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, November 15, 2026 – Proper 28 (33)
Old Testament (Paired): Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Living Outside the Lie”
“As social circumstances grew more ominous for Jerusalem in the Babylonian period (Zephaniah 1:10-11), the inhabitants of the city, so says the prophet, were complacent in their self-indulgence as they rested in their drink. They were in something of a stupor about their circumstance. They assumed that God would have no real say in their future. They imagined there was no jeopardy in which they lived. They were blind to every coming disaster.”
Psalm (Paired): Psalm 90:1-8, (9-11), 12
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.”
Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30
Rev. Miguel Escobar, “The Parable Wall Street Loves”
“At the crassest level, the Parable of the Talents is read as a proof text for Jesus’ approval of prudent investment and wealth accumulation. At a more nuanced level, it affirms wealth accumulation so long as it is put to proper use, serving as a rationale for Christian philanthropy. Critically, both interpretations hinge on the notion that the “talents” of the parable are to be understood straightforwardly as money. But what if that assumption is mistaken? What if the great treasure we have been given does not refer to money at all?”
Erin Weber-Johnson, “Upending the parable of the talents: bodies over profits”
I believe this story was not told for modern-day Christians to determine how best to get a return on investments. Jesus did not come into the world to form a kingdom built on acquisitions and bottom lines. Rather, this powerful parable was once again a commentary on those in power who would use a person’s fear to intimidate others into production and profits.
Sunday, November 22, 2026 – Reign of Christ / Christ the King – Proper 29 (34)
Rev. Jenny Sung, “Permission to Feel More Than Gratitude”
In Philippi we saw the first Christian Church built in 314 CE, and now it sits in ruins. We saw the ruins of wealthy cities and powerful empires. We saw the tombs of Emperors who were worshipped like Gods and to dust they have returned. No amount of money or power kept them from crumbling. After seeing site after site of ruins, you wonder what’s the point? What will survive? Even now many worry about the institution of the Church. Everything turns to dust, and yet … there we sat. A group of 26 humans on this pilgrimage compelled by the same story that drove Paul to these holy spaces. Despite the many ruins and fallen empires this story continues on. This story continues to draw us close. This story still keeps its promise.
Many of us just celebrated The Reign of Christ Sunday remembering God is God. Everything else we try to worship or lift up turns to dust.
Old Testament: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Good Shepherd And The Bad Ones”
The failed shepherd-kings will be displaced. YHWH will undertake direct rule to prevent the violent greed of the kings. God is able to see and remove the negligent shepherds who exploit the lean sheep.
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Possibility of Good Government”
Government is not intrinsically bad. Good government is possible when the “shepherds” get their minds off of self-gain and give attention and priority to the wellbeing of the sheep. Thus the prophetic declaration moves beyond the condemnation of the failed government of the Davidic regime, and anticipates a new effective, reliable government that will lead to security, prosperity, and wellbeing. The prospect for good government is the resolve of YHWH who declares that “I, myself” will be the shepherd (v. 11). What follows in verses 12-16 is a guideline for what constitutes good government, an inventory that reflects YHWH’s own resolve for good government in Israel.
Psalm (Semi-Continous): Psalm 100
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Condition From Which the Poems Arose”
Indeed, this word pair from v. 5 [steadfast love and faithfulness] is the most elemental claim of Israel’s faith. … These two marks of fidelity distinguish YHWH from all other gods; Israel can never finish singing this. Israel can never stop poetry-making around this singular affirmation.
Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46
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.
Dr. Greg Carey, “AOC the Bible Teacher and Christian Nationalism”
We call ourselves ‘Matthew 25 Christians’ — “I was hungry, and you fed me” — and we don’t much care if Jesus was talking about something other than acts of mercy. We cite passages about vulnerable aliens and strangers as if the Bible did not include passages like Ezra’s demand that the men of Judah divorce their non-Israelite wives. We’re not at our best when we reduce the Bible to a tool.
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Strange Business”
It is not a surprise that “the stranger” shows up as a player in the formation of wellbeing in the parable of Jesus … The list of indispensables for a working workable creation is offered: food, drink, welcome, clothing, care, and visitation. The “big six” of those requiring attentive generosity include the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. It is easy enough to see that Jesus gets this basic list from the Book of Deuteronomy. And the book of Deuteronomy derives its inventory from the transformative acts of God who is “down and dirty” with food, drink, welcome, clothing, care, and visitation.
Thanksgiving
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Everywhere Thanks, All the Time Thanks: A Thanksgiving Prayer”
We give thanks for abundant food, like the bounty of this table.
We give thanks for the warmth and comfort and safety of our homes.
But we also give thanks in harder, more ambiguous circumstances:
We give thanks for every breath of life, while fragility or old age crowds in on us.
We give thanks for an economy in which we flourish, not unmindful of the multitude left behind.
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Gratitude as Subversion”
That is the seduction of pride in our self-sufficiency and autonomy, eventually requiring awareness that we cannot finally sustain such an allusion. When we arrive at that awareness, our pride readily turns to despair; we come to recognize that we cannot make our world safe and happy for ourselves. Thus, the world of quid pro quo wavers from pride to despair, perhaps back to pride and again to despair.
Gratitude is the antidote to pride, that life is not our achievement but a gift.
This is not our world! Gratitude is the antidote to despair because in every circumstance we still live by gifts faithfully given.
Thus, gratitude is a form of vigorous resistance against the seductions of the transactional world, empowering us to live apart from both pride and despair, apart from the toxic ideologies that beset our economy. Gratitude is the disciplined affirmation that the temptations of pride and despair are null and void and have no power over us.
And since every commercial will be reminding us what comes after Thanksgiving … don’t miss Rev. Miguel Escobar’s “Black Friday: A Chance to Explore Consumerism”!
