Church Year

We now move to the second of three weeks in the pre-Advent period at the end of the Pentecost season. The sense of urgency for hearers of the Word to surrender to God in Christ while time remains is increasing. At Proper 28A, the assigned Gospel reading is Matthew 25:14-30, from which we overhear in…

The collects and readings appointed for the last three weeks of the Pentecost season create a pre-Advent period of preparation for the new church year. Our attention shifts dramatically to themes of knowledge about the end times and spiritual readiness for the second coming of Christ.   In Year A, the church assigns three consecutive readings…

We continue in the liturgical year with Matthew’s account of the last week of our Lord’s life, leading up to the crucifixion. It is still early in the week when Jesus is tested by the religious leaders of Jerusalem who are looking for a legal motivation to kill him. In Year A, we skip the…

Over the last three Sundays in Year A, we have meditated in worship on three consecutive parables Jesus delivered to the religious leaders in Jerusalem, each designed to demonstrate their condemnation before God as unbelievers. In response, the religious leaders, uniting across Jewish party lines, will seek to trap Jesus in his words in order…

The Gospel of Matthew sets up the narrative of our Lord’s final week in Jerusalem before the Last Supper as a one-two strike: first, a prolonged, direct attack on the hypocrisy of the religious leaders in Jerusalem (21:23–23:36); then, a set of urgent exhortations directed to his disciples for perseverance in the faith and to…

The intensity level of the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders of Jerusalem reaches its highest pitch in the last days before our Lord’s death. At Proper 22A, the church assigns the second of three parables in Matthew addressed to the priests and elders of the city.  Spoken right after the parable of the…

With the assigned readings in Proper 21A, the church takes us forward in Matthew to Jesus’ teaching in the temple after his final entry into Jerusalem.  The Gospel reading out of Matthew 21:28-32 is the parable of the two sons. Our Lord’s main purpose in giving this parable (found only in Matthew) is to illustrate…

In our year-long meditation from Matthew on the revelation of Jesus, the church now moves us forward to a point just before our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  The assigned Gospel reading is Matthew 20:1-16. Only Matthew contains the parable of the workers in the vineyard, which Jesus delivered to the disciples after teaching them…

With the Bible readings assigned for Proper 19A, the theme of our worship this week is repentance and forgiveness in the believing community. The passages hold out both the prospects of abundant reward from God where forgiveness exists and the deadly consequences where it does not.  In the Gospel reading from Matthew 18:21-35, we hear…