Day of Pentecost

First reading and psalm: Acts 2:1-21 or Gen. 11:1-9 • Ps. 104:25-35, 37
Alternate: Rom. 8:14-17 or Acts 2:1-21 • John 14:8-17 (25-27)

6 Easter

Acts 16:9-15 • Ps. 67 • Rev. 21:10,22–22:5 • John 14:23-29 or John 5:1-9

4 Easter

Acts 9:36-43 • Ps. 23 • Rev. 7:9-17 • John 10:22-30

2 Easter

Acts 5:27-32 • Ps. 118:14-29 or 150 • Rev. 1:4-8 • John 20:19-31

Although we prefer a second naïveté (Paul Ricoeur), which admits a childlike wonder over every detail of Scripture, if asked, we will show our hermeneutic hand. “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). We read holy writ “that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in Jesus Christ” (BCP, p. 236).

Palm Sunday

Isa. 50:4-9a • Ps. 31:9-16 • Phil. 2:5-11 • Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49

Lent 4

Josh. 5:9-12 • Ps. 32 • 2 Cor. 5:16-21 • Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The first time manna falls from heaven it is greeted with a question: “What is it?” (Ex. 16:15). This fine flaky substance on the surface of the wilderness evokes curiosity, not awe or wonderment. A miracle need not look miraculous. The morning dew ascends, and there it is. “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat,” Moses tells the people. Every morning the bread is new as every morning the day is new.

Lent 2

Gen. 15:1-12; 17-18 • Ps. 27 • Phil. 3:17-4:1 • Luke 13:31-35

Epiphany 5

Neh. 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 • Ps. 19 • 1 Cor. 12:12-31a • Luke 4:14-21

Epiphany 3

Neh. 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 • Ps. 19 • 1 Cor. 12:12-31a • Luke 4:14-21

This Gospel lesson centers on Jesus’ self-promotion in Nazareth, “where he had been brought up” (v. 16), and its environs. According to Luke, Jesus had just been baptized by John, and he had gone into the wilderness and there had been tempted by Satan. Now he arrives in Nazareth. This is therefore akin to our Lord’s debut, the first acts of his public ministry.

First Sunday after the Epiphany

Isa. 43:1-7 • Ps. 29 • Acts 8:14-17 • Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The Gospel reading for this day begins with confusion among the people on whether John might be the Messiah. John recounts to them his role as the forerunner, and tells them that the Messiah, when he comes, will be “more powerful than I” and that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Christmas 1

Isa. 61:10-62:3 • Ps. 147 or 147:13-21 • Gal. 3:23-25, 4:4-7 • John 1:1-18

Advent 3

Zeph. 3:14-20 • Canticle 9 • Phil. 4:4-7 • Luke 3:7-18

“I will bear away everything from the face of the earth, says the Lord: man, beasts, birds of heaven, fish of the sea, all of it gone, swept away. This will be the ruin of the unrighteous” (Zeph. 1:2-3). The prophet is just starting. “I will extend a destroying hand over Judah, Jerusalem, the remnant of Baal, false priests, and those who bow to the hosts of heaven” (1:4-5). “A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation” (1:15).

Advent 1

Jer. 33:14-16; Ps. 25:1-9 • Dan. 12:1-3; Ps. 16 • 1 Thess. 3:9-13 • Luke 21:25-36

To speak persuasively is to draw up worn words and tried images, a stockpile of poetry and story, and then to give these bones new life by fitting them to the prudence of the hearer (Cicero, De Oratione). Our Old Testament prophet opines no new thought, just an old-time tradition: Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus.

Pentecost 25

First reading: 1 Sam. 1:4-20; 1 Sam. 2-1-10 Alternate: Dan. 12:1-3; Ps. 16 • Heb. 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25 • Mark 13:1-8

Pentecost 23
All Saints Sunday observed

First reading: Ruth 1:1-18; Ps. 146 Alternate: Deut. 6:1-9; Ps. 119:1-8 • Heb. 9:11-14 • Mark 12:28-34

Today the preacher would do well to speak of love and love’s obedience. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. This preacher, on All Saints Sunday, will not withhold from memory a dead daughter and a dead father and that countless throng with whom their bones rest. The preacher will announce a love that extends to the living and the dead.

Pentecost 21

First reading: Job 38:1-7 (34-41); Ps. 104:1-8, 25, 37b Alternate: Isa. 53:4-12; Ps. 91:9-16 • Heb. 5:1-10 • Mark 10:35-45

Pentecost 19

First reading: Job 1:1; 2:1-10, Ps. 26 Alternate: Gen. 2:18-24, Ps. 8 • Heb. 1:1-4; 2:5-12 • Mark 10:2-16

Pentecost 17

First reading: Prov. 31:10-31; Ps. 1 Alternate: Wis. 1:16-2:1 or Jer. 11:18-20; Ps. 54 • James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37

Pentecost 15
First reading: Prov. 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Ps. 125 Alternate: Isa. 35:4-7a; Ps. 146 • James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17 • Mark 7:24-37

Pentecost 13

First reading: 1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43; Ps. 84 Alternate: Josh. 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ps. 34:15-22 • Eph. 6:10-20 • John 6:56-69

Pentecost 11

First reading:  2 Sam. 18:5-9, 15, 31-33; Ps. 130
Alternate: 1 Kings 19:4-8; Psalm 34:1-8
Eph. 4:25-5:2 • John 6:35, 41-51

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus tells the grumbling crowd. It’s an immense claim, and they rightly jump at its implications. He does not say I am a bread of life: a wise teacher, one who has come to reveal God’s will to you, but the bread of life, for which you have long hungered.

Pentecost 9

First reading: 2 Sam. 11:1-15; Ps. 14
Alternate: 2 Kings 4:42-44; Ps. 145: 10-19
Eph. 3:14-21 • John 6:1-21

Pentecost 7

First reading: 2 Sam. 6:1-5, 12b-19; Ps. 24
Alternate: Amos 7:7-15; Ps. 85:8-13 • Eph. 1:3-14 • Mark 6:14-29

When Shakespeare’s King Henry ruefully admitted, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” he could well have been speaking of the troubled kings of today’s readings. There were surely many sleepless nights on the ivory beds of the palace at Samaria and inside the Machaerus fortress, Herod’s desert castle on the shores of the Dead Sea.

Pentecost 5
First reading: 2 Sam. 1:1, 17-27; Ps. 130
Alternate: Wis. 1:13-15, 2:23-24
or Lam. 3:21-33; Ps. 30
2 Cor. 8:7-15 • Mark 5:21-43

Blood. For twelve years it had been blood, day after day, without any hint of relief. All her clothes were stained by it, its stench always hung about her body. It had cost her all her money, all her friends. No one would share a meal with her, no one would hold her tenderly with love. It was all the world could see in her — an outcast, marked indelibly by this curse.

Pentecost 3
First reading: 1 Sam. 15:34-16:13; Ps. 20
Alternate: Ez. 17:22-24; Ps. 92:1-4, 11-14
2 Cor. 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17 • Mark 4:26-34

In his parables of the kingdom, Jesus speaks with striking audacity. In the eyes of the world, he is a barely tested young rabbi, hardly known outside his native region. He has only a few followers. Most authorities who have encountered him are full of questions and condemnation.

Trinity Sunday
Isa. 6:1-8 • Psalm 29 or Canticle 2 or 13
Rom. 8:12-17 • John 3:1-17

It’s hard to talk about God. We live in a world where words are slippery and promises contingent. Idols abound, and the one true God is so often ignored, domesticated, or invoked as a premise in someone else’s argument. We know our confused minds and wayward hearts.

Whom do we address? How can we pray? Trinity Sunday reminds us of the true object of our worship, the Mysterium tremendum et fascinans who draws us into his own life and fills us with his grace.

Easter 7
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 • Ps. 1
John 5:9-13 • John 17:6-19

Easter 5
Acts 8:26-40 • Ps. 22:24-30
1 John 4:7-21 • John 15:1-8

The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away. The garden is a garden of delight and an irresistible invitation. Love. Jesus says, “I am the true vine and my Father is a farmer.” The farmer shows his cutting care, discarding the fruitless branch for the fire and pruning where the fruit grows. Thus his care is loving and life-giving.

Easter 3

Acts 3:12-19 • Ps. 4
1 John 3:1-7 • Luke 24:36b-48

In the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples begin to do what Jesus did; his life in them, they replicate his actions, though being careful to confess that they act “in the name of Jesus Christ.” Peter reaches out to a man lame from birth and raises him to exuberant life and strength. Explaining himself, Peter says, “You Israelites!” Our ears awaken and twitch with discomfort! “Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate” (3:13); “you killed the author of life” (3:15).

Easter Day

Acts 10:34-43 or Isa. 25:6-9
Ps. 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Cor. 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43
John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8

The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Jer. 31:31-34 • Ps. 51:1-13 or 119:9-16
Heb. 5:5-10 • John 12:20-33

The Third Sunday in Lent

Ex. 20:1-17 • Ps. 19
1 Cor. 1:18-25 • John 2:13-22

The First Sunday in Lent

Gen. 9:8-17 • Ps. 25:1-9
1 Peter 3:18-22 • Mark 1:9-15

Let not the devil defeat you; let Christ crush his miserable head. If God is for us, who can be against us? Throw open the door of your heart and let Christ come in to break the bread of his presence and pour out his sacrificial potion; let him say the irrevocable word whose vestiges are upon the worn pages of prophets, the litigation of laws, the rise and fall of kingdoms, the evenings and mornings of events and wonders. The victory is final and the work complete.

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

2 Kings 5:1-14 • Ps. 30 • 1 Cor. 9:24-27 • Mark 1:40-45

A friend placed a copy of John Macquarrie’s Principles of Christian Theology on the table and said, “He talks a lot about the beingness of God.” Brief pause. “But I don’t think we have to talk that way.” “Not only do we not have to talk that way,” I responded, “we shouldn’t.” That proclamation will not, however, restrain me from mentioning the beingness of Jesus, demonstrated in a miraculous mending of a lost mind.

4 Epiphany

Deut. 18:15-20 • Ps. 11 • 1 Cor. 8:1-13 • Mark 1:21-28

2 Epiphany

1 Sam. 3:1-10 (11-20) • Ps. 139:1-5, 12-17
1 Cor. 6: 12-20 • John 1:43-51

The Holy Name

Num. 6:22-27 • Ps. 8
Gal. 4:4-7 [or Phil. 2:5-11] • Luke 2: 15-21

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

2 Samuel 7:1-11,16 • Canticle 3
[or Can. 15; or Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26]
Rom. 16:25-27 • Luke 1:26-38

The Second Sunday of Advent

Isa. 40:1-11 • Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a • Mark 1:1-8