September 2022 – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Mustard seeds, again

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost; 2 October 2022; Proper 22C (RCL); Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10.

The “parable” of the mulberry tree is confusing. Why would anyone want to plant a mulberry tree in the middle of the sea, anyway? I think Luke may be mixing sayings here; both Mark and Matthew have Jesus make a statement about having faith and saying to this mountain be cast into the sea and it would obey. That at least makes a little sense — but planting trees in the sea?

Reversal

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 25 September 2022; Proper 21C (RCL); Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31.

Finally, a glimmer of hope in Jeremiah. King Zedekiah has asked Jeremiah (in the verses we leave out) why he is prophesying that Jerusalem will fall and that Zedekiah will go into Exile. Jeremiah responds with God’s instructions to him to buy his cousin Hanamel’s field. The text doesn’t tell us why Hanamel wants to sell the property, but the fact of the Babylonian occupation of the land may have something to do with it.

Eternal tents

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 18 September 2022; Proper 20C (RCL); Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1; Psalm 79:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13.

The readings in Track 1 from Jeremiah over the course of these last weeks have just gotten bleaker and bleaker. It’s almost enough to make one choose Track 2 for Year C. Next week, the armies of the King of Babylon will be besieging the city, and the following week, we will read from Lamentations. And the week after, Jeremiah will tell the exiles in Babylon that God wants them to settle there, and increase rather than decrease, in other words, to accommodate to their exile.

Lost

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 11 September 2022; Proper 19C (RCL); Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10.

Although we are reading Track 1, and the OT lesson and Psalm are not chosen relate to the Gospel reading, I do find an interesting progression in the readings for this Sunday. Jeremiah starts out bleak, with almost no hope of restoration — the whole land will be laid waste because of the sins of the people. Psalm 14 holds out just a tiny bit more hope (when the Lord restores the fortunes of God’s people). In the reading from 1 Timothy, the author acknowledges God’s forgiveness of grave sin, and in the Gospel reading, there is rejoicing over the restoration of even one.

Cost

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 4 September 2022; Proper 18C (RCL); Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33.

Oof! I wonder if the designers of the lectionary assigned this reading from Luke’s Gospel on a Sunday they knew would usually fall on Labor Day weekend, when crowds would be slim. Whoever does not hate father and mother, wife and children . . . cannot be my disciple — not a message that will go down smoothly, especially when contrasted to what we think of as the new commandment to love.