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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is the climax of the summer’s Matthew arc. Everything since Trinity has been building toward Peter’s answer to the question Jesus finally asks him directly: “Who do you say that I am?” Today Peter answers, and the answer shapes everything that follows. * Track One begins Exodus — the birth of Moses, protected by an unlikely coalition of women who defy Pharaoh’s murderous order. Psalm 124 sings the deliverance from the other side. * Track Two brings us Isaiah’s call to remember the rock from which we were hewn, paired with Psalm 138’s personal thanksgiving. * The Epistle turns an important corner: after eleven chapters of theological argument, Paul opens Romans 12 with “therefore” — the practical application begins. Present your bodies. One body, many members. Different gifts, all needed. For preachers continuing a series: this is the destination. The confession is what the summer has been building toward. Next week the Gospel will turn — Peter will be corrected, the way of the cross will be named — but this week we stop and let the confession stand. The Readings Exodus 1:8–2:10 First Reading (Track One) — The Midwives and the Birth of Moses Summary A new king arises in Egypt who does not know Joseph. Threatened by the growing number of Hebrews, he enslaves them and orders the Hebrew midwives to kill every male child at birth. But the midwives — Shiphrah and Puah, named by the text against Pharaoh’s namelessness — refuse. When Pharaoh escalates and orders all male children thrown into the Nile, three more women defy him: Moses’s mother, who hides him and then places him in a basket on the river; his sister, who watches from the reeds; and Pharaoh’s own daughter, who finds the baby and takes him as her own. Deliverance begins through the courage of women. Key Ideas for Preaching * The story of Israel’s deliverance begins with women whose defiance no one wrote down until much later. An unlikely coalition forms across ethnic and class lines. Where in your congregation might God’s deliverance be already beginning through people whose work no one has yet noticed? * Shiphrah and Puah are named by the text. Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the story, is not. The narrator has decided who matters. What might it mean for your congregation to notice whose names Scripture chooses to lift up? * The midwives lie — or, dissemble at the very least — to Pharaoh, and the text approves — God deals well with them. Where in your congregation has an obedience to institutional authority been quietly mistaken for faithfulness, when a deeper faithfulness would have refused? Significant Cautions * Do not idealize any of the characters. The midwives are ordinary working women doing what they can. Pharaoh’s daughter defies her father but does not free the Hebrews. Their courage is real and it is also partial. * The civil disobedience reading of this text is available, but should not be pressed into any particular contemporary political program. * Say the names — Shiphrah and Puah — from the pulpit when you can. Pharaoh’s namelessness is part of the text’s judgment on him. Psalm 124 The Psalm (Track One) — If It Had Not Been the Lord Summary A psalm of thanksgiving for deliverance, sung from the safe side. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when enemies rose against us, when the waters would have swept us away, we would have been overwhelmed. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm is written in retrospect — thanksgiving from safety, not desperate pleading in the moment. What might it look like for your congregation to make a practice of naming past deliverances honestly, so that hope in future ones is grounded in something remembered? * Paired with today’s Exodus reading, the psalm reads like a song sung generations after the midwives did their quiet work in a birthing room. What began as unnoticed courage becomes a whole people singing. Significant Cautions * Be careful not to preach this in a way that identifies contemporary political opponents as the “enemies” God delivers us from. The psalm is looking back at Egypt, not writing policy for today. Isaiah 51:1–6 First Reading (Track Two) — Look to the Rock Summary A word of comfort to God’s people in exile. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug — remember Abraham and Sarah, from whom your whole people came. God is bringing comfort to Zion, making her wilderness like Eden. Instruction will go out; justice will be a light to the peoples. The heavens will vanish like smoke and the earth wear out like a garment, but God’s salvation will endure forever. Key Ideas for Preaching * The prophet asks the people to remember. Look to the rock. Remember Abraham and Sarah. Where in your congregation has the loss of memory made the current moment feel more precarious than it should? * The pairing of “the heavens will vanish like smoke” with “my salvation will be forever” is a striking piece of realism about what lasts. Where has your congregation been placing lasting trust in what will not last? * Paired with the Gospel, this text sets up the wordplay Jesus will use with Peter — “on this rock.” Isaiah’s rock is Abraham and Sarah; Matthew’s rock is Peter’s confession. Both texts are asking about the ground beneath our feet. Significant Cautions * The imagery of Zion’s restoration is specific to Israel’s exile. Do not press it into a program for any modern nation. * “Look to the rock from which you were hewn” is an invitation to remember, not a mandate to romanticize the past. Psalm 138 The Psalm (Track Two) — Do Not Forsake the Work of Your Hands Summary A psalm of personal thanksgiving that expands to a global vision. The psalmist gives thanks with his whole heart and praises God’s steadfast love. All the kings of the earth will one day praise God. The closing line is a prayer that God will not forsake the work of God’s hands. Key Ideas for Preaching * “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me… do not forsake the work of your hands.” That is one of the most reassuring sentences in the Psalter — a prayer that trusts God is not done. Where in your congregation are people who need to hear that they are still the work of God’s hands? * The psalm begins with a personal thanksgiving and ends with all the kings of the earth. What might your sermon do with a psalm whose horizon widens that quickly? Significant Cautions * “All the kings of the earth” praising God should not be read as a program for religious empire. It is a prayer for a widening praise, not a mandate. Romans 12:1–8 The Epistle — A Living Sacrifice; One Body, Many Members Summary After eleven chapters of theological argument, Paul turns a corner. “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Paul then turns to community life: think of yourselves with sober judgment. We are one body with many members, and no member is complete without the others. Different gifts have been given — prophecy, ministry, teaching, encouragement, giving, leading, showing mercy — and each should be exercised in the measure of faith God has given. Key Ideas for Preaching * “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice” is one of the strangest images in Paul. Sacrifices in the ancient world were dead. Living sacrifices are not a category. Paul is describing a whole life, offered without being consumed. What does it look like to preach whole-life offering in a culture that keeps splitting body from soul, work from worship? * Paul opens the practical section with an appeal for humility — think of yourself with sober judgment, not more highly than you ought. This is his first instruction for community life. Where in your congregation might humble self-assessment be the missing precondition for everything else Paul goes on to ask? * The list of gifts is illustrative, not comprehensive. Some are visible (prophecy, teaching, leading). Others are quieter (ministry, showing mercy, giving with generosity). Where in your congregation have visible gifts been overvalued and quieter gifts overlooked? Significant Cautions * “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice” has been misused to justify Christians accepting abuse or unhealthy suffering. That is not what Paul is describing. Handle the language carefully in pastoral contexts where suffering is not chosen. * The gifts list has sometimes been made into a personality test. Paul is describing what happens in a healthy community, not offering a diagnostic for individuals. Matthew 16:13–20 The Gospel — Peter’s Confession at Caesarea Philippi Summary Jesus takes his disciples to Caesarea Philippi — a city built by Herod’s son at the base of Mount Hermon, next to a massive rock cave that was a shrine to the Greek god Pan, and named after Caesar. In this heavily symbolic place, Jesus asks two questions. First: who do people say that the Son of Man is? The disciples report the various answers — John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Then the sharper question: who do you say that I am? Peter answers: you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus blesses him — this insight, he says, has come from God, not from human reasoning. Then comes the famous wordplay: you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.* (see excursus below) Peter is given the keys of the kingdom. And the disciples are charged to tell no one that Jesus is the Messiah. Photo by Emile Guillemot on Unsplash Key Ideas for Preaching * The setting is not accidental. Caesarea Philippi was named after Caesar and built next to a shrine to Pan. When Jesus asks “who do you say that I am?” he is asking in the

This is one of the more challenging Sundays of the year, and its texts all press toward the same difficult question: who is inside God’s people, and by what authority is the boundary drawn? The Gospel gives us the story of the Canaanite woman — a scene that has troubled Christian readers for centuries because Jesus appears, at first, to refuse her request and to compare her people to dogs. What she does with his answer, and what he does with hers, is one of the most striking moments in Matthew. We will handle the passage with care and honesty about how difficult it is. The Old Testament tracks lead toward the Gospel from complementary angles. Track One brings us the moment of reconciliation in Genesis — Joseph revealing himself to the brothers who sold him — paired with Psalm 133’s famous celebration of kindred living together in unity. Track Two brings us Isaiah’s expansive invitation to foreigners to join themselves to the Lord, paired with Psalm 67’s prayer for God’s blessing to reach all nations. The Epistle continues in Romans 11 with what may be Paul’s clearest word against the church’s later attempts to replace or displace Israel: God has not rejected his people, and the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For preachers continuing a series: the Matthew arc is now on the threshold of Peter’s great confession at Caesarea Philippi, which comes next week. But before Jesus arrives there, the Gospel takes him first through a challenging encounter with a Gentile woman who insists on being heard. The Readings Genesis 45:1–15 First Reading (Track One) — Joseph Reveals Himself Summary The Joseph story reaches its most tender turning point. Joseph has been elevated in Egypt. His brothers, driven by famine, have come to Egypt to buy grain, not knowing that the powerful Egyptian official standing in front of them is the brother they sold into slavery decades ago. Joseph has tested them, wept privately more than once, and now can hold back no longer. He sends the Egyptians away so that he can weep in private with his family. And then he tells them: I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. They are speechless with fear. He reassures them, kisses them, and weeps again. Key Ideas for Preaching * This scene has been prepared by pages of pain. The reconciliation does not happen quickly, and it does not happen because the brothers deserve it. Where in your congregation are people carrying the pain that comes before reconciliation, and how might this text steady them without pretending the timeline is short? * Joseph names what happened plainly — I am Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. He does not paper over the wrong. But he also does not turn the naming into a weapon. What does it look like to preach a reconciliation that tells the truth about what happened without weaponizing it? * Joseph’s theological interpretation — that God sent him ahead of the brothers to preserve life — has been misused throughout Christian history as a formula for “God used the bad thing for good.” Read within the story, it is Joseph’s hard-won meaning, offered to his brothers as a gift so they can live with what they did. Where in your congregation has “God used it for good” been forced on people prematurely, and how might Joseph’s own timing correct that? * The reconciliation happens through tears, not explanation. Joseph weeps three times in this scene. How might your sermon honor the role of grief in real reconciliation — the weeping that has to happen before the family can eat together again? Significant Cautions * “God sent me before you to preserve life” is Joseph’s interpretation of his own experience. It should not be handed to any suffering person as an explanation of what God is doing in their life. Joseph earned that meaning through years of hardship; no one else should have to earn a lecture on it. * The reconciliation is real but incomplete. The brothers remain afraid. Jacob will hear the news and be transformed. The years of harm have consequences that this scene does not undo. Do not preach reconciliation as if it erases the past. * The trafficking of Joseph, which we read about two weeks ago, is not made good by his elevation. Do not use his rise to soften the reality of what was done to him. Psalm 133 The Psalm (Track One) — How Very Good and Pleasant Summary One of the shortest psalms in the Bible, and one of the most quoted. How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity. The psalm reaches for two vivid images — oil running down Aaron’s head onto his beard and clothing, and dew falling on the mountains — to describe what such unity is like. The psalm closes with the observation that this is where the Lord commanded blessing. Photo courtesy of the Catholic Scot Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm’s images are surprisingly bodily — oil on the head, running down the beard, falling on the collar; dew on mountains. Unity, for the psalmist, is something felt and touched, not just theorized. Where has your congregation reduced unity to an idea that can be agreed on, when the psalm imagines something more embodied? * Read alongside today’s Genesis reading, the psalm’s celebration of kindred in unity comes at the cost of what preceded it in Joseph’s story. Unity is real, and it is also the fruit of long, painful work. How might your sermon hold both together? Significant Cautions * Do not preach unity as the suppression of difference. The psalm celebrates kindred living together, not kindred pretending to be identical. * “Kindred” can be read narrowly — only our people, only our tribe. In light of today’s Isaiah and Matthew readings, the wider point of the day is that God’s kindred is larger than we thought. Isaiah 56:1, 6–8 First Reading (Track Two) — A House of Prayer for All Peoples Summary The prophet speaks a word from God that extends the covenant beyond the boundaries of ethnic Israel. The verses selected for today focus on foreigners who have joined themselves to the Lord — they are welcomed to the holy mountain, their offerings will be accepted, and God’s house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. God declares plainly: I will gather still others besides those already gathered. (The verses between 1 and 6, not included in the reading, extend the same welcome to eunuchs — a striking expansion for its time.) Key Ideas for Preaching * The prophet is naming a widening of the people of God that many in the community would have resisted. Foreigners are welcomed. God’s house is a house of prayer for all peoples. Where in your congregation is this widening still contested, and how might Isaiah’s word speak to it? * The verses skipped by the lectionary include the equally striking welcome of eunuchs — people who could not have children and were, in the ancient world, excluded from full covenant standing. The wider prophetic vision includes people whose bodies and identities the community had already written off. What might it look like to name that omitted section in your sermon, so that its welcome is not left silent? * “I will gather still others besides those already gathered.” That is God’s own commitment to keep expanding the people. Where has your congregation quietly assumed that the gathering is complete? Significant Cautions * Do not use this text to bless or condemn any modern political program — the prophet is speaking about God’s covenant people, not about state immigration policy. * “House of prayer for all peoples” was quoted by Jesus in the temple. That connection is worth naming, but be careful not to use the connection to displace the original Jewish audience of the prophet. Psalm 67 The Psalm (Track Two) — Let All the Peoples Praise You Summary A short psalm that opens with the language of the priestly blessing — may God be gracious to us and bless us — but extends outward almost immediately. The whole point of God’s blessing on this people is that God’s saving power might be known among all nations. “Let all the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.” The psalm closes with the harvest and God’s blessing reaching to the ends of the earth. Key Ideas for Preaching * The blessing on this people, in this psalm, is for the sake of all peoples. God’s grace does not stop with those who first receive it. Where has your congregation received God’s grace as if it were for their consumption, and how might this psalm turn it outward? * The refrain “let all the peoples praise you” is repeated for emphasis. It is not a decorative flourish; it is the psalm’s central conviction. What might your sermon do with the specific vision of every people praising God? Significant Cautions * Do not read “all the peoples” as a program for religious conquest. The psalm imagines every people praising God, not becoming absorbed into any one particular tradition. Romans 11:1–2a, 29–32 The Epistle — The Irrevocable Gifts Summary Paul asks the direct question: has God rejected his people, Israel? His answer is emphatic: by no means. He himself is a Jew, an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, and God has not rejected the people God foreknew. The lectionary jumps ahead to Paul’s summary: the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. All — Jews and Gentiles both — have been disobedient in various ways, and God has bound all to disobedience so that God may have mercy on all. Key Ideas for Preaching * Paul, a Jew writing to Gentile Christians, is at pains to insist that God has not abandoned Israel. In a Christian tradition that has too often taught the opposite, Paul’s word is worth reading slowly and letting land. What does it look like to preach this text in a way that names, and refuses, the church’s long anti-Jewish history? * “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” That is one of the most beautifu

The Gospel picks up on the same night as last week’s feeding of the five thousand. Immediately after Jesus feeds the crowd, he sends the disciples across the sea, dismisses the crowd, and goes up the mountain to pray alone. A storm rises. Some time before dawn, Jesus comes to them, walking on the water. Peter, characteristically, asks to join him — and takes a few steps before he starts to sink. It is one of the most famous scenes in the Gospels, and one of the most misused. We want to handle it with care. The Old Testament tracks reach the Gospel by very different paths. Track One begins the Joseph story — the coat, the favoritism, the brothers’ plot, and the trafficking of Joseph into Egypt. Psalm 105 remembers that same descent as part of God’s long providence. Track Two brings us Elijah at Horeb, exhausted and suicidal, meeting God not in the wind or earthquake or fire but in the sound of sheer silence — paired with Psalm 85’s beautiful image of steadfast love and faithfulness meeting each other. The Epistle continues into Romans 10, with Paul’s insistence that the word of faith is not far away but near — on our lips, in our hearts — and his celebration of the beautiful feet of those who carry good news. For preachers continuing a series: the Matthew narrative arc is picking up momentum. The identity of Jesus is being asked with increasing urgency — the disciples’ confession at the end of this scene (“Truly you are the Son of God”) anticipates the great confession at Caesarea Philippi in two weeks. Something is building. The Readings Genesis 37:1–4, 12–28 First Reading (Track One) — Joseph Sold Into Slavery Summary The Joseph story begins; this will become the longest narrative in the book of Genesis. Jacob favors Joseph — the son of his old age — and dresses him in the famous coat that will follow him into legend. The brothers see the favoritism, feel the sting of Joseph’s dreams that place him above them, and cannot bring themselves to speak peaceably to him. When Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers at pasture, they see him coming from a distance and plot his death. Reuben talks them out of murder and throws him into a pit, hoping to rescue him later. Judah spots a caravan of traders and suggests selling him instead. The brothers sit down to a meal while Joseph is in the pit. Then they pull him out, sell him for twenty pieces of silver, and let him disappear into Egypt. Key Ideas for Preaching * The family in this story is genuinely dysfunctional. Parental favoritism produces jealousy; jealousy produces murderous rage; rage becomes trafficking. Genesis does not clean any of this up. What does it look like to preach honestly about the destructive patterns in a family that many of your people have inherited in their own? * Reuben tries to save Joseph without confronting the brothers. Judah calculates a middle path — profit rather than murder. Neither of these is heroism. Where in your congregation has quiet compromise passed for moral courage, and how might the text expose that? * The most chilling detail in the scene is that the brothers sit down to eat while Joseph is in the pit. Cruelty and appetite living together in the same body. Where has your congregation grown comfortable eating while others suffer, and what would it look like to notice again? * The Joseph story that begins here will end with reconciliation and rescue. But the reconciliation is decades away. What does it look like to preach the opening of a story whose good ending we know, without collapsing the pain of the beginning? Significant Cautions * The trafficking of Joseph is a real evil, not just a plot device. Do not use it as a metaphor in a way that minimizes what actually happened to him — or what still happens to trafficked people today. * “God used it for good” is where this story eventually ends up, but it does not begin there. Do not use the eventual outcome to blame the victim or to bless the brothers’ cruelty in advance. * Joseph is not blameless in the family dynamic. His dreams and his coat are part of what has produced the tension. But that does not make him deserve any of what happens. * Do not preach Jacob’s favoritism as a charming quirk. It is a wound the family will carry for generations. Psalm 105:1–6, 16–22, 45b The Psalm (Track One) — Joseph in Fetters Summary This section of the great remembering psalm now focuses on Joseph specifically. God sent a famine on the land; he sent a man before them — Joseph, sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters, his neck put in a collar of iron, until his word came true and God’s word tested him. Then the king sent for him and set him over his household. The psalm remembers Joseph’s suffering openly, as part of God’s long faithfulness. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm names Joseph’s suffering openly — feet in fetters, neck in iron — before it names his elevation. It does not skip over the pain. What does it look like for your congregation to remember the hard chapters of God’s people alongside the good ones, without pretending either did not happen? * “The word of the Lord tested him.” That is a striking phrase. Joseph’s suffering is not caused by God’s word, but it is what he had to endure while God’s word did its slow work. Where in your congregation are people enduring something long and hard while God’s promise seems to be delayed? Significant Cautions * “The word of the Lord tested him” can be misread to suggest that God causes suffering to test people. The psalm is describing the experience of waiting for God’s promise, not endorsing a theology of trial. 1 Kings 19:9–18 First Reading (Track Two) — Elijah at Horeb Summary Elijah has just fled Queen Jezebel’s threat on his life after killing the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Exhausted and suicidal — in the verses just before our reading, he asks God to take his life — he has walked forty days into the wilderness and arrived at Horeb, the mountain of Moses. He goes into a cave. The Lord’s voice asks: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah answers with a complaint. God tells him to stand on the mountain. Wind splits rocks; earthquake shakes; fire burns — but the Lord is in none of these. Then a sound of sheer silence — or, in older translations, a still small voice. Elijah wraps his face in his mantle. God asks the same question again. Elijah gives the same answer. God sends him back with an assignment to anoint successors, and with the correction that seven thousand others in Israel have not bowed to Baal. Key Ideas for Preaching * Elijah is not simply tired. He is suicidal. Just before our reading, he has asked God to take his life. What does it look like to preach on this text with tenderness for those in your congregation who have been that low, without preaching over their heads? * God does not lecture Elijah out of his despair. In the verses just before ours, God feeds him and lets him sleep before saying anything at all. Only then comes the question — twice — “What are you doing here?” That is pastoral care, not correction. How might your sermon model the same slowness with people in crisis? * The famous line is that the Lord was not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but in the sound of sheer silence. That is not a general rule about how God speaks; it is what Elijah needed to hear that day. Where in your congregation are people expecting God only in the dramatic, and how might this text open the possibility of a quieter meeting? * God’s correction of Elijah’s “I alone am left” is the one honest word in the whole scene. Elijah has been sure of his isolation, and he has been wrong. Seven thousand others have stayed faithful. Where in your congregation are people convinced they are alone in their faithfulness, and how might the text steady them? * God sends Elijah back to work. The vision is not the end. The next day begins. What does it look like to preach that quiet encounters lead to ordinary faithfulness, not away from it? Significant Cautions * Do not universalize “God is in the quiet.” God is in the dramatic too, elsewhere in Scripture. The text describes what Elijah needed that day, not a doctrine about how God always comes. * Do not treat Elijah’s suicidal despair as a stage he had to move through to reach the still small voice. The despair is real, and any congregant hearing this text may be living it. Handle with care, and if it fits your context, name real resources for those who need them. * The seven thousand who have not bowed to Baal are named to correct Elijah’s loneliness, not to diminish his suffering. Do not use this line to tell someone in real isolation that they are wrong to feel alone. * “Still small voice” is one translation choice among several. “Sound of sheer silence” is another. If you dwell on the phrase, mention that faithful translators disagree — both readings are honest attempts at a Hebrew phrase that resists a single English equivalent. Psalm 85:8–13 The Psalm (Track Two) — Steadfast Love and Faithfulness Meet Summary A short psalm of confidence. The psalmist commits to hear what God will speak — a word of peace to God’s people. God’s salvation is near. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. The land will yield its increase; righteousness will go before God and prepare a way. Key Ideas for Preaching * The image at the center is remarkable: steadfast love and faithfulness meeting, righteousness and peace kissing. The qualities we sometimes hold apart — mercy and truth, justice and peace — belong together in God. Where has your congregation been forced to choose between qualities that should meet, and how might this psalm free them from the false choice? * Paired with the Gospel, the psalm’s promise that God speaks peace prepares us to hear Jesus

This Sunday marks a shift in the Gospel. The parables arc that ran through the last three Sundays gives way to a return to Jesus in action. Matthew 14 gives us the feeding of the five thousand — one of the most famous miracles in Christian memory, and the only miracle told in all four Gospels. After weeks of listening to Jesus tell stories about the kingdom, we now watch him embody the kingdom — with a hungry crowd, a deserted place, and five loaves. Photo by nilufar nattaq on Unsplash The Old Testament tracks lead toward the Gospel in different ways. Track One brings us one of the most famous scenes in Genesis — Jacob’s night at the river Jabbok, wrestling with a stranger who turns out to be more than a stranger. Track Two gives us Isaiah’s great invitation to the thirsty and hungry to come and eat without money and without price. Both pair naturally with the Gospel’s feeding. The Epistle turns a corner as well. Romans 8 has been running under the Sundays since Proper 9, and it culminated last week in the great crescendo: nothing can separate us from the love of God. Today Paul opens Romans 9 in a completely different key — anguish, unceasing sorrow, grief for his own people, Israel. It is a difficult passage and easy to preach badly. The guide handles it with care. For preachers continuing a series: the parables arc has closed. The next several weeks return to Matthew’s narrative — the feeding this week, walking on water next week, the Canaanite woman the week after. Jesus is on the move again, and Matthew’s pen is following him. The Readings Genesis 32:22–31 First Reading (Track One) — Jacob at Peniel Summary Jacob is returning to face his brother Esau after twenty years away. He has sent his family and possessions across the Jabbok in the night and been left alone. There, in the darkness, a man wrestles with him until daybreak. Neither prevails; the stranger strikes Jacob’s hip, and Jacob’s hip is put out of joint. As morning is coming, the man asks to be released. Jacob refuses without a blessing. He receives one: a new name — Israel, “one who has striven with God and prevailed.” Jacob names the place Peniel, “the face of God,” because, he says, he has seen God face to face and lived. He limps away into the sunrise. Key Ideas for Preaching * Jacob is at the darkest point of the story so far. He has cheated his brother, been cheated by his uncle, and now must face the brother he wronged. The wrestling comes at exactly this moment. Where in your congregation are people in the darkest stretch of their story, and what might it mean for them to hear that this is exactly where God has been known to show up? * The wrestling is not tidy. Jacob is not blessed for pious cooperation. He is blessed because he held on through a struggle he did not choose. What might it mean for your people that a faithful life includes wrestling — with God, with the questions we cannot resolve, with our own patterns — and not only calm assent? * Jacob asks for a blessing and receives a limp. The blessing is real, and so is the wound. He walks away permanently changed. Where in your congregation have people received both a blessing and a mark from their encounter with God, and how might this text help them make peace with the mark? * The new name — Israel, “one who has striven with God” — becomes the name of a whole people. The identity of God’s people is not “one who has agreed with God” but “one who has striven with God.” What does it look like to preach faithful striving, not just faithful agreement? Significant Cautions * Do not romanticize the wrestling into an image of triumphant persistence. Jacob does not defeat God. He simply refuses to let go, and he is wounded in the encounter. * “I have seen God face to face” is Jacob’s claim in awe, not a doctrine. Do not build a theological system on the specific language of the encounter. * The wound to the hip is not a moral punishment. It is what encounter with the holy sometimes costs. Preach it gently. Psalm 17:1–7, 15 The Psalm (Track One) — I Shall Behold Your Face Summary A prayer for help from someone under real pressure. The psalmist asks God to hear his cry, to test his heart, to keep him under God’s wing. He is being pursued by enemies who want to bring him down. The closing verse turns to hope: “I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied.” Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalmist is honest about the pressure he is under. He is not pretending to be calm. Where in your congregation are people under real pressure who need permission to name it in prayer without dressing it up? * Paired with Jacob’s wrestling, the psalm’s closing hope — “I shall behold your face” — takes on unexpected weight. Both texts imagine a face-to-face meeting with God as the goal, however costly the road there. What does it mean to preach a faith where seeing God face to face is worth the wrestle? Significant Cautions * The psalmist’s claim of innocence can sound self-righteous. Read in context, it is a plea for a fair hearing, not a boast about moral perfection. Isaiah 55:1–5 First Reading (Track Two) — Come to the Waters Summary One of the great invitations in the prophets. Everyone who thirsts is called to come to the waters. Everyone without money is called to come, buy, and eat — without money and without price. The prophet asks why we spend our money on what is not bread, our labor on what does not satisfy. God’s covenant is renewed as an everlasting one, in the pattern of God’s steadfast love for David. Key Ideas for Preaching * The invitation is remarkable. Come, buy, and eat — without money and without price. God’s economy runs on a different currency than the market’s. Where in your congregation has the culture of transaction crept into people’s sense of what they can receive from God? * “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” That is a question worth reading slowly in a culture built on selling us things that will not satisfy. What might your sermon do with that question, alongside the Gospel’s picture of a crowd fed for free? * Paired with today’s Gospel, the connection is direct. Both texts describe God feeding people freely. What does it mean for your congregation that the free feeding of the multitude is not a departure from the God of Israel but an expression of exactly who this God has been all along? Significant Cautions * The invitation to “come, buy, and eat without money” is easy to spiritualize in ways that let the church off the hook for the actual hungry. Do not use this text to sanitize scarcity in the world. Psalm 145:8–9, 14–21 The Psalm (Track Two) — You Open Your Hand Summary Another section of the great hymn to God’s compassion. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, good to all. God upholds the falling, feeds every living thing in its season, and is near to all who call. The closing verses affirm that God fulfills the desires of those who fear him and preserves those who love him. Key Ideas for Preaching * “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.” This is divine hospitality on a cosmic scale. How might your sermon place today’s feeding of the five thousand inside this larger picture — God’s steady, ongoing feeding of everything alive? * “The Lord is near to all who call on him.” Not near to some. Not near to the deserving. Near to all. Where has your congregation quietly assumed nearness was on a shorter list? Significant Cautions * “The Lord watches over all who love him, but the wicked he will destroy” appears in this section of the psalm. Handle it carefully. Do not use it to license human judgment against people we have decided are wicked. Romans 9:1–5 The Epistle — Paul’s Grief for His People Summary The tone in Romans changes sharply. After the crescendo of chapter 8, Paul opens chapter 9 in grief. He has, he says, unceasing sorrow in his heart. He would wish himself cut off from Christ if it would somehow bring his own people, the Israelites, into what he has come to know in Jesus. The passage names what belongs to Israel: the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and — according to the flesh — the Messiah himself. Key Ideas for Preaching * Paul is anguished about his own people. He is not writing them off. He is not preaching against them. He is grieving because he loves them and because he has come to believe something that separates them from him. What does it look like to preach on grief for people we love who see the world differently — not with contempt, but with the ache Paul is describing? * The list Paul gives — adoption, glory, covenants, law, worship, promises, patriarchs, and the Messiah — is a list of gifts to Israel. Paul is not disparaging his own tradition; he is celebrating it, even in his grief. How might your sermon guard against the anti-Jewish readings that have plagued this passage in Christian history? * Paul’s willingness to wish himself cut off from Christ, if it would help his people, is one of the most striking lines in the letter. He is not being noble; he is naming the depth of his love for people he cannot make see what he sees. Where in your congregation has love for someone across a divide taken people to that kind of place? Significant Cautions * This passage has been used to argue that Christianity has replaced Judaism, or that Jewish people have been cut off from God. Paul does not say this. He says the opposite — the covenants, the promises, the patriarchs, and even the Messiah belong to Israel. Preach against the anti-Jewish uses of this passage plainly. * “According to the flesh comes the Christ”

Here in the middle of summer (and, perhaps, one of our sparser crowds of the season) we have a very busy parable section in Matthew 13: five short parables packed into a dozen verses. That’s a lot of focus to to try to hold in one sermon — so we likely have some choices to make heading into sermon prep this week. This is the third Sunday inside Matthew’s parables chapter, and it is the busiest of them. The Gospel gives us five short parables — mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure, pearl, and net — each doing its own quick work. A single sermon can barely do justice to one of them. The preacher’s honest choice this week is whether to preach one image well or gesture at all five superficially (and, most likely, ineffectively). This guide covers each parable but assumes the preacher will pick. The Old Testament tracks head in very different directions. * Track One continues with Jacob — now at his uncle Laban’s house, working seven years for Rachel and being deceived at the wedding. It is a painful text, and its painfulness is part of what it has to say. * Track Two brings us to Solomon at Gibeon, offered anything in a dream and asking for wisdom to lead God’s people well. * The Epistle continues in Romans 8 and gives us some of the most beloved verses Paul ever wrote — the Spirit interceding with sighs too deep for words, all things working together for good, nothing able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. For preachers continuing the series: this is week three of the parables arc. The Sower (Proper 10) named God’s lavish scattering. The Wheat and the Weeds (Proper 11) named God’s patient sorting. This week the parables come in a burst, each offering a different angle on what the kingdom of heaven is actually like. The Readings Genesis 29:15–28 First Reading (Track One) — Jacob, Leah, and Rachel Summary Jacob has fled his own family and arrived at his uncle Laban’s household. He falls in love with his younger cousin Rachel and agrees to work seven years for her. Seven years pass; the wedding feast is held; and Jacob wakes in the morning to discover he has been given Leah, the older sister, instead. He confronts Laban. Laban answers, without apology, that the younger cannot be given before the elder in that country. Jacob agrees to serve another seven years for Rachel. The deceiver from earlier chapters has been deceived himself, and the family that will grow out of these two marriages will carry the weight of the wedding-night trick for generations. Key Ideas for Preaching * This is Jacob’s first taste of being on the receiving end of the kind of scheming he has been practicing. In earlier chapters, he tricked his brother and his father; now his uncle tricks him. The narrator does not moralize — the pattern is simply allowed to sit there. What does it look like for your congregation to notice the patterns they have set in motion, without either shame or excuse? * Laban’s “the younger cannot be given before the elder” is a pointed line. Jacob, the younger, took what belonged to Esau, the elder. Now he is told he cannot take the younger before the elder. The text is doing quiet, painful work. Where in your congregation might God be doing similarly quiet work — through consequences, not lectures? * The story does not pretend Leah is loved. It does not pretend Rachel is safe from her sister’s grief. It refuses to give us the reassuring resolution we might want. What does it look like to preach honestly on a text that leaves this much untidy? Significant Cautions * Do not romanticize the line about seven years feeling like a few days. Read in context, it opens a story that will produce enormous grief for at least three of the four people involved. * The women in this story — Leah and Rachel — pay the highest price for the men’s schemes. Be honest about that, without turning them into abstractions or setting one against the other. * Do not use this text to comment on modern marriage practices in ways it cannot bear. It is a story about deception and consequences, not a template for how marriages should work. Psalm 105:1–11, 45b The Psalm (Track One, primary option) — Remember the Covenant Summary A hymn of thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness across the long history of Israel. The opening verses call the people to praise and to remember. The middle rehearses the covenant with Abraham — the promise of the land, the seed, the everlasting covenant — which the lectionary selects to keep the focus tight. The closing line is a single word of praise. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm is essentially a call to remember. What God did for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not distant history but the reason today’s community has cause to sing. What does it mean for your people to keep the long memory of what God has done, in a culture that keeps them focused on the immediate? * Read alongside today’s Genesis reading, the psalm’s serene retelling sits in some tension with the messy reality Jacob is living through in Genesis 29. The psalm knows the story ends well; Jacob does not. Where in your people’s lives is God’s long faithfulness working through a story that does not yet feel serene? Significant Cautions * The “land I have promised” language has a long and painful history when misused to justify the taking of land from other people. Handle it with care. * The psalm’s cheerfulness can mask real complexity in the underlying history. Do not erase Leah’s grief with a hymn about Jacob’s story. Psalm 128 The Psalm (Track One, alternative option) — Blessed Is Everyone Summary A short psalm of blessing for the person who fears the Lord. Their labor is fruitful; their household flourishes; they live to see their children’s children. The psalm assumes a stable, agricultural, patriarchal household and pronounces blessing over it. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm’s picture of blessing is domestic, ordinary, and generational — not heroic, not dramatic. Just a table set, a family gathered, a life lived faithfully across time. Where in your congregation has the ordinary been undervalued, and how might this psalm give it its due? * Paired with the Genesis reading, this psalm offers a striking contrast — Jacob’s marriage is not the picture of blessing this psalm describes. What might it look like to preach both — the ideal the psalm names and the reality the Jacob story exposes — without pretending they can be neatly resolved? Significant Cautions * The psalm’s vision of a blessed household is culturally specific. Do not preach it in a way that suggests those without spouses or children are outside God’s blessing. 1 Kings 3:5–12 First Reading (Track Two) — Solomon Asks for Wisdom Summary Early in his reign, Solomon has a dream at Gibeon. God appears and asks him what he wants. Solomon does not ask for wealth, or long life, or victory over his enemies. He asks for an understanding heart — the wisdom to lead God’s people well. He is a young king, he says, and does not know how to govern. God is pleased and gives him what he asked for, along with the things he did not ask for. Key Ideas for Preaching * Solomon’s request is startling for its self-awareness. He knows he does not know. Where in your congregation has the honest admission of what we do not know been avoided in favor of confident-sounding leadership, and what might this text invite instead? * The wisdom Solomon asks for is specifically for the sake of others — to govern God’s people well. This is not personal enlightenment; it is a request for the equipment to serve. How might your people hear this as a model for the kind of wisdom their vocations actually need? Significant Cautions * The wider story of Solomon complicates this scene. He will not, over the long run, live up to the wisdom he receives here. Do not preach the dream as if it were the whole of Solomon’s reign. * “Ask for whatever you want” language can be misused. God is not a wish-granter; the text is showing us what a rightly ordered heart asks for, not licensing bargain-hunting prayer. Psalm 119:129–136 The Psalm (Track Two) — The Unfolding of Your Words Summary Another short section of the great acrostic psalm on God’s word and law. The chosen verses celebrate God’s decrees as wonderful, ask for God’s face to shine on the psalmist, and end with a line of surprising grief: “my eyes shed streams of tears, because your law is not kept.” Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalmist’s tears are the grief of someone who loves what God intended and sees the world falling short of it. What in your congregation’s life would break their hearts if they let it — and what does the psalm suggest we do with that grief? * “The unfolding of your words gives light.” The word does not give light all at once; it unfolds. How might your sermon honor the slow way God’s word actually opens itself to us? Significant Cautions * The psalmist’s love for God’s law can be misread as legalism. It is not. It is a love for what God has revealed as good. Romans 8:26–39 The Epistle — Nothing Can Separate Us Summary The climax of Romans 8, and some of the most beloved verses Paul ever wrote. The Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. All things work together for good for those who love God. And then the closing crescendo, one of the great passages of the New Testament: nothing — not hardship, persecution, famine, sword, powers, principalities, or anything else in all creation — can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Key Ideas for Preaching * The Spirit intercedes for us when we do not know how to pray. That is one of the most comforting sentences in the New Testament for people in seasons when prayer has stopped working. Where in your congregation are people quietly convinced they are failing at prayer, and how might Paul steady them? * “All things work

We have built some real momentum in the readings for this first half of summer. Of course, you may have a congregation that is in a week, out a week — or, if you have lots of snowbirds, either your sanctuary feels more full or more empty. But the texts march on, and so do we! This is the second Sunday inside Matthew’s parables chapter. Last week the Parable of the Sower opened the section; this week we get the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Both parables share an image of a field, a sower, and a problem — but they ask different questions. The Sower asks what happens to the word once it has been scattered. The Wheat and the Weeds asks how to live in a field where good and bad are mixed and indistinguishable, and what to do when the impulse rises to sort it out ourselves. Image courtesy of Sickle of Truth: A Bible Student Blog The Old Testament tracks both lead toward the Gospel in different ways. * Track One follows Jacob deeper into Genesis — to the famous dream at Bethel, where Jacob, fleeing his brother’s anger, lays his head on a stone and sees a ladder reaching to heaven. Psalm 139 pairs with that scene by insisting there is no place where God’s presence does not reach. * Track Two offers a choice between Wisdom of Solomon’s meditation on the lenient sovereignty of God and Isaiah’s short, sharp declaration of God’s uniqueness; both are paired with Psalm 86, including its prayer for an undivided heart. * The Epistle continues the long climb through Romans 8 — today’s portion includes some of Paul’s most stirring language about being children of God, the groaning of creation, and the patience of hope. A note for preachers following a series: this Sunday continues the new arc of parables. The Sower (last week), the Wheat and the Weeds (today), and in coming weeks the Mustard Seed, the Yeast, the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl, and the Net — these images are the way Jesus has chosen to talk about the kingdom of heaven. Our job as preachers, increasingly, is to slow down enough to let the images do their work. The Readings Genesis 28:10–19a First Reading (Track One) — Jacob’s Dream at Bethel Summary Jacob is on the run. He has just cheated his brother Esau out of their father’s blessing, and Esau has vowed to kill him. Rebekah has sent him toward her brother’s house in Haran, ostensibly to find a wife but really to keep him alive. The selected verses pick him up somewhere on the road, alone, in an unnamed place at sundown. He takes a stone, puts it under his head, and lies down. And he dreams: a ladder, or stairway, with its foot on the ground and its top reaching up into the heavens, and the angels of God going up and down on it. God stands beside him — or above the ladder — and renews the covenant once given to Abraham: this land, descendants beyond counting, blessing for all the families of the earth. And then the line on which the whole scene turns: I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. Jacob wakes, and the first words out of his mouth are: Surely the Lord is in this place — and I did not know it. He is afraid. He calls the place awesome. He sets up the stone as a pillar, pours oil on it, and names the place Bethel — house of God. Key Ideas for Preaching * Jacob is fleeing the consequences of his own deception. The grace God gives him in this dream is given to a manipulator on the run. Where in your congregation are people quietly assuming that God’s presence is reserved for those who have their lives sorted out, and how might Jacob’s story interrupt that? * “Surely the Lord is in this place — and I did not know it.” That is one of the most honest lines in Genesis. Jacob discovers that God has been somewhere he did not expect, and he himself was the last to notice. Where in your people’s lives might God have been present in a place they did not credit, and what would it look like to wake up to it now? * The ladder is set up on the earth. The traffic on it is two-way — angels ascending and descending. Heaven and earth are connected, and the connection runs in both directions. How might this image steady a congregation that imagines God as remote, or imagines spiritual life as something we have to climb up to? * The promise God speaks to Jacob is mostly about presence: I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. Not just here at this holy site, but on the road. What might it mean for your people that the God of Bethel is the same God of every uncomfortable, unconsecrated place their lives will take them? Significant Cautions * Do not romanticize Jacob into a hero of the dream. He is, at this point in Genesis, a deceiver running from his consequences. The point of the scene is not Jacob’s virtue but God’s grace toward someone who has not earned it. * “House of God” language can be too quickly applied to a church building. The place Jacob names Bethel is a piece of open ground with a stone in it. The text is not really endorsing sacred architecture; it is naming places where God surprises us. * The promise that Jacob’s offspring will inherit the land has had a long and painful history of being used to justify the taking of land from other people. If you touch this part of the text, handle it carefully and avoid reading the ancient promise as a blanket endorsement of any modern claim. Psalm 139:1–12, 23–24 The Psalm (Track One) — You Have Searched Me and Known Me Summary One of the most intimate and personal psalms in the Bible. The opening verses celebrate God’s deep knowledge of the psalmist — sitting down and rising up, the thoughts before they are spoken, the path before it is taken. The middle section asks the question Jacob might have asked: where can I go from your presence? The answer is: nowhere. Not heaven, not Sheol, not the wings of the morning, not the deepest sea, not the darkness. Even the darkness is not dark to God; the night is as bright as the day. The lectionary skips the harder middle verses and picks up at the closing: search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts; see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Key Ideas for Preaching * This psalm reads like a meditation on Jacob’s realization — surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. The psalm extends that to every place. Where in your congregation might people need to hear that there is no place outside God’s attention, and what does that mean for the places they are quietly afraid to go? * “Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day.” That is one of the most beautiful sentences in the psalms. How might your sermon let your people feel the kindness of that line — not God’s surveillance, but God’s presence in the very darkness they have been hiding in? * The closing prayer asks God to search the psalmist — not to judge but to lead. That is a remarkable posture. Where in your people’s lives might openness to being known by God be more freeing than the long work of self-management? Significant Cautions * God’s constant knowing can feel like surveillance, especially to people who have lived under abusive or controlling authorities. Be gentle with this language. The God of Psalm 139 holds us, not watches us. * The omitted middle verses (19–22) contain harsh language about hating God’s enemies. The lectionary leaves these out for good reason. If you reach for them, handle them with care. Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16–19 First Reading (Track Two, primary option) — You Are Lord of All Summary From the book of Wisdom, part of the Apocrypha (or deuterocanonical books, depending on tradition). The selected verses celebrate God’s universal sovereignty and patient mercy. There is no other God beside this one, the text says, and this God’s strength is the source of righteousness. Because God is sovereign over all, God can afford to be lenient — to spare all, to be patient with all, to leave room for repentance. And then the closing line that may be why the lectionary pairs this with today’s Gospel: through such acts, God teaches the people that the righteous must be kind. Key Ideas for Preaching * The connection the text makes between God’s sovereignty and God’s mercy is striking. Because God is in total command, God can be patient. Cruelty and impatience are the marks of weakness, not strength. Where in your congregation has impatience been mistaken for moral seriousness, and what would it look like to learn the patience of the strong? * “The righteous must be kind.” That is, in five words, the ethical conclusion the text draws from God’s character. Where in your congregation has righteousness been imagined as something other than kindness, and what might shift if these two were not allowed to come apart? Significant Cautions * Some traditions (most Protestant ones) do not consider Wisdom canonical. If your congregation’s tradition uses Isaiah 44 instead, the next section of this guide covers it. * “The strong are merciful” can sometimes shade into a paternalism that treats mercy as something dispensed from on high. The text is reaching for something different — a mercy that flows from confidence, not condescension. Isaiah 44:6–8 First Reading (Track Two, alternative option) — I Am the First and I Am the Last Summary A short, sharp declaration of God’s uniqueness. The Lord, the King of Israel, the Lord of hosts, declares: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let them speak. Who can declare the things to come as I have done? Do not fear, do not be afraid. You are my witnesses. Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one. Key Ideas for Preaching * “Do not fear, do not be afraid.” That phrase, echoing several Sundays back in Matthew 10, anchors this short text. The reason not to fear is the same: there is no rival power. What does it l

This guide covers the readings appointed in the Revised Common Lectionary for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 10), Year A, falling on July 12, 2026. The Gospel turns a new corner this morning. For six Sundays we have been reading through Jesus’ words to his disciples — the sending discourse of Matthew 10 and the closing invitation of Matthew 11. Today we move from instruction to story. Matthew 13 opens what is sometimes called the parables chapter, where Jesus shifts into the long, slow, indirect work of telling stories about the kingdom of heaven. The Parable of the Sower is the first of these stories — and, fittingly, it is a story about how words like these actually land. The Matthew sending discourse is complete. The next several weeks will move through parables — the sower, the wheat and tares, the mustard seed, the pearl, the net. The shape of Jesus’ teaching shifts from imperative to image, and the shape of our preaching may shift with it. The Old Testament tracks both lead naturally toward the Gospel, in different ways. * Track One brings us deeper into Genesis with the family of Jacob and Esau — twins struggling in the womb, parents picking favorites, a birthright traded for a bowl of stew. * Track Two brings us Isaiah’s beautiful image of rain and snow that do not return to the heavens without watering the earth, paired with Psalm 65’s celebration of God’s lavish care for the soil. * The Epistle moves into Romans 8 — one of the high points of the New Testament — opening with the famous declaration: there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The Readings Genesis 25:19–34 First Reading (Track One) — Jacob and Esau Summary Two movements in one passage. * In the first, after years of barrenness, Rebekah conceives twins. They struggle so violently in her womb that she goes to inquire of the Lord, who tells her two nations are inside her — two peoples destined to be divided, with the elder serving the younger. The twins are born: Esau first, ruddy and hairy; then Jacob, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. * The second movement skips ahead to their adulthood. Esau is a skilled hunter, his father’s favorite. Jacob is quieter, more domestic, his mother’s favorite. One day Esau comes in from the field famished. Jacob is making stew. Esau demands some, and Jacob makes him swear to sell his birthright first. Esau swears, eats, and goes on his way. The narrator’s verdict is blunt: thus Esau despised his birthright. Key Ideas for Preaching * The struggle inside Rebekah’s womb is named long before the brothers can do anything to cause it. The text suggests that some of what shapes our lives starts before we have any agency in it. How might your congregation hear this without flattening it into determinism — recognizing the conditions we did not choose, while still taking seriously the choices we now make inside them? * The oracle that “the elder shall serve the younger” reverses the standard social order. God’s choosing does not follow the rules of human inheritance. Where does your congregation still quietly assume that God’s blessing tracks with rank, age, status, or success — and how might this reversal interrupt that? * Esau trades his birthright for a single meal. He gets what he wants in the moment and loses what would have been his future. Where in your congregation has the urgency of the immediate crowded out what people will later wish they had kept? * The parents pick favorites. Isaac loves Esau; Rebekah loves Jacob. Genesis does not pretend that this family is healthy. What might it mean to read these stories with both reverence for what God is doing and clear eyes about what is going wrong? Significant Cautions * Do not make Jacob the hero or Esau the villain. The text is more honest than that. Jacob is a calculating manipulator; Esau is impulsive and short-sighted. Both will need grace. * “The elder shall serve the younger” has been used in some traditions to claim that Christianity has replaced an older covenant. That is a misuse. The text is about this specific family, not a doctrinal program. * Esau’s loss of his birthright has sometimes been preached as a warning about losing your salvation through carelessness. That is more than the text says. It is a moral judgment about despising what was given, not a soteriological warning. * Parental favoritism is destructive. Do not preach this story in a way that normalizes it or treats it as a charming family quirk. Psalm 119:105–112 The Psalm (Track One) — A Lamp to My Feet Summary A short section of the longest psalm in the Bible. Each stanza of Psalm 119 begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each stanza is a meditation on God’s word and law. This section opens with one of the most famous lines in the psalms: “your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” The psalmist commits to obey God’s righteous ordinances. He acknowledges that his life is constantly in danger — “I hold my life in my hand continually” — but does not forget the law. The wicked have laid snares, but he has not strayed. He has taken God’s decrees as an inheritance forever. Key Ideas for Preaching * A lamp is a small, focused light — enough to take the next step, not enough to see all the way down the road. What does it mean for your congregation to have a faith that gives them light enough for the next step rather than visibility of the whole journey? * The psalmist names that his life is “continually in his hand” — meaning, in continual peril. The psalm does not pretend that following God spares us from difficulty. What does it look like for your people to keep walking faithfully in a season when nothing feels safe? * The psalmist takes God’s decrees as an inheritance “forever.” This is the same language Jacob and Esau will fight over in today’s Genesis. How might your sermon set these two inheritances side by side — what we receive from God, and what we trade away? Significant Cautions * The piety of Psalm 119 can sound boastful out of context. Read in full, the psalm is more a series of vows and longings than self-congratulation. Be careful not to use a line from it to humble-brag from the pulpit. * “Your word” should not be flattened into “the Bible says” in a way that closes down honest inquiry. The psalmist’s relationship to God’s word is a long love affair, not a system of proof-texts. Isaiah 55:10–13 First Reading (Track Two) — As the Rain Comes Down Summary The closing of Isaiah’s great chapter of invitation. The verses for today open with one of the most beautiful images in the prophets: as the rain and snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth…. The chapter closes with extravagant joy: you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; the mountains and hills shall burst into song; all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Where the thornbush stood, the cypress will grow; where the brier was, the myrtle. Key Ideas for Preaching * The image is one of the most natural and concrete in the prophets: rain comes down, waters the earth, makes things grow. The word of God works the same way, the text says — patiently, naturally, without immediate visible effect, accomplishing what it sets out to do. What does it look like for your congregation to trust God’s word the way they trust rain to do its work? * The closing image of mountains singing and trees clapping is one of the most joyful pictures of God’s restoration in the prophets. The whole creation joins the celebration. How might your sermon let your congregation feel the size of the joy the prophets imagined — not just our private gladness, but a joy that mountains and trees join? * Where the thornbush stood, the cypress will grow. The text imagines not just restoration but improvement — what was harsh giving way to what is beautiful. Where in your congregation’s life or your community’s life has thornbush been growing for too long, and what would it look like to keep hoping for cypress? Significant Cautions * “God’s word will not return empty” has been used as a triumphalist confidence — as if any sermon, or any evangelistic effort, is guaranteed success. The text is about God’s faithfulness, not our methods. Be careful with this verse. * The closing imagery is poetic and visionary. Do not turn it into a literal prediction of what is about to happen. Isaiah is helping his people imagine; let your people imagine, too. Psalm 65:(1–8), 9–13 The Psalm (Track Two) — You Visit the Earth Summary A psalm of thanksgiving for God’s provision through the natural world. The opening verses (which the lectionary makes optional) celebrate God’s awesome works — silencing the roaring of the seas and the tumult of the peoples. The main section then turns to the soil itself. God visits the earth and waters it. God provides grain. God softens the ridges and blesses the growth. The wagons of God overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness drip with goodness; the hills gird themselves with joy; the meadows are covered with flocks; the valleys are decked with grain. They shout and sing together for joy. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm imagines God as a farmer working the land — visiting, watering, softening, blessing. This is a wonderfully embodied picture of God’s care for the world. Where in your congregation has the picture of God become too abstract, and how might this earthy image steady it? * The earth itself is described as joyful. The hills gird themselves with joy. The meadows shout. The valleys sing. The praise of God in this psalm is not just human; it is cosmic. How might your sermon include the praise of the creation as part of the worship of your people? * The psalm pairs naturally with Isaiah and with the Parable of the Sower. The whole day is

In this session, we cover the readings appointed in the Revised Common Lectionary for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 9), Year A, falling on July 5, 2026. Of course, you may be in search of something “patriotic” to say with the Independence Day celebration (aka, July 4) in America. That’s not really our bag here at the Lectionary Lab, but I’ll see if I can’t whip up a little something for the Thursday Sermon (on Wednesday) — which I will send out this week on Tuesday for the holiday! This Sunday turns a corner. Last week closed the four-week Matthew 10 sending discourse with the small image of a cup of cold water. This week, the Gospel offers what may be the most beloved invitation in all of Scripture: come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. After weeks of being called, sent, warned, and welcomed, the same Jesus turns to his disciples and says: come. The Old Testament tracks both lead toward that Gospel, but they get there along very different roads. Track One brings us a tender story from Genesis — the long account of Abraham’s servant finding Rebekah — paired with either Psalm 45’s royal wedding song or Song of Solomon’s love poem. (The lectionary offers the two as alternatives, and this guide treats both fully.) Track Two brings us Zechariah’s vision of a humble king coming on a donkey rather than a war horse, paired with Psalm 145’s sweeping celebration of God’s compassion for all. The Epistle moves into Romans 7 — Paul’s honest, piercing description of the war between intention and action. A small but real continuity is worth noticing as you prepare. Rebekah’s first kindness in Genesis 24, in the verses just before our reading, was to draw water for a thirsty servant — and then for his camels. That echo of last week’s cup of cold water is the lectionary doing some quiet preaching on its own. For preachers following a sermon series, this Sunday opens a new arc; the Matthew 10 cycle is complete, and Matthew 11 begins a new movement that will carry into the parables in the weeks ahead. A small but real continuity is worth noticing as you prepare. Rebekah’s first kindness in Genesis 24, in the verses just before our reading, was to draw water for a thirsty servant — and then for his camels. That echo of last week’s cup of cold water is the lectionary doing some quiet preaching on its own. The Readings Genesis 24:34–38, 42–49, 58–67 First Reading (Track One) — The Finding of Rebekah Summary This is selected portions of the longest chapter in Genesis. After Sarah’s death, Abraham sends his trusted servant back to his homeland to find a wife for Isaac. The selected verses give us three moments: the servant explaining his mission to Rebekah’s family, his retelling of the prayer he had silently prayed at the well and how Rebekah had appeared at exactly the right moment, and the close of the story — Rebekah’s choice to go, her family’s blessing, her journey to Canaan, and the meeting with Isaac in the field. Isaac, the text tells us, brings her into the tent that had been his mother’s, and is comforted after his mother’s death. Photo by james ballard on Unsplash Key Ideas for Preaching * Rebekah’s first kindness, in the verses just before our reading, was to draw water for the servant — and then to draw water for his ten thirsty camels. After last week’s cup of cold water, the echo is hard to miss. What does it mean for your congregation that a story this important to the family of Israel begins with the small kindness of a young woman drawing water for thirsty strangers? * When the servant prayed, he says, his prayer was answered before he had finished speaking. The text holds together strong human action and quiet divine arrangement, neither one swallowing the other. Where does your congregation tend to imagine that God’s providence and human kindness compete, and how might this text suggest they work together? * Rebekah’s “I will go” is one of the clearest moments of agency for a woman in Genesis. She is asked, and she chooses. What does it look like to honor the women in your congregation by reading this story with careful attention to her voice, not just to the men around her? * The story closes with Isaac being comforted after the death of his mother. He has barely spoken since the binding two chapters ago — and now, quietly, the text tells us he is starting to heal. How might your sermon let your people feel that healing often happens slowly, in ordinary ways, after the wounds we cannot easily name? Significant Cautions * The story has often been used to bless arranged marriages or to model dating advice. The text is doing something much larger; do not flatten it into a prescription for modern relationships. * The servant’s prayer at the well has sometimes been read as a model for laying out tests to see if God will give the right sign. That is a small and anxious use of a story that is mostly about quiet divine arrangement, not negotiated tests. * Sarah, who dies just before this story, was wronged in this family in ways the text does not resolve. Be honest that the comfort Isaac receives at the end of the chapter does not erase the harder family history that has come before. Psalm 45:10–17 The Psalm (Track One, primary option) — A Royal Wedding Song Summary A wedding song — one of the few psalms not addressed to God but to a king and his bride. The selected verses focus on the bride. She is counseled to leave her own people and join her husband. She is described in glorious clothing, accompanied by joyful companions, and brought with celebration into the king’s palace. The psalm closes with a promise that her sons will be princes in all the earth. Key Ideas for Preaching * The psalm describes a celebration — joy at a wedding, glad procession, glorious clothing. After several weeks of demanding texts, what would it look like to let your congregation feel the goodness of celebration as a faithful response to God? * The Christian tradition has often read this psalm allegorically as the marriage of Christ and the church. There is real poetic richness in that reading. How might it shape your sermon to let the psalm be both a wedding song and an image of the love that holds the church? Significant Cautions * “Forget your people and your father’s house” has been a difficult line throughout the psalm’s history. In its original setting, it describes a foreign princess marrying into Israel — a major dislocation. Modern readers are right to feel the strangeness of the line. Do not preach it in a way that suggests God ever asks anyone to simply forget where they come from. * The psalm focuses almost entirely on the bride’s appearance and her function as the producer of royal sons. That is one voice within Scripture, not the whole of what Scripture says about women. Be careful with how you handle the imagery in a contemporary congregation. Song of Solomon 2:8–13 The Psalm (Track One, alternative option) — Arise, My Love Summary An alternative reading to Psalm 45. The Beloved’s voice rings out across the hills: “the voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.” The lover calls the Beloved to come away. Winter is over. The flowers appear. The fig tree puts forth its early fruit. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Key Ideas for Preaching * The book of Song of Solomon, surprisingly to many in the pews, is in the Bible — and most of what it celebrates is human, embodied love. What does it do for your congregation to hear that the Scriptures have room for an unabashed celebration of human longing? * The image of winter ending and the world flowering again has been used by faithful readers across generations as a picture of God’s renewing work. How might your sermon let the text speak both as a love poem and as a picture of what God’s love does to a frozen heart? Significant Cautions * The text has, for most of its history in the church, been allegorized into a song about Christ and the church or God and the soul. That tradition is rich. But it has sometimes been used to apologize for the book’s frankly erotic content. The text was given to us as it is. Be careful not to scrub it for modern propriety. * Be careful, on the other hand, not to use this text to baptize any contemporary picture of romance. The poem describes mutual longing, mutual delight, and the breaking of seasons; it is not a manual for human relationships and should not be flattened into one. Zechariah 9:9–12 First Reading (Track Two) — The Humble King Summary A vision of a king coming to Jerusalem — but not the kind of king the people are expecting. He is humble and righteous, victorious yet riding on a donkey rather than a war horse. When he comes, he will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem. The bow of battle will be broken. He will command peace to the nations, and his rule will reach from sea to sea. The reading closes with a word to the “prisoners of hope” — return to your stronghold, double restoration is on the way. Key Ideas for Preaching * The king Zechariah envisions is humble — he comes riding a donkey rather than a war horse. Power that does not look like power. This is the picture the Gospels will pick up at the entry to Jerusalem, and it is the picture Jesus offers of himself in today’s Gospel as “gentle and humble in heart.” What does it mean for your congregation to follow this kind of king in a world that still measures power by chariots? * The peace this king brings includes cutting off the implements of war. Not making them better; getting rid of them. Where in your congregation has the language of peace been allowed to coexist with the quiet building up of weapons of one kind or another? * “Prisoners of hope” is one of the strangest and most beau