Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: December 14 and 21, as Christmas Approaches
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.
December 14, 2025- Third Sunday of Advent
Psalm: Psalm 146
Rev. Dr. Brent Strawn, “‘Religion’ and ‘Politics’ in Psalm 146”
The psalmist says it is God who does these things and no other. Certainly not leaders. Don’t trust them. They execute justice for the oppressed, at best, only occasionally. Food for the hungry? Maybe. Pardon for prisoners? Well, usually only if it is politically expedient. Care for immigrants and the destitute? Here, as in all of the other categories, their track record is decidedly mixed. And that is true of both sides of the aisle and of all human leaders, elected or otherwise. It’s better not to trust in them. It’s better not to praise them. It’s better not to buy into their plans, which are as finite as they are, nor trust in their speeches, which are as fragile as their lungs. Both are just one heartbeat from ending. Forever.
Alternate Psalm: Luke 1:46b-55
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “It’s All Made Up”
Imagine Mary with her daring poem: He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty (Luke 1:52-53). We could ask her, “Is this a real poem, or did you just make it up?” Mother Mary would no doubt answer, “I made it up.”
Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11
Dr. Greg Carey, “Hope Not Optimism”
In this sense, hope is very much a strategy. John the Baptist held hope that God would redeem Israel from its bondage. Perhaps things weren’t looking good from prison, so John sent some of his own disciples to check in on Jesus. Jesus did exactly what we should do when we’re checking in on hope: he simply described his own activity.
Narrative Lectionary: Isaiah 55:1-13
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “From Chaos to Homecoming”
The poet executes a stunning rhetorical maneuver. On the one hand, the poet makes this sweeping cosmic claim for the decree as the sovereign rule of God. On the other hand, however, that word is given specific historical fleshly content. … For all the grand lyric of the poem, we should not miss the astonishing historical import of the poetry.
This poetic utterance is offered while the Babylonian empire is still the master of estrangement for these displaced Jews to whom the poetry is addressed. In prophetic imagination that refuses to give in to Babylon, the word of God outruns and contradicts the will of the Babylonian empire.
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December 21, 2025- Fourth Sunday of Advent
Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Joseph and Mary: On Becoming a Statistic
Joseph was willing and able to render unto to God what belonged to God, namely, his honor and his family name.
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As Christmas Arrives
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Seasons of Bells and Chains”
Advent/Christmas may be a time of double-hearing by the faithful, attentive to the bells of hope-filled celebration while at the same time responsive to the clanging chains of servitude. Our lives and our faith are situated in the both/and of bells and chains, and we are not free to simply choose one or the other in a way that covers over the profound ambiguity of our lives.
Rev. Dr. Dorothy Wells, “New Lessons from the Grinch”
However festively we celebrate our traditions, however joyfully we sing our hymns, however piously we display our faith, if we fail to acknowledge the presence of the neighbor who sits just beyond our doors – the neighbor whom we see but whose story isn’t known to us, the neighbor who may not look like us, the neighbor who may not know our traditions, the neighbor who may be completely alone and struggling – we pay lip service to what we claim that we believe.
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Some Child! A Poem for Christmas”
“‘What child is this who laid to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping?”
We ask in awe and wonder.
But wait!
We know who this child is:
We know: this is the child who will grow in authority to cast out demons,
while we are beset by the demonic force of racism and nationalism.
We know: this is the child who will grow in capacity to feed the hungry multitudes,
while we casually permit children all around the world to die in starvation.
