Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: June 7 and 14 (Ordinary Time)
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.
June 7, 2026 – Proper 5
For those congregations using the Semicontinuous Old Testament readings this summer, it may be wise for preachers to refer to Rev. Dr. Dorothy Wells’ two-part series on Abraham and family trauma.
Old Testament (Semicontinuous): Genesis 12:1-9
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Hard Work of Exceptionalism”
Two matters stand out in this summons. First, the overriding matter is that Abram is to receive a land. This topic is further clarified in Genesis 15:18-21. Israel’s history and destiny are to be on the way to “the land of promise.” Second, land promise is in the context of other nations who are to be blessed by and in and through the people of Israel. This two-fold accent delicately balances the deep commitment of God to Israel, and the insistence that Israel as chosen does not and will not exist in an historical vacuum, but must deal constructively with other neighboring peoples.
June 14, 2026 – Proper 6
Old Testament (Semicontinuous): Genesis 18:1-15
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Is Anything Impossible for God?”
Before they departed the “three/one” visitor posed a question to the aged couple: “Is anything impossible for God?” The question is left unanswered in the narrative. It is, moreover, left unanswered so that people of faith should be durably haunted by the question.
(Editor’s note: While Rev. Dr. Brueggemann’s piece was originally published in June 2020 and thus references the COVID-19 pandemic, his larger point that Scripture invites us to engage in “impossible” imaginings for the proclamation of the good news still stands.)
Old Testament (Paired): Exodus 19:2-8a
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “From ‘Rag-Tag’ to ‘Holy’”
This identity is the inverse of Hosea 1:8: This “no people” has become “my people.” This staggering invite, however, is conditional: “if.” The condition is specified as the emancipatory God enunciates the Ten Commandments as the norm for the new identity of this community now formed and chosen (Exodus 20:1-17). These ten conditions bear no marking of class, nations, ethnicity, or cult. They are the most elemental requirements of historical wellbeing, grounded in a holiness that precludes every absolutism.
Psalm (Paired): 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.
