Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: June 28 and July 5
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 28, 2026 – Proper 8
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, Semi-Continuous: Genesis 22:1-14
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Reflections of My Childhood”
Barth imaginatively considers the fact that our word “provide” translates the Hebrew word ra’ah, a term almost always rendered as “see.” That is, God will see it, or God will see to it. … Barth takes the usage to mean that God could see ahead of time what was required. He translates, “see ahead of time” as pro-video, thus pro-vidence. God knew ahead of time what is required and sees that it is given.
Psalm (Paired): Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18
Dr. Brent A. Strawn, “The Bible on ‘No Kings!’, Part II”
But this doxological beginning is just a trick, a feint, a pump fake, because the poem ends in tragedy and despair, with the total failure of God’s promises to the king (vv. 38-51). In stark contrast to the first two-thirds of the poem, the last part couldn’t be clearer that God has spurned and rejected the monarch, renounced the covenant. This, in turn, has devastating outcomes: the royal city is plundered, the enemy is victorious. Psalm 89 is ultimately about the downfall of kingship, with God’s anointed king destroyed.
Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42
Rev. Dr. Mihee Kim-Kort, “This Generation”
We read elsewhere that “unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” To read about feeding the hungry is one thing; to give a cup of water to one of these little ones is quite another; but to receive that gift is a part of our faith.
July 5, 2026 – Proper 9
Old Testament, Paired: Zechariah 9:9-12
Rev. Dr. Mihee Kim-Kort, “This Generation”
It is as the prophet Zechariah says in the passage today: a return to the stronghold and to the promises of God’s restoration. It is the simplicity of the child-like dependence on God who sees us and all we carry, and loves us.
Epistle: Romans 7:15-25a
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Force of Id and Otherwise”
These several narratives, along with Freud’s vocabulary, are finally at a loss to “explain” why it is that human action so frequently violates sound judgment in order to satisfy ignoble appetites.
Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Rev. Dr. Mihee Kim-Kort, “This Generation”
“This generation” includes Matthew’s people: those who’ve witnessed the destruction of the temple, the displacement of their people, and the emerging question of their own identity as God’s people in the midst of cultural upheaval, and governmental and political corruption. There was disease and poverty, and ongoing social inequities.
It feels familiar, doesn’t it? The world was heavy then, and it remains so today.
