest in the way the nation makes its clothes and plants its fields, in the way justice is administered, workers are paid, and business conducted. The vulnerable – the deaf, the blind, the elderly, and the stranger – are to be afforded special protection. The whole society is to be governed by love, without resentments or revenge."

We recognize this is both pre-temple and post-temple theology, and it is the theology of Jesus calling the people back to exactly this!

In our passage for Sunday from Exodus, we are receiving exactly this invitation. We are being told that "radical democratisation of holiness" and priesthood is our way of life. 

At that time, there were high priests everywhere: Egypt, Midian, and the surrounding countries. God is calling people to be holy people, priests in their own homes, lives, and families, and to share that priesthood liberally. (Ibid)

The problem was and has ever been that the people tend to shy away from their direct relationship with God, we will pray to saints and idols, we will pray to pictures, and we will put forward clergy and surround them with rails and make sure we have holy places and unholy places. Yet, this is not the message of God or of Jesus. Certainly, here we see this great invitation to living lives of holiness (not lives of the law but of love). Jesus says the very thing to the Samaritan woman, and we pray for the day of its coming. He says, "Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem." When we claim our priesthood and our holiness, we will pray wherever we are and with whomever we are with!

Proper 5A, June 7, 2026

 Prayer

O God, open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world and that it is from you that all good proceeds. Enliven us with the beauty of hard things that we might by your inspiration, see our actions in light of Jesus' own ministry among us. Send your Holy Spirit that we might have your grace when we fail and enough mercy to try again. Amen.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

"God's perfection is shown most fully not in flaws noted and shut out or scores kept and settled, but in extravagant embrace of flawed people and the end of all scorekeeping."                                                        

Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Proper 5A. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.

"If you stop and really think about, the most difficult 'miracle' in today's text is not the raising of the girl from death, nor the healing of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. The most difficult healing was including the despised tax collector Matthew back into community. Don't believe it? Try thinking of a person your community despises and invite them to church with you. 

"Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 9:9-26, David Ewart, 2011

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

We have three healing narratives in this text with the addition of fasting. In 9:9-13, the author parallels Mark's gospel almost exactly with the addition of the inclusion of "I desire mercy." This is important given the additional texts we have appointed for this Sunday.

I hold it out as a sign of Matthew's assistance that Jesus was in line with the ancient prophetic tradition of Hosea, Micah, Amos and Isaiah. It also shows that Matthew is in line with the Pauline theology of grace found within Romans. 

This then leads into vs 14-17 regarding fasting. There is a celebration when one lamb is found, one sinner who becomes a follower, one who was left out who is now part of the whole. There may be times for fasting - to be sure. But the daily life of grace lived as mercy to others is a life of celebration. 

Some may interpret the new wineskins as the Gospel, but this is not the meaning IF we accept Jesus' continuation of the work God began in the beginning and intends to continue to the end. It also relieves us from having to deal with other questions brought up by a different interpretation and keeps us from the ease of not reading the Old Testament or, worse - an antisemitic reading of it. This then casts the reading differently: we are the wineskins. We cannot try to be followers of this God and Christ if we keep living in the old ways. The tax collector is changed by the grace of God, he is no longer the old wineskin but is made new. The same with clothes; we might hear remember the message of the kingdom and the wedding. We cannot hear the gospel and keep being the same ole person, same ole clothes, same ole wineskin. A person like Matthew is healed and made new by the invitation. He is set out to become his truer self, not in the person of a remade Matthew, but a Matthew who now finds his true identity in Christ.

Due to the layout of Mark's narrative, the stories of the healings are written into place to show a direct attack by Jesus upon old systems of state, society, and religion. (See Mark 5:21-43) Here then, we have a slightly different message if we read it through the eyes of Christ's intent to show that true humanity is found in our mercy and not in our sacrifices. 

What we see with the daughter who is sleeping (and will see with the haemorrhaging woman) is Jesus acting mercifully. He is actively showing his disciples what their ministry of mercy is to look like. Remember, in Matthew, we are heading towards the sending out of the disciples in this section. Jesus will tell them in 10:7, "As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons."

Some Thoughts on Romans 4:13-25

"The law has always been a means of pointing the way toward God, an instrument that helps us to know and do the divine will. As such it is meant to liberate. But when the means is mistaken for an end in itself, the consequence can be a state of spiritual confusion in which all hope is obscured."
Commentary, Romans 4:13-25, Daniel G. Deffenbaugh, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"To this day, any time we are tempted to limit God to the size of our purposes or to doubt the breadth of God's generosity or the surprising power of God's activity we can return to Romans 4 as an astonishing elaboration of the familiar but life-changing claim: God is great; God is good."

Commentary, Romans 4:13-25 (Pentecost 4), David Bartlett, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"Similar struggles emerge today when people ponder whether there can be such faith in God without the culturally specific reference to Christianity."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Lent 2," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Abraham is, for Paul, an archetype of faithfulness. However, Paul does not believe that Abraham was blessed because of what he did - kept the law (even though it had not been given to Moses yet), was the father of Israel, and did all that God asked (left home, was willing to sacrifice his son). At the time that Paul wrote this, Abraham was seen as an example of a person who kept all the laws. He was considered God's greatest law keeper. Paul is crafty in turning this argument.

Paul believes that faith is something larger than keeping the law. Faith is attached to God's gift, God's promise. 

Paul understands full well the human condition to be unable to achieve perfection. If faith and God's promise are dependent upon some kind of contract - covenant - then we are all in big trouble. God loves us because God has created us worthy of God's love. God gives us grace because we are made worthy of forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ. Grace is given free to everyone everywhere and is not dependent upon keeping the Mosaic law. 

So, Abraham becomes the father of the Christian faith - not because he kept a law - but because he believed in God's promise; he hoped in God's promise. Here, Paul reorients faith not in keeping the law or doing good and right things but in believing in God's promise. So it is with us. We will never be perfect. We will never keep the law. We may respond to God's love and grace by choosing how to live differently - this is true. But we receive God's promise, God's love, and God's mercy freely. And our faith is our response to that promise.

We must preach and help people understand that faith is about believing in the promise and not achieving some unachievable standard of perfection.

Note: This is also a text used on Lent 2B.

Track I

Some Thoughts on Genesis 12:1-9

"'What really matters is not whether Abraham is good or bad or cowardly or heroic, but that God pursues His design for the welfare of the human family with people like that -- in other words, people like us.' - Lewis Smedes."
"Call and Promise," program highlights, discussion & reflection questions and more from the Bill Moyers PBS series Genesis: A Living Conversation.


"'Vocation' is distorted by two disastrous misunderstandings: a secularized idea of 'career' and a monastic concept of the religious life."
"The Meaning of Vocation," A.J. Conyers, (other resources at) "Vocation," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2004.


"God tells Abram to leave the comforts of home and go out to repair himself--and the entire world.""Birth of a Covenant," Torah Commentary by Rabbi Shai Held. BeliefNet.

Oremus Online NRSV Text


Whole books could be written that detail the various invitations God made to this or that person in the Old Testament. There are the creation stories and God's invitation to Adam and Eve to work in the Garden. There is the calling of Noah to restart creation. Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) are called to leave the land of Ur of the Chaldeans--the beginning of generations of God’s people. There are the judges and the prophets. Jacob is called and renamed. There are women: Miriam--a leader who brings Israel out of slavery in Egypt with Moses; Deborah--a judge of Israel; Huldah--a prophetess who helped Josiah; Ruth and Naomi; and Esther--the Queen of Persia, to name a few. The sheer number of called people is too many to number, but we will examine a few of these crucial stories.

This lesson is about Abraham and Sarah, originally called Abram and Sarai and renamed for their faithfulness. In many ways the story of their calling begins the narrative of God's people. Abraham and Sarah were frequently cited by the early Church as examples of God's expansive promise to all people. God said, "Go," and all of their worldly plans were set aside as they left their homeland for God's wilderness. Their lives were disrupted by God's invitation and their response. Theologian Walter Brueggemann says, Abraham

. . . is caught up in a world of discourse and possibility about which he knew nothing until addressed, a world of discourse and possibility totally saturated with God's good promises for him and for the world through him. (Genesis 12:1) God’s call propels Abraham into a reality that refigures his life and removes him from any purpose or agenda he may have entertained for himself before that moment.[i]

Abraham and Sarah offered themselves faithfully to the journey and became a blessing to the world.

God’s invitations are very persuasive. Through visions, voice, and the advice and counsel of friends, God invites God's people to go. The specific circumstances of this going vary across different contexts, but there is always a purpose behind God's invitation to go. People are always being sent. There is a hinge here in the language--a double meaning: going and being sent are about both the invitation and the purpose.

For instance, God called Abraham and Sarah to become a people that bless the world, which is a habit of God throughout all of scripture. Faithfulness is the act of accepting the invitation and opening oneself to becoming the blessing. Those whom God invites, God also blesses in order that they might bless others. God said to Abraham and Sarah, "By you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3). Their promised family would outnumber the stars of Abraham's counting and be a blessing to the world. Brueggemann ponders the meaning of this blessing and says, "'Blessing' is not a religious or moral phenomenon in the world" it is a "characteristic feature of creation that is fruitful and productive."[iv]

Creation was separated from God because its communal structures were organized around itself as opposed to God. These inwardly focused structures perpetuated mimesis, a repetition of the violence that created a dark shadow over the kingdom of God. Abraham and Sarah were called to show how the human community could be different. God made a point of rejecting religious violence by refusing Abraham's offer of Isaac as a sacrifice. God undid the human drive to sanctify murder. God was interested in a shalom that broke the repetitive, violent cycle of Cain and Abel. Abraham and Sarah's call was to heal the violence that separated humanity from God. Yet, the feud continues, and so does the division between God and humanity.

Even with all of religion’s great gifts to society, we must acknowledge that disunity and tribal grievances still exist. God continues to invite us to go as peace bearers and we continue, often, to reject the invitation. It is religion that calls for the sacrifice of Jesus. His is one name among the many who have been scapegoated for the sake of political and religious peace. Religions have a propensity to scapegoat others. 

God's invitation to Abraham and Sarah was an invitation beyond this history of sacrifice. God went further and sent the peace bearers to dwell in the midst of the other.

The relationship between Abraham and God is typological of God’s relationship with all whom God invites into mission. Abraham was invited to be in community with God and to take that community on the road. God’s call removes us from the realm of self-definition: we begin to define ourselves as creatures in relationship with our Creator. This movement dissolves the idea of the "other,” for the only true other is God. We no longer divide the human community into friends and others. Instead, there are only friends along the way. When we obey God’s call to go, there are no strangers or aliens. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes that our invitation to journey with God means confessing and rejecting the notion that,

. . . for there to be an ‘us’ there must be a ‘them,’ the people not like us. Humanity is divided into friends and strangers, brothers and others. The people not like us become the screen onto which we project our fears. They are seen as threatening, hostile, demonic. Identity involves exclusion which leads to violence.[v]

To journey as Abraham and Sarah did is to reject our inclination to protect ourselves by force. In their going--in our going--we embrace our vulnerability and forsake our tribe in order to journey with God and God’s tribe, pronouncing God’s blessing upon the world. Brueggemann says, "Abraham is called to exist so that the general condition of curse in the world is turned to a general condition of blessing, life, and well-being. Israel's mission is to mend the world in all its parts." God's people are to be a blessing in the world. God intends the world to be "generous, abundant, and fruitful, effecting generative fertility, material abundance and worldly prosperity-- shalom in the broadest scope."[vi]

The importance of being a people bringing about peace and blessing in the world is affirmed in the teaching of the early Church. 

Paul used God's call to Abraham and Sarah and their blessing as a paradigm of the expanding mission of God. Paul read the blessing and invitation of God as being fulfilled in the great expansion of grace to all people regardless of ethnicity, gender, and social class. (Galatians 3:8) God will not be limited to a religious or ethnic "us vs. them" but instead imagines a kingdom where we are all beloved of God. This kingdom is founded upon the rejection of violence for the sake of nation and faith in favour of shalom for God. Our presence and participation in God’s creation is our invitation into the community of blessing – this community of shalom. We are rooted in it by our very nature. The mission is not about nation-states or making people members of religious institutions; the mission is a journey into a new community of being.

This is an excerpt from my book Vocãtiõ which is about our vocation as creatures of God.

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[i] Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, 122.

[ii] Brueggemann, 123.

[iii] The Roman Catholic document the Lineamenta, n15, defines vocation in this way: “Vocation is broader than mission because it is composed of both a call to communion and a call to mission. Communio is the fundamental aspect destined to endure forever. Mission, on the other hand, is a consequence of this call and is limited to an earthly existence.” Kenyan B. Osborne, Ministry: Lay Ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, Its History and Theology (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2003) 597.

[iv] Brueggemann, 125.

[v] Jonathan Sacks, "Bereishit (5769) - Violence in the Name of G-d," Office of Rabbi Sacks, 04 Apr. 2016, Web. 19 July 2017. <http://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5769-bereishit-violence-in-the-name-of-g-d/>.

[vi] Brueggemann, 125. This is how Gideon experiences God, as pure peace, shalom. Gideon was one of Israel’s judges and built an altar and called it, “The Lord is Peace.” (Judges 6:24) God's work is this shalom, and God calls upon God's people to enact it by going. 

Track II

Some Thoughts on Hosea 5:15-6:6

"Following the devastation of the previous verses, 5:15 is a word from God that introduces the response from Israel in 6:1-3."

Commentary, Hosea 5:15-6:6, Terence E. Fretheim, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"For Matthew the difference between Jesus and his adversaries is based on Hosea 6:6: Whose observance of the law is characterized by the steadfast love that God desires from Israel and whose not?"

"Learning What Righteousness Means: Hosea 6:6 and the Ethic of Mercy in Matthew's Gospel," Mary Hinkle, Word & World, 1998.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

A word to begin with from Jonathan Sacks as we take up the "prophet of doom" Hosea:

Judaism is not a recipe for blandness or bliss. It is not a guarantee that you will be spared heartache and pain. It is not what the Stoics sought, apatheia, a life undisturbed by passion. Nor is it a path to nirvana, stilling the fires of feeling by extinguishing the self. These things have a spiritual beauty of their own, and their counterparts can be found in the more mystical strands of Judaism. But they are not the world of the heroes and heroines of Tanach.

Why so? Because Judaism is a faith for those who seek to change the world. That is unusual in the history of faith. Most religions are about accepting the world the way it is. Judaism is a protest against the world that is in the name of the world that ought to be. To be a Jew is to seek to make a difference, to change lives for the better, to heal some of the scars of our fractured world. But people don’t like change. That’s why Moses, David, Elijah, and Jeremiah found life so hard.

Hosea may be considered the prophet of doom, but in the Talmud, he is the greatest of prophets of his generation, including Isaiah, Amos, and Micah! He was the oldest of them. The hard prophetic work is laid out in the previous verses. Here though, Hosea writes beautifully:

‘Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.’ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

He pronounces healing, and binding up, revival, rising to life again, mercy like showers and spring rains, and love. Then he is straightforward: the God we worship desires to love and not sacrifice, wisdom and not burnt offerings.

One of the things that I have found very hard to deal with is my inherited Christian understanding of the singular importance of sacrifice in Judaism as opposed to a Jewish understanding of its place in the ancient Torah, tradition, and post-second Temple.

The Torah presents issues regarding the interpretation of animal sacrifices in a tradition that has lasted over 2 thousand years without a Temple. The second issue presented in today's text, but in almost every prophetic text and securely rooted within the Sinai tradition, is the sceptical nature of such sacrifices.  (See my work on Sinai tradition in The Jesus Heist) The concern by the prophets is the abuse of such sacrifices to relieve the burden of sin while they continued to "oppress and exploit their fellow human beings," wrote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. The Jewish tradition DOES NOT hold that a generous sacrifice to God will secure God's forgiveness of "crimes and misdemeanours". Sacks writes, "This is an idea radically incompatible with Judaism." (Ibid)

What is important is that we are inheritors as Christians of this Sinai and prophetic tradition because Jesus was in that same line. He, like Hosea, saw monarchy and sacrifices as the least characteristic act within Judaism. Remember, as Sacks says, "Every ancient religion in those days, every cult and sect, had its altars and sacrifices." (Ibid) In this way, Jesus and even the book of Acts or Hebrews may be seen as in line with Hosea and other prophets and the Sinai tradition. For here is the echo of ancient Judaism (picked up as part of the sacrificial understanding of faithfulness post the fall of the second Temple). This is prayer, study, and charity (charitable action: see tzedakah). Think of  Hosea here: God desires love, not sacrifice. Think of his peer Micah: What does God require of thee: "O mortal, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

In this text, we learn:

a) it is not out of line with Christian teachings

b) Jesus is continuing the tradition of this teaching

c) we as Christians, like our siblings in the Abrahamic traditions are invited to make our life a sacrifice to God by love of God, prayer, study, and by sharing what we have/doing good works.