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Jeremiah offers us a powerful image about the strength and protection we have from God. (Lectionary #399) July 24, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Psalm 36 invites us to draw our strength from the Lord, the fountain of our lives. (Lectionary #398) July 23, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Mary Magdalene's encounter with the Risen Lord inspires us to turn to Christ and trust in him. (Lectionary #603) July 22, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Dr. John Bombaro of St. James Lutheran-Lafayette, IN The post Looking Forward to Sunday Morning (One Year Lectionary): Eighth Sunday after Trinity – Dr. John Bombaro, 7/21/26 (2021) first appeared on Issues, Etc..
Christ welcomes us into his family when we do the will of our heavenly Father. (Lectionary #396) July 21, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Jesus offers three insights when the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign. (Lectionary #395) July 20, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Here are some of the main themes in our readings for the 17th Sunday of the Year. (Lectionary #109) July 20, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Proper 12 (17) Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A, 2025-2026) Scripture Readings: Genesis 29:15-28, Psalm 105:1-11, 45b, Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Jesus offers three parables that reveal insights about the Kingdom of Heaven. (Lectionary #106) July 19, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Here in the middle of summer (and, perhaps, one of our sparser crowds of the season) we have a very busy parable section in Matthew 13: five short parables packed into a dozen verses. That's a lot of focus to to try to hold in one sermon — so we likely have some choices to make heading into sermon prep this week.This is the third Sunday inside Matthew's parables chapter, and it is the busiest of them. The Gospel gives us five short parables — mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure, pearl, and net — each doing its own quick work. A single sermon can barely do justice to one of them. The preacher's honest choice this week is whether to preach one image well or gesture at all five superficially (and, most likely, ineffectively). This guide covers each parable but assumes the preacher will pick.The Old Testament tracks head in very different directions. * Track One continues with Jacob — now at his uncle Laban's house, working seven years for Rachel and being deceived at the wedding. It is a painful text, and its painfulness is part of what it has to say. * Track Two brings us to Solomon at Gibeon, offered anything in a dream and asking for wisdom to lead God's people well. * The Epistle continues in Romans 8 and gives us some of the most beloved verses Paul ever wrote — the Spirit interceding with sighs too deep for words, all things working together for good, nothing able to separate us from the love of God in Christ.For preachers continuing the series: this is week three of the parables arc. The Sower (Proper 10) named God's lavish scattering. The Wheat and the Weeds (Proper 11) named God's patient sorting. This week the parables come in a burst, each offering a different angle on what the kingdom of heaven is actually like.The ReadingsGenesis 29:15–28First Reading (Track One) — Jacob, Leah, and RachelSummaryJacob has fled his own family and arrived at his uncle Laban's household. He falls in love with his younger cousin Rachel and agrees to work seven years for her. Seven years pass; the wedding feast is held; and Jacob wakes in the morning to discover he has been given Leah, the older sister, instead. He confronts Laban. Laban answers, without apology, that the younger cannot be given before the elder in that country. Jacob agrees to serve another seven years for Rachel. The deceiver from earlier chapters has been deceived himself, and the family that will grow out of these two marriages will carry the weight of the wedding-night trick for generations.Key Ideas for Preaching* This is Jacob's first taste of being on the receiving end of the kind of scheming he has been practicing. In earlier chapters, he tricked his brother and his father; now his uncle tricks him. The narrator does not moralize — the pattern is simply allowed to sit there. What does it look like for your congregation to notice the patterns they have set in motion, without either shame or excuse?* Laban's “the younger cannot be given before the elder” is a pointed line. Jacob, the younger, took what belonged to Esau, the elder. Now he is told he cannot take the younger before the elder. The text is doing quiet, painful work. Where in your congregation might God be doing similarly quiet work — through consequences, not lectures?* The story does not pretend Leah is loved. It does not pretend Rachel is safe from her sister's grief. It refuses to give us the reassuring resolution we might want. What does it look like to preach honestly on a text that leaves this much untidy?Significant Cautions* Do not romanticize the line about seven years feeling like a few days. Read in context, it opens a story that will produce enormous grief for at least three of the four people involved.* The women in this story — Leah and Rachel — pay the highest price for the men's schemes. Be honest about that, without turning them into abstractions or setting one against the other.* Do not use this text to comment on modern marriage practices in ways it cannot bear. It is a story about deception and consequences, not a template for how marriages should work.Psalm 105:1–11, 45bThe Psalm (Track One, primary option) — Remember the CovenantSummaryA hymn of thanksgiving for God's faithfulness across the long history of Israel. The opening verses call the people to praise and to remember. The middle rehearses the covenant with Abraham — the promise of the land, the seed, the everlasting covenant — which the lectionary selects to keep the focus tight. The closing line is a single word of praise.Key Ideas for Preaching* The psalm is essentially a call to remember. What God did for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not distant history but the reason today's community has cause to sing. What does it mean for your people to keep the long memory of what God has done, in a culture that keeps them focused on the immediate?* Read alongside today's Genesis reading, the psalm's serene retelling sits in some tension with the messy reality Jacob is living through in Genesis 29. The psalm knows the story ends well; Jacob does not. Where in your people's lives is God's long faithfulness working through a story that does not yet feel serene?Significant Cautions* The “land I have promised” language has a long and painful history when misused to justify the taking of land from other people. Handle it with care.* The psalm's cheerfulness can mask real complexity in the underlying history. Do not erase Leah's grief with a hymn about Jacob's story.Psalm 128The Psalm (Track One, alternative option) — Blessed Is EveryoneSummaryA short psalm of blessing for the person who fears the Lord. Their labor is fruitful; their household flourishes; they live to see their children's children. The psalm assumes a stable, agricultural, patriarchal household and pronounces blessing over it.Key Ideas for Preaching* The psalm's picture of blessing is domestic, ordinary, and generational — not heroic, not dramatic. Just a table set, a family gathered, a life lived faithfully across time. Where in your congregation has the ordinary been undervalued, and how might this psalm give it its due?* Paired with the Genesis reading, this psalm offers a striking contrast — Jacob's marriage is not the picture of blessing this psalm describes. What might it look like to preach both — the ideal the psalm names and the reality the Jacob story exposes — without pretending they can be neatly resolved?Significant Cautions* The psalm's vision of a blessed household is culturally specific. Do not preach it in a way that suggests those without spouses or children are outside God's blessing.1 Kings 3:5–12First Reading (Track Two) — Solomon Asks for WisdomSummaryEarly in his reign, Solomon has a dream at Gibeon. God appears and asks him what he wants. Solomon does not ask for wealth, or long life, or victory over his enemies. He asks for an understanding heart — the wisdom to lead God's people well. He is a young king, he says, and does not know how to govern. God is pleased and gives him what he asked for, along with the things he did not ask for.Key Ideas for Preaching* Solomon's request is startling for its self-awareness. He knows he does not know. Where in your congregation has the honest admission of what we do not know been avoided in favor of confident-sounding leadership, and what might this text invite instead?* The wisdom Solomon asks for is specifically for the sake of others — to govern God's people well. This is not personal enlightenment; it is a request for the equipment to serve. How might your people hear this as a model for the kind of wisdom their vocations actually need?Significant Cautions* The wider story of Solomon complicates this scene. He will not, over the long run, live up to the wisdom he receives here. Do not preach the dream as if it were the whole of Solomon's reign.* “Ask for whatever you want” language can be misused. God is not a wish-granter; the text is showing us what a rightly ordered heart asks for, not licensing bargain-hunting prayer.Psalm 119:129–136The Psalm (Track Two) — The Unfolding of Your WordsSummaryAnother short section of the great acrostic psalm on God's word and law. The chosen verses celebrate God's decrees as wonderful, ask for God's face to shine on the psalmist, and end with a line of surprising grief: “my eyes shed streams of tears, because your law is not kept.”Key Ideas for Preaching* The psalmist's tears are the grief of someone who loves what God intended and sees the world falling short of it. What in your congregation's life would break their hearts if they let it — and what does the psalm suggest we do with that grief?* “The unfolding of your words gives light.” The word does not give light all at once; it unfolds. How might your sermon honor the slow way God's word actually opens itself to us?Significant Cautions* The psalmist's love for God's law can be misread as legalism. It is not. It is a love for what God has revealed as good.Romans 8:26–39The Epistle — Nothing Can Separate UsSummaryThe climax of Romans 8, and some of the most beloved verses Paul ever wrote. The Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. All things work together for good for those who love God. And then the closing crescendo, one of the great passages of the New Testament: nothing — not hardship, persecution, famine, sword, powers, principalities, or anything else in all creation — can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.Key Ideas for Preaching* The Spirit intercedes for us when we do not know how to pray. That is one of the most comforting sentences in the New Testament for people in seasons when prayer has stopped working. Where in your congregation are people quietly convinced they are failing at prayer, and how might Paul steady them?* “All things work together for good” has become a widely repeated line and is often misused. Paul is not saying every bad thing that happens is secretly good, or that suffering will always be visibly redeemed. He is naming something more specific — that God is at work within all things toward good. How might your sermon preserve the comfort of the verse while defending it from its worst uses?* The closing crescendo names actual sufferings by name — hardship, persecution, famine, sword. Paul is not offering an abstract promise. He is naming the very things his readers were facing and insisting that none of them can separate them from the love of God. Where in your congregation are people quietly assuming they might have been separated already, and what would it mean for them to hear this list read aloud with their own name in it?Significant Cautions* “All things work together for good” is one of the most misused verses in the Bible — especially at funerals and in hospital rooms, where it has been used to justify or minimize real suffering. Preach against that misuse plainly.* “Those God foreknew he also predestined” opens onto centuries of debate. Faithful readers come down differently. Do not preach as if the question has been settled.* The comfort of the closing verses is only meaningful when the sufferings named are taken seriously. Do not skip lightly over famine and sword; they are what Paul's hearers were living, and they are what many of ours are living too.Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52The Gospel — Five Parables of the KingdomSummaryFive short parables in quick succession. The kingdom is like a mustard seed — tiny at first but growing into something birds nest in. Like yeast a woman works into flour until the whole batch is leavened. Like treasure hidden in a field that someone finds and joyfully sells everything to buy. Like a merchant finding one pearl worth all he has. Like a net cast into the sea that catches everything and is only sorted after being pulled in. Jesus asks the disciples if they have understood, and closes with one more image: the scribe trained for the kingdom, bringing out of his storeroom what is new and what is old.Key Ideas for Preaching* The mustard seed is a strange choice. Mustard was considered an invasive weed in first-century Palestine, not a tree. Jesus is comparing the kingdom to what is often unwanted, wild, and hard to contain. Where in your congregation has the kingdom been imagined as tidy, and what would it look like to hear it named as invasive?* The yeast image is done by a woman — quiet, hidden, domestic work. The kingdom is often like that: invisible until the whole batch has risen. Where in your congregation has the visible been overvalued, and what would it mean to honor the yeast?* The hidden treasure parable turns on joy. The person sells everything not out of duty but out of gladness. When has your congregation known that kind of joy — a joy that made the giving up easy? How might your sermon call it forth again?* The pearl merchant is not a lucky farmer stumbling on treasure. He is searching. Some people come to the kingdom by accident; some by long looking. Which of your people are the seekers, and what might they need to hear this morning?* The net catches everything — good and bad — and is only sorted at the end. This is the wheat and weeds again, in miniature. What does it mean that the same kingdom-shape shows up in five different images? Where might your congregation be tempted to prefer one image and dismiss the others?* The closing line about the scribe bringing out what is new and what is old is one of the most graceful sentences in Matthew. What does it look like for your congregation to hold both — the ancient wisdom of the tradition and the new thing God is doing among them — without pitting one against the other?Significant Cautions* The mustard-seed-as-invasive-weed reading is worth naming, but do not turn the whole parable into a horticulture lecture. Let the image do its work.* The “sold all he had” imagery has been used to bless coercive giving. Jesus is describing joy, not running a stewardship campaign.* The net parable closes with fierce judgment language — furnace, weeping, gnashing of teeth. Handle it with the same care as last week's wheat and weeds. The point is that the sorting is not ours.A single sermon cannot honestly cover all five parables. Do not try. Pick one — or a pair — and let it breathe.Thematic ConnectionsThis is week three of the parables arc, and the pattern is coming into focus. Two weeks ago the Parable of the Sower named God's lavish scattering. Last week the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds named God's patient sorting. This week we get five different angles on what the kingdom is actually like. Small and invasive (the mustard seed). Hidden and pervasive (the yeast). Discovered by accident and worth everything (the treasure). Discovered by long searching and worth everything (the pearl). Mixed and eventually sorted (the net).Preachers have a real choice this week. The mustard seed and yeast pair naturally, both about small things producing outsized results. The treasure and pearl pair naturally, both about joyfully giving up everything for something worth more. The net stands alone and pulls the arc back toward last week's parable. Almost any one of these will preach; trying to do all five will not.On Track One, the Genesis reading offers a striking counterpoint to the Gospel's celebration of the kingdom. Jacob thinks he is buying joy for seven years of labor. He discovers he has bought Leah, and must labor seven more years for Rachel. The parables of the treasure and the pearl both assume that what is bought is truly worth what it costs. Jacob's story shows what happens when we buy the wrong thing. A preacher can hold both — the joy the parables assume and the ache the Genesis story exposes — without pretending they resolve neatly.On Track Two, Solomon at Gibeon asks for the very wisdom the parables describe. The scribe trained for the kingdom, the one Jesus names at the close of the Gospel, could just as well be Solomon at the dream — a young leader who knows he does not know, asking for what only God can give.Romans 8 sits under the day as the great steadying word. The Spirit intercedes for us in our confusion. All things are held together in God's purpose. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Whether we are seeking the kingdom or stumbling into it this week, God's love is prior to our finding it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lectionarypro.substack.com/subscribe
Wheat and Weeds, Good and EvilSeries: Lectionary Preacher: Rev. Hilary Van WagenenDate: 19th July 2026Passage: Matthew 13:24-30
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Jesus, beloved by the Father and filled with the Spirit, fulfills Isaiah's prophecy with the proclamation of the Gospel message to the Gentiles. This is Good News! (Lectionary #394) July 18, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
We turn to the Lord for the strength we need as we confront the life and death issues that are part of our human experience. (Lectionary #393) July 17, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Jesus invites us into a relationship with him where we can set aside our burdens and rest in his love. (Lectionary #392) July 16, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
The Lord invites us to receive the Good News with the openness and receptivity of a little child. (Lectionary #391) July 15, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
In episode THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO, Wade discusses the lectionary and how laypeople can make use of it throughout the week to grow in faith and gladly hear and learn God's Word in the Divine Service. We hope you enjoy the episode! Let us know if you have questions you'd like us to address in a future episode. For more about the show and the hosts, visit the Let the Bird Fly! website. Thanks for listening! Attributions for Music and Image used in this Episode: “The Last One” by Jahzzar is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 International License. “Gib laut” by Dirk Becker is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License. “Whistling Down the Road” by Silent Partner.
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Pr. David Petersen of Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy God With Us Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran LiturgyThe post Looking Forward to Sunday Morning (1 Year Lectionary) Seventh Sunday after Trinity – Pr. David Petersen, 7/14/26 (1952, Encore) first appeared on Issues, Etc..
Jesus rebukes the villages of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum for not repenting after their direct interactions with the Lord. (Lectionary #390) July 14, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Jesus concludes the tenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel with the teaching that he is the most important person in our lives. (Lectionary #389) July 13, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Here are some of the main themes that surface in the Mass readings for the 16th Sunday of the Year. (Lectionary #106) July 13, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Proper 11 (16) Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A, 2025-2026) Scripture Readings: Genesis 28:10-19a, Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Jesus offers a parable (and an explanation!) that inspires us to prepare our hearts to become spiritually fruitful. (Lectionary #103) July 11, 2026 - Cathedral of Christ the King - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
We have built some real momentum in the readings for this first half of summer. Of course, you may have a congregation that is in a week, out a week — or, if you have lots of snowbirds, either your sanctuary feels more full or more empty. But the texts march on, and so do we!This is the second Sunday inside Matthew's parables chapter. Last week the Parable of the Sower opened the section; this week we get the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Both parables share an image of a field, a sower, and a problem — but they ask different questions. The Sower asks what happens to the word once it has been scattered. The Wheat and the Weeds asks how to live in a field where good and bad are mixed and indistinguishable, and what to do when the impulse rises to sort it out ourselves.Image courtesy of Sickle of Truth: A Bible Student BlogThe Old Testament tracks both lead toward the Gospel in different ways. * Track One follows Jacob deeper into Genesis — to the famous dream at Bethel, where Jacob, fleeing his brother's anger, lays his head on a stone and sees a ladder reaching to heaven. Psalm 139 pairs with that scene by insisting there is no place where God's presence does not reach. * Track Two offers a choice between Wisdom of Solomon's meditation on the lenient sovereignty of God and Isaiah's short, sharp declaration of God's uniqueness; both are paired with Psalm 86, including its prayer for an undivided heart. * The Epistle continues the long climb through Romans 8 — today's portion includes some of Paul's most stirring language about being children of God, the groaning of creation, and the patience of hope.A note for preachers following a series: this Sunday continues the new arc of parables. The Sower (last week), the Wheat and the Weeds (today), and in coming weeks the Mustard Seed, the Yeast, the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl, and the Net — these images are the way Jesus has chosen to talk about the kingdom of heaven. Our job as preachers, increasingly, is to slow down enough to let the images do their work.The ReadingsGenesis 28:10–19aFirst Reading (Track One) — Jacob's Dream at BethelSummaryJacob is on the run. He has just cheated his brother Esau out of their father's blessing, and Esau has vowed to kill him. Rebekah has sent him toward her brother's house in Haran, ostensibly to find a wife but really to keep him alive. The selected verses pick him up somewhere on the road, alone, in an unnamed place at sundown. He takes a stone, puts it under his head, and lies down. And he dreams: a ladder, or stairway, with its foot on the ground and its top reaching up into the heavens, and the angels of God going up and down on it. God stands beside him — or above the ladder — and renews the covenant once given to Abraham: this land, descendants beyond counting, blessing for all the families of the earth. And then the line on which the whole scene turns: I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. Jacob wakes, and the first words out of his mouth are: Surely the Lord is in this place — and I did not know it. He is afraid. He calls the place awesome. He sets up the stone as a pillar, pours oil on it, and names the place Bethel — house of God.Key Ideas for Preaching* Jacob is fleeing the consequences of his own deception. The grace God gives him in this dream is given to a manipulator on the run. Where in your congregation are people quietly assuming that God's presence is reserved for those who have their lives sorted out, and how might Jacob's story interrupt that?* “Surely the Lord is in this place — and I did not know it.” That is one of the most honest lines in Genesis. Jacob discovers that God has been somewhere he did not expect, and he himself was the last to notice. Where in your people's lives might God have been present in a place they did not credit, and what would it look like to wake up to it now?* The ladder is set up on the earth. The traffic on it is two-way — angels ascending and descending. Heaven and earth are connected, and the connection runs in both directions. How might this image steady a congregation that imagines God as remote, or imagines spiritual life as something we have to climb up to?* The promise God speaks to Jacob is mostly about presence: I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. Not just here at this holy site, but on the road. What might it mean for your people that the God of Bethel is the same God of every uncomfortable, unconsecrated place their lives will take them?Significant Cautions* Do not romanticize Jacob into a hero of the dream. He is, at this point in Genesis, a deceiver running from his consequences. The point of the scene is not Jacob's virtue but God's grace toward someone who has not earned it.* “House of God” language can be too quickly applied to a church building. The place Jacob names Bethel is a piece of open ground with a stone in it. The text is not really endorsing sacred architecture; it is naming places where God surprises us.* The promise that Jacob's offspring will inherit the land has had a long and painful history of being used to justify the taking of land from other people. If you touch this part of the text, handle it carefully and avoid reading the ancient promise as a blanket endorsement of any modern claim.Psalm 139:1–12, 23–24The Psalm (Track One) — You Have Searched Me and Known MeSummaryOne of the most intimate and personal psalms in the Bible. The opening verses celebrate God's deep knowledge of the psalmist — sitting down and rising up, the thoughts before they are spoken, the path before it is taken. The middle section asks the question Jacob might have asked: where can I go from your presence? The answer is: nowhere. Not heaven, not Sheol, not the wings of the morning, not the deepest sea, not the darkness. Even the darkness is not dark to God; the night is as bright as the day. The lectionary skips the harder middle verses and picks up at the closing: search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts; see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.Key Ideas for Preaching* This psalm reads like a meditation on Jacob's realization — surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. The psalm extends that to every place. Where in your congregation might people need to hear that there is no place outside God's attention, and what does that mean for the places they are quietly afraid to go?* “Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day.” That is one of the most beautiful sentences in the psalms. How might your sermon let your people feel the kindness of that line — not God's surveillance, but God's presence in the very darkness they have been hiding in?* The closing prayer asks God to search the psalmist — not to judge but to lead. That is a remarkable posture. Where in your people's lives might openness to being known by God be more freeing than the long work of self-management?Significant Cautions* God's constant knowing can feel like surveillance, especially to people who have lived under abusive or controlling authorities. Be gentle with this language. The God of Psalm 139 holds us, not watches us.* The omitted middle verses (19–22) contain harsh language about hating God's enemies. The lectionary leaves these out for good reason. If you reach for them, handle them with care.Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16–19First Reading (Track Two, primary option) — You Are Lord of AllSummaryFrom the book of Wisdom, part of the Apocrypha (or deuterocanonical books, depending on tradition). The selected verses celebrate God's universal sovereignty and patient mercy. There is no other God beside this one, the text says, and this God's strength is the source of righteousness. Because God is sovereign over all, God can afford to be lenient — to spare all, to be patient with all, to leave room for repentance. And then the closing line that may be why the lectionary pairs this with today's Gospel: through such acts, God teaches the people that the righteous must be kind.Key Ideas for Preaching* The connection the text makes between God's sovereignty and God's mercy is striking. Because God is in total command, God can be patient. Cruelty and impatience are the marks of weakness, not strength. Where in your congregation has impatience been mistaken for moral seriousness, and what would it look like to learn the patience of the strong?* “The righteous must be kind.” That is, in five words, the ethical conclusion the text draws from God's character. Where in your congregation has righteousness been imagined as something other than kindness, and what might shift if these two were not allowed to come apart?Significant Cautions* Some traditions (most Protestant ones) do not consider Wisdom canonical. If your congregation's tradition uses Isaiah 44 instead, the next section of this guide covers it.* “The strong are merciful” can sometimes shade into a paternalism that treats mercy as something dispensed from on high. The text is reaching for something different — a mercy that flows from confidence, not condescension.Isaiah 44:6–8First Reading (Track Two, alternative option) — I Am the First and I Am the LastSummaryA short, sharp declaration of God's uniqueness. The Lord, the King of Israel, the Lord of hosts, declares: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let them speak. Who can declare the things to come as I have done? Do not fear, do not be afraid. You are my witnesses. Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one.Key Ideas for Preaching* “Do not fear, do not be afraid.” That phrase, echoing several Sundays back in Matthew 10, anchors this short text. The reason not to fear is the same: there is no rival power. What does it look like for your people to hear that the deepest threats they imagine have, in the end, no real competing authority?* “You are my witnesses.” That is a striking thing for God to say. It places God's people inside the testimony, not at the edge of it. Where in your congregation might the language of witness need to be recovered — not as performance, but as the kind of life that quietly testifies to what is true?Significant Cautions* “There is no other god” has sometimes been used in interreligious contexts in ways that flatten and demean other faiths. Isaiah is speaking inside a particular ancient struggle against idolatry, not handing the church a position paper on world religions.Psalm 86:11–17The Psalm (Track Two) — An Undivided HeartSummaryA continuation of the psalm we already heard a few weeks ago (Proper 7). The selected verses contain one of the most quoted lines from the psalms: teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. The psalmist gives thanks for God's steadfast love and deliverance, names the trouble he is in (the insolent and the ruthless are after his life), and pleads for help, for a sign of favor, for God's strength.Key Ideas for Preaching* “An undivided heart.” That is a request many of us would not dare to pray, because we know how divided our hearts are. The psalmist is honest about needing to be given a single-mindedness he does not yet have. Where in your congregation might the gift of an undivided heart be more needed than the discipline of trying to manufacture one?* The psalmist names that ruthless people are after his life — and then, in the same psalm, names God as merciful and gracious. Both things are true at the same time. The psalm does not pretend the threats are not real in order to praise God. How might your people learn to hold real danger and real praise in the same prayer?Significant Cautions* “Show me a sign of your favor, so that those who hate me may be put to shame” is honest prayer but easy to weaponize. Be careful preaching this verse in a way that gives moral cover to grudges your congregation is already nursing.Romans 8:12–25The Epistle — Children of God, Heirs with Christ, Creation GroaningSummaryPaul continues the unfolding of Romans 8. We are debtors not to the old way of living, he says, but to the Spirit. All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God — not slaves anymore, but adopted, with the right to call out, in the most intimate language Paul can find, Abba! Father! If we are children, we are heirs, joint heirs with Christ, sharing in his suffering and in his glory. The passage then opens out into one of the most cosmic visions in the New Testament. The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed. The creation itself waits, with eager longing, for the revealing of the children of God. The creation has been subjected to futility — not by its own choice — in hope. It groans. We groan with it. We who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait for adoption and the redemption of our bodies. We were saved in hope, and hope that is seen is not hope. We wait, with patience, for what we do not yet see.Key Ideas for Preaching* Paul calls God by the name Jesus called him — Abba. That is the Aramaic word a child would have used, intimate, not formal. The Spirit makes us able to use that word too. What might it shift in your people's prayer life to hear that the language of intimacy with God is not reserved for spiritual experts?* Paul includes the whole creation in the work of redemption. The trees, the soil, the seas, the suffering creatures — they are not background scenery to the human drama. They are part of it. They groan; they wait. How might this widen your congregation's sense of what salvation includes?* “Hope that is seen is not hope.” Christian hope, by definition, is hope in something we cannot yet point to. We do not have it in hand; we wait for it. Where in your congregation has hope been collapsed into optimism, and how might Paul's patience steady it?* The passage holds together suffering and glory in a way that does not minimize either. Paul does not say the suffering is not real; he says it is not the final word. What does it look like for your congregation to grieve honestly and hope honestly in the same breath?Significant Cautions* “If we suffer with him” has sometimes been used to bless suffering that should be opposed. Paul is talking about the cost of belonging to Christ, not about staying in abusive relationships or harmful situations. Be careful here.* The adoption language has been used in ways that exclude or shame those for whom adoption is a complicated family experience. The word is theological here — about being made part of God's family by grace — but it lands on a particular set of human stories. Handle it with awareness.* “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory” can be heard cruelly by someone in real, present suffering. Paul is not minimizing their pain. He is naming an even larger reality. Say so.* The cosmic creation imagery (the whole creation groaning) has sometimes been used to bless any sentimental view of nature. Paul has something more specific in mind — a creation broken, in hope of being remade. Do not flatten this into pantheism or sentimentality.Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43The Gospel — The Wheat and the WeedsSummaryJesus tells another parable. The kingdom of heaven, he says, is like someone who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds in among the wheat, and went away. When the plants came up and bore grain, the weeds appeared as well. The servants come to the master, alarmed: did you not sow good seed? Where did these weeds come from? An enemy has done this, he answers. They offer to go and pull them up. The master refuses. No, he says — in pulling up the weeds, you would uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time, the reapers will sort them out. The lectionary then jumps to Jesus' private interpretation with his disciples. The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one; the enemy is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. The weeds will be gathered and burned. The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen.Key Ideas for Preaching* The weed in this parable is almost certainly darnel — a real plant that looks identical to wheat in the early stages of growth. You cannot tell them apart until the grain heads form. The master's refusal to let the servants pull up the weeds is not a moral instruction about tolerance; it is a botanical fact. They literally cannot tell. How might your sermon take that fact seriously and let it reshape the whole feel of the parable?* The servants in the parable are confident. They are sure they know which plants are weeds. The master, gently, refuses their confidence. Where in your congregation has confidence about who is in and who is out crept in, and what would it look like to take the master's caution seriously?* Jesus tells the disciples that the field is the world — not the church. That is worth saying out loud. The parable is not giving the church permission to be lenient about who belongs inside its life. It is talking about the much larger field of the world, where good and evil grow together, and where we are not the reapers. What does it look like for your congregation to know the difference between the church's discernment and the final judgment of the world?* The history of Christian attempts to pull up the weeds in advance is, frankly, awful. The church has identified the wrong people as weeds in every generation. Where in your congregation's past, or in your congregation's present, has someone been pulled up who was, in fact, wheat? How might honest naming help your people walk more humbly into the future?* The parable is not a call to moral passivity. The wheat still has to be tended. Injustice still has to be opposed. What the parable forbids is the human attempt to do the final sorting now. How might your sermon hold together active love for what is good and patient restraint from premature judgment?Significant Cautions* This parable has been used in some of the most damaging ways imaginable — to identify whole groups of people as “weeds”. Every Christian generation has done it, and every Christian generation has been at least partly wrong. Be especially careful with any application of this parable to actual people.* “The field is the world” means just that. The parable is not a license for the church to be lax about its own internal life. Paul and other New Testament writers have plenty to say about that. But the parable is talking about the larger field, where the final sort is not ours.* The interpretation in verses 36–43 is fierce — furnace, weeping, gnashing of teeth. Be careful with this language. It is in the text, but it is not the central point. The central point is the master's caution to the servants in the first half: let both grow together. The judgment language is the backdrop, not the foreground.* “Let anyone with ears listen” has been preached as a kind of warning. It is better heard as an invitation. The parable is doing slow, careful work; the listening it asks for is patient.* The parable can be misused in the opposite direction — as a license to ignore evil because the harvest is coming. It does not say that. It restrains us from premature sorting; it does not absolve us from active love and justice in the meantime.Thematic ConnectionsThe Gospel is the natural center for the day. The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds is one of the most pastorally and politically important parables in Matthew, and the preacher who slows down with it will find that it has much to say to the moment in which most congregations are gathered — a moment in which the human impulse to sort people into wheat and weeds has rarely felt more intense.On Track One, Jacob's dream at Bethel pairs with the parable in a quiet but pointed way. Jacob is, by any honest measure, a weed in his family's field at this point in Genesis. He has cheated his brother and is running from the consequences. And God meets him with grace. The story is its own commentary on the parable: the people we would have written off as weeds turn out to be, in God's hands, wheat in the making. Psalm 139 widens the point: there is no place where God's knowing does not reach, no darkness God does not see clear through. The God who finds Jacob on the road is the same God who finds us in whatever country we have been hiding in.On Track Two, the connection runs through the question of who has the right to judge. Wisdom of Solomon names God as the sovereign whose strength expresses itself in patience. Isaiah names God as the one and only — with no real rivals to fear. Psalm 86 asks for the gift of an undivided heart. Together, these texts ease the listener into the Gospel's harder claim: the final word about wheat and weeds is not ours.Romans 8 sits inside the day as the cosmic frame. The whole creation groans. We groan with it. The hope we wait for is not yet visible. The patience Paul asks for is the same patience the master asks for in the parable — a willingness to let the field be the field, to let the harvest be the harvest, to trust that the One who set this all in motion has not lost track of any of it. The same Spirit who lets us cry Abba is the Spirit who teaches us to wait.For preachers continuing the series: the parables arc is now two weeks old. The Sower last week named God's lavish scattering. The Wheat and the Weeds this week names God's patient deferral of judgment. Together they form a particular picture of the kingdom — generous in its giving, patient in its sorting, and not finally in our hands. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lectionarypro.substack.com/subscribe
Ears to HearSeries: Lectionary Preacher: Rev. Hilary Van WagenenDate: 12th July 2026Passage: Matthew 13:1-23
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Send us Fan Mail"Scattered Grace" | Rev. Sarah Bird Kneff preaching | 07.12.26
Having warned his Apostles about the persecution they will face, Jesus exhorts them to cast out fear and embrace their faith. (Lectionary #388) July 11, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Jesus prepares his Apostles for the opposition that they will encounter as they carry out the Lord's work. (Lectionary #387) July 10, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Sending out the Twelve Apostles to minister to the people, Jesus instructs them to rely on God alone as they carry out their work. (Lectionary #386) July 9, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
The Lord gives his authority to the Twelve, inspiring us to receive Christ's call in our hearts today and swiftly respond with joyful faith. (Lectionary #385) July 8, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Daily Lectionary with Hunter Barnes takes listeners through the daily Bible readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Our lectionary readings follow a three year cycle through the Bible. Join Christians around the world in daily readings of the Bible as they point our hearts to the God who is love. Find out more at www.dailyradiobible.comPartner with us to produce these podcasts by gifting us HERE.We are reading through the New Living Translation. Listen to our daily podcast for KidsHERE on Spotify HERE on itunes PodcastListen to the Daily Proverbs podcast.HERE on SpotityHERE on itunes PodcastLeave a voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/dailyradiobible
Pr. Will Weedon, Host of The Word of the Lord Endures Forever The Word of the Lord Endures Forever Celebrating the Saints Thank, Praise, Serve and Obey See My Savior’s HandsThe post Looking Forward to Sunday Morning (One-Year Lectionary): Sixth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Will Weedon, 7/7/26 (1883, Encore) first appeared on Issues, Etc..
The compassion of Christ inspires us to draw near to the Lord and be his ambassadors to others. (Lectionary #384) July 7, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Here are some of the themes that we discover in the Mass readings for the 15th Sunday of the Year. (Lectionary #103) July 6, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Jesus heals two different people in the context of great faith. (Lectionary #383) July 6, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
We rest from the labors and burdens of this life through the revelation of the Good News we have in Jesus Christ. (Lectionary #100) July 5, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
We yearn for a peace from God that this world cannot provide, a peace that fosters kindness, truth, and justice. (Lectionary #382) July 4, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com
Dr. John Bombaro of St. James Lutheran-Lafayette, IN The post Looking Forward to Sunday Morning (One Year Lectionary): Fifth Sunday after Trinity – Dr. John Bombaro, 6/30/26 (1811) first appeared on Issues, Etc..