Proper 22 (27)
18th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 5:1-7
Matthew 21:33-46
By Ched Myers
The 18th Sunday after Pentecost this year comes on the heels of the “Season of Creation,” a contemporary liturgical and lectionary movement celebrated during the four Sundays in September prior to St Francis of Assisi Day (4 October). Today’s haftorah—Isaiah’s famous “Song of the Vineyard”—continues this vein of ecological theology. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Ecological Theology of the Vineyard”
Proper 21(26)
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32
By the Reverend Doctor Victoria Marie
As I reflected on today’s readings the theme that emerged is: our response to God. In the first reading Ezekiel is saying that when we turn away from what is just, we die. When we return to acting with justice, we save our lives. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Our Default State is Goodness”
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.’
Exodus 14:20-21
By Tevyn East and Jay Beck
John: “She died in a dry place, yet the spring followed her.
It followed her everywhere
like a lover, easing us to rest,
springing from hidden places
in our wanderings.
Always, we were thirsty. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Tears Cannot Water the Land”
Proper 18(23)
Exodus 7-12
By Laurel Dykstra
Now you know and I know, that lice, mice, roaches, bed-bugs, and rats are no respecters of persons. They invade the house of Pharaoh, the houses of his officials, and of all his people (Exod 8:21, 10:6); they infest the luxury hotels and the welfare hotels. But when the special shampoo costs eight dollars a bottle, and a visit from the exterminator $125, those that can—pay, and those that can’t, or whose landlord won’t—scratch.
Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: The Riff Raff, the Bedbugs, and the Signs”
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 17 (22)
Exodus 3:1-15
By Rev. Matthew Syrdal
“There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it was not consumed… “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your shoes, for the place you are standing is holy ground.”
And we know, when Moses was told,
in the way he was told,
“Take off your shoes!” He grew pale from that simplereminder of fire in the dusty earth.
He never recovered
his complicated way of loving againand was free to love in the same way
he felt the fire licking at his heels loved him.
As if the lion earth could roar
and take him in one movement…
-all poetry excerpts from David Whyte, Fire in the Earth
Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: “Fire in the Earth: Burning but Flourishing””
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 15(20)
“God has made me lord of all Egypt…” Joseph, son of Jacob (Gen 45.9)
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.” Paul of Tarsus (Rom 8.19)
By Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson
A decade or so ago, we spent two years of our monthly Saturday teaching/retreat series with the book of Genesis. Folks eagerly engaged Genesis’ anti-city perspective and its all-too-human characters. But when we got to the Joseph story, several rebelled angrily against our starting characterization of Joseph, son of Jacob, as a self-absorbed, manipulative power seeker, who “succeeded” by teaching Pharaoh how to manage famine for personal profit. What is it about Joseph that leads so many to want to see him as a heroic expression of faith? Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Joseph—God’s Agent or Agent of Empire?”
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 14 (19)
1 Kings 19:9-18 & Matthew 14:22-33
[Elijah] answered “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 1 Kings 19:10
26But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Matthew 14:27
By Priscilla Paris-Austin
Faith and fear seem to reside right next to each other in our world. I don’t know about you but I find this to be true in my family story over and over again. While the two seem incompatible, as I look back I can see how closely they are aligned, one driving me to the other, or moving me through its companion, until I find my way back to God’s enduring and steadfast love.
Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: The mixology of Faith and Fear”
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 13 (18)
Isaiah 55:1-5
By Wendy Janzen
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters…”
Canada is a land of abundant fresh water. Ontario, the province in which I live, contains one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water. Ontarians love our lakes and rivers.
This summer has been a wet summer here. I’ve hardly needed to water my vegetable garden, and my small patch of lawn is still a lush green from the regular, soaking rains. Some rains have come with too much rain falling too quickly, causing streams and rivers to overflow their banks. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Come to the Waters”
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 12(17)
Matthew 13:31-32
This week’s Wild Lectionary offers two different but complimentary takes on the seed parables.
The first is a host of resources –devotions, bible studies, children’s curricula, adult education material etc. prepared by A Rocha Canada for churches that are new to engaging with creation care. The free downloadable materials are focused on Good Seed Sunday, celebrated the Sunday after Earth Day, but are also relevant for the Season of Creation and this summer stretch of Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary where we visit the seed parables in Matthew.
The second offering is excerpts from an essay by Jim Perkinson: Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Kingdom Like a Seed”
Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 11 (16)
Romans 8:12-25
By Nelson Lee
I am an engineer working to address climate change, writing from the Coast Salish Seas where the city of Vancouver, BC has been established. First son of a refugee from China and an immigrant from Germany, both fleeing war. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Earthkeepers”
Radical Discipleship 