Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: April 19 and 26 2026
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.
April 19, 2026 – Third Sunday of Easter
Psalm: Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Undeserving in Michigan”
It is then work of the church to nurture and evoke such practices of thanks that may issue in lives of gratitude. In a life of gratitude, the measure of “deserving” or “undeserving” simply becomes irrelevant. The center of our lives is reconfigured around generosity that need never be coerced, but is always glad and beyond limit or calculation.
Gospel: Luke 24:13-35
Rev. Dr. Eric Barreto, “A Table and a Promise”
Around that table would have been all kinds of different chairs, space for all kinds of people. And piled on that table would be mounds of delicious food, food we ate at our grandmother’s table, that food you imagined just a moment ago. But there would also be some strange food, food you don’t recognize. Food with smells that you can’t account for. Foods you can’t begin to imagine how you would begin to eat. But at that table such strange food is a delightful curiosity, a dish that makes you wonder who else is sitting at this table. When you look to your left and to your right, you see people you’ve loved and lost, people you’ve never seen before but love at first sight, people you wouldn’t have thought would make it through the pearly gates. And that table, that table rings with delight and laughter and joy.
Rev. Paul Lutter, “Hope Has You”
Could it be, as a former seminary professor once said, that the absence of a name in this story is so we can find ourselves in what unfolds there. You also are on the road. You’ve borne witness to a terrible catastrophe. You don’t know what to make of it. All you turn can do is turn toward Emmaus.
April 26, 2026 – Fourth Sunday of Easter
First Reading: Acts 2:42-47
Rev. Miguel Escobar, “Beyond Stewardship II: Exploring Alternatives”
In Acts, we hear of believers selling possessions and holding all things in common (Acts 2:44–45). To speak of the cost of discipleship during fundraising is to underscore that God desires the transformation of our whole lives.
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “What Naboth Teaches Us Today Part II”
The church of course affirms private property; at the same time, however, the church recognizes that there is also a “social mortgage” on private property so that the resources of creation are to serve the common good, and therefore the good of those who are excluded from the security and well-being of private property.
Psalm: Psalm 23
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Insatiable!”
We are invited to mind a sheep who does not overeat, who does not store up or hoard food, but who in profound confidence trusts the provisions of the shepherd who provides food, water, and safety. Such a sheep, in readiness to rely upon the gifts of the shepherd, eats only what is required for the day—no extras, no surplus, no excessive luxuries.
Rev. Jenny Sung, “The Lord is My Shepherd”
Nothing is hidden, no branches to wrap around ourselves. We’re just left to sit in the truth of who we are… human. Our great Shepherd doesn’t leave us or abandon us there. Instead Christ promises to bring about something beautiful and holy from all the good intentions and broken promises. In all of God’s divine royalty, through humility and great love our Shepherd leads us beside still waters and green pastures.
Gospel: John 10:1-10
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Good Shepherd and the Bad Ones”
If we consider these several negations together, we have a good representation of the regard neoliberal ideology has for the vulnerable poor. That ideology does not know them; they seek out the poor to steal, kill, or destroy for the sake of greater wealth. They readily abandon the sheep in a crisis, i.e., as soon as their profit fades. The image is of vulnerable sheep and alien agents in the sheepfold who do not care at all for the sheep.
