Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: November 2 and 9
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.
November 2, 2025
Semi-continuous Psalm: Psalm 119:137-144
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Empowering, Illuminating Word From Elsewhere”
Psalm 119, however, is exceptional. In all the other cases of acrostic each letter of the Hebrew alphabet occurs once in sequence. In Psalm 119, by contrast, each letter gets eight successive lines. Thus with twenty-two letters in the alphabet, and each letter reiterated eight times, we get a sum of 176 verses. It is for that reason that the Psalm is so long.…Unfortunately none of this is evident in English translation.
Paired Old Testament: Isaiah 1:10-18
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.
Gospel: Luke 19:1-10
Rev. Dr. Eric D. Barreto, “A Table and a Promise”
This table is for all. No exclusion. No reservation needed. Payment is not accepted because the table is open and free and bountiful. As I once read, “When you have more than you need, don’t build a higher fence, build a bigger table.”
Narrative Lectionary: 1 Kings 19:1-18
Rev. Winnie Varghese, “A Walk in Beauty”
Elijah finds bread when he awakes in the wilderness, Bedouin bread. Local people, not the children of Israel or the Hebrew people, or the Philistines. We actually never hear of Bedouins in the Bible. But there they are, or rather, there is their bread. Made the way they still make it today. There are still Bedouin, from Morocco to Iraq but primarily exactly where they are in this story, or where their bread is, the Sinai area. A bread left for the man of God, plenty of it, and a vessel of water, for the fleeing man, the stranger. Enough for a very hungry man to eat twice and be well fortified. Enough for a man ready to die, to live another day.
All Saints’ Day
Pastor Peter Wallace, “Unlikely Saints”
Who are your saints? Who comes to your heart and mind on All Saints Sunday? All Saints Sunday gives us a very personal way to talk about the present and future by talking about the past. Who are we? Who do we want to be? Those saints from our past give us a way to talk about where we are and where we are headed.
Old Testament: Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
Dr. Brennan Breed, “Totalizing Beasts and Apocalyptic Resistance: Rereading Daniel 7”
From the perspective of biblical scribes, ancient Israelite religion downplayed the existence and potential power of evil spirits: as nascent monotheists in a polytheistic world, they shied away from speculating about any dark powers, lest they dilute the message that praise and loyalty were due to one and only one lord: YHWH. Good and bad alike came from the hand of YHWH, the one God who ruled unchallenged over all of creation (cf. Job 1:21; 2:10). Yet the persecution of Antiochus IV disrupted this reductive theological tradition. What happens when it seems like everything in the world proves that God is not in control? The author of Daniel 7 begins to think: perhaps certain events are not attributable to the one God––perhaps there are evil forces at work in the world that are even more powerful than human greed and hatred.
Gospel: Luke 6:20-31
Paule Patterson, “Agape: Accepting Ego-Sacrifice as a Foundation for Transformative Love”
If communities continue to solely focus on the safe, ego-affirming forms of love that sustain familiar relationships, we risk missing the disruptive, redemptive power of agape. A church that truly embraces agape will reorient its leadership and community practices around reconciliation, forgiveness, and mutual care—even toward those who oppose it. This is not a suggestion to dismantle institutions; rather, it is an invitation to evaluate and infuse our structures with a love that cuts across hierarchies, fostering environments where genuine connection can flourish.
November 9, 2025
Narrative Lectionary: Amos 1:1-2; 5:14-15, 21-24
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Two Farmers…Two Ways”
Through chapter 5 the Book of Amos issues a series of imperatives that echo the imperative summons of Moses, Joshua, and Elijah: Seek me and live (v. 4). Seek the Lord and live (v. 6). Seek good and not evil, that you may live (v. 14). Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate (v. 15). The progression of the rhetoric is from “me” to “YHWH” to “good” to “good” to “justice.” The terms are all of a piece. YHWH is the source and embodiment of good; the substance of “good” is justice. The practice of YHWH-based justice is life. All that contradicts this neighbor-inclined justice is anti-life and will end in death.
