Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: February 1 and 8
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.
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.
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February 8, 2026
Gospel: Matthew 5:13-20
Dr. Ulysses Burley III, “Law and Morals”
While we often participate in Caesar's economy — either out of self-preservation or because we feel like we just don't have a choice — God does not deal in Caesar's currency.
As children of God then, under this earthly rule of legal oppression — we can continue to pay the tax to keep in line with the law, but it cannot be divorced from actively resisting what is lawful yet immoral and working to promote the alternative kingdom where the moral authority to rule is God's alone. That's what being salt and light is all about! People rarely change systems from the outside-in. The change comes from within. Our light shines brightest amidst the darkness. Our salt adds flavor to the bitterness.
