Lectionary Readings
(from the Revised Common Lectionary)
Click on any Bible reference below, and you'll receive results—sermon illustrations, sermons, and more—for that Scripture text. (Note that some Scriptures may not have sermon illustrations associated with them yet.) Or click on the Bible icon 
to view the full text of the passage cited.
This lectionary covers the next thirty days. For full lists, see the seasons and years below.
Sunday, December 29, 2024
First Sunday after Christmas Day—Christmas, Year C
Summary
The very recently added feast of the Holy Family is intended to display Jesus' family as a model for Christian families. But what we find in the scriptures are not warm paeans to the institution of the nuclear family, but rather stories of children separated from their parents. These episodes show how the human family has meaning and purpose only when it is offered up to serve God's greater mission. Hannah's gift of her firstborn Samuel to the Lord causes him "to grow in stature and favor both with the Lord and with men" and brings her more children. In the same way, modern parents—though beset by the pressures to mold their children into high performing "machines"—must not understand themselves as the sole custodians of their children's upbringing. Instead, they ought to follow Hannah's example through prayer, devoting their children to the Lord and trusting him with their children's futures rather than their own capacities as capable parents. We see the same dynamic heightened in the gospel passage. Jesus' answer to his parents' understandable concern at his absence: "did you not know that I had to be in my Father's house?" indicates that God's mission supersedes even the natural bonds of his earthly family. This is a good opportunity for the preacher to remind that all those who walk in faith reside in the house of the Father and compose God's true family (cf. Mark 3:33-35; John 1:13) which brings celibates into the center of the Holy Family.
Another option: The Gospel story of Jesus in the Temple is an important Christological passage for the tradition of the church and a good opportunity for the preacher to address an often-burning question for believers: what did Jesus know as he grew up and what was he capable of as divine and human? First, Jesus' parents find him in the temple three days after his disappearance foreshadows the resurrection, setting the episode in the context of Jesus' mission. The passage discloses how though Jesus is conscious of his identity and mission he still had to progress in that mission by normal human means. Hence, we see him "listening and asking questions" of the rabbis. Though his identity as the Son of God seems to have made him a quick study, as we see in the teachers' astonishment at his "answers and understanding," he still learns as an ordinary human youth. The church's consensus understanding of Jesus' supernatural abilities was that they always served his mission and purpose on earth, and never allowed him to "shortcut" ordinary human travails--hence the Infancy Gospel of Thomas which shows Jesus making flippant use of his divine powers was rejected as a gnostic fabrication. This understanding is supported by Jesus' refusal of the Devil's temptation to relieve himself of his human constraints in the temptation in the wilderness and on the occasions where Jesus refuses or "could not" do any miraculous signs due to the lack of faith (Mk. 6:5; Matt. 13:58) and also in the Book of Hebrews' affirmation that he was "tempted in every way as we are" (4:15). The issue was not the strength of Jesus' power but that his power on earth had an orientation toward the accomplishment of his mission at the Resurrection--indeed the theologians thought of his earthly ministry "flowed backwards" as it were, from the Resurrection. Therefore, Jesus does no marvelous work that does not serve that mission.
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Second Sunday after Christmas Day—Christmas, Year C
Summary
Though John 1 was read on Christmas Day, the reality of sparse church attendance in modern America means that this Sunday will likely be the first time it is heard by most of the congregation, so the themes of the Christmas Day commentary may be safely repeated. The option to extend the passage to verse 18 brings a new valence for the preacher to expound: Jesus is God made visible. Though no one has seen the God the Father, Jesus, the "only begotten God" has "expressed" the Father (v. 18) perfectly. This is how Jesus can assure Philip in 14:9, that he who has seen him has seen the Father and is not in need of fuller revelation.
Monday, January 6, 2025
Epiphany of the Lord—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
The Epiphany season focuses on three traditional manifestations: the magi (celebrated on January 6), Jesus' baptism, and the Miracle at Cana. Luke gives a brief account, with no mention of John's protestations, so the preacher may focus on the meaning of the scene itself. At his baptism, Jesus stands in the place of sinners. This is the most important part of the picture. Jesus' ministry would be one of repentance and also accompaniment: he would stand with sinners and accompany them to everlasting life. Jesus' nearness to sinners is a theme the Gospels return to again and again. Jesus shows up for them in the market and at their dinner tables, consorting with them in public and in private. His baptism shows that intent to go everywhere with them, even to be baptized, when he is the only one who needs no purification. Traditionally, the church also understood Jesus as himself "baptizing" the very waters that would go on to baptize the church, giving them their purifying power. The Holy Spirit's descent seems to confirm this, and it is also a foreshadowing of what will happen at the baptisms of all Christians. As John says: Jesus' baptism is not water only, but it also brings the Holy Spirit with it.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Second Sunday after the Epiphany—Epiphany, Year C
Summary
Cana is the final manifestation of Christ celebrated in Epiphany. Here, he reveals himself to his disciples. There is much more to the story than meets the modern eye. First, John speaks of the events transpiring on "the third day" after the fifth day of a week of Jesus' opening ministry in chapters 1 and 2, which by ancient numbering makes it the seventh day of the week. That this miracle simultaneously happens on the "third day" and the seventh day signifies that what Jesus does here links together Jesus' resurrection and the work of a new work of a new creation. Clearly this is more than just helping out at a party. Each detail is worth calling to the congregation's attention. Mary's statement "they have no wine" recalls Isaiah 24 and 25 where it is foretold that God will reverse Israel's downfall, signified by a lack of wine, with a great feast of "well aged wine." Jesus' answer "what does this have to do with us?" makes clear that his miraculous power isn't available for solving the pedestrian problem of running out of drinks. He is up to something more. By providing the wine, Jesus identifies himself as the true bridegroom of the heavenly feast, bringing out the wine to fill his people. However, the "hour" yet to come which Jesus speaks of (a recurring theme throughout John) shows that the wine foretold in Isaiah is in fact the blood of the Messiah, poured out on the Cross at the hour of his crucifixion, glorified in his resurrection, and distributed at the Eucharist at the church's hour of prayer. In the Eucharist, the blood of the Messiah is actually consumed and the people of God partake in the eternal feast which will end with death swallowed up by God for all time. The six stone water pots for the rite of purification signify the old law's insufficiency, since six is one less than seven, the number of completion and fullness. Here Jesus makes clear that he is not just a Josiah-like figure reforming Israel to her old ways but the generation of something new, indeed the very thing the law had always pointed to: the great feast at the end. Just as one washes one's hands before the feast, so too did the law prepare the people for the coming of Jesus the Bridegroom.
What to take from this swirl of prophecy and portent? First, that Christ's objective is not simply to wash the sins off of people, as at the water jars, but to fill them with God's own life. Also that Jesus is not a guest in our lives, helping us get out of jams from time to time, rather we are guests in his life and invited to the final marriage between God and humanity.
