Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog
Each week, we’ll offer a curated selection of blog posts that speak to the upcoming lectionary texts to help spark your imagination and serve as a thought partner for you. We hope these musings meet you right where you are with a fresh, bold, and faithful witness.
On Luke 12:13-21, the gospel text for August 3, 2025:
- Walter Brueggemann, "A Sufficiency Other Than Our Own"
It turns out that the man is not alone, as he had imagined. He had addressed himself as “Soul,” but now he is called by a different name, “Fool.”
- Walter Brueggeman, "Providential Tyranny"
The parable (Luke 12:13-21) and the instruction (Luke 12:22-31) together summon to an alternative life, and they summon especially those of us laden with “merit” to an alternative life that is beyond the destructive interaction of hubris and humiliation.
On Colossians 3:1-11, the epistle for August 3, 2025:
- Walter Brueggeman, "Greed which is Idolatry"
The ancient practice of tithing is a recurring reminder that we at are best renters or lessees of the goodness of God who holds the whole world in God’s good hands.
On Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, the epistle for August 10, 2025:
- Walter Brueggeman, "On the Way to Otherwise"
What a phrase, “apart from us”! These committed hopers are not remote from us. They are linked to us; and we are linked to them. We are linked to each other in the “assurance of things hoped for.” The things “hoped for” among us include a viable environment, a workable neighborly economy, and a functioning amiable civic order
On Genesis 15:1-6, the paired text for August 10, 2025:
- Rev. Dr. Dorothy Wells, "The Story of Abraham and Family Trauma Part 1"
All was not peaceful or happy among Abraham and his descendants. All is not happy in many families. If we tend to feel alone in family dysfunction, we remember that even the family of our ancestor, Abraham, struggled. Faith persisted, even amid the struggle.
On Isaiah 1:1,10-20, the semicontinuous text for August 10, 2025:
- Church Anew intern Holly Beck, "How to Keep Gen Z in Your Pews"
I personally know a great number of Gen Z individuals who have left their congregations due to inaction about social justice issues. If the church wants to keep Gen Z engaged, congregations and church leaders must make it a point to do the necessary work for justice.
