SUNDAYS AND SEASONS PREACHING

S U N D AY S A N D S E A S O N S

P R E A C H I N GY E A R B 2 0 1 8

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IntroductionLectionary Conversion Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Year of Mark and John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

AdventPreaching in Advent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

First Sunday of Advent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec 3, 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Second Sunday of Advent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Third Sunday of Advent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Fourth Sunday of Advent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

ChristmasPreaching in Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Nativity of Our Lord I / Christmas Eve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Nativity of Our Lord II / Christmas Dawn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Nativity of Our Lord III / Christmas Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

First Sunday of Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Epiphany of Our Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan 6, 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Time after EpiphanyPreaching in the Time after Epiphany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Baptism of Our Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Second Sunday after Epiphany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Third Sunday after Epiphany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Transfiguration of Our Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

SUNDAYS AND SEASONS: PREACHING

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LentPreaching in Lent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Ash Wednesday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

First Sunday in Lent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Second Sunday in Lent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Third Sunday in Lent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Fourth Sunday in Lent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Fifth Sunday in Lent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Sunday of the Passion / Palm Sunday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

The Three DaysPreaching in the Three Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112

Maundy Thursday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

Good Friday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

Resurrection of Our Lord / Vigil of Easter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Resurrection of Our Lord / Easter Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

EasterPreaching in Easter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Second Sunday of Easter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Third Sunday of Easter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Fourth Sunday of Easter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Fifth Sunday of Easter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Sixth Sunday of Easter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

Ascension of Our Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Seventh Sunday of Easter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Day of Pentecost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

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CONTENTS

Time after Pentecost — SummerPreaching in Summer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

The Holy Trinity / First Sunday after Pentecost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

John the Baptist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Time after Pentecost — AutumnPreaching in Autumn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sep 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sep 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sep 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sep 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sep 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Day of Thanksgiving (Canada) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269

Reformation Sunday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Time after Pentecost — NovemberPreaching in November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

All Saints Sunday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .279

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287

Time after Pentecost / Lectionary 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Day of Thanksgiving (U .S .A .) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295

Christ the King / Last Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nov 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .299

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ADVENT DEC 3

ContributorsGabi Aelabouni serves as director for the ELCA Fund for

Leaders. Meghan Aelabouni is a full-time PhD student in religion. Benjamin J. Ahles-Iverson is pastor of Trinity Peace

Lutheran Parish, Taylor, Wisconsin.Javier (Jay) Alanís is executive director of the Lutheran Sem-

inary Program in the Southwest, Austin, Texas. Mary W. Anderson serves as pastor of Incarnation Lutheran

Church, Columbia, South Carolina.Aimee Appell is pastor of Peace Lutheran Church, Washing-

ton, Missouri.Priscilla Austin is pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church,

Seattle.Nathan Baker-Trinity is pastor of Beaver Lutheran Church,

Beaver Springs, Pennsylvania.Karen Bates Olson serves as pastor of Resurrection Lutheran

Church, Brown’s Point, Washington.J. Elise Brown is a consultant with Kairos and Associates and

the Joshua Group and also associate professor of sociol-ogy at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York.

Lisa M. Burbank is co-pastor of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church and Trinity Lutheran Church, Eliza-beth, Illinois, and St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hanover, Illinois.

Joy K. Bussert is senior pastor at First English Lutheran Church, Faribault, Minnesota.

Kristine Carlson is lead pastor of Christ Church Lutheran, Minneapolis.

Michael Coffey is pastor of First English Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas, and author of the book Mystery without Rhyme or Reason: Poetic Ref lections on the Revised Common Lectionary.

Joseph Crippen is pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.

Emily Ann Davis is associate minister of First Congrega-tional Church, Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Amandus J. Derr is senior pastor of Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church, New York City.

Suzanne Darcy Dillahunt is bishop of the Southern Ohio Synod of the ELCA.

Benjamin J. Dueholm is pastor of worship and education at Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church, Wauconda, Illinois.

Robert Farlee is a pastor and cantor at Christ Church Lutheran, Minneapolis.

Marcus Felde is pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Indi-anapolis, Indiana.

Nels Flesher serves as pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chinook and Naselle Evangelical Lutheran Church, a yoked parish in the Southwestern Washington Synod.

Julia Fraser is chaplain at St. Paul Homes, Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Brad Froslee is pastor at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, Roseville, Minnesota.

Jon Gathje is pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Samuel D. Giere is associate professor of homiletics and bibli-cal interpretation at Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.

Erik Haaland is associate pastor at Christ Church Lutheran, Minneapolis.

Jonathan Hemphill is lead pastor of a mission development congregation in greater Los Angeles, known as Another Level Ministries.

Amanda L. Highben serves as a pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Dublin, Ohio.

Nathan Hilkert is pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Mes-siah, Decatur, Georgia.

Katie Hines-Shah is senior pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Hinsdale, Illinois.

Paul Hoffman is called by the council of the Northwest Wash-ington Synod to a ministry of writing and teaching.

Laura Holck is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Cross, Calgary, Alberta.

James Honig is senior pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Y. Franklin Ishida is director for Asia and the Pacific in ELCA Global Mission.

Donand Kreiss writes from Detroit and serves as bishop of the Southeast Michigan Synod.

Alex LaChapelle is a pastor at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Park Ridge, Illinois.

Dirk G. Lange is professor of worship and Frederik Schiotz Chair of Christian Missions at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Kristin Johnston Largen is dean of Gettysburg Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Liv Larson Andrews is pastor of Salem Lutheran Church, Spokane, Washington.

Catherine Malotky is director for development at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ray McKechnie is associate pastor at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, through a contract arrangement with American Lutheran Church, both in Grand Junction, Colorado.


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Tony Metze is pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Columbia, South Carolina.

David L. Miller is senior pastor of St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Naperville, Illinois.

Laurie Miller is pastor of Christ Lutheran, Lorain, and Redeemer Lutheran, Elyria, in Ohio.

Bruce K. Modahl is a Lutheran pastor living in Fernandina Beach, Florida.

Rudy Mueller is an assistant to the bishop in the Indiana-Kentucky Synod of the ELCA, living in Indianapolis.

Jennifer Obermueller is pastor of St. John Parish, comprised of St. John Lutheran Church, Bendena, and St. John Lutheran Church, Lancaster, both in Kansas.

Jennifer Phelps Ollikainen is executive director at Lutheran Congregational Services/Liberty Lutheran, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Melinda Quivik is an ELCA pastor and liturgical scholar liv-ing in Houghton, Michigan.

Johanna Rehbaum is the pastor of Bethlehem and St. Martin Lutheran Churches, congregations in Webster, New York, that have covenanted to do joint ministry.

Mark Rigg is pastor of Advent Lutheran Church, West Lawn, Pennsylvania.

Jan Schnell Rippentrop is instructor and Axel Jacob and Gerda Maria (Swanson) Carlson Chair of Homiletics at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Shelly Satran is a pastor serving Our Savior Lutheran Church, Vero Beach, Florida.

Craig Alan Satterlee is bishop of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the ELCA.

Miriam Schmidt is pastor/priest of All Saints Church, Big Sky, Montana.

Clint Schnekloth is pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas, and blogs at lutheran-confessions.blogspot.com.

Mary Hinkle Shore is pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Brevard, North Carolina.

Adam Sornchai is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church (Wind-fall), Cardington, Ohio.

Marissa Sotos is pastor/mission developer for Tree of Life Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.

Marc A. Stutzel is pastor at Christ Lutheran Church, Wood-cliff Lake, New Jersey.

Wesley C. Telyea is lead pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Issaquah, Washington.

Susan Tjornehoj is lead pastor at Christ Lutheran Church, in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore.

Troy M. Troftgruben is assistant professor of New Testament at Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.

Gwenn Trout serves as pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, Enola, Pennsylvania.

Andrew Tucker is a pastor serving Christ Lutheran Church, Radford, Virginia.

Michael J. Vinson is campus pastor for Purdue Lutheran Ministry at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

Paul E. Walters is pastor of Lutheran Church of the Master in Troy, Michigan.

Brian Wilker-Frey is pastor of St. Ansgar Lutheran Church, Toronto.

Rachel Wrenn is a pastor and a PhD candidate at Emory Uni-versity, Atlanta.

William Yancey is pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church, Univer-sity City, Missouri.

Angela Zimmann serves as vice president of advancement at United Lutheran Seminary (formerly the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg), Gettysburg, Penn-sylvania, and adjunct professor of homiletics.

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PrefaceWelcome to the 2018 edition of Sundays and Seasons: Preach-ing. Whether you are new to this resource or have been around since we began three years ago, we trust you will find real help for your preaching task here. We are back where we started, with year B of the Revised Common Lectionary. We think of it as the year of Mark, but really it’s Mark and John. They’re something of an odd couple—the earliest gospel and the latest; Mark’s abruptness and immediacy, John’s elegance and well-considered theology. Taken together, they’re quite a contrast to last year’s Matthew. Our approach to these gospels and the other texts provided by the lectionary remains the same as it has been. After an introduction to the day, we present the texts. Print users will find the citations and brief thumbnails; online users can click to the complete text. With these, we list the psalm response to the first reading, the gospel acclamation, and the prayer of the day, because these are all pieces that make up the propers for the day. Then we start to go in more depth. The Day and Its Readings—what connects the various readings on this particu-lar day in the church year? Sometimes those connections will be strong, other times more tenuous. And, The Readings in the Bible, reminding us of the circumstances in which these texts were written. The next two sections continue the contributions of Gail Ramshaw: Images in the Readings and Connections with the Liturgy. Then we get to the heart of this resource, the two essays, From a Scholar and From a Preacher. Of course, our “scholars” are fine preachers, and our “preachers” are pretty decent scholars. But here we have asked them to focus on the title roles. Scholar: approaching especially the three biblical texts for the day, what do they want to lift to the fore? What are some insights that would be particularly helpful to you, the person preparing the day’s sermon? And we challenge them to be brief; we haven’t intended to provide complete exegetical explorations of these pericopes. Those can be found elsewhere. Finally, in the From a Preacher essays, someone who shares

with you the regular preaching task takes all that has been gathered together, the entirety of the worship, the day in the civil calendar, and proposes some ways a compelling sermon might come out of it all. These essays are as individual as the pastors writing them. We don’t expect that you will take exactly that approach, but we hope you will find much to inspire your own creativity. At its best, what sets Preaching apart from some other similar resources is the wholistic approach. The vision pro-moted in The Use of the Means of Grace, Principles for Wor-ship, and, finally, Evangelical Lutheran Worship is that the sermon is not a discrete event on the day but something woven into the whole, arising from and commenting on all that pre-cedes and follows: a part of the liturgy, an aspect of the church-year day, the communion meal, all the readings. And of course, this particular assembly gathered because we are called to provide the living word of the gospel, and a canned sermon just wouldn’t fulfill the requirement. What does this worshiping assembly need to hear on this day, in this place? This resource is primarily produced by Lutherans with an eye toward Lutheran worship. So it is full of references to the primary worship book of the ELCA and the ELCIC, Evangeli-cal Lutheran Worship. However, it is built around the Revised Common Lectionary, shared by many denominations. So it should be useful to a broad swath of Protestant preachers, and we invite you to take a look. My last word is one of thanks—to you, for making use of this resource as a tool for your vital preaching; to the contribu-tors listed on the pages before this preface—a large group of gifted leaders; and to the church we all serve, gift of the Holy Spirit for the life of the world. May the Spirit continue to bless us in our work.

Robert FarleeGeneral editor

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The Year of Mark and JohnThe design of the Revised Common Lectionary year B follows Mark’s gospel and is supplemented by readings from the Gospel of John in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter; and in the time after Pentecost, five Sundays of readings from John 6.

The Gospel of MarkNot only is Mark the earliest of the four canonical gospels, but it is the first piece of literature to which we have given the name gospel, a word that describes both the book’s genre and its sub-ject: the gospel, evangelion, “good news.” The first line of Mark announces itself as “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The “beginning” speaks of both the beginning of the book and the origin of the good news that the narrative itself proclaims. The Gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus without reference to its author (cf. John 19:35; 21:24) or the circumstances of its writing (cf. Luke 1:1-2). The omniscient narrator tells the story with absolute authority from the citation of the prophet Isaiah in 1:2-3 to the silent flight from the tomb in 16:8. The narrator relates the story of Jesus in the language and imagery of the scriptures of Israel, creating a rich texture of allusions to exodus, exile, prophets, law, and covenant. The style is fast-paced, lacking smooth transitions between episodes. Its spare narrative casts specific details in high relief.

The world behind the text

Written around 70 ce during the violence of the Jewish war with Rome or after the destruction of the temple, the gospel presents traditions about Jesus’ teaching and healing ministry, words and deeds, and an extended narrative of the events of his passion and death. Scholars have placed the gospel in Rome, Syria, or another part of the Roman Empire. The social setting of Mark’s community is one of suffering and marginalization in Roman occupied Palestine. In its depiction of the scribes and Pharisees as opponents of Jesus and in details of the trial, it reflects early stages in the mutual self-definition between the early Christian assembly and the Jewish community from which it came. The gospel shows Jesus reinforcing the teaching of Torah and emphasizing its true intention (Mark 7:9-23; 10:1-12; 12:28-34). Mark is the primary literary source for the com-position of the gospels of Matthew and Luke and a strong influ-ence on John. The depiction of women as exemplars of faith and of the values taught by Jesus (1:30-31; 5:25-34; 7:24-30;

12:41-44; 14:1-9; 15:40-41; 16:1-8) may indicate the prominence of women as leaders in the ministry of Jesus and in the commu-nity of Mark’s gospel.

The world in front of the text

Church historian Eusebius cites Papias’s testimony that the gospel was written by Mark who interpreted Peter’s experience. Christian leaders in the second century thought it important to link the inherited gospels to apostles who knew Jesus. Some-time in the process of transmission, the shorter ending (16:8b) and the longer ending (16:9-20) were added to the original gospel, perhaps to resolve the mysterious ending and to make it resemble the pattern of the other gospels that report appear-ances of the risen Jesus.

How the gospel “works”

Literary critical scholarship on Mark has explored Mark as story, and studies of orality in the early Christian context have given renewed attention to how the story of Mark would have been heard. Contemporary performance of Mark displays how the drama plays out, creating suspense, surprise, irony, and paradox. Individual episodes refer backward and forward with repeated key words, summoning the entire good news. To preach one episode of healing or teaching in Mark, reading it in the larger context of the whole story is most powerful. As a rhetorical work, the Gospel of Mark does something to those who hear it. The good news provokes emotion and moti-vates to action. Older scholarship spoke of the outline or struc-ture of Mark as a passion narrative with an extended introduc-tion, noting that Mark 1–8 showed Jesus as a divine man doing deeds of power, then seeming to reverse or correct that picture with a narrative of arrest, humiliation, and death. Literary criticism explicated the plot of Mark in which the identity of Jesus as Messiah was both revealed and concealed as the story progressed. Understanding Mark as rhetorical performance highlights how the reader/hearer experiences the story: you know the end, and it is still a shock; you experience the shift from power to powerlessness; you are propelled from the tomb to speak or not and to meet Jesus in Galilee “just as he told you” (16:7). Some interpreters have read Mark’s gospel as itself an ordeal or baptism into death as a kind of literary-liturgical journey.


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The world of the text: narrative arc and peak events

The citation of the prophet Isaiah in Mark 1:2-3 (actually, Mala-chi and Isaiah) followed by John baptizing in the wilderness summons up the setting of the Exile and prophetic vision of redemption. Readers are propelled into Galilee, where God and Satan are at war for control of the cosmos, the society, and the human individual. Jesus’ exorcisms demonstrate that he casts evil spirits from unwilling human hosts as he casts out a legion of demons from the countryside (5:1-20) in order to bind the strong man and plunder his house (3:23-27). Controversy ensues as conflict with the religious authorities escalates, and the disci-ples, despite being given the secret of the kingdom of God (4:11), misunderstand and misinterpret Jesus’ teaching and the signifi-cance of his deeds of power. Jesus’ family attempts to restrain him (3:21). At the same time, many without privilege exhibit confidence in Jesus’ power to heal, those who are in desperate need of healing for themselves or someone close to them: a leper (1:40), friends of the paralyzed man (2:3-4), Jairus (5:22-23), a bleeding woman (5:25), and a Syrophoenician woman (7:25). Readers/hearers of Mark are caught up in the ironic dynamic that those on the inside misunderstand while those on the out-side or at the edge respond with faith: “your faith has made you well” (“saved you”) (5:34; 10:52). Readers, like the characters in Mark, are confronted with how to comprehend Jesus’ teaching that the Son of Man must be killed and rise again, announced three times with intensifying detail (8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). Will they seek positions of glory as James and John and the Gentiles (10:42) or be those who lose their lives for “my sake, and for the sake of the gospel” (8:35)? Jesus’ teaching in Mark 8:27—10:45 is bracketed by two stories of Jesus healing a blind man, one at Bethsaida where Jesus gives sight in two stages (8:22-26), and another outside of Jericho where Bartimaeus asks for and receives his sight, then follows Jesus “on the way” (10:46-52). In the oral performance of the gospel, these two stories evoke the reality of partial sight/knowl-edge and the difficulty and remarkable gift of complete sight. The climactic episode in the drama of knowing/not know-ing, saving and losing, opens the passion narrative. At Bethany a woman breaks open a jar of costly ointment and pours it on Jesus’ head while he sat at the table. Her prophetic action of anointing Jesus’ head and Jesus’ acknowledgment that she has “anointed my body beforehand for its burial” (14:8) reveals the paradoxical truth that the anointed one is also the one who will die. Rather than being wasteful, her pouring out all the ointment is the epitome of the way of life that Jesus teaches: losing life to save it. For this reason, her “good service” will be told wherever the gospel is proclaimed “in remembrance of her” (14:9). The passion narrative recounts Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, desertion by his followers, trial, torture, and execution by his enemies. Having exhibited extraordinary power in Galilee, Jesus becomes seemingly powerless and mostly silent, the one able to save others but unable to save himself (15:31). Jesus’ cry from the

cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” expresses abandonment and despair, a realistic depiction of human loneli-ness and death. Three critical moments of the naming of Jesus as Son punc-tuate the gospel. The first is at his baptism when a voice from heaven says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (1:11). The second is at his transfiguration when a voice from the cloud says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (9:7). The third is after his death when a centurion says, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (15:39). These three voices resonate within the hearers of the gospel, setting up an implicit but unex-plained relationship between baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome’s arrival at the tomb culminates the theme of women following and serving Jesus (1:30-31; 15:40-41) and recalls the anointing at the table at Bethany (14:3-9). The young man announces “He has been raised” and commissions the women to tell the others that “he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him” (16:6, 7). The ambiguous conclusion—that the women flee in silence and fear—has often been interpreted as failure and lack of faith. However, other heroes in the biblical tradition (Daniel, John, Ezekiel, Isaiah) are overcome by fear and struck dumb by extraordinary revelation. When they behold Jesus’ resurrection, the faithful women fear, tremble, and are amazed. The gospel ends in the moments before their speech, anticipating reunion with Jesus in Galilee and ongoing ministry to restore the world.

Mark in Year BThe pattern of the Revised Common Lectionary, built around themes of the liturgical season, governs the placement of read-ings from Mark: in Advent, Jesus’ apocalyptic speech (13:24-37) and the appearance of John baptizing (1:1-8); in the time after Epiphany, controversies and healings (Mark 1) and transfigura-tion (9:2-10); in Lent, Jesus’ temptation and first passion predic-tion; and in the time after Pentecost, passages from Mark 3–13. The Markan passion narrative is assigned for the Sunday of the Passion, and the story of the sending out from the empty tomb, on Easter Sunday. Notable omissions from the RCL are the par-able of the sower and teaching about parables (4:1-25), the exor-cism of the Gerasene demoniac (5:1-20), and the two-stage heal-ing of the blind man at Bethsaida (8:22-26). Readings from the Gospel of John in each season interrupt the connected narrative of Mark. Within the liturgical year, the preacher can exploit the dra-matic arc of Mark by drawing on the whole gospel when preach-ing on one episode. The paradox of seeing/not seeing, saving/losing, being served/serving, and power/weakness run through-out the gospel. Resurrection happens in Galilee when Peter’s mother-in-law rises to serve, and when Jesus tells the one who is paralyzed and the one whose hand is withered to rise (2:11; 3:3). The exorcism of Legion from the man in the tombs, the healing

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THE YEAR OF MARK

of the bleeding woman, and the raising of Jairus’s daughter are all stories of resurrection that amplify the significance of Jesus’ teaching and his death. Other key words such as bread, serve, clothes, and save set up resonances that reward spiritual and homiletical reflection.

The Gospel of John in Year BThe Gospel of John has its own narrative and symbolic integ-rity. Using a style and sensibility very different than Mark, John portrays Jesus as the preexistent Word who descends to “his own” and ascends at the time of his exaltation. The Fourth Gospel interprets the crucifixion as Jesus’ being lifted up (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32, 34). The motif of Jesus’ “hour,” summarizing the paschal mystery, runs through the entire gospel. Read-ings from John in year B are concentrated in Lent (3, 4, 5) and

Easter (2, 4, 5, 6, 7). John’s narration of events shapes the litur-gies of Holy Week. Five Sundays in the time after Pentecost (Lectionary 17–21) explore Jesus’ bread of life discourse in John 6. Lenten readings from John use distinctive Johannine images: destroying and raising the temple, lifting up the Son of Man, dying and bearing much fruit to anticipate the resurrec-tion. Readings in the Easter season recount the appearances to the disciples and Thomas, Jesus as good shepherd and true vine, and the prayer for the disciples from his farewell dis-course. With John, as with Mark, effective preaching connects an individual passage in John with its role in the imaginative world of the whole gospel.

Cynthia Briggs KittredgeDean and president, Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas

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ADVENT DEC 3

Readings and Responses for the DayIsaiah 64:1-9

This lament comes from a people who have had their hopes shattered. The visions of a rebuilt Jerusalem and a renewed people of God, spoken of in Isaiah 40–55, have not been real-ized. Instead, the people experience ruin, conflict, and fam-ine. This lament calls God to account—to be the God who has brought deliverance in the past.

Response: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

As the Christians in Corinth await the advent of Jesus, Paul reminds them how the Lord has already enriched them through spiritual gifts and will continue to strengthen them until the coming day of the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Alleluia. (Ps. 85:7)

Mark 13:24-37

In today’s reading, Jesus encourages his followers to look for-ward to the day when he returns in power and glory to end all suffering.

Prayer of the DayStir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection awaken us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

This Day and Its ReadingsAlthough the historical record is sketchy, it appears that our Advent arose out of a season of fasting to prepare for baptisms at Epiphany. By the sixth century, an eschatological emphasis was present. Our Advent comprises the four Sundays before Christmas. Each year, the first Sunday deals with our readiness for divine judgment, the second Sunday the ministry of John the Baptist, the third Sunday the Baptist’s call to a repentant life, and only on the fourth Sunday a narrative concerning the

birth of Jesus. God comes, in the past in the history of Israel and the incarnation of Jesus, in the present in the word and sacrament of each Sunday and in the sufferings of our time, and in the future at the end of all things. The lectionary appoints readings to fit this pattern, and its tone stands in stark contrast to our society’s weeks of preparation for Christmas. Liturgical advice to keep a meaningful Advent without a December-long celebration of Christmas is meant not to be a killjoy, but to awake our longing for the surprising ways God comes to us.

Mark 13:24-37

Advent begins the liturgical year, and in this year B, gospel readings from Mark complement the festival gospels taken from John. At this beginning we contemplate the end: the arrival of the divine judge means the end of the earth as we know it. In Advent, we are called to ready our lives to receive our disorienting God, for whose arrival we must keep awake. Consider whether now displaying a crèche set, even with its manger empty, may convey not radical surprise but only sweet familiarity—doing the expected thing.

Isaiah 64:1-9

The Isaiah reading is chosen to complement Mark’s cosmic imagery of the end of time. God is like fire, earthquake, father, potter. We ask to be saved from “the hand of our iniquity” and returned to the hand of the one who created us.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

At the start of Advent, the word of God from Paul bids us grace, peace, knowledge, strength, intensified spiritual gifts, and life with the risen Christ. Lutherans see Paul’s prayer as “gospel,” filled with the good news of life from God.

The Readings in the BibleMark 13:24-37

The first full gospel written, probably around 70 in Rome, the unsigned Gospel According to Mark proclaims the meaning for believers of Jesus and his death. The author does not claim to have been in Jesus’ circle. Like other literary works from antiq-uity, Mark is written as a circle: the conclusion (16:8) returns the reader to the beginning, and the focus of the book is at its

December 3, 2017First Sunday of AdventStir up your power, and come! The psalmist’s plea in Psalm 80:2 has become familiar to us in the Advent prayers. Isaiah wants God to rip the heavens open. Both cry out for an apparently distant, angry God to show up, to save, to restore. When we hear Jesus describing the coming of the Son of Man with stars falling from heaven, it can sound dire and horrible, not like anything we would ever hope for. But when we really look at the suffering of people God loves, we can share the hope that God would tear open the heavens and come.


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center (9:30-50). Chapters 10–16, nearly half of the gospel, deal with the last week of Jesus’ life. In Mark 13, Jesus describes in traditional metaphoric imagery the disastrous coming of the end of time. For several centuries, Jewish expectation of the end had anticipated a Son of Man, an eschatological judge hov-ering between earth and heaven who would vindicate the righ-teous and punish evildoers. For Mark, the eschaton has begun in the events of Christ’s life.

Isaiah 64:1-9

Chapter 64, from Third Isaiah, derives from the fifth century bce, when the Jewish people had returned to Jerusalem from their political exile in Babylon. The prophet’s oracle pleads that, like on Sinai, God will descend to earth to visit the people. But the people must repent, their lives a reflection of God the potter who shaped them. Isaiah 64 articulates the classic pro-phetic position that hardship is divine punishment.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

In about 55, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth especially advising them about various local controversies. Paul’s intro-ductory prayer includes several references to the end time, which Paul thought was imminent.

Images in the ReadingsThe four gospels repeatedly refer to the Jewish apocalyptic figure called the Son of Man, a mysterious human-like judge who as part of the cosmic upset at the end of time will appear in the sky to represent God to the people and the people to God.

The term does not mean that Jesus was the human son of Mary. Today’s several readings describe the end of the world with the arrival of the Son of Man in both frightening and comforting language. As Mark says it, the sun will be darkened, yet summer buds promise new life. There are many biblical references to the fig tree. An image in ancient myth and literature for male fertility, the fig tree provided both food and shade for Israelites, and even clothing in the story of the fall. Thus in Mark 13 the fig tree is a positive image for the arrival of God. What is now in bud will see its fruition. God is like a potter, shaping us who are made of clay. Not only did God create the universe, but also forms us daily in the grace given us in Christ Jesus. God will assemble us from the ends of the earth. The author imagines earth as a flat four-cornered plain, edged with mountains. The evangelist, only three decades after the ministry of Jesus, anticipates that the elect will come from all corners of the earth.

Connections with the LiturgyThe sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer is thinking of the threats and dangers of the eschatological end of time: thus the 1988 translation, “save us from the time of trial.” We beg God that when met by such trials, we will be saved by Christ. Most bib-lical translators no longer render the Greek as referring to “temptation,” as did the old translation of the prayer.

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ADVENT DEC 3

From a ScholarOne of the overarching themes of today’s texts is faithfulness. Both the Isaiah reading and the psalm are concerned with the enduring relationship between God and God’s people, beseeching God to remember God’s past faithfulness and come to the rescue of God’s people again. The second reading also emphasizes God’s faithfulness and God’s loving commitment to redeem God’s people. But the gospel reading shifts the focus and turns instead to humanity’s faithfulness to God, exhorting God’s people to “keep awake” and “keep alert” and not forget our commitment to God above all else. In light of this emphasis, then, I want to ask two questions: what does it mean for humans to be faithful in their relationship with God, and what does it means for God to be faithful in God’s relation-ship with humanity? Answering the second question is easier than the first. For God, faithfulness means, basically, hanging in there with God’s people even when, by all rights, we should be shown the door and cut off. God’s faithfulness does not mean things always will be good for God’s people or that bad things won’t ever happen. Instead, God’s steadfast love and fidelity mean that God will never abandon God’s people, never leave us. Instead, God is always present in the valley of the shadow of death, working in tragedy, bringing light out of darkness, good out of evil. Simply put, God’s faithful-ness means that God is who God has promised to be, God loves as God as promised to love, and God saves as God has promised to save. From the human side, the question of faithfulness ultimately has the same core character: the main point is abiding with God and not walking away from the relationship even when times are tough. However, we don’t always have to like it! Sometimes, people get the idea that being faithful to God means never questioning God, never challenging God, and always affirming that “God has a plan.” It’s as if being faithful means unqualified agreement with everything that happens to us and attributing everything to “God’s will.” However, this is not the model of fidelity scripture presents to us. Instead, in the Bible, being faithful to God mostly seems to mean staying in the relationship, staying in the conversation—not ignoring God, and not worshiping other gods. And, most importantly, being faithful can (and usually does) include lament. It includes crying out to God in anger, frustra-tion, bitterness, and reproach—if the Israelites could weep for the fleshpots of Egypt, surely you can weep to God for a lost relationship, a health crisis, or a national tragedy. In the long life that most of us are blessed to enjoy, all our relationships, including our relationship with God, will have their ups and downs. There will be dark nights of the soul with God and there will be ecstatic highs as well, and through it all, the Bible says, “Don’t give up.” Keep watching and waiting; God will appear, God will redeem, just as God has promised.

Kristin Johnston Largen

From a PreacherLike Mark’s concentric circle, the liturgical year is also concentric. The liturgical year begins and ends with God’s cosmic, end-time judgment. Celebrating Christ the King last Sunday, we heard Christ’s final judgment based, at least partly, on our treatment of “the least of these” (Matt. 25:40, 45). Marking the coming of the Son of Man this Sunday, we hear Christ’s judgment that “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” God’s final judgment marks not just an ending but also a beginning: the beginning of a new rela-tionship with the earth and the assembled people of Isaiah’s vision. The beginning of a new relation-ship with the assembly of Paul’s troubled church in Corinth. The beginning of a new relationship with the frightened disciples of Mark’s gospel anticipating the death of Jesus. The beginning of a new rela-tionship with your assembly who, after hearing Mark’s little apocalypse, could also be feeling some real existential fright! As our scholar notes, however, God’s final judgment is not doom and gloom, but the beginning of God’s faithful relationship to us made possible through the suffering and death of Jesus. At a time of the year when it’s tempting to sugarcoat not just our cookies but our relationships and the dire state of our world, the church can speak a jarring yet also liberating word of a God who does not shy away from sin and death.


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The final judgment of the new liturgical year can remind us of our own new beginnings in Christ. Affirming and embracing our new birth in Christ need not wait until the magical moment of Christ-mas Eve. We can affirm it now, even in the midst of sin and death. As the beginning of Mark’s apoca-lypse notes, the end of our lives in Christ “is but the beginning of the birthpangs” (Mark 13:8). Anticipating Christmas, many in your assembly will be lured into narrowing their worldview down to the menu for Christmas Eve and the moment that perfect gift under the tree is opened. The challenge and joy for you, preacher, will be to offer them a much larger world, the whole world held together by a God who suffers with us. A true, life-giving relationship with God is not bound by the charm of Christmas card greetings but infused by the rich and messy life of discipleship. In his little treasure of a book, Being Christian, Rowan Williams writes:

The new humanity that is created around Jesus is not a humanity that is always going to be successful and in control of things, but a humanity that can reach out its hand from the depths of chaos, to be touched by the hand of God. And that means that if we ask the question, “Where might you expect to find the baptized?” one answer is, “In the neighborhood of chaos.” It means you might expect to find Christian people near to those places where humanity is most at risk, where humanity is most disordered, disfigured and needy.1

Our readings today are an invitation to wake up and “keep alert” for the coming of Christ, not just as a baby in twenty-two days but as one who tears open the heavens, shows up in the messiness of community, puts flawed disciples in charge of sharing the gospel, and who is mysteriously hidden, yet also truly present in your faithful preaching. So make their world big, preacher! This is the God of heaven and earth who is coming down, a God “with great power and glory,” a God whose mission is to gather a new community of baptized “from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”

Nathan Baker-Trinity

Making Connections• Is there a “tent city” homeless encampment near your church? Might you plan to lead a Christ-

mas Eve service for them in their neighborhood? How might you include others from your church?

• Are you planning to put up the nativity on the church’s lawn? Consider creating a “modern nativity,” perhaps one that resembles a homeless encampment and more accurately reflects the historical situation of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. Invite those in the congregation to camp out with you as part of a “live nativity” experience.

• A time with children could explore, with sensitivity, their scary feelings of the natural phenom-ena described in Isaiah and Mark. Remind them of the good things that endure: fig trees that put forth their leaves, Jesus who promises to give them power, and words of love that can never pass away.

1 Rowan Williams, Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014), 4.

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April 8, 2018Second Sunday of Easter

The Easter season is a week of weeks, seven Sundays when we play in the mystery of Christ’s presence, mostly through the glorious Gospel of John. Today we gather with the disciples on the first Easter, and Jesus breathes the Spirit on us. With Thomas we ask for a sign, and Jesus offers us his wounded self in the broken bread. From frightened individuals we are transformed into a community of open doors, peace, forgiveness, and material sharing such that no one among us is in need.

EASTER APR 8

Readings and Responses for the DayActs 4:32-35

While the apostles testified to others about the resurrection of Jesus, the early Christian community shared what they owned or sold their possessions to help their fellow believers who were in need.

Response: Psalm 133

1 John 1:1—2:2

The opening of this letter serves as a reality check. The real-ity of God is light, but our confessed reality has been sin. God cleanses us from our sinful reality through Christ’s death so that we live in fellowship with Christ and walk in God’s light.

Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. Alleluia. (John 20:29)

John 20:19–31

The story of Easter continues as the risen Lord appears to his disciples. His words to Thomas offer a blessing to all who entrust themselves in faith to the risen Lord.

Prayer of the DayAlmighty God, with joy we celebrate the day of our Lord’s res-urrection. By the grace of Christ among us, enable us to show the power of the resurrection in all that we say and do, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

This Day and Its ReadingsThe church keeps Easter for eight Sundays. Early Christians referred to Sunday as the eighth day, as if the normal week of seven is miraculously completed in an extraordinary eighth day. The fifty days culminates at Pentecost. Each Sunday, indi-vidually and communally, we meet the risen Christ in word and sacrament.

John 20:19-31

The church continues the pattern, alluded to in John’s gospel, of assembling on the first day of the week to receive the Spirit of the cross and resurrection and to exchange the peace of Christ.

As we expect of John, the narrative in chapter 20 testifies to the identity of Christ as Lord and God. For Christians, to touch Christ is to touch God, and we do this in the flesh of our neigh-bor’s hand at the peace and with the bread of Christ in our palm at communion.

Acts 4:32-35

Throughout the Sundays of the fifty days of Easter, passages from Acts proclaim the meaning of the resurrection. In today’s idyllic description of the primitive community, we see that the resurrection of Christ changes the values of believers, and their sense of self embraces the whole community.

1 John 1:1—2:2

Throughout the weeks of Easter, year B reads through 1 John. Chapter 1 proclaims the resurrection with language of eternal life, the light of God, and forgiveness. Christ is not dead, but appeals for us before the Father.

The Readings in the BibleJohn 20:19-31

In this the first conclusion to the Gospel of John, the Spirit handed over at the death of Christ (John 19:30) is distributed to the disciples. The narrative indicates that by the time of the writing of the gospel, Christians were regularly assembling on the first day of the week. The chapter moves the Easter proc-lamation from the disciples, through the unbelievers, to those who encounter this good news. The evangelist claimed that the gospel, proclaimed at the Sunday assembly, manifests Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, who gives life in his name.

Acts 4:32-35

Writing in perhaps the late 80s, Luke presents in Acts 4 a tri-umphal picture of the church as the ongoing sign of Christ’s resurrection. In this excerpt, the primitive community, in its extraordinary care for other believers, even replaces private property with communitarianism. Paul also repeatedly writes about Christian collections for the needy. However, Acts 5 tells of Ananias and Sapphira, who were not involved in communi-tarian living, and there is no outside historical evidence that such financial arrangements characterized early Christianity.


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1 John 1:1—2:2

Written anonymously in the late first or early second century, the essays named 1, 2, and 3 John share many themes with the Gospel of John. First John 1 shares much vocabulary with John 1. Yet, in language not found in the fourth gospel, Christ is himself “the atoning sacrifice,” and Christ’s work of atone-ment is the fount of the love that now is to characterize the Christian community. Christ, rather than the Spirit, is called our advocate.

Images in the ReadingsUsually depictions of the crucified or risen Christ include the marks on his hands and side. Our archeological knowledge that for crucifixions nails were driven through the wrist ought not negate the symbolism of the palm, which is central to a per-son’s hand. Neither need we get fascinated by the accounts of the stigmata, for we all carry the mark of the crucified and risen Christ on our palm each time we receive the body of Christ at communion. Easy talk about healing from one’s wounds can be replaced with the Johannine image of the wounds: like Christ, we may scar, rather than heal. In John 19:34, blood and water flow from the wound on Jesus’ side, and church tradition has seen in this detail not an erroneous description of human anat-omy, but rather the proclamation that baptism and eucharist flow from the death of Christ.

Each year on the second Sunday of Easter we meet doubt-ing Thomas. He is all of us, and we doubters are glad to share with all other doubters the peace of the risen Christ. It is not easy to believe that we too have felt the wounds of Christ. Faith is trust in what is unseen. From the earliest decades, Christians were renowned for their generosity in contributing money for those in need. Some Christians advocate that every single gathering of Chris-tians, certainly every celebration of holy communion, includes a collection for the poor. Current congregational systems of automatic withdrawals from bank accounts require us none-theless to find ways to connect our own reception of grace and our consequent sharing with the needy.

Connections with the LiturgyEach Sunday Christians exchange with one another the peace of the risen Christ. In some assemblies, the peace has become a kind of seventh-inning stretch during which everyone chats with everyone else about the week’s news. It is important to remember the liturgical intention of this greeting: we are enacting John 20, receiving from one another the peace that Christ gave to the disciples. We fill the room with the life of the Holy Spirit, breathing to one another the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection.

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EASTER APR 8

From a ScholarOne of the themes flowing through all three readings and the psalm is that of community—a theme that will persist throughout the Easter season. The risen Christ is known, is experienced, is encoun-tered in the midst of a community of believers. In the Gospel of John Jesus enters through the locked doors of a fearful group of disciples and breathes on them peace. They become a community of peace, and of reconciliation, both to be sent out into the world. In Acts, the resurrection is experienced in ways that reshape the entire life of individuals and communities. The individual becomes part of a community, not only by association of ideas or goals, but through the nitty-gritty of sharing in the materials things of everyday life. Even the First Letter of John points to this extraordinary fellowship (or community) that walks in the light. What are the characteristics of walking in the light? It is precisely community. Those who walk together, walk in the light. They are the ones who have fellowship with one another, but a fellowship that is grounded in the one who has been “seen and heard,” in Jesus Christ. Those who walk in darkness are those who remain isolated, turned in upon themselves, which this letter defines as sin. Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes, “In confession there takes place a break-through to community. Sin wants to be alone with people. It takes them away from community” (Life Together, 110). When someone moves toward the other, toward their sister or brother, there is a breakthrough to community, a breaking away from sin, from fear, from death. Jesus is the first to make that breakthrough for us. In taking the step into and through death, in passing through death, he establishes for us all a community of life, a communion of saints. Here we can also understand the “atoning sacrifice” in a new perspective. This atoning sacrifice is not the ransom paid to an angry Father. It is not paying off a huge debt on humanity’s behalf. The atoning sac-rifice is God’s own act of freely stepping into community with humanity, passing through death, and opening the locked doors, breaking through the walls, so that all may live reconciled in the beautiful light of the resurrection. This life in community is like fine oil, like dew on the mountaintop flowing gently down, refresh-ing all things.

Dirk G. Lange

From a PreacherJesus is risen! . . . now where did everybody go? Welcome to one of the least attended Sundays in the church year. It’s as if with Easter over we think we’re finished and can all go home. Resurrection? Yep, checked that off the list. There’s more than a little irony, then, in the fact that today’s texts are all about communities in the process of being transformed by resurrection. Perhaps people are less eager to come to church this week partly because it’s easier to celebrate resurrection than it is to live with it. We all have some inkling that coming down from the mountain-top of Easter, things are about to get more complicated. It’s true. Already, mere hours later in lection-ary time, the disciples are having different experiences of faith. Already we begin to see the incredible potential of a community that follows the resurrected Christ, and also the tendency of all of us to lock the doors in the face of wild reports of hope, or when faced with uncertainty to begin to mistrust our dearest friends. Jesus, however, has no such hesitation about what to do next. Having risen from the dead in the morning, he begins immediately to widen the circle of those who believe. From Mary Magdalene last week, to the disciples minus Thomas, to Thomas, then to those who have seen and believed, then those who have not seen and yet believed, and, finally, to us the readers, John’s gospel moves at a diz-zying pace to bring people together into faith in the resurrected Christ. Thomas serves as a relatable foothold in all this activity. Not having seen what the other disciples have, he mistrusts their testimony, beginning to separate himself from those closest to him and from his trust in God’s power. Jesus steps with grace into this gap. He is not threatened by Thomas’s doubt but concerned for his isolation. Jesus repeats the actions that brought the other disciples to faith for the sake of this one, reminding us that in God’s economy a single person is worth a revelation. It is Thomas’s full-throated confession of faith, “My Lord and my God!” and Jesus’ response that bring


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John’s resurrection narrative to a close. Finally, someone has named the resurrected Jesus for who he is. Jesus’ response about those who have not seen then turns the question of faithful confession to all of us and our own communities. In Jesus’ first appearance to his disciples we see the great hopes and expectations that Jesus has for communities living with resurrection. In that very first meeting, Jesus offers peace, then sends the disciples—gives them the Holy Spirit and tells them they have the ability to hold or release sin. When faced with Jesus’ lofty words it is encouraging to remember that these were also spoken to a community. Neither the vocations we are sent out to employ as Christians, nor the holding tight or sending away of sin are things we have been told to do alone. This theme of how we live together, then, is filled out by today’s other texts. We see the new church community in Acts together as one heart and soul, deeply aware of one another’s belovedness in God and bold in the power of new life. As Dirk Lange notes, one enters this astounding community “not only through association of ideas or goals, but through the nitty-gritty of sharing in the materi-als of everyday life.” There are many times when sharing ideas may seem easier than what is pictured here in Acts! This vision of Christian community isn’t offered to shame us in our own struggles, though. It instead points toward something that all our communities share in various ways: a recog-nition that Jesus’ resurrection transforms us toward greater grace, justice, and care for every single person among us. Reminding us of both the difficulties and grace along the way is 1 John. We are warned that being hypocrites in our quest for Christian community drives us away from one another. Being vulnerable enough to confess where we are wrong is more difficult, but John encourages us to do so in grace, knowing that Jesus is our advocate. Sharing the nitty-gritty is as difficult now as it was then, but it’s out of doing so faithfully that communities of resurrection emerge. As you finish proclaiming the gospel on Sunday morning, the story leaps off the page and enters your own beloved community of resurrection. Where will it go from there?

Marissa Sotos

Making Connections• The Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds both proclaim resurrection in no uncertain terms, not only

Jesus’ resurrection but our own. It is truly an incredible thing to be part of a community that regularly proclaims as one voice, “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” What does it mean for us to declare this together? Where are we looking for new life?

• Gail Ramshaw remarks in Connections with the Liturgy that exchanging the peace can become simply a chance to chat. Particularly for children, the connection with scripture may not be clear. The gospel reading makes this Sunday a good time to talk with children about why we do this every week. Perhaps they can listen for when in the reading Jesus offers peace, then prac-tice offering it to one another. It is helpful for all of us to remember that it’s not our own peace that we share but that which Jesus first offers to us.

• This second Sunday of Easter is still just the beginning of the Easter season. How can your con-gregation experience all eight Sundays as part of Easter? Maybe special placement of or atten-tion drawn to the font, lots of hallelujahs, special flowers, or other congregational traditions can be carried throughout the season. Continuing to use the dialogue beginning with the pastor or another worship leader’s “Alleluia! Christ is risen” followed by the assembly’s response, “Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia,” can also give continuity to the following weeks as we continue to live into Jesus’ resurrection.

Documents

SUNDAYS AND SEASONS PREACHING