Rev-o-lution

Revised Common Lectionary: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 and Psalm 78:1-7; Amos 5:18-24 and Psalm 70; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

Narrative Lectionary: Hosea 11:1-9 (Mark 10:13-14)

In our first selection of the Hebrew scriptures, we have followed the ancestors of the faith from a family to a nation, from their oppression in Egypt into the wilderness, and now, into the land promised them. God made a covenant with Abraham and with Jacob, and God made a covenant with the people through Moses at Sinai. In the final weeks of our journey through these stories in this season after Pentecost, God makes a covenant with the people at Shechem, as told by Joshua. Recalling the covenant made with Abraham, Joshua gives the people a choice. They can remember how God brought them out of Egypt, or they can follow the gods of the land they currently live in. The people respond that they remember God, who brought them out of oppression and protected them from their enemies. Once again, Joshua gives the people a choice: to serve others, or to serve the God who delivered them, for God is holy, but also described as jealous. The people declare their loyalty to God, so Joshua instructs them to put away the foreign gods and idols. The people pledge themselves to serve and obey God.

Psalm 78:1-7 is the first portion of a long psalm telling of Israel’s history of rebellion, until David is king. In the first four verses, the psalmist speaks of the mystery of old, the wisdom that has been passed down from their ancestors, and that they will not hide these stories, these teachings, from the next generation. They will declare what God has done for the people. In verses five through seven, the psalmist recalls the law that was established through Moess, most likely what was given in Deuteronomy, as Moses commanded the people to teach their children so the next generation might know what God has done, and to keep God’s commandments.

The second selection of the Hebrew scriptures focuses on the prophet Amos, and in 5:18-24, the prophet speaks about the day of the Lord. This day of judgment of God is not what people think it is. It is not something to be desired, but a reminder that we all, the entire world, is held accountable for not living into God’s ways. God further speaks through the prophet that what God desires is not festive worship for a show—God actually despises worship that is empty—but the actual practice of justice and living into righteousness, like waters that never cease.

Psalm 70 is a prayer to God for deliverance from their enemies. The psalmist prays against those who are threatening the psalmist’s life—or at least, those who are persecuting them with ridicule. The psalmist turns to a general prayer for all who seek God, that they would rejoice and glorify God. The psalmist concludes that they have nothing to offer, but they are in need, and God is the only one who can deliver them.

The Epistle reading continues in 1 Thessalonians with 4:13-18, turning to Paul’s understanding of the resurrection for those who have died while waiting for Christ’s return. Paul writes against the belief held by the Romans that there was no resurrection, but that they who are faithful in Christ believe that he rose and that those who have died will also rise. Paul held on to the hope that Christ would return in his lifetime, and that somehow all the faithful would be gathered together with Christ. The worldview of the first century was that the heavens were physically above the earth, so we have to understand Paul’s words in the context of how he understood the physical world.

Jesus returns to teaching parables in this final discourse before his betrayal in Matthew 25:1-13. In the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, we often focus on the bridesmaids who were foolish and didn’t bring enough oil, but the scripture teaches us that they all fell asleep. None of them were innocent; not one of them were completely faithful. While the surface level of this parable teaches that the wise were prepared for a longer wait for the return of the bridegroom while the foolish were not, when we did deeper, we might ask why the wise didn’t think they could share with the “foolish?” Why was their salvation more important? Perhaps the lesson could be that we are all called to share, and that we are responsible for living into the Gospel with our neighbors and not focusing on only ourselves.

The Narrative Lectionary turns to the prophet Hosea in 11:1-9. Hosea, like many of the other prophets, used his family life as a way of sharing God’s story. In these verses, God recalls how God’s relationship with the people of Israel was like a father and son, caring for an infant and toddler, but that the child has grown up and rebelled against the father. At first, God declares that the people will get what they deserve: if they go after idols, they might as well go back to their oppression in Egypt. If they turn to the political power of Assyria, then they will go into exile in Assyria. The people seem bent on rebelling, the way a child might rebel against their parent. Yet God loves the people so much God cannot give them up. God cannot allow them to be completely destroyed. God vows at the end of verse nine not to come in wrath against the people.

The supplementary verses of Mark 10:13-14 contain Jesus’s blessing of the children, as people were bringing children to him, but the disciples were stern with the parents. Jesus told the disciples not to stop them but to let the children come to him, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to those like them.

As we near the end of the season after Pentecost we are approaching Reign of Christ Sunday (November 26 this year). We begin reading these passages that point to the day of the Lord and to Christ’s return, though we know now our worldview is different than the worldview of the first century. How do these passages still speak to us today? What can they teach us about faithfully waiting for God, who is also actively at work in our world and in us? What does the return of Christ mean (perhaps it isn’t what we read about in popular literature?) What if it is more important to use the time given to us, now, to live into God’s ways of justice and righteousness?

Call to Worship
We know not the day or the hour,
We know Christ is at work in our world and in us.
We know not when our own time will come,
We know Christ is at work in our world and in us.
The prophets have taught us to do justice, practice kindness, and walk humbly with God,
We know Christ is at work in our world and in us.
Wisdom continues to teach us to listen, and learn, and live,
We know Christ is at work in our world and in us.
We join together to praise and worship our God,
For Christ is at work in our world and in us.

Prayer of Brokenness/Confession
God of our Ancestors, we recall our ancestors of the faith, their faithfulness and their mistakes. We know that our own lives have failed to measure up. We have been swayed by the ways of this world to seek our own gain, our own safety and security and welfare, and have neglected the most vulnerable among us. In a world that is so broken right now, help us, O God, to become menders. Forgive us of our short-sightedness and selfishness and remind us to help one another. Remind us to pause and stop for the ones in need who cross our path. Call us into Your ways of justice and righteousness to make changes in our communities that will bring in the marginalized and lift up the downtrodden. Call us into Your glorious work of kin-dom building. In the name of Jesus Christ, who laid down his life so we might all have life now, we pray. Amen.

Blessing/Assurance
Therefore encourage one another with these words: God loves you so much. God’s love is made known to us in Jesus Christ and is a love that can never be taken from us and can never die. You are God’s beloved child, and every time you say yes to God, God is well-pleased with you. Say yes to God right now. Live into God’s ways of love, justice, and mercy, and know that God’s steadfast love endures forever. Amen.

Prayer
Holy One, as we lean deep into this season, knowing that the year is drawing soon to a close, we pause and give thanks for all You have done for us. You have brought us through hardship and loss. You have brought us through cold and warmth. You have brought us through brokenness and healing. We are not fully restored, but we feel Your healing work in us. As the season is about to turn again soon, we pause and give thanks that You are a God that is forever turning us to look at things in a new way, to view our world at a new angle, to open our hearts more deeply to Your love than we thought possible. We bring our brokenness, our messiness, to You, and know that You will turn our mourning into dancing, our sorrow into joy, even if we cannot feel it yet. We give thanks for all You have done, and all You will do. Amen.

Worship Resources for October 29th, 2023—Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Revised Common Lectionary: Deuteronomy 34:1-12 and Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17; Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 and Psalm 1; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 22:34-46

Narrative Lectionary: Kingdom Divided, 1 Kings 12:1-17, 25-29 (Mark 10:42-45)

We are drawing to a close in this liturgical year and we are nearing the end of our journey with the ancestors of our faith in the first selection of the Hebrew scriptures. Deuteronomy 34:1-12 contains the story of Moses’s death and God’s continued promise. God showed Moses all the land that had been promised to the descendants of Abraham and Sarah long ago, and although Moses would not set foot in it, God allows him a glimpse before his death. Moses died in Moab and was buried, and the Israelites mourned him for thirty days. Previously, Moses had laid his hands upon Joshua, and Joshua had the spirit of wisdom Moses had. The people turned to follow Joshua, but there would never be another like Moses.

Psalm 90 is a prayer to God who is present throughout the generations, and the only psalm attributed to Moses. In verses 1-6, God was present before there was anything, and instead of a physical place, the psalmist views God as the people’s true home. For a wandering people with a promise of a homeland, how do you find home when you won’t see it? Know that home is wherever God is, and God is with you. Time for mortals is brief, but chronological time is nothing to God. Verses 13-17 turns to a plea for help, for God to have compassion on the people who have suffered. The psalmist calls upon God to make God’s works known to the people, and for the people’s work to have meaning and value.

The second selection of the Hebrew scriptures is Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18. In this part of the law, God told Moses that the people of Israel were to be holy because God is holy. Verses 15-18 are a reminder of how the people are to live among their neighbors, ending with “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The very first psalm in the book of Psalms is a reminder that for those who seek wisdom, they are like a tree planted by a stream of water who bear fruit and never wither. They are strong in the law of the Lord, which they meditate on day and night and ignore the voices of evil. The wicked, unfortunately, are like chaff blown away, with no roots. The righteous are the ones who are in the congregation and remain firm in righteousness, for they are faithful to God.

The Epistle reading continues the series in 1 Thessalonians with 2:1-8. Paul speaks of the deep care he and his companions have for the church in Thessalonica and contrasts that to an incident in Philippi where he and his companions were not treated well. Most scholars believe that 1 Thessalonians is earlier than the letter to the Philippians and refers to something not addressed in that letter. In spite of how they were treated, Paul and others had the courage to share the gospel, and they did this not for their own gain but to please God. The Thessalonians have become dear to Paul, like a nurse caring for the children in her charge.

Jesus continues to be challenged in the temple in Matthew 22:34-46. In last week’s reading, Jesus was challenged by the Herodians on paying taxes. The lectionary skips over Jesus’s challenge by the Sadducees on the resurrection, and now he is questioned by some Pharisees over which commandment is the greatest. This is different than Mark’s account, in which a scribe asks this question but in curiosity because Jesus answered the others well. Debates were how rabbis taught and learned from each other, and while Matthew makes these different groups opposed to Jesus, it is possible, like in Marks’ account, they were not all opposed but curious. Jesus replies with Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Then Jesus replies with a question of who the Messiah is by quoting Psalm 110:1, that the Messiah is not David’s son, but God’s son, since fathers would never address their own son as “Lord.” Jesus uses both the question about the greatest commandment and his own question on who is the Messiah’s son as a way to demonstrate his authority.

The Narrative Lectionary turns to the divided kingdom in 1 Kings 12:1-17, 25-29. When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam went to Shechem to be made king, but he listened to the advisors he chose instead of his father’s advisors when the people complained, and he added on more taxes and forced labor. Jeroboam, who had previously rebelled against Solomon led the people to challenge Rehoboam’s orders, but Rehoboam refused to listen, and the people went to war. Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem, but the tribes outside of Judah turned to Jeroboam, who made two calves for the people to worship in Shechem in Ephraim. Since the temple of God was in Jerusalem, Jeroboam turned away from the God of Israel.

The supplementary verses of Mark 10:42-45, in which Jesus instructs the disciples after James and John had asked to sit at his right and left hand in glory. The other disciples were angry, but Jesus told them not to be like the Gentiles who lord it over each other, but that they are to serve one another, to become last of all and servant of all, as Jesus came to serve and to give his life as a ransom.

Care, humility, and love go together. Moses cared about the people and the people cared for him, even though they were at odds at times, and the people wept when he died. Paul cared about new Christians and the early churches, like a nurse cares for her children. Paul didn’t just share the Gospel to spread the word of Jesus and definitely did not do so to puff himself up, but because he genuinely cared about these early converts. Both Rehoboam and Jeroboam suffered from pride and power. Though the people thought of the Messiah as David’s son, a mighty warrior in his line, Jesus thought of the Messiah as the Son of God, not one who would come on a war horse to save the people, but one who came to give his life and to serve. Jesus deeply loved the disciples, had compassion for the people, such as the thousands that gathered once to hear him and were fed bread and fish. Jesus cared about the nobodies—the little girl that died, the Syrophoenician woman and her child who were ignored by others (and even by Jesus himself at first), the woman who bled for twelve years, and so on. We know the love we have is genuine when we are filled with deep compassion for those around us who are most vulnerable. In this time of heightened conflict and war, ethnic tensions in Azerbaijan, India, and Israel/Palestine, may we be moved from a place of deep compassion to embrace others, rather than hard lines. May our words for justice always be rooted in compassion and humility.

(I invite you to take your time and breathe at the commas for this Call to Worship)

Call to Worship
Take a deep breath, and breathe in God’s spirit,
We breathe out, knowing that God is always present with us.
Take a deep breath, and know God’ solve,
We breathe out, sharing God’s love with one another.
Take a deep breath, and know God’s joy,
We breathe out, rejoicing in God our Savior.
Take a deep breath, and be full of compassion for God’s people,
We breathe out, ready to worship our God, and follow Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prayer of Brokenness/Confession
Loving God, we confess that we are quick to judge and move to judgment at breakneck speed. We do not slow down to consider another point of view or give pause to allow compassion to open our hearts. We want to do right and to be right, sometimes at a cost. Remind us of how deeply You love us, how Your Son bent down to draw in the dirt before the crowd that wanted to condemn another. Call us into that same sacred pause, to remember that we are all human beings, all made in Your image, all Your children. May we withdraw our sharp words and judgments and instead break open our hearts for compassionate, deep listening to one another. In the name of Christ, who in all humility laid down his life for each of us, that we might have abundant life full of pauses, full of compassion, full of love, we pray. Amen.

Blessing/Assurance
You are precious to God, so loved and so worthy of love. I know you may not feel it all the time, but it is true: God loves you madly. God’s love is written inside your heart and can never be removed, never changed, never diminished. Know this, in your heart of hearts, that you are made in God’s image and that image is love. Go share that love with the world. Amen.

Prayer
Great God, You are with us even in the shadows and bleakness, among the haunts and spooks. There is no place where You can’t be found. There is nothing we have to fear in You. We call upon You to draw close when we are in shadow, when it is difficult to find light. Help us to know You are always near. Guide us through the valley of the shadow with Your rod and staff before us, comforting us, until we come to the table You have prepared for us. But even when our hope seems lost, may we know You never leave us, and will always hold us fast. Amen.

Revised Common Lectionary: Exodus 33:12-23 and Psalm 99; Isaiah 45:1-7 and Psalm 96:1-9 (10-13); 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22

Narrative Lectionary: David Anointed King, 2 Samuel 5:1-5; 6:1-5; Psalm 150 (Mark 11:8-10)

In the first selection of the Hebrew Scriptures, we have followed the ancestors of our faith from a family to a nation. In last week’s selection, the people of Israel came to Aaron demanding that he make gods for them because Moses was gone for too long, and God became angry with the people, threatening to destroy them and make a nation out of Moses until Moses interceded. At the beginning of chapter 33, God has decided not to destroy the people, but will no longer go with them to the land promised them. I wrote in Judson’s Journeys for October 22 the following about this passage, where Moses tries to convince God that these are indeed God’s people:

There’s sort of a humorous understanding to this exchange, sort of like a child with an adult. Moses still tried to get God to be with the people, to be fully present, but God keeps distance. God dodges most of Moses’s questions and responding with answers that are not fully satisfying to the demanding and inquisitive Moses. Moses continually asks, “Have I found favor in your sight?” Is there anything Moses has done wrong so far? God knows Moses followed everything God said. Even intervening on behalf of the people was the right thing to do, because they are God’s people, and God cannot abandon them. How will God’s people know who God is, and how will the world know that these people are God’s people, unless God journeys with them?

What we experience in these verses is Moses’s perseverance and insistence that God is the God of the people, and that he was called by this same God at the burning bush to deliver the people from their oppression in Egypt. Nonetheless, we also experience God as one who cannot be manipulated or fit into the mold of humanity. God will be gracious to those whom God desires to be and show mercy to those God desires to show mercy (33:19). God will not do what Moses wants simply because Moses wants it. However, God will pass by, because God knows this is the best way for Moses to trust and understand. God remains sovereign (and part of God’s sovereignty is that we humans cannot comprehend all of God) and in close relationship with Moses.

Psalm 99 is a song that praises God as the one who reigns over God’s faithful people. God is the one who loves justice and establishes equity, and the psalmist calls upon the people to worship God. The song lifts up Moses and Aaron as God’s priests, along with Samuel, as those who called upon God and God answered. God held them accountable for when they went wrong, but also forgave them. The psalmist concludes with another call to worship God, for God is holy.

The second selection of the Hebrew scriptures turns to Isaiah 45:1-7. This portion of Second Isaiah speaks of Cyrus, the Persian emperor, who’s coming into power made possible the return of the exiles from Babylon. However, Isaiah makes it clear through God’s voice that it is God who has prepared the way, who had led Cyrus by the hand, and no other gods. It is God who directs the steps, who leads the people.

Psalm 96:1-9 is a call to worship praising God for all of God’s wonderful deeds. God is not only above other gods, but all other gods are idols—only the same God of the faithful people made the heavens and earth. The psalmist gives liturgical instructions in calling the people to worship God and to bring their offering as they enter the courts of the temple, and all the earth shall tremble in response. In verses 10-13, the psalmist reminds the people that God is sovereign over all nations, and God judges with equity. The psalmist continues this great call to worship by calling all of creation to join in, for God will judge the people and the earth with truth and justice.

The Epistle reading turns to its final series this season after Pentecost in 1 Thessalonians, which many scholars believe is one of the earliest letters of Paul (it may be the earliest we have in our Bible). We begin with the introduction in 1:1-10, of Paul and his companions, Silvanus and Timothy, writing to the church in Thessalonica. Paul gives thanks for the church’s faithfulness, because they not only received the Gospel by word, but the Holy Spirit has been manifest in the church’s reputation. In spite of being persecuted, they became an example to all believers in neighboring regions. Word has made it back to Paul that the Thessalonians turned from idols and have served God faithfully, while waiting for Jesus to return.

The Gospel lesson takes a break from the parables of Jesus and turns instead to a time when some of those opposed to Jesus tried to trap him with a series of questions. In Matthew 22:15-22, some of the Pharisees got together with some of the Herodians—two groups that would normally be opposed—and asked Jesus about whether it was lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not. If Jesus said no, the Herodians, the family of Herod that was in power as a puppet government under the Roman Empire, would have proof that Jesus was a political revolutionary. If Jesus said yes, it would make the crowds upset with him. Instead, Jesus offers another way, to give what belongs to the Emperor and to give what belongs to God—recognizing that if everything comes from God, this question should not matter, for God is the ultimate authority.

The Narrative Lectionary turns to the story of David anointed as king over Israel. In 2 Samuel 5:1-5 David, thirty years old at the time, was anointed king over all the tribes at Hebron. Though Saul had been their king, the leaders of the tribes had looked to David as their war hero who brought them victory. In 6:1-5, the ark of the covenant was brough to Jerusalem, signifying David as not only the war king but God’s anointed king, as David recaptured the ark from the Philistines.

Psalm 150 is a song of praise to God, calling all the people to praise God in the sanctuary, for all God’s mighty acts, and with all instruments and dance. Every living thing is called to praise the Lord.

The supplementary verses of Mark 11:8-10 contain the praise of the people when Jesus entered Jerusalem. The people spread their clothes along with cut branches on the road before Jesus and called out “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” quoting Psalm 118, a song of praise before entering the temple, and also shouting, “Blessing on the coming kingdom of our ancestor David,” a longing for the restoration of David’s throne while under the oppression of the Roman Empire.

We human beings are fickle. We try to make our own way instead of fully trusting in God’s ways. Paul praised the church in Thessalonica for, despite persecution, they had remained faithful, and the word of their faithfulness had spread to other churches. Jesus tried to show those questioning him, along with the crowds that were curious as to who Jesus was or what he was about, that the key was looking to God as sovereign over all. When we look to God’s ways and live into them, the questions about how we ought to live become clear: do what we can to bring about God’s beloved community, and not get caught up in the rest of it. Isaiah reminded the people that even if their liberation came from another worldly power, it was still God at work because God is always involved in the liberation of the people. The good things of this world always come from God, whether it be the resources we share as communities from paying taxes for things like schools, libraries, roads and fire departments, or whether it be a voice from another land that leads the way for justice. Moses reminds us that it is okay to argue with God, too.

When we lament why God isn’t more noticeably at work around us, God’s presence will be made known. We can trust in God and lament. Right now, in our desperate, violent world, we must cry out. The horrific violence experienced in Israel and Gaza calls for our collective lament. It calls for us to ask why, God, and where are You? It calls for us to demand justice and pray and work for peace. It calls us to not dismiss our neighbor. It calls us to look to the pain of people marginalized for different reasons, and how we can respond not from our pain but from the collective grief, and cling to any shred of hope that somehow, God will hear us, but maybe even more importantly, that we will hear each other.

Call to Worship (Psalm 96:1-4)
O sing to the LORD a new song;
Sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless God’s name;
Tell of God’s salvation from day to day.
Declare God’s glory among the nations,
God’s marvelous works among all the peoples.
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
God is to be revered above all idols of the world.

Prayer of Brokenness/Confession
Lord, Lord! We cry out to You, confessing that we have given into the ways of this world. We have allowed anger to fester into rage, distrust into hate, hopelessness into utter despair. We have given up on others. We have dehumanized those we do not understand and rationalized violence. We remember the prophet Habakkuk, who lamented the violence he witnessed, and still believed there was time for a vision, time enough to write something down, however, brief, that a runner could read it. There is still time for a vision of hope, O God. Something small that can change the world. If we can love one another, see one another as Your beloved children. If we can hear the cries of Your children’s prayers. If we can believe there must be something more for the children of today, we can live into hope for their tomorrow. Lord, Lord! Hear our prayers. Hear our laments. Hear our calls for justice. In the name of Christ, who called out from the cross asking why You had forsaken him, we pray, knowing Your answer is life. Your answer is hope. Your answer is love. Amen and Amen.

Blessing/Assurance
When Moses asked God how he could know if he had found favor in God’s sight, God responded in Exodus 33:17, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” God knows us by name. God knows our hearts. God knows how they break from the pain of the world, and how they can break open for each other. Allow your heart to be broken open by God, to God, and to God’s people, who are all created in God’s image that live upon this one planet we share. God will do the very thing we ask if we see one another as God’s children. God will restore us, forgive us, heal us, and set us out to share the good news of God’s love. In Jesus’s name, go in peace. Amen.

Prayer
God of compassion and mercy, it is far too easy to give up, and even easier to fake it until we might make it. Help us not hold on to false hopes, fake cheeriness, cheesy-Jesus-joy that makes other people sick to their stomach. Help us to find that true joy in You, that we are made by You for love in this world. Help us to trust in You so that we do not give up in the pursuit of justice, in the practice of mercy, in our love for one another. We know in the end, only love has saved us, and only love will lead us forward. Help us to love. Call us to love. Guide us in Your ways of love, that also hold us accountable when we have gone wrong, to do the work of reparation and restoration in this world. Amen.

Revised Common Lectionary: Exodus 32:1-14 and Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23; Isaiah 25:1-9 and Psalm 23; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14

Narrative Lectionary: Ruth, 1:1-17 (4:13-17), (Mark 3:33-35)

We have followed the ancestors of the faith, from a family to a nation, in the first selection of the Hebrew scriptures this season after Pentecost. The famous Golden Calf story happens while Moses was up the mountain with God. Moses not only received the commandments, ordinances, and statues, but also instruction on how they as God’s people will conduct worship, the duties of the priests, and how to construct the tabernacle, the tent of God that will travel with the people once they leave Mt. Sinai, symbolizing God’s continued presence. God had just finished giving all these instructions to Moses and also two tablets with the words of the covenant written on them. Meanwhile, the people went to Moses’s brother Aaron and asked him to make gods for them to worship because they didn’t know what happened to Moses, who’d been up the mountain for over a month. Aaron took the gold jewelry offered by the people and formed it into the image of a calf. The people worshiped the calf and had a raucous celebration, probably similar to the peoples around them that also worshiped idols in such ways. At first, God told Moses to go down to the people “that you brought out of Egypt.” God seems to have forgotten it was they who brought the people out. Then God decides to destroy the people, and instead will make a great nation from Moses. However, Moses intercedes, and reminds God that these are God’s people, whom God brought out of Egypt. If God destroyed them, it would give fodder to the Egyptians and other enemies that God wasn’t so great. Instead, Moses invoked the names of the ancestors and God’s covenant with them. God relented, changed their mind, and did not destroy the people.

Psalm 106 is a song of praise to God for God’s faithfulness, despite the people not always remaining faithful themselves. Verses 1-6 praise God for God’s goodness and steadfast love. The psalmist blesses those who practice justice and righteousness. The psalmist prays for God’s deliverance of the people and that they might be a witness of God’s faithfulness, and in verse 6, confesses on behalf of the people and their ancestors their sins in not following God’s ways. Verses 19-23 specifically recall the creation of the golden calf and how Moses interceded on their behalf, so that God would not destroy them, though they had forgotten God.

The second selection of the Hebrew scriptures is Isaiah 25:1-9. This is a psalm praising God for delivering the people from their oppression, especially the most vulnerable, the poor and needy, covered in God’s protection and shelter. In an apocalyptic vision, heaven and earth come together on the mountain of God, with a rich banquet for all the people. God will destroy death and wipe away the tears from those who mourn. God will at last save the people from all oppression, including death.

Psalm 23 is the Shepherd’s Psalm, long attributed to David the shepherd-king. The psalmist sings of how God cares for them like a shepherd cares for their sheep—leading them to nourishing green pastures and cool waters, restoring their soul like one tends to the needs of the sheep. Even when oppression and death close in, the psalmist has no fear because God is with them, present like a shepherd with their staff. God prepares the table for the psalmist even before their enemies, anointing them and overflowing their cup, and they know God’s presence and goodness and kindness will be with them always.

The Epistle reading concludes its short series in Philippians with 4:1-9. Paul gives final words of encouragement and instruction to the church in Philippi. There is a brief mention of Euodia and Syntyche, and what Paul urged back in 2:2 is repeated here in this context of seeking help for these two, to be united in Christ. The two have both worked for the Gospel alongside Paul and Clement. Paul had written of joy in the Lord and expresses it again here, calling upon the church in Philippi to rejoice and to be in prayer to God, and to know God’s peace. This section concludes with further words of encouragement to continue to live into God’s ways as they have been taught, and God’s peace will be made known to them.

Matthew 22:1-14 contains the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. In this parable, it is a king who gave a wedding banquet for the son, but the invited guests refused to come. Some of the guests even mistreated or killed the servants the king sent. So the king sent soldiers to burn their city and destroy those who murdered. Then the king decided to send his servants into the city to invite everyone they saw into the banquet, because those originally invited were not worthy. Everyone was invited in, both good and bad, and the hall was filled with guests. However, one guest did not have a wedding robe, and was questioned by the king as to how he got in. He was speechless, so the king ordered him to be thrown out into the “outer darkness” to suffer. The parable concludes with a line, possibly added later, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” Parables have layers, and while on the surface this parable about the kingdom of heaven might be about how Jesus saw the religious leaders as rejecting God’s kingdom, it could also be a warning to Christians during the time Matthew’s Gospel was written, around 75-85 C.E., that they, too, have forgotten what God’s kingdom was about.

The Narrative Lectionary turns to Ruth. In the first seventeen verses, the reader learns that Naomi, her husband and two sons were from Bethlehem but had settled in Moab due to a famine. While there, her husband died. Her sons married but then they both also died. Her two daughters-in-law were Moabite women. Later instructions in Ezra-Nehemiah forbade marriage outside of Israel and specifically mentioned Moab, but the book of Ruth shows readers that these laws changed for different times. When Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem because the famine was over, she urged her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, to return to their homes. Marriages were to help with inheritance, and if a husband died, a woman would marry the husband’s brother, and the first child would be considered the heir of the dead husband, to pass down the inheritance. But if there were no more brothers, then the widow would return to her father’s home and hope to be remarried. Naomi clearly wanted what was best for these women, who would be foreigners in Bethlehem, as she was in Moab. But Ruth refused to leave her, and shared a vow to remain with her” to live where she lived, to die where she died, and to worship the same God. Ruth essentially became Naomi’s adopted daughter. In 4:13-17, Ruth married Boaz, a close kinsmen, and had a son. Naomi was praised by her neighbors for God’s faithfulness, because Ruth, her daughter-in-law, provided for her. Ruth’s son Obed became a grandson for Naomi, and Obed was the grandfather of King David.

The supplementary verses of Mark 3:33-35 contain Jesus’s words about who his true family were. When his mother, brothers, and sisters came for him, he asked the crowd who were his family: “those who do the will of God.”

How do we do God’s will? Certainly we know from the story of the golden calf that we are called to remember what God has done for us and for our ancestors, and to repent of where we have gone astray. The parable of Jesus reminds us that faith is lived out in how we practice hospitality and equity, justice and righteousness. Isaiah reminds us that while in this life we struggle, God’s desire for us is an end to our grief and loss, for heaven and earth to join together, for God’s presence to always be known. And the Narrative Lectionary reminds us that our understandings of laws and rules change, but what is important is the relationships we foster. How we treat one another with kindness and compassion. How do we do God’s will? We look to our ancestors in the faith. We study the scriptures. We practice kindness and do justice. But it must become our way of life, not something we do when we want to and skip when we don’t. We must, as Paul urged the Philippians, keep on doing what we have learned, experienced, and witnessed, and the God of peace will be with us.

Call to Worship (Philippians 4:8, 7, 4)
Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
Whatever is just, whatever is pure,
Whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable,
Think about these things.
Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received.
And the God of peace will be with you.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
Guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Rejoice in the Lord always;
Again I will say, Rejoice!

Prayer of Brokenness/Confession
Loving God, You created us to be in relationship with You, with creation, and with one another. We have distorted and abused those relationships. We have forgotten You and Your ways. We have neglected our fellow creatures that we share this planet with and have misused the Earth and its resources. We have oppressed and marginalized the most vulnerable among us, including those in poverty and living on the streets, those struggling with mental health, those suffering from addiction, those who are from other countries that we deem less desirable, those whose gender or orientation is in the minority. Forgive us for not loving our neighbor as ourselves. Forgive us for judging others. Forgive us, most of all, for the harm we have caused by neglect, ignorance, and bigotry. Call us into repentance. Lead us in knowledge of the ways of reparation and restoration. Guide us into paths of healing. Encourage us to seek forgiveness with accountability for our own actions where we have caused harm. Empower us to use our privilege to raise up the voices of others, so that justice and restoration can be possible. In the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, who laid down all his privilege, becoming humble to the point of death on the cross, we pray all things. Amen.

Blessing/Assurance
God is the Good Shepherd, who continues to lead us back to the paths of righteousness when we go astray. God knows our name, knows our needs. God knows our strengths and weaknesses and continues to encourage us to be who we were created to be: made in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life (Ephesians 2:10). Live into this knowledge of God’s intention for your life, to do good works, and prepare to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. May you seek reparation and forgiveness and restoration and know that God forgives you and loves you. Amen.

Prayer
God of Wisdom and Insight, quiet our minds from the busy noises of the world around us. Remind us now and then to put down the phones and turn off the computers. Perhaps even to turn off the lights and light a candle instead. To quiet our souls from all the notifications and flashing lights that tug our attention to things in this world. Call us to open our Scriptures and read the words passed down to us, to ponder them in our hearts, to use the best scholarly resources to understand them further. Remind us to seek You in prayer and meditation, in words and in silence, in the cool breeze in the forest or the waves on the shore. Help us to breathe, and to breathe deep of the air You have given us, the wind that hovers over creation, and the Spirit You instill in us. In the name of Christ, who often went away to deserted places to pray, we now pray. Amen.