Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: January 25 and February 1
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.
January 25, 2026
Old Testament: Isaiah 9:1-4
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “On Utterance”
The poem recalls the violent days of the Book of Judges and a particular raid by the Midianites, and the violent destruction of weapons of war (Judges 6:1-6). The rhetoric allows that “disarmament” is itself something of an act of violence, a far cry from good policies of “arms limitation.” I suspect that we mumble when we pray to God as peace-maker. We half hope that God will mightily intrude into our war-making world. But we also know that such an intrusion is beyond our horizon, and so we dare to imagine that peace-making is indeed a human task.
(Should you be intrigued by the hymn mentioned in Dr. Brueggemann’s post, you may find a sample ready to hear and a copy of the music available for purchase at The Hymnary. )
Narrative Lectionary: John 3:1-21
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Wake/Woke”
Nicodemus has the grace to present himself to Jesus for instruction; he is nonetheless bamboozled and bewildered by the teaching of Jesus that invites him back to an elemental innocence. The status to which Jesus invites Nicodemus would require of him a readiness to forego the power and leverage of his great learning. But then, that is exactly how the gospel comes at us. We are required to give up the props we have acquired, to present ourselves in open-handed vulnerability for gifts that are essential to our lives that we cannot generate for ourselves.
To be “awakened” is to be able to recognize that our best certitudes are displaced and negated by the order of God’s love in and for the world. That force of love requires that we relinquish the management of our lives and yield ourselves to the practices of neighborliness that make newness among us possible. By contrast, the so-called “woke” do not expect or desire newness but only a continual extraction of privilege and advantage. Being “awakened,” in contrast, leads us to the neighbor.
February 1, 2026
Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Speaking Alternatively”
We have two renderings that serve two different purposes in two different interpretations. Whereas Luke is preoccupied with economic matters, Matthew is focused on Judaism that had become no more than pro forma exercise of religious obligation. We must simply permit the two readings to have their say, and not give either one priority over the other.
Dr. Raj Nadella, “The Sower and the Seed and Black Lives Matter”
The blessed in Matthew are not those who are fortunate enough to fall on good soil, benefit from favorable structures, and flourish. In the Beatitudes (5:3-11), Jesus proclaims blessed are the ones who mourn, the meek, the marginalized, and the persecuted.
The blessed in Matthew are precisely those who fall by the wayside, on rocky soil, and are grasping for life.
In most Beatitudes, the agency in the second half is in the passive voice (they will be comforted, they will be fed, they will be shown mercy, etc). The passive voice leaves the agency open-ended and calls for human agency—the church and community—in addition to divine agency.
Narrative Lectionary: John 4:1-42
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Recovering Rest, Recovering Humanity”
… Thus I want to consider the convergence of these moments at the village well where a counter-narrative can be reiterated that defies the dominant narrative:
The Israelite women recited the story of YHWH and the peasants, defying the dominance of the Canaanite city-kings.
The Samaritan woman at the village well received a new story of her life that was on offer nowhere else.
The Black slaves, on Pearl Street, came to the well for twenty minutes of humanity that kept them emancipated all day long.
In all of these instances, the world out beyond the well is endlessly demanding, exploitative, and coercive. Thus by itself, the world beyond the well will enslave and dehumanize.
