Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: October 18 and 25
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.
Sunday, October 18, 2026 – Proper 24 (29)
Old Testament (Paired): Isaiah 45:1-7
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Rescinding Absolutes”
The new thing, in the Book of Isaiah, is a new Exodus of God’s people to be wrought by appeal, to the Persians under the leadership of Cyrus who is recognized as a messiah (Isaiah 45:1). Of course it requires a certain perspective to be able to see the defeat of Babylon by Persia as a new Exodus for Israel. But that is exactly the point! That perspective is one that affirms that YHWH, the Lord of the Exodus, continues to do emancipatory work in the world for powerless people.
Psalm (Paired): Psalm 96:1-9,(10-13)
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Trees: Signals of Hope and Defiance”
In the doxological tradition of Israel, trees are reckoned as lively creatures and not simply inanimate objects waiting to be exploited.
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22
Rev. Miguel Escobar, “Render Unto Caesar? A Tax Day Reflection”
The question posed to Jesus—should people pay taxes to Caesar?—and his enigmatic reply, raise profound questions that Christians still wrestle with today. How should Christians relate to civil society? What does it mean to balance religious identity with loyalty to a nation? And when, if ever, should believers practice tax resistance in response to unjust authority?
Narrative Lectionary: Joshua 24:1-15 [16-26]
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Discipleship That Inconveniences”
The “statutes and ordinances” are surely an inconvenience for those who embrace the covenant. This is a curious give-and-take that must have exasperated the community. But Joshua is insistent. Entering into covenant with YHWH is no easy or light thing and must not be entered easily or lightly.
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Sunday, October 25, 2026 – Proper 25 (30)
Psalm (Paired): Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
Rev. Dr Walter Brueggemann, “Borne Away”
In that long history of faith, the faithful have always found that there are special occasions amid the ever flowing stream of time that are freighted with both summons and opportunity. … Thus, even in the face of the ever-rolling stream that in the end leaves us all exposed, the faithful readily muster attentiveness and energy in order to engage in a performance of God’s intention for which the biblical word is “kingdom.”
Old Testament (Semicontinuous): Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Strangeness of the Stranger”
That, however, is not the hard work. The hard work, as every pastor knows, is to make the case that the ethical primacy of the “other” pertains not only to the privacy of faith, but to the body politic. We are now in a dangerous moment concerning the future shape of our society. The fears of exclusionary nativism are strong and encouraged by ample hidden money. The claim for the primacy of the stranger, however, is more elemental than anything that hidden money can propagate; the claim is grounded in nothing less than our shared, created, bodily commonality that refuses the false claims of eugenics, that resists the dismissive practices of stereotype, and that abhors genocide.
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “God’s Neighborly Economy”
The Bible is unflinching and unambiguous in its identification of the neighbor: widow, orphan, immigrant, the poor, lepers, the blind, deaf, lame … all those without viable resources or reliable advocacy. These are the proper concern of the public economy, not to be obfuscated by our familiar slogans.
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Stay Safe?”
Of course the mandate is not to love our neighbor when it is convenient or safe. It is to love your neighbor as you love your own self, in every season and in every circumstance. That mandate has indeed caused obedient people to act out the very agenda of the Son of Man when he comes in his glory. You know the agenda: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me (Matthew 25:35-36). These are not zones of safety.
