Introduction

This guide covers the four Revised Common Lectionary readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A (May 10, 2026). Ascension Thursday falls four days later (May 14), and these texts are shaped by the awareness that Jesus is preparing to leave — and that what he leaves behind is not a void but a presence. Acts shows the gospel reaching into Athens. The psalm testifies to coming through hard places intact. First Peter calls the church to be ready to explain its hope. And John 14 promises the Spirit to people who are afraid of being left alone.

From Art in the Christian Tradition, Vanderbilt Lectionary Page

The Readings

Acts 17:22–31

The First Lesson — Paul at the Areopagus

Summary

Standing before the Areopagus in Athens, Paul addresses a sophisticated audience of philosophers and civic leaders. He opens by observing that the Athenians are clearly a religious people — he even found an altar inscribed ‘To an Unknown God.’ That unknown God, he says, is the one he has come to tell them about. This God made the world and everything in it, does not live in human-built temples, and does not need anything from us — God is the one who gives life and breath to all people. God made every nation from one source and set their boundaries, so that people might search for God, who is never actually far from any of us. Paul quotes their own poets: ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ and ‘We are his offspring.’ If that is true, then God cannot be represented by gold or silver or stone carved by human hands. God has overlooked times of ignorance, but now calls all people everywhere to turn around, because a day of judgment is coming — appointed through a man God raised from the dead. At that, some laugh, some want to hear more, and a few believe.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The Sixth Sunday of Easter falls just before Ascension, and this reading from Acts, while jumping ahead in the timeline a bit, bridges the two: it shows the gospel already moving outward into the wider world, beyond the familiar territory of Jerusalem and Judea. Paul is standing in the intellectual capital of the ancient world and holding his own. We may want to use this as a moment to reflect on what it means for faith to travel into unfamiliar places.

2. Paul finds common ground before he makes his central claim. He does not begin by telling the Athenians what they are missing — he starts with what they have already built and what they are already reaching toward. That approach is worth examining as a posture for the church’s engagement with people outside it.

3. The description of God in this passage is notable for what it does not say as much as what it does. God needs nothing, is not confined to a building, and is closer to every human being than they realize. This is a picture of God that many in a congregation may not have fully absorbed. A sermon could simply dwell in it.

4. The mixed response at the end — mockery, curiosity, belief — is a realistic picture of how proclamation lands in the world. Not every sermon ends with a packed altar call. As preachers, we may need to remind ourselves — and help congregations hold this reality — with some peace rather than treating every unresolved response as a failure.

Significant Cautions

⚠ This passage overlaps significantly with last week’s NL reading (Acts 17:16–31 is the same text). Preachers who used the Narrative Lectionary last Sunday should be aware their congregation has just heard this passage. Consider either going deeper into a specific element they did not explore, or framing the repetition as an opportunity to return to something worth sitting with longer.

⚠ Paul’s opening compliment about Athenian religiosity has limits — he goes on to call them to turn from what they have built toward the God he is proclaiming. Preachers should hold both moves together rather than presenting Paul as simply affirming whatever spiritual seeking people are doing.

⚠ The phrase ‘times of ignorance God overlooked’ needs care. It is not a blanket dismissal of all religious life outside Christianity, but it does signal that Paul sees this moment as a turning point rather than a continuation of business as usual. There is truth, even truth about God, that can be learned outside of our religious traditions.

Psalm 66:8–20

The Psalm — Tested, Tried, and Brought Through

Summary

This portion of Psalm 66 shifts from a call to general praise into something more personal and hard-won. The speaker describes a period of severe testing — God allowed the community to be burdened, passed through fire and water, and brought to what felt like a breaking point. But they came through to a spacious place. The psalmist then moves to personal testimony: I cried out to God, and God listened. If I had held on to anything wrong in my heart, God would not have heard — but God did hear, and did not take away steadfast love. The psalm closes with praise for a God who kept listening.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The testing described in this psalm is not metaphorical softness — it involves being ridden over, fire, and flood. This is real hardship, and the psalm does not apologize for naming it. We may use this as an opening for honest conversation about seasons of life that feel like they are breaking something in us.

2. The movement from ‘you brought us through’ to ‘I cried out and was heard’ — from communal memory to personal testimony — mirrors what often happens in a healthy congregation. Corporate faith provides the framework; personal experience fills it in. Both matter, and neither replaces the other.

3. The conditional in verse 18 — ‘if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened’ — is worth addressing carefully. It is not a claim that only morally perfect people get heard. It is an observation that a life turned deliberately away from God is also a life turned away from the relationship that makes prayer possible.

4. The phrase ‘brought us out to a spacious place’ is one of the most evocative images in the Psalter for what deliverance feels like. It is not just relief — it is room. We can use this image to describe what life on the other side of a hard season can look like.

Significant Cautions

⚠ Verse 18 — about God not hearing those who cherish wrongdoing — has been used harmfully to tell people whose prayers seem unanswered that they must have some hidden sin. That is a pastoral minefield. The psalm is a personal expression of gratitude, not a theological formula for how prayer works.

⚠ The testing in this psalm is framed as something God allowed or even directed. That raises honest questions about theodicy that, as preachers, we should not sidestep or resolve too quickly. It is fine to acknowledge that the psalm holds this tension without resolving it neatly.

⚠ The call to ‘bless our God’ at the opening of this section can feel jarring if a congregation is in the middle of the fire rather than on the other side of it. Preachers should be aware that not everyone in the room is at the thanksgiving end of this psalm’s arc.

1 Peter 3:13–22

The Epistle — Ready to Give a Reason for Your Hope

Summary

The letter addresses people who are vulnerable — outsiders in their communities, prone to mistreatment for no good reason. The writer asks: who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if they do, you are blessed for it. Do not be frightened. Instead, set Christ apart as holy in your heart, and be ready at any moment to give anyone who asks a clear, gentle account of the hope that lives in you. Keep your conscience clear so that those who slander you will be put to shame. It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong. Christ himself suffered once for sins — the just person for the unjust — to bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. The passage ends with a reference to Noah and the flood, connecting that rescue through water to baptism, which the writer describes not as the removal of dirt but as an appeal to God from a clear conscience, made possible through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The phrase ‘always be ready to give an account of the hope that is in you’ is one of the most practical calls in the New Testament. Many people in a congregation have never been asked to articulate what they actually hope in, or why. We can use this as an opportunity to help the congregation practice that clarity — not as a debate technique, but as an honest personal testimony.

2. The instruction to give that account ‘with gentleness and respect’ is often overlooked. The call to be ready is not a call to be aggressive or combative. The manner of the answer is part of the witness. We can explore what it looks like to speak about faith in a way that invites rather than shuts down.

3. The passage puts suffering for doing right in the context of Christ’s own suffering. This is not abstract — the writer is speaking to people who know what it is to be mistreated for no good reason. The solidarity offered here is not a philosophical argument but a shared experience.

4. The Noah and baptism connection at the end of the passage is compressed and a little hard to follow, but the key idea is worth lifting out: what saves is not the water itself but the resurrection of Jesus, to which the water points. Baptism is described as an appeal — a turning toward God. We can use this to open up what baptism means in practice for people who were baptized long ago and may not think of it often.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The question ‘who will harm you if you are eager to do good?’ can sound naive to people who have experienced serious harm despite living with integrity — victims of injustice, discrimination, or abuse. We need to acknowledge this rather than letting the verse imply that right living guarantees protection (the Job Principle).

⚠ Like last week’s epistle text, this passage has a complicated history of being used to demand passive endurance from people in genuinely harmful situations. The same cautions apply: this is not a command to remain in danger. Naming that history explicitly can be a pastoral gift.

⚠ The Noah passage has been used in Christian history to make exclusivist claims about who gets saved — only eight people, and so on. I think we should resist this reading. The writer’s point is not about the narrowness of rescue but about its reality and about what it points toward.

⚠ The reference to Christ preaching to spirits in prison is one of the most debated passages in the New Testament. Preachers do not need to resolve what it means, but they should not pretend it says something it does not. It is fine to acknowledge the difficulty honestly and keep the focus on the surrounding text.

John 14:15–21

The Gospel — The Promise of the Spirit

Summary

This passage continues Jesus’ farewell conversation with his disciples on the night before his death. He tells them that if they love him, they will keep his commandments — and he will ask the Father to give them another Advocate who will be with them forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees nor knows the Spirit. But the disciples know the Spirit, because the Spirit lives with them and will be in them. Jesus then says something that sounds paradoxical: he is going away, but he is also coming back. He is not going to leave them as orphans. On that coming day, they will know that Jesus is in the Father, they are in Jesus, and Jesus is in them. The passage closes with a restatement of the love-obedience connection: whoever has and keeps Jesus’ commandments is the one who loves him, and that person will be loved by the Father and by Jesus himself, who will make himself known to them.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The word translated ‘Advocate’ or ‘Comforter’ or ‘Helper’ (depending on the translation) is the Greek word paraclete — literally, one called alongside. The image is of someone who comes to stand next to you in a difficult situation. We can explore what it means in practice to live as though that presence is real and active.

2. Jesus says he will not leave them as orphans. That word — orphans — is striking in this context. It captures the specific terror of being left without the primary person who oriented your life. This is the emotional reality Jesus is addressing, and it is one many people in the congregation may know in various forms.

3. The connection between love and obedience in this passage runs both ways: love leads to keeping Jesus’ commands, and keeping his commands is itself the expression of love. This is not about earning anything — it is about the natural relationship between genuine love and the way it shapes behavior. Preachers can help the congregation feel the difference between obedience as duty and obedience as the overflow of a real relationship.

4. The mutual indwelling described at the end — Jesus in the Father, believers in Jesus, Jesus in them — is one of John’s central images for what resurrection life looks like. It is not a distant, transactional relationship. It is something more like being woven into one another. This image can do real pastoral work for people who experience faith as mostly external obligation.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The love-obedience connection has been used to make people feel that any struggle or failure in keeping Jesus’ commands is evidence that they do not really love him. That reading turns the passage into a source of shame rather than invitation. The context is encouragement, not accusation — Jesus is promising the Spirit precisely because he knows his followers will need help.

⚠ The statement that the world cannot receive the Spirit because it does not see or know the Spirit should not be used to draw a sharp line between insiders and outsiders in a way that produces contempt for those outside the church. The passage is about the disciples’ particular relationship with the Spirit, not a verdict on everyone else.

⚠ The ‘coming back’ Jesus describes in this passage is not straightforwardly about the second coming. In John’s Gospel it more likely refers to the post-resurrection appearances and/or the coming of the Spirit. Watch out for confident claims about eschatological timelines.

Thematic Connections

All four texts this week are, in different ways, about what sustains people when familiar support is removed or threatened. Paul speaks to people whose religious frameworks offer them something real but incomplete. The psalmist has come through fire and flood and has a story to tell about it. First Peter speaks to scattered, vulnerable people and tells them to hold their hope clearly and gently, ready to name it when asked. And John 14 speaks directly to the fear of being left — promising that what comes next is not abandonment but a new and closer kind of presence.

John 14:15–21 is the natural preaching center this week, especially with Ascension approaching. The promise of the Spirit — the one who comes alongside, who will not leave the disciples as orphans — is exactly the word that the season calls for. But First Peter’s practical charge to be ready to give a gentle account of one’s hope is an equally powerful angle, especially for congregations who want to think carefully about how they talk about faith with people outside the church. Either text rewards a sermon that takes its time.

Narrative Lectionary

Introduction

This guide covers the Narrative Lectionary reading for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year 4 (May 10, 2026). The primary text is from Paul’s letter to the Philippians — one of the warmest and most personal letters in the New Testament. Paul is in prison when he writes it, and he opens by telling the Philippians how grateful he is for their partnership with him in the work of the gospel. Even his imprisonment has turned out to be good news of a kind, and he finds himself genuinely glad no matter what. The supplemental text from Luke 9 gives a sharp image from Jesus about what greatness looks like in the kingdom of God — it looks like a child.

The Reading

Philippians 1:1–18a

The Primary Text — Partnership in the Gospel

Summary

Paul writes from prison — we do not know exactly which one — to the congregation at Philippi, a community he clearly loves. He opens with warmth and unusual candor: every time he thinks of them, he gives thanks. He is confident that the good work God began in them will keep going until the day of Christ. He holds them in his heart, and he longs for them with something that sounds almost like homesickness. He prays that their love will keep growing in knowledge and discernment, so they can tell what really matters and arrive at the day of Christ full and unblemished.

Then Paul gets honest about his situation. His imprisonment, far from shutting down the gospel, has actually spread it — the whole imperial guard has heard about Christ, and other believers have been emboldened to speak more freely. There are people preaching Christ out of goodwill toward Paul, and there are others doing it out of rivalry, trying to stir up trouble for him while he is stuck in prison. But Paul does not seem to care much about their motives. Christ is being proclaimed, he says, and in that he rejoices.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The tone of this letter from the very first lines is worth naming. Paul is in prison. His situation is objectively bad. And he opens by saying he gives thanks every time he thinks of the Philippians, that he holds them in his heart, that he longs for them. This is not forced positivity — it is a picture of what genuine community does for a person in a hard place. Preachers can open up the question of what it means to be the kind of congregation that someone in trouble thinks of with that kind of warmth.

2. Paul’s confidence that God will complete what God began is stated simply and without qualification. He is not worried about the Philippians’ spiritual state. He trusts that the God who started something in them will see it through. Preachers can explore what it looks like to hold people in that kind of faith — not anxiously checking whether they are keeping up, but trusting that God is at work in them even when you cannot see it.

3. The imprisonment has spread the gospel rather than stopped it. The whole imperial guard knows about Christ because of Paul’s chains. This is a striking reversal — the attempt to silence him has given him a captive audience. Preachers can use this to explore the theme, repeated across Acts and the epistles, that what looks like a setback for the church often turns out to be a door.

4. Paul’s response to people preaching Christ out of bad motives is remarkable: as long as Christ is proclaimed, he is glad. He does not pursue the rivals or try to correct them from prison. He chooses to focus on what is actually happening — the name of Jesus is getting out — rather than on the impurity of some people’s intentions. This is a mature and somewhat counterintuitive posture, worth examining honestly with a congregation.

5. The prayer in verses 9–11 is one of the most beautiful in Paul’s letters. He prays not that the Philippians will be protected or comfortable, but that their love will grow in knowledge and discernment — that they will be able to tell what really matters. That is a prayer worth sitting with. What would it look like for a congregation to grow in that specific kind of wisdom?

Significant Cautions

⚠ The joy and gratitude in this letter can be preached in a way that makes suffering sound easy if you just have the right attitude. Paul’s joy is real, but it is the product of deep relationship with God and with this community — it is not a technique anyone can simply adopt. Preachers should present it as a witness to what is possible rather than a standard people are failing to meet.

⚠ The people preaching from rivalry and selfish ambition are a real presence in this passage. Paul dismisses their motives but celebrates their message getting out. Preachers should not use this as a blanket endorsement of any and all Christian proclamation regardless of how it is done. Paul is making a specific observation about his specific situation — he is not saying that motives never matter.

⚠ The confidence that God will complete what God began can become a way of avoiding accountability — if God is going to finish it anyway, why does anything we do matter? That is not Paul’s intent. (cf. “God forbid” in Romans 6.) His prayer for growing love and discernment assumes that the Philippians have real work to do. God’s faithfulness and human responsibility sit alongside each other in this letter without one canceling the other.

Luke 9:46–48

The Supplemental Text — Greatness and the Child

Summary

The disciples have been arguing about which of them is the greatest. Jesus, knowing what they are thinking, takes a small child and stands the child beside him. Whoever welcomes this child in my name, he says, welcomes me — and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Then comes the line that turns the argument upside down: the one who is least among all of you is the one who is great.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. Placed alongside Paul’s letter to the Philippians, this passage reframes what Paul’s partnership and humility actually look like in practice. Paul is grateful, generous with his affection, and completely uninterested in asserting his own status in this letter. The disciples are arguing about rank. The supplemental text makes the contrast sharp: the way of the kingdom runs in the opposite direction from the way of competition.

2. The child in this passage is not a symbol of innocence or charm — in the ancient world, a child had no social status whatsoever. Welcoming a child meant extending care to someone who could give you nothing in return. That is the act Jesus holds up as the measure of greatness. Preachers can use this to ask who the equivalent of that child might be in the congregation’s own context.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The image of the child can easily slide into sentimentality — a cute child as a feel-good illustration. The passage is actually quite pointed. It is addressed to people who are in a dispute about their own importance. Preachers should let the sharpness of the original moment come through rather than softening it into a general lesson about being kind to children.

⚠ The phrase ‘the least among all of you is the greatest’ has been used to romanticize powerlessness — as if suffering itself confers spiritual status, or as if people with no power should be content with their situation because they are actually the greatest. That is a distortion. Jesus is speaking to people with power about how to use it. He is not telling people who are already marginalized that they should be grateful for their position.

Thematic Connections

Both texts this week describe what a life shaped by genuine partnership and genuine humility actually looks and feels like. Paul in prison is more concerned with the Philippians’ flourishing than with his own circumstances. He rejoices when Christ is proclaimed even by people who mean him harm. He prays not for his own release but that his friends’ love will keep growing in depth and discernment. The disciples argue about who is the greatest, and Jesus answers by standing a powerless child in the middle of them. These texts hold together a vision of community where status is not the organizing principle — love and welcome are.

The Philippians passage is substantial enough to anchor the sermon entirely. Paul’s joy from prison is one of the most compelling images in the New Testament, and there is more than enough in verses 1–18a for a full message. The Luke text works best as a brief bookend — either opening with the disciples’ argument to frame what kind of community Paul is describing, or closing with Jesus’ answer to let it land as a final image. Either way, the two texts together press the same question: what does it look like to care more about others’ flourishing than about your own standing?

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

Bishop James Dixon joins John Fairless for a discussion of how lectionary preachers can build a sermon series when stepping out of the lectionary for a time. The focus is on the series, “Being a Loving Church in a Bitter World”, published earlier here on Lectionary.pro (see the original post, “It’s Bonus Time for Preachers” below).

Bishop Dixon has long experience not only as a church planter and pastor, but as a community organizer with the ACTION Network and as the Second Presiding Bishop of the Christian Baptist Fellowship International. You will enjoy and learn from his perspective!

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

This guide covers the four Revised Common Lectionary readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A (May 3, 2026). The week’s texts circle around two related questions:

* what does it look like to trust God when everything is falling apart, and

* what is the community of faith being built into?

Stephen dies praying for his killers. The psalmist says their times are in God’s hands. First Peter calls the church a living temple still under construction. And Jesus, the night before his own death, tells his frightened friends not to let their hearts be troubled.

The Readings

Acts 7:55–60

The First Lesson — The Stoning of Stephen

Summary

Stephen has just finished a long speech before the Jewish council in Jerusalem — a retelling of Israel’s history that ends with a sharp accusation: the council has done what their ancestors did and resisted the Holy Spirit. The crowd is furious. But Stephen, filled with the Spirit, looks up and says he can see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. That is the final straw. They rush at him, drag him out of the city, and stone him. As they do, Stephen prays two prayers: one asking Jesus to receive his spirit, and one asking God not to hold this sin against his attackers. He says the second one kneeling down, and then he dies. The text notes in passing that a young man named Saul is standing there, approving of the execution.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. Stephen’s final prayers are direct echoes of Jesus on the cross — committing his spirit to God and asking forgiveness for those killing him. This is not coincidence in the telling of the story. We can explore what it means to die the way Jesus died, and how that kind of dying becomes a form of witness.

2. The vision of the Son of Man standing — not seated — at the right hand of God is worth pausing on. In most other texts the image is of Jesus seated. Here he is standing, as if rising to receive Stephen. That small detail carries significant pastoral warmth. God is not indifferent to what is happening.

3. Saul is introduced with chilling brevity: he was there and he approved. This one sentence sets up one of the most important turning points in the whole book of Acts. We may want to use this moment to reflect on how proximity to events — even terrible ones — plants seeds whose growth we cannot predict.

4. Stephen’s prayer for his killers puts forgiveness in the most extreme possible context. This is not forgiving a minor slight. It’s an honest struggle to ask how hard this is, without making it sound like a simple requirement. What enables someone to pray this way? The text points to what Stephen was seeing.

Significant Cautions

⚠ Stephen’s speech leading up to this passage includes pointed criticism of the Jerusalem leadership, and it has historically been used to fuel anti-Jewish sentiment. Preachers should be careful to locate the conflict within an internal first-century Jewish debate, not as a universal verdict on Jewish people or Judaism as a whole.

⚠ Martyrdom accounts can be preached in ways that romanticize or even encourage suffering and death. Be careful not to hold Stephen up as someone to imitate in a way that suggests his death was straightforwardly good or desirable. The text mourns his death even as it honors his faithfulness.

⚠ The mention of Saul’s approval is easy to treat as mere scene-setting. But it deserves to be named honestly: the same person who would later write much of the New Testament participated in this killing. That is uncomfortable, and it should be. There’s something here (or coming) about what it means to be truly converted.

Psalm 31:1–5, 15–16

The Psalm — Refuge in Crisis

Summary

This psalm is a cry for help from someone in serious trouble — pursued by enemies, trapped, and frightened. The speaker turns to God as a place to hide, a strong fortress, and the one who can pull them out of the net that has been set for them. Verses 15 and 16 reach the heart of the psalm’s trust: ‘My times are in your hand.’ Whatever is happening, and however little control the speaker has over it, God holds the clock. The psalm ends with a plea for God’s face to shine and for deliverance to come.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The phrase ‘my times are in your hand’ is one of the most quietly powerful statements of trust in the Psalter. It does not claim that everything will turn out fine. It claims that the one who holds time is trustworthy. We can open up the difference between those two things for a congregation.

2. Paired with the death of Stephen, this psalm gives language for what it might feel like to face mortal danger with faith intact. Stephen’s vision and his prayers suggest someone who had already internalized something like this psalm — not that death is easy, but that God holds what we cannot hold ourselves.

3. The image of God as a rock, a fortress, and a hiding place is physical and concrete. God is not an abstraction here but a place to go. We may well ask: what does it look like in practice to run to God rather than away from difficulty?

Significant Cautions

⚠ The psalm’s language about enemies is vivid and personal. In the context of worship, be thoughtful about how ‘enemies’ is interpreted. The text is not an invitation to name specific people as targets of divine punishment — it is the prayer of someone overwhelmed, using the language available to them.

⚠ Verse 5 — ‘Into your hand I commit my spirit’ — is the verse Jesus quotes from the cross in Luke’s Gospel. It is also traditionally used at the time of death. If preached alongside the Stephen text, be aware that this verse may carry deep weight for people in the congregation who are grieving or facing serious illness.

1 Peter 2:2–10

The Epistle — Living Stones

Summary

The letter calls its readers to crave the word the way newborn babies crave milk — purely, instinctively, urgently. They have already tasted that the Lord is good, and that taste should create appetite, not satisfaction. The passage then builds a picture of the church as a living temple, not made of cut stone, but of people — each a living stone being built into something together. Christ is the cornerstone, the one the builders rejected but whom God placed at the foundation. Those who trust in him will not be put to shame. And those who belong to this community are named in layered, rich terms: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people — called out of darkness into remarkable light.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The image of spiritual milk and growing appetite is unusual and worth dwelling on. Many people in a congregation have lost the hunger they once had for Scripture, prayer, or worship. The text does not scold them for this — it invites them to taste again and see what happens. We could use this image to reopen a conversation about spiritual hunger without making people feel guilty for being dry.

2. The ‘living stones’ image is a genuinely striking way to describe the church. Each person is a stone — not decorative, but structural. The building does not hold together without each one. This gives a theological grounding to the practical reality that every person in the congregation matters.

3. The string of titles in verses 9–10 — chosen, royal, holy, God’s own — were originally applied to Israel in the Hebrew scriptures and are here applied to the church, a community that includes Gentiles. We may need to help the congregation hear these not as credentials they earned but as a description of who God has made them. The emphasis falls on what they were called to do: proclaim the mighty acts of the one who called them.

4. The cornerstone that the builders rejected is a direct reference to Psalm 118, which Jesus applied to himself. The image connects back to Stephen’s death and forward to what the church is being built into. Rejection is not the end of the story.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The titles in verses 9–10 — ‘chosen race,’ ‘holy nation,’ and so on — have been used to justify religious exclusivism or even nationalism. We want to be clear that these are descriptions of a community defined by calling and trust, not by ethnicity, culture, or any human marker of identity.

⚠ The use of Israel’s titles for the church has a complicated history in relation to Jewish-Christian relations. This text has sometimes been read as suggesting the church has replaced Israel. We want to avoid that reading and instead note that the letter is drawing on a shared inheritance, not canceling it.

⚠ The ‘newborn infants’ image for spiritual hunger can be misread as a call for people to remain permanently childlike in their faith — dependent, unquestioning, always needing to be fed. The context makes clear this is about appetite and receptivity, not permanent immaturity.

John 14:1–14

The Gospel — The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Summary

Jesus is at the table with his disciples on the night before he dies, and he is trying to prepare them for what is coming. He tells them not to let their hearts be troubled — he is going to prepare a place for them, and he will come back and take them to be with him. Thomas pushes back honestly: they do not know where he is going, so how can they know the way? Jesus answers with one of the most famous lines in John’s Gospel: he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him. Philip then asks to be shown the Father, and Jesus responds with some surprise: after all this time, Philip still does not recognize that seeing Jesus is seeing the Father. The passage ends with a promise: whoever trusts in Jesus will do the works he has done, and even greater ones, because he is going to the Father.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. This passage opens with a pastoral word: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.’ Jesus says this to people who are about to go through the worst night of their lives. It is not a command to suppress grief or pretend things are fine — it is an invitation to locate their trust somewhere steady. We can help people sit with that distinction carefully.

2. Thomas’s question is one of the most honest moments in the Gospels. (Why we called him “Honest Thomas” a few weeks ago!) He does not pretend to understand. He says plainly: we do not know where you are going. Jesus does not scold him. He answers. We can use Thomas here to give the congregation permission to ask the questions they are actually carrying.

3. The claim ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ is one of the most contested verses in John’s Gospel. We want to address it directly rather than skipping past its difficulty. It is worth exploring what Jesus means by ‘way’ — not a set of rules, but a person to follow — before moving to what is claimed about the Father. I still like what Eugene Peterson had to say (at length) on this matter:

We can't suppress the Jesus way in order to sell the Jesus truth. The Jesus way and the Jesus truth must be congruent. Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life.”― Eugene H. Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way

4. Philip’s request — ‘show us the Father and that will be enough for us’ — is deeply human. Most people in the congregation have, at some point, wanted exactly that: a clear, unambiguous sight of God. Jesus’ answer is that they have already been given it.

5. The promise that believers will do ‘greater works’ than Jesus is genuinely puzzling and often glossed over. It is worth addressing honestly. The clue is in the reason Jesus gives: he is going to the Father. The resurrection and the Spirit’s coming make possible a wider reach than Jesus’ own earthly ministry had. This is not about individual superpowers — it is about a community continuing a movement.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The verse ‘no one comes to the Father except through me’ has been used as a blunt instrument in conversations about salvation and who is included or excluded. We should engage it honestly rather than either avoiding it or using it to draw sharp lines around other religious traditions. The context is pastoral — Jesus is comforting grieving disciples, not issuing a theological boundary statement.

⚠ The ‘many dwelling places’ in the Father’s house has been heavily freighted with speculation about heaven and the afterlife. The text does not describe what those dwelling places look like. Be careful to resist the temptation to fill in what the text leaves open, and instead focus on the promise itself: there is room, and Jesus is preparing it.

⚠ The claim that seeing Jesus is seeing the Father is one of John’s deepest theological commitments. It is also easily misread as making Jesus and the Father identical in every way. The Gospel itself maintains distinction alongside unity. We do not need to resolve this fully, but we should not flatten it either.

Thematic Connections

The thread running through all four readings this week is trust in the face of things we cannot control. Stephen cannot stop what is happening to him, but he can choose what he does with his final moments — and he chooses prayer. The psalmist cannot see how their situation will resolve, but they name their trust in the one who holds their times. First Peter tells a scattered, vulnerable community that they are being built into something that will last. And John 14 begins with Jesus telling his closest friends not to let fear run the show.

John 14 is the natural center for preaching this week — it is rich and wide enough for a full sermon on its own. But Acts 7 offers a powerful alternative angle: what does trust look like not in a quiet moment of reflection but in the worst moment of a life? A preacher willing to sit in that question without resolving it too quickly will find a great deal to work with. The psalm and First Peter can serve as supporting voices in either direction.

Narrative Lectionary

This guide covers the Narrative Lectionary reading for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year 4 (May 3, 2026). The primary text is Paul’s sermon in Athens — one of the most unusual moments in Acts, where Paul finds himself in the middle of a philosophically sophisticated city full of altars to gods he does not recognize. Rather than leading with condemnation, he starts with what he finds and builds from there. The supplemental verses from John 1 name what Paul is ultimately pointing toward: the God whom no one has seen has been made known in Jesus Christ, from whose fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

The Reading

Acts 17:16–31

The Primary Text — Paul’s Sermon at Athens

Summary

Paul arrives in Athens while waiting for his companions and finds himself deeply unsettled by how many idols fill the city. He begins debating in the synagogue with Jews and God-fearers, and then in the public square with anyone who will listen. Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encounter him and bring him to the Areopagus — Athens’ formal court of intellectual and civic life — to explain this new teaching they keep hearing about. They note, somewhat dismissively, that he seems to be talking about foreign gods. Paul stands up and starts not with an attack but with an observation: he can see that the Athenians are very religious people. He even found an altar inscribed ‘To an Unknown God.’ That, he says, is exactly what he has come to tell them about.

Paul then speaks in terms his audience can follow. The God who made the world does not live in temples made by human hands and does not need anything from us — God is the one who gives life and breath to everything. God made every nation from one source and set the boundaries of where they live, so that people everywhere might search for God and perhaps find him, though God is not actually far from any of us. Paul even quotes their own poets: ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ and ‘We are his offspring.’ If we are God’s offspring, then God cannot be made of gold or silver or stone shaped by human imagination. God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now calls everyone everywhere to turn around, because a day of judgment is coming. The judge has been appointed — and God raised him from the dead as proof. At the mention of resurrection, some laugh, some want to hear more, and a few believe.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. Paul does not open by telling the Athenians they are wrong. He opens by telling them he has been looking at what they have built and finds them genuinely religious. The altar to an unknown god is his starting point, not an object of ridicule. This is a remarkable model of how to enter a conversation with people outside the faith — starting with what is already there rather than what is missing.

2. The God Paul describes is not contained in any building, does not need anything, and is already close to every human being. This is a picture of God that cuts against every form of religious gatekeeping. Preachers can ask: how does a congregation hold this truth — that God is not far from anyone — alongside a commitment to proclaiming Jesus specifically?

3. Paul quotes the Athenians’ own poets back to them. He finds truth about God already present in their tradition and uses it as a bridge. This is a rare moment in Acts, and it raises a genuinely important question for preachers: where do we see true things about God showing up outside the walls of the church? How do we engage those places?

4. The audience splits at the mention of resurrection. Some laugh, some want to hear more, some believe. Paul does not chase the laughers or try to convince the skeptical. He states what he came to say and lets people respond as they will. (He has spoken his piece and counted to three, so to speak.)

5. The sermon ends with a call to turn around — the same basic movement as every other proclamation in Acts, just dressed in different clothes. The framework is cultural and philosophical rather than scriptural, but the destination is the same. Preachers can explore what it looks like to say the same essential thing to very different audiences without simply giving the same sermon.

Significant Cautions

⚠ It is tempting to use this passage as a simple endorsement of cultural engagement or interfaith dialogue. The passage is more complicated than that — Paul is genuinely troubled by the idols around him, and his sermon ends with a clear call to leave them behind. A sermon that only celebrates Paul’s openness without noting where he still draws a line will miss the tension the text holds.

⚠ The phrase ‘times of ignorance God overlooked’ has sometimes been read as dismissive of all non-Christian religious practice before the gospel arrived. That reading oversimplifies. The text is pointing toward a shift in how God is acting in the world, not making a sweeping judgment about the sincerity or value of other people’s religious lives.

⚠ Be careful about using this passage to suggest that all religions are ultimately saying the same thing and pointing to the same God. Paul does not say that. He finds a point of contact, and then he redirects. The altar to the unknown god is a starting point, not an ending point. Those two moves need to be kept together.

⚠ The mixed response at the end — laughter, curiosity, belief — can be used to prepare congregations for the reality that not everyone will respond to the gospel. That is legitimate and worth naming. But be careful not to use the laughers as a way of dismissing skeptical people in the congregation or culture as simply closed-minded. Intellectual doubt is not the same thing as hardness of heart.

John 1:16–18

The Supplemental Text — Grace upon Grace

Summary

These three verses come from the prologue of John’s Gospel — the opening hymn that sets up everything the Gospel will say about who Jesus is. From his fullness, the writer says, we have all received grace upon grace. The law came through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, has made God known. It is a compressed statement about what the incarnation actually accomplished: a full, overflowing gift, and a revelation of God that no one could have accessed any other way.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. Placed alongside Paul’s sermon at Athens, these verses clarify what Paul is ultimately pointing toward. He finds the unknown God in the Athenians’ own altar and works outward from there. John 1 names what has now been made known: the God whom no one has seen has been revealed in the person of Jesus. The supplemental text gives Paul’s proclamation its destination.

2. The phrase ‘grace upon grace’ — sometimes translated ‘grace in place of grace’ — suggests not just a one-time gift but a continuing, layered generosity. There is always more. Preachers can use this image to speak to people who feel they have used up their portion of God’s patience or kindness, or who are afraid that what they have received is all there will be.

3. The contrast between Moses and Jesus in verse 17 is not a dismissal of the law — it is a statement about what has now been added. Grace and truth have arrived in a person, not just a set of instructions. Preachers can explore what it means that the fullest revelation of God is not a document or a system but a life.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The contrast between Moses and Jesus has a long and painful history of being used to set Christianity against Judaism — as if the law was a failed experiment that grace replaced. That reading distorts both testaments. The law was itself a gift of grace; what John describes is addition and fulfillment, not replacement and rejection.

⚠ The claim that Jesus has made God known in a way no one else has can sound like a dismissal of all other religious experience or understanding of God. Preachers should present it as a statement about the particularity and depth of what God has done in Christ, not as a verdict that nothing true about God has ever been known anywhere else.

Thematic Connections

Both texts this week move in the same direction: from searching toward finding, from not knowing toward being shown. Paul stands in a city full of altars to gods that no one can quite name, and he points toward the one who has now been made known. John 1 names what that making-known actually looks like: the fullness of God, given in a person, producing grace upon grace. Paul’s sermon at Athens is the proclamation; John’s prologue is its theological ground. Together they describe a gospel that meets people in their reaching and brings them to something specific.

The Acts passage is rich enough for a full sermon. A preacher could focus on Paul’s method — starting with what is already there — or on what he says about the nature of God, or on the mixed response at the end. The John verses work best as a brief anchor, either opening the sermon with a statement of what Paul is ultimately pointing toward, or closing with it as a final word about what ‘making God known’ actually means. Either placement gives the sermon a theological center that the Athens scene alone does not quite provide.

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

Fourth Sunday of Easter • April 26, 2026 • Year A

Introduction

We begin with the four Revised Common Lectionary readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A (April 26, 2026). This Sunday is sometimes called Good Shepherd Sunday because of the Gospel reading from John 10, and the theme of shepherding runs through all four texts in different ways — care, guidance, the cost of protecting others, and what it looks like to belong to someone who truly looks after you.

Photo credit Good Shepherd Catholic Parish

The Readings

Acts 2:42–47

The First Lesson — Life in the Early Church

SUMMARY

This short passage describes what the church looked like in the days right after Pentecost. The new community devoted itself to four things: learning from the apostles, sharing meals and life together, breaking bread, and praying. A sense of awe settled over everyone, and the apostles were doing remarkable things among the people. Those who believed held everything in common — selling what they owned to make sure no one went without. They met daily, ate together with joy, praised God, and were well regarded by their neighbors. Each day, more people joined them.

KEY IDEAS FOR PREACHING

* This passage is often read as a picture of what the church is supposed to look like. That can be inspiring, but it can also be crushing if a congregation feels they fall short. A better approach might be to ask: which of these four practices is most alive in our community right now, and which one needs the most attention?

* The sharing of possessions is described matter-of-factly, not as a heroic sacrifice. It simply made sense to them given what they had experienced. Preachers can explore what that kind of practical generosity looks like when it comes from genuine gratitude rather than obligation.

* The word ‘devoted’ appears at the start and shapes everything that follows. These people were not dabbling. What does it mean to be devoted — not just interested — in the life of faith? That question is worth opening up for a congregation.

* Glad and generous hearts are named as the interior quality beneath all the external practices. The community was not running programs — they were living out of a particular emotional and spiritual posture. What produces that posture, and how does a congregation cultivate it?

SIGNIFICANT CAUTIONS

* Be careful about holding up this passage as ‘the early church was perfect.’ Acts itself shows conflict, deception, and failure arriving very quickly after this moment (see chapter 5). This is a picture of a community at its best, not a permanent state they maintained.

* The communal sharing of property has sometimes been read as a biblical case for a particular economic or political system. The text is not making a policy argument. It is describing what love looked like in a specific community at a specific moment. Preachers should resist turning it into a platform for contemporary political positions from either direction.

* The rapid daily growth can make congregations who are not growing feel like failures. Be thoughtful about how you use the phrase ‘the Lord added to their number.’ The text is descriptive, not prescriptive — it tells what happened, not what must happen in every time and place.

Psalm 23

The Psalm — The Lord Is My Shepherd

SUMMARY

One of the most familiar passages in all of Scripture, Psalm 23 moves through a series of images describing God’s care. The Lord as shepherd provides rest, leads to water, and restores the soul. Even in the darkest places, the presence of God brings comfort. The image then shifts: God becomes a host who sets a table, anoints with oil, and fills the cup. The psalm ends with confidence — goodness and mercy will follow all the days of life, and the speaker will dwell in God’s house forever.

KEY IDEAS FOR PREACHING

* Because this psalm is so familiar, many people hear it without actually listening. One of the most useful things a preacher can do with Psalm 23 is slow it down and let people encounter it as if for the first time. What does it feel like to have someone else take responsibility for your wellbeing? That is the posture the psalm invites.

* The dark valley in verse 4 is easy to rush past on the way to the green pastures. But the psalm does not skip it — it walks straight through it. Preachers can offer this as honest pastoral care: the life of faith does not avoid hard places; it travels through them with company.

* The shift from shepherd to host midway through the psalm is striking. God is not only the one who guides from ahead but the one who welcomes and feeds. Both images together give a fuller picture of what divine care looks like.

In the Easter season, this psalm takes on additional resonance. The table spread in the presence of enemies, the overflowing cup — these images land differently after the resurrection. The congregation is living the reality the psalm describes: walking through a world where death is present but defeated, sitting at a table prepared by the risen Christ, drinking from a cup that overflows with resurrection life. We can draw that connection without forcing it.

SIGNIFICANT CAUTIONS

* The familiarity of this psalm cuts both ways. It is beloved precisely because it has been a comfort in grief and crisis for countless people. Do not treat it as too simple or obvious — for many in the congregation, these words have carried them through the hardest moments of their lives.

* Avoid using this psalm to suggest that faith means nothing bad will happen. The dark valley is in the psalm, not as something to be explained away, but as something to be walked through. The comfort is in the presence, not the absence of difficulty.

* The phrase ‘green pastures’ and ‘still waters’ can sound like a promise of ease and prosperity. That reading flattens the psalm. The rest and restoration described here come after real depletion — this is a psalm for tired people, not comfortable ones.

1 Peter 2:19–25

The Epistle — Suffering Unjustly

SUMMARY

This passage addresses people who are suffering — specifically, those who are doing right and being mistreated for it. The letter does not pretend this is easy or that it makes sense from a human point of view. Instead, it points to Christ as the one who walked this road before them. He did not sin, did not threaten or retaliate when he was abused, but entrusted himself to the God who judges justly. He bore what he bore in his body so that those who were lost might find their way back. The image at the end is of sheep who had wandered returning to the shepherd who watches over them.

KEY IDEAS FOR PREACHING

* This is a hard text to preach because it can sound like an endorsement of passivity in the face of injustice. But the key phrase is ‘endure when you do right and suffer for it.’ This is not about accepting all suffering quietly — it is about the specific situation of doing good and still being mistreated. Naming that distinction carefully matters.

* Christ is held up not as a distant ideal but as someone who actually went through this. The passage is saying: you are not the first, and the one who went before you knows what it costs. That is genuine solidarity, and it can be a rich vein to mine for people in real pain.

* The image of wandering sheep returning to a shepherd at the end of the passage is worth dwelling on. It is gentle and without accusation. The return is not a march of shame — it is a homecoming. This can speak to people who feel they have drifted and wonder if there is a way back.

* The phrase ‘entrusted himself to the one who judges justly’ is quietly powerful. When there is no human court that will hear your case, the text says there is still a court that matters. This can be a word of real hope for people who have experienced injustice with no recourse.

SIGNIFICANT CAUTIONS

* This passage has been used harmfully to tell people — especially women, enslaved people, or those in abusive situations — that they must endure mistreatment without resistance. That is a serious misreading. The text is not a command for victims to remain in danger. Preach it with this history in mind and be explicit that it does not apply that way.

* The call to follow Christ’s example in suffering can romanticize pain if not handled carefully. Suffering is not good in itself. The text is not saying that being mistreated makes you holy — it is saying that when you cannot avoid it, you are not alone in it.

* The phrase ‘leaving you an example’ should not be used to pressure people into silence about legitimate grievances. An example is something to learn from, not a rule that overrides common sense, safety, or the pursuit of justice.

John 10:1–10

The Gospel — The Gate and the Shepherd

SUMMARY

Jesus uses a picture from everyday life — a sheep pen, a shepherd, and a gatekeeper — to describe his relationship with his followers. The one who enters through the gate is the true shepherd; those who try to climb in another way are up to no good. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice and follow him because they trust it; they run from strangers because that voice is unfamiliar. The religious leaders who are listening do not understand what Jesus is saying, so he makes it plainer: he is the gate. Anyone who comes through him will be safe, free to come and go, and well-fed. Thieves come to take; he came so that people might have life — life that is full and overflowing.

KEY IDEAS FOR PREACHING

* The detail that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd is one of the most relatable images in the Gospel of John. Most people have some experience of recognizing a voice they trust — a parent, a friend, someone who has looked out for them. Preachers can use that instinct to open up what it means to learn to recognize God’s voice.

* Jesus describes himself as the gate, not just a gate. This is a strong claim, but it is worth noticing what he says those who enter through the gate find: safety, freedom to move in and out, and pasture. The emphasis is on abundance and access, not restriction.

* The thief comes to steal and destroy; Jesus came so that people might have life and have it fully. That contrast is one of the clearest statements in the Gospels about what Jesus understands his own purpose to be. A sermon could spend significant time on what ‘life in its fullness’ actually looks and feels like in practice.

* The phrase ‘the sheep hear his voice’ assumes a relationship that has developed over time. Recognizing a voice is not automatic — it comes from familiarity. This is an opportunity to reflect on what it looks like to spend enough time in prayer, Scripture, and community that God’s voice becomes recognizable.

SIGNIFICANT CAUTIONS

* The line ‘all who came before me are thieves and bandits’ is jarring and should not be used to dismiss the whole of the Hebrew prophetic tradition or Jewish leadership in general. Read in context, Jesus is contrasting himself with those who exploit the flock, not with all prior religious figures or Judaism as a whole.

* The gate image has sometimes been used to draw sharp lines about who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ of salvation. The text’s own emphasis falls on what the sheep find once they enter — safety, nourishment, freedom — not on who gets excluded. Let the text lead with welcome rather than boundary.

* The image of sheep following a voice can be used to encourage uncritical obedience to religious authorities. The passage itself guards against this by emphasizing that the sheep run from voices they do not recognize. Discernment, not blind following, is the point.

Thematic Connections

All four readings this week describe what it looks like to be genuinely cared for — and what it costs the one doing the caring. Acts shows a community that took care of each other with glad hearts. Psalm 23 pictures God as the one who leads, feeds, and stays close through the darkest stretches. First Peter points to Christ absorbing the cost of others’ wandering so they could find their way home. And John 10 names Jesus as the gate through which people find safety, freedom, and full life.

A preacher could anchor the week anywhere in these texts. John 10 is the natural center given the day’s traditional focus on the Good Shepherd. But Acts 2 offers a concrete, practical angle — what does shepherd-like care look like when an entire community practices it together? And First Peter raises the hardest question of all: what do you do when doing right still leads to suffering? These texts can hold that tension without resolving it cheaply.

Narrative Lectionary

The primary text is from Acts 16, where Paul and Silas end up in prison in Philippi — not because they did anything wrong, but because setting a slave girl free cost her owners money. The supplemental verses from Luke 6 set the stage: Jesus came to heal and free, and the people who followed him knew what it was to be pushed to the margins. Together these texts ask a pointed question: when following Jesus disrupts the status quo, what happens next?

The Reading

Acts 16:16–34

The Primary Text — Paul and Silas in Prison at Philippi

SUMMARY

Paul and Silas are in Philippi, a Roman colony and a city where status and economic power matter a great deal. They keep running into a slave girl who has a spirit that allows her to predict the future — something her owners have been making money from. She follows Paul around for days, shouting that these men are servants of the Most High God who are proclaiming a way of salvation. Paul, eventually exasperated, turns and commands the spirit to leave her. It does. Her owners, furious that their source of income has disappeared, drag Paul and Silas before the city magistrates, accusing them of causing trouble and promoting foreign customs.

The crowd joins in the attack. Paul and Silas are stripped, beaten with rods, and thrown into the inner cell of the prison, with their feet locked in stocks. Around midnight they are praying and singing hymns, and the other prisoners are listening. Then a violent earthquake shakes the foundations, every door flies open, and every chain falls loose. The jailer wakes up, sees the open doors, and draws his sword to kill himself — assuming the prisoners have escaped and knowing what fate awaits him. Paul calls out to stop him: everyone is still there. The jailer falls before Paul and Silas and asks the question that echoes through the whole passage: ‘What must I do to be saved?’ They tell him to trust in the Lord Jesus, and he and his whole household will be saved. He takes them home, cleans their wounds, and is baptized with his family that same night. He brings them a meal and celebrates with his whole household, now that he has come to believe in God.

Image courtesy Unsplash

KEY IDEAS FOR PREACHING

* The slave girl is the most overlooked person in this story, and she deserves more attention than she usually gets. She was being exploited for profit, day after day. When Paul frees her, he disrupts an economic arrangement — and he pays for it. The text does not follow up on what happens to her after the spirit leaves. Preachers can acknowledge that gap honestly and invite the congregation to sit with the fact that doing good for someone vulnerable can set off serious consequences.

* Paul and Silas are singing at midnight in a jail cell, bleeding from a beating they did not deserve. Whatever that is, it is not forced positivity or denial. It is something that runs deeper than their circumstances. Proclamation can open up the question of what produces that kind of resilience — not as a formula to copy, but as a reality worth wondering about.

* The earthquake opens every door and loosens every chain — but no one runs. That is an extraordinary detail. The prisoners stay. Paul calls out to the jailer before the man can hurt himself. This is a moment of genuine human care in an unexpected place, and it is what opens the door to the jailer’s question. Preachers can draw a direct line: sometimes witness is not a prepared speech but a decision not to take the exit when it opens.

* The jailer’s question — ‘What must I do to be saved?’ — comes out of genuine crisis. He is a man at the end of his rope, not someone sitting in a pew considering his options. The answer Paul gives is simple: trust in the Lord Jesus. What follows is immediate and whole-household — washing wounds, being baptized, eating together, rejoicing. Salvation in this passage is not a private transaction; it reshapes a family and produces a meal.

* This story takes place in a Roman colony where power and status are everything. Paul and Silas are stripped of all social standing, beaten publicly, and imprisoned. Yet by morning the jailer is washing their wounds and feeding them breakfast. The power dynamics have completely reversed, and it happened through an earthquake and a decision to stay. We can ask what it means that the Gospel keeps showing up in these kinds of inversions.

SIGNIFICANT CAUTIONS

* The slave girl’s liberation is real, but she disappears from the narrative. The text does not tie things up neatly for her. Preachers who skip past her too quickly risk reinforcing the pattern of treating vulnerable people as props in someone else’s story.

* The midnight worship in prison is powerful, but preachers should not use it to suggest that the right response to suffering or injustice is always to sing and wait. Paul and Silas did not engineer the earthquake; they did not escape when they could have. This is a specific story, not a universal template for how Christians should respond to being mistreated.

* The ‘whole household’ baptism raises real questions about consent — were children and servants included without much say? The text does not address this, and we preachers do not need to resolve it from the pulpit. But it is worth being aware of, especially in congregations that practice only adult or believer’s baptism, where someone may push back.

* The jailer’s story is moving, but do not let it overshadow the injustice that put Paul and Silas there in the first place. The authorities who beat them without a trial are not held to account in this passage. The text is not saying the system was fine — it is showing what happened inside it.

Luke 6:18–19, 22–23

The Supplemental Text — Healing and Blessing the Excluded

SUMMARY

These verses come from the opening of Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Plain/Mount. A crowd has gathered from all over — some sick, some tormented — and Jesus heals them. Power is going out from him and everyone is trying to touch him. Then come the beatitudes: blessed are you who are poor, hungry, weeping, and hated. When people exclude you and mock you because of the Son of Man, leap for joy — your reward in heaven is great, and the prophets who came before you were treated the same way.

KEY IDEAS FOR PREACHING

* Paired with Acts 16, these verses establish that the pattern goes all the way back to Jesus. He drew in the sick, the outcast, and the struggling — and so did Paul and Silas. The supplemental reading gives the Acts story a longer arc: this is what the ministry of Jesus looked like, and the early church was continuing it.

* The beatitudes in Luke are addressed directly in the second person: ‘Blessed are you.’ This is not a general principle — it is a word spoken to specific people in the crowd. Preachers can use this to help congregations hear it personally, especially those who feel excluded, overlooked, or pushed to the edge. It is the equivalent of the Southern saying, “All y’all are in on this… in a good way.”

SIGNIFICANT CAUTIONS

* The promise that those who are excluded should ‘leap for joy’ needs to be handled with care. It is not telling people their pain does not matter or that they should pretend to be happy. It is pointing toward a bigger picture — one that most people in genuine suffering cannot see on their own. Preach it with gentleness, not as a demand.

* The comparison to the prophets who were mistreated can make suffering sound heroic or inevitable. Not all suffering is meaningful, and not all exclusion is persecution. Preachers should be specific about what kind of exclusion Jesus is naming here — exclusion for following him — rather than letting the verse be applied loosely to any difficult experience.

Thematic Connections

Both texts this week show what happens when the work of God runs into opposition from people who benefit from things staying the way they are. Jesus heals and blesses the excluded; a slave girl is freed; Paul and Silas are thrown in prison for it. The people who get hurt in both texts are the ones doing good. The supplemental verses from Luke say that this is not a surprise — it follows a pattern that goes back to the prophets. And the Acts story shows that even inside that opposition, something keeps breaking through: a midnight song, an open door, a jailer asking the right question.

TIf you want a single focus, you would do well to stay with the jail scene and the question ‘What must I do to be saved?’ — exploring what prompted it, what the answer meant, and what happened next. But the slave girl at the beginning is an equally powerful, and less-traveled, starting point. A sermon that begins with her and follows her thread through the whole story could be especially fresh.

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

The Emmaus Road courtesy of The Missional Network (April 15, 2020)

Welcome, friends, as we continue the Easter season. I have meticulously checked my sources for this week, but if I’m off again — you’ll let me know!

RCL Readings

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

The First Lesson — Peter’s Pentecost Proclamation

Summary

Picking up from Peter’s Pentecost address — which has already happened at this point in the text, but not yet in our observance of the season — this passage reaches its climax: Peter declares that God has made the crucified Jesus both Lord and Messiah. The crowd, cut to the heart, asks what they should do. Peter calls them to repent and be baptized in Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, promising that the gift is for them, their children, and all who are far away. About three thousand respond and are baptized that day.

Key Ideas for Preaching 1

1. The scandal of the cross transformed: Peter boldly declares that the one whom ‘you crucified’ God has made Lord. The resurrection is not a recovery from defeat but the vindication of Jesus. Preach the audacity of Easter proclamation in the face of complicity and failure.

2. Conversion begins with being ‘cut to the heart.’ The question ‘What should we do?’ is the right response to genuine conviction. Preachers can explore what it means to be moved before being moved to act.

3. Baptism as both boundary-crossing and gift-receiving: the promise extends to those ‘far away.’ This phrase resonates with Gentile inclusion (including us!) and has ongoing implications for who belongs in the community of faith.

4. The communal shape of salvation: three thousand are added. Repentance in Acts is never merely private; it is the beginning of participation in a new community.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The phrase ‘you crucified him’ has been historically weaponized as anti-Jewish polemic. Preachers must be careful to contextualize this as Peter speaking to a Jewish crowd about a shared moment of failure — not as a timeless indictment of Jewish people. Scapegoating must be actively resisted.

⚠ Avoid presenting ‘repent and be baptized’ as a simple transactional formula. The broader narrative of Acts shows that response to the gospel is a lifelong reorientation, not a one-time transaction.

⚠ The ‘three thousand’ figure can tempt triumphalism. Balance the celebration of growth with the call to depth of discipleship that follows in Acts 2:42-47.

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19

The Psalm — A Song of Deliverance and Vows

Summary

This psalm of thanksgiving opens with a declaration of love for God rooted in personal experience: the psalmist called out in distress and God heard. Death, Sheol, and anguish had surrounded the speaker, but God delivered. The appointed portion then jumps to verses 12-19, where the psalmist asks what can be offered in return, and answers: lifting the cup of salvation, calling on the Lord’s name, and fulfilling vows before the assembly. The Lord is praised for holding precious the death of his faithful ones.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The psalm models an honest spirituality that begins not in abstract doctrine but in lived distress. Preachers can invite congregations to name their own ‘cords of death’ as the starting point for genuine praise.

2. The rhetorical question — ‘What shall I return to the Lord?’ — is a profound invitation to examine gratitude. Rather than a transactional mindset, the psalmist’s answer centers on public, communal acknowledgment.

3. ‘The cup of salvation’ offers natural connections to Eucharistic theology and to the Easter season. This is a rich image to develop in preaching or liturgy.

4. Verse 15 — that the death of God’s faithful ones is ‘precious’ — is surprising and worth exploring. It resists cheap comfort and affirms that God takes suffering and mortality with the utmost seriousness.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The phrase ‘precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones’ can be misread as glorifying martyrdom or suffering for its own sake. Careful exegesis shows it means the opposite: God does not take the loss of beloved ones lightly.

⚠ The psalm’s confident, first-person voice can feel alienating to worshippers in the middle of suffering who cannot yet say ‘the Lord has dealt bountifully with me.’ Acknowledge that some are still in the distress described in verse 3.

⚠ Avoid truncating the psalm’s communal dimension. The vows are made ‘in the presence of all his people’ — the act of testimony is public, not merely private.

1 Peter 1:17-23

The Epistle — Ransomed to Love

Summary

The epistle calls its audience — communities living in exile and social marginalization — to live in reverent fear during their time of exile, grounded in the knowledge of what has ransomed them. They were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, the unblemished lamb, foreknown before the foundation of the world and revealed in the last times for their sake. This knowledge should lead to sincere, unhypocritical love for one another, because they have been born anew through the living and enduring word of God.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. The language of exile and sojourning is powerful for contemporary congregations who feel like cultural minorities or displaced persons. ‘Exile’ is both a literal reality for some and a metaphor for the church’s relationship to the surrounding culture.

2. The contrast between ‘perishable’ and ‘imperishable’ runs through this passage and the wider letter. Preachers can explore what it means to be founded on something that neither corrodes nor fades.

3. The image of Christ as the unblemished lamb connects Passover, Isaiah 53, and Easter. This Paschal resonance is especially powerful in the Easter season.

4. The passage ends with a call to genuine (literally ‘non-hypocritical’) love. The indicative — you have been ransomed — grounds the imperative — now love one another. This is a clean example of grace preceding ethical demand.

Significant Cautions

⚠ The language of ‘reverent fear’ needs careful handling. It should not be used to cultivate anxiety or an image of God as threatening. The context makes clear it is the fear that reorients priorities, not the fear that paralyzes.

⚠ The sacrificial language of ‘precious blood’ can be heard through frameworks of penal substitution in ways that distort the text. The emphasis here is on the costliness and preciousness of redemption, not on appeasing an angry God.

⚠ The phrase ‘futile ways inherited from your ancestors’ could be used to disparage Jewish tradition or the religious heritage of non-Western communities. Preachers should contextualize this as a reference to specific pagan practices of the letter’s Gentile audience, not a broad dismissal of religious inheritance.

Luke 24:13-35

The Gospel — The Road to Emmaus

Summary

On the afternoon of the resurrection, two disciples walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus, discussing the catastrophic events of the past days. A stranger joins them, and they are unable to recognize him. They explain their shattered hopes: they had trusted Jesus would redeem Israel, but he was crucified, and reports of an empty tomb have only confused them further. The stranger — Jesus — calls them foolish and slow of heart, then interprets for them all that Moses and the prophets said concerning himself. When they arrive, they urge the stranger to stay; at the table, he takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. At that moment, their eyes are opened, and he vanishes. They return to Jerusalem to report that their hearts were burning as he opened the scriptures, and that they recognized him in the breaking of the bread.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. This story is a paradigm of Christian formation: scripture interpreted, community gathered, bread broken, and witness sent. It traces the basic shape of Sunday worship itself.

2. The disciples’ grief and confusion at the outset is a realistic portrait of faith struggling with loss. Preachers can honor the congregation’s own ‘we had hoped’ moments as legitimate stages in the life of faith, not failures.

3. Recognition in the breaking of the bread: Jesus becomes known not through argument or vision but through a domestic, eucharistic gesture. This is a rich opportunity to explore how Christ is encountered in ordinary acts.

4. The burning heart: the disciples report that something was happening in them during the Scripture interpretation, even before they recognized Jesus. Preachers can reflect on the ways God is already present and at work that remain unrealized.

5. The movement from dejection to witness is rapid. They immediately return to Jerusalem. The encounter with the risen Christ is not an end in itself but sends people back into community.

Significant Cautions

⚠ Jesus’ rebuke — ‘foolish and slow of heart’ — can be preached dismissively toward people who struggle with faith. Preach it with tenderness; these are grieving disciples, not obstinate opponents.

⚠ The eucharistic interpretation of the bread-breaking, while theologically rich, should be handled with ecumenical sensitivity. In contexts where the Lord’s Supper is not celebrated weekly, avoid implying that the only valid meeting place with Christ is formal Communion.

⚠ This text has been used in supersessionist ways, suggesting that Jewish reading of the scriptures is incomplete or ‘blind.’ Resist this. Jesus opens the scriptures from within Jewish tradition, not against it. The text is about revelatory interpretation, not invalidation.

⚠ The disappearance of Jesus can prompt speculative preaching about the nature of resurrection bodies. Stay close to Luke’s focus: the point is not how he vanished but that his presence was real and is now internalized by the disciples.

Thematic Connections

The four readings share a deep coherence. Acts and the Psalms both describe a movement from distress or confusion toward praise and testimony — paralleling the Emmaus disciples who return to Jerusalem to proclaim what they have seen. First Peter grounds ethical life in the costliness of redemption, just as the Emmaus story grounds recognition in the physical, eucharistic act of bread-breaking. All four texts resist easy triumphalism: faith is depicted as tested, hearts are slow and confused before they burn, and the call to love is placed within the context of exile and sojourning.

Preachers may choose to anchor the week’s message (“drive the train” in Delmer’s parlance) in the Emmaus narrative while drawing on Acts for the pattern of proclamation, the Psalm for the vocabulary of deliverance and gratitude, and First Peter for the ethical implications of Easter faith.

Narrative Lectionary Texts

The Reading

Acts 9:1–19a

The Primary Text — Paul’s Conversion

Summary

Saul is on his way to Damascus, armed with official letters and a mission: find followers of Jesus, arrest them, and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. He is not a passive bystander to the persecution of the early church — he is running it. Then, on the road, a blinding light stops him cold, and a voice asks, ‘Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ Saul asks who is speaking. The answer: Jesus, the one Saul has been hunting. Saul is left blind, led by the hand into the city, and does not eat or drink for three days.

Meanwhile, God speaks to a disciple in Damascus named Ananias and tells him to find Saul and restore his sight. Ananias pushes back — he knows exactly who Saul is and what he has been doing. God tells him to go anyway: Saul has been chosen to carry the name of Jesus to nations, kings, and the people of Israel, and he will suffer for it. Ananias goes. He calls Saul ‘brother,’ lays hands on him, and Saul’s sight is restored. He gets up, is baptized, and eats. The man who came to Damascus to destroy the church is now inside it.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. Saul is stopped in the middle of doing something he was fully convinced was right. This is worth sitting with. He was not lazy or indifferent — he was zealous, organized, and certain. The road to Damascus is a story about what happens when certainty meets the living God. Preachers can ask: What would it look like for us to be stopped on our own road?

2. The risen Jesus identifies himself with those Saul has been persecuting: ‘Why are you persecuting me?’ This is one of the most striking lines in Acts. What is done to Christ’s people is done to Christ. This has implications for how the church talks about suffering, solidarity, and who Jesus stands with.

3. Ananias is the quiet hero of this story. He receives a frightening assignment and says so honestly — then goes anyway. He is asked to trust that God is already at work in the most dangerous person he knows. This is a powerful text for preaching on obedience, fear, and what it means to be sent to someone you would rather avoid.

4. The first word Ananias speaks to Saul is ‘brother.’ Before Saul had done anything to earn it, before any proof of change, Ananias named his family. That word is doing a lot of work. Preachers might linger here when talking about welcome, reconciliation, or what it costs to extend trust.

5. Saul’s conversion involves three days of blindness — a clear echo of the three days of the tomb. He enters Damascus unable to see or eat, and comes out restored and fed. The baptismal pattern here is not subtle. This text can open up rich reflection on what dying and rising actually look like in a human life.

Significant Cautions

⚠ It is easy to preach this story as a dramatic turnaround and leave it at that — the bad guy became the good guy. But the text is more unsettling than that. God chose Saul before Saul chose God, and the community that was supposed to benefit had every reason not to trust him. Do not smooth over the strangeness of how this conversion unfolds.

⚠ Saul’s pre-conversion zeal came from deep religious conviction. Be careful not to use this text to suggest that sincere religious belief is inherently dangerous, or to paint Judaism as the villain. Saul was acting in accordance with what he understood faithfulness to require. The story is about transformation, not about condemning the tradition he came from.

⚠ This passage mentions that Saul will suffer greatly for the name of Jesus. Resist the temptation to rush past this. Suffering is named as part of Saul’s calling from the beginning, not as a surprise or setback. A sermon that only celebrates the dramatic conversion without accounting for what it cost him will miss something important.

⚠ Dramatic conversion stories can leave people in the congregation feeling like their own quieter, slower journey of faith does not measure up. It is worth explicitly noting that most people do not get knocked off a horse—and that is fine. The point of the story is not the method but the mercy.

Matthew 6:24

The Supplemental Text — Serving Two Masters

Summary

This single verse from the Sermon on the Mount states a simple but demanding truth: no one can serve two masters. You will end up devoted to one and dismissive of the other. Jesus applies this directly to the choice between God and money, but the logic extends further — the verse is about the impossibility of divided ultimate loyalty.

Key Ideas for Preaching

1. Paired with Acts 9, this verse sharpens what Saul’s conversion actually meant. He had been a man of single-minded devotion — but devoted to the wrong thing. After Damascus, that same intensity is redirected. The supplemental text invites reflection on what we are actually devoted to, and whether it is possible to hold two ultimate allegiances at once.

2. The word translated ‘devoted’ or ‘loyal’ in this verse carries the sense of deep attachment — not just preference. This is not a text about disliking something slightly. It is about what holds the center of a person’s life. That is worth naming plainly for a congregation.

Significant Cautions

⚠ Matthew 6:24 specifically names money, and preachers sometimes skip over that in favor of a more general application. Do not avoid the economic edge of the verse. Jesus said what he said. That does not mean a sermon has to be only about money, but the specific example should be acknowledged.

⚠ This verse can come across as all-or-nothing in a way that discourages honest struggle. Most people in the congregation are not certain what they serve — they are trying to figure it out. Preach the verse as an invitation to clarity, not a verdict on those who are still sorting through competing loyalties.

Thematic Connections

Both texts this week circle around the same question: what does it look like when something — or someone — has the full weight of your loyalty? Saul had given everything to a cause, only to be stopped. Ananias had every reason to protect himself, and was sent anyway. The supplemental verse from Matthew names the underlying issue plainly: you cannot split your ultimate devotion. These texts together make a strong case for examining what is actually at the center of a life, and what it looks like when that center shifts.

Preachers will likely want to build the sermon around the Acts passage, using the Matthew verse either as an opening lens or a closing challenge. The story of Ananias offers a second angle that is easy to overlook — a sermon focused entirely on his call and courage could be just as powerful as one centered on Saul’s dramatic turnaround.

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

Revised Common Lectionary

ACTS 4:32-35

Expanded Summary

The early Jerusalem church reaches a moment of extraordinary unity and generosity. All believers hold their possessions in common—not a legal requirement, but a spontaneous response to resurrection conviction. Those with land or houses sell them and bring the proceeds to the apostles for distribution according to need. No one lacks anything. The passage emphasizes that grace is at work not just in proclamation and miracles, but in economics and community care. The believers aren’t practicing a theoretical communism; they’re living resurrection reality. Joseph, called Barnabas (”son of encouragement”) by the apostles, embodies this radical sharing by selling a field and laying the money at the apostles’ feet.

Preaching Notes

• The why, not just the what: Verse 33 grounds the sharing in apostolic witness to resurrection. They give because Christ is risen. This isn’t moral instruction but joyful response.

• Grace, not guilt: The tone here is freedom and abundance, not compulsion. Peter later makes clear (Acts 5:4) that Ananias had no obligation to sell or give.

• The apostles’ role: They become distributors, not hoarders. Leadership serves need.

• Barnabas as model: His later prominence in Acts stems from this moment of encouragement and generosity. Character is formed in crisis.

Pastoral Caution

This passage has been weaponized both ways—to shame comfortable churches into guilt and to justify coercive collectivism. The historical Acts community was likely facing economic crisis (Jerusalem was a pilgrimage city with limited economic stability) and expected an imminent parousia. This was their response, not a universal program. Be careful not to make this a law or a rebuke. The challenge is to the posture: are we willing to share freely if need demands it?

Application Move

Ask your congregation: What would change about your relationship to your possessions if you genuinely believed Christ was alive? Not “give everything away,” but “am I clinging, or am I open?” This is about freedom from consumerism, not a political economic system.

PSALM 23

Expanded Summary

Arguably the most beloved psalm in Christian tradition, here the text presents the Lord as shepherd and host. The imagery moves from protection and provision in vulnerable places (green pastures, still waters, dark valleys) to confidence despite enemies, and finally to hospitality and abundance. The shepherd motif—ancient and royal—portrays God as actively attentive to individual need. The “valley of the shadow of death” isn’t theoretical darkness; it’s real threat. Yet the psalmist moves not from despair to optimism but from despair to trust. By the end, the imagery shifts: the Lord is now a host preparing a table in the presence of enemies—a visual of vindication and welcome.

Preaching Notes

• Sheep don’t navigate alone: The shepherd doesn’t guide from a distance; he walks with them through dark valleys. Comfort isn’t escape from hardship but presence within it.

• Anointing and cup: The abundant imagery of v. 5 uses royal, priestly language. You are being honored, not just fed.

• Goodness and mercy pursuing: These aren’t passive virtues; they actively follow the psalmist through life—literally chasing them down.

• Home as eschatological hope: The psalm ends not with safety, but with dwelling in the Lord’s house forever. This is resurrection hope dressed in hospitality language.

Pastoral Caution

Psalm 23 is often used as a comfort psalm for grief and loss, which is beautiful—but don’t let it become maudlin or escape-oriented. The “shadow of death” isn’t prettified; it’s real darkness. The comfort isn’t that pain doesn’t exist, but that you’re not abandoned in it. Some people need to hear that God’s goodness is fierce, not just gentle.

Application Move

In an Easter season context: The shepherd has passed through death (the cross). His presence in our valley of the shadow of death is not theoretical—it’s resurrection presence. What specific “dark valley” are you or your congregation walking through this week? That’s where this psalm meets you.

1 JOHN 1:1-2:2

Expanded Summary

John begins his epistle by asserting the reality of the incarnation against docetic denial. “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands”—the incarnate Word is real, material, verifiable. This isn’t mysticism; it’s witness. The purpose is communion: so that readers can fellowship with the apostles, and through them with the Father and Son. But fellowship requires confession of sin (1:9). Importantly, John doesn’t say confession earns forgiveness—rather, confession aligns us with reality. God is light, and in that light, our deceptions become visible. The solution isn’t self-improvement but truthfulness, matched with the assurance that Christ is our advocate, our righteous defense before God (2:1-2). He is also the propitiation—the satisfaction of God’s justice—for the sins of the whole world.

Preaching Notes

• Incarnation is non-negotiable: This isn’t mysticism or memory; it’s eyewitness testimony. John emphasizes the bodily reality.

• Fellowship is the goal: Not just individual salvation, but koinonia—shared life with others and with God.

• Light and darkness language: Not psychological or metaphorical exclusively; it’s moral and relational reality.

• Confession as alignment: “If we confess our sins” (1:9)—confession isn’t punishment; it’s honesty that opens us to forgiveness already available.

• Jesus as our lawyer: 2:1 introduces the paraclete function of Christ—he intercedes, not against us, but for us. This is encouragement, not legal drama.

Pastoral Caution

Don’t let the language of “confess your sins” become scrupulous. John’s point isn’t that you need to list every transgression; it’s that you need to be honest about the reality of your sinfulness and your need for Christ. Some traditions have turned this into elaborate self-examination that produces paralysis, not repentance. Also, the “propitiation” language can sound transactional—as though God needed to be appeased. Better: Christ satisfies God’s own righteous standard and makes fellowship possible.

Application Move

In Easter season, the Resurrection is the validation of Christ’s claim to be the righteous one (2:1). We confess not to a distant judge but to one who became flesh, who died, who rose, and who now intercedes. How does that change what you’re willing to confess?

JOHN 20:19-31

Expanded Summary

The risen Jesus appears to the disciples in a locked room on Easter evening. He brings peace and commissioning. Then Thomas, absent from this first appearance, refuses to believe without sensory proof—”unless I see the mark of the nails... I will not believe.”

A week later, Jesus appears again and invites Thomas to touch him, offering what Thomas demanded. But the real punch comes in Jesus’s response: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” The passage pivots here.

Thomas gets what he asked for, but the greater blessing is pronounced over those who believe without seeing—the future church, including us. The gospel ends (20:30-31) with John’s explicit purpose: these signs are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

Preaching Notes

• Peace, commission, Spirit: Jesus’s greeting—”Peace be with you”—is eschatological wholeness, not merely emotional calm. He then sends the disciples as the Father sent him.

• Thomas isn’t a villain: He’s expressing what many of us feel. His skepticism is honest, not wicked. Jesus doesn’t rebuke him for wanting proof; he gives proof.

• The blessing is for future faith: The famous line about those “who have not seen and yet believe” is spoken to disciples who have seen. It’s a blessing pronounced over the church, over us.

• Belief produces life: The purpose statement (vv. 30-31) makes clear: these miracles exist so that belief might happen, and belief produces zoe—life, resurrection life, eternal life.

Pastoral Caution

Preachers often frame Thomas as the cautionary tale of doubt, but John frames him as the one who gets his question answered—and then gets pronounced blessed for those who don’t need the answer. Don’t shame your congregation’s doubts; rather, invite them into the space where faith grows without demanding that doubt be erased first. Also, be careful with the “blessed are those who have not seen”—it’s not a command to anti-intellectualism or willful credulity. It’s a recognition that faith without physical presence is the norm of Christian history.

Application Move

Easter means that the risen Christ is not available to our senses the way the disciples could touch him—yet the blessing is ours. We believe on the testimony of Scripture and the Spirit’s witness in our hearts. What would it look like to claim that blessing this week, not by pretending doubt doesn’t exist, but by trusting despite it?

THEMATIC CONNECTIONS

Resurrection Transforms Community (Acts 4 + John 20)

• The resurrection isn’t private consolation; it creates a new people. In Acts, they share freely because Christ is alive. In John, the disciples are sent into the world because Christ is alive.

Trust in Absence (Psalm 23 + John 20)

• Psalm 23’s shepherd leads through valleys we can’t see beyond. John 20’s disciples must trust without physical presence. This is the Easter church’s condition.

Light and Life (1 John 1 + John 20)

• In 1 John, light reveals and fellowship opens. In John 20, belief produces zoe—the life of the age to come. Easter means light wins, and life is available now.

Sermon Possibility: “Second Chances”—Acts shows community reformation, John shows personal re-encounter with Christ, 1 John shows confession and reconciliation, Psalm 23 shows trust restored. All about how resurrection creates new possibilities.

Michael Smither (New Zealand, 1939–), Doubting Thomas, early 1970s. Mural, St. Joseph’s Church, New Plymouth, New Zealand.

(from Art and Theology)

Second Sunday of Easter (Narrative Lectionary, Year 4 - John)

JOHN 20:19-31

See above, as the text from the gospel of John is the same as the RCL.

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

Since this Sunday is different from any other Sunday, we are doing something that is both different and familiar (for those who have followed the Lectionary Lab for a while, anyhow). The podcast features the Rev. Dr. Delmer Chilton, co-founder of the Lectionary Lab and long-time preacher in United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran, and Episcopal traditions.

Not so much textual work this week; more practical application and “what are you going to do?” from the pulpit on this Easter Sunday. God bless you all as you preach on this biggest of all big days!

Let us know what you think!

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

G’day, colleagues and friends. We are just about here and it will be time to enter Holy Week. My prayers for strength and clarity for you during this “heavy” time of the year.

Churches often choose either the Palm liturgy or the Passion liturgy on this Sunday, though many combine them. It’s a bit of a sticky wicket whichever way you attempt it. I have included fairly brief summaries of these familiar texts, very light pastoral cautions, and a potential outline for combining not only the Palm/Passion texts, but the Narrative lectionary text, as well. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t; that’s the tension we face every week, isn’t it?

RCL texts include:

Palms:

* Matthew 21:1–11

* Psalm 118:1–2, 19–29

Passion:

* Isaiah 50:4–9a

* Psalm 31:9–16

* Philippians 2:5–11

* Matthew 26:14–27:66

Big Idea

Jesus enters Jerusalem as the promised king, but the crowd’s expectations collide with God’s plan: the Messiah will not conquer through power but through suffering, humility, and the cross.

Text Summaries

Matthew 21:1–11 — The Triumphal Entry

Jesus enters Jerusalem riding a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy of a humble king. Crowds spread cloaks and branches on the road, shouting “Hosanna” and welcoming him as the Son of David. The scene is filled with celebration, but the crowd does not yet understand the kind of king Jesus truly is.

Summary:Jesus publicly reveals himself as Israel’s king, but his kingdom will unfold very differently than people expect.

Psalm 118:1–2, 19–29 — The King’s Procession

This psalm celebrates God’s steadfast love and the victory of the one whom God has chosen. The line “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” becomes the crowd’s cry during Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

Summary:The psalm celebrates God’s deliverance and foreshadows the welcome given to the coming king.

Isaiah 50:4–9a — The Suffering Servant

This servant song portrays one who faithfully obeys God despite suffering humiliation and violence. The servant trusts that God will ultimately vindicate him.

Summary:God’s servant remains faithful through suffering, trusting God’s final justice.

Psalm 31:9–16 — A Cry of Trust

This psalm expresses deep distress and persecution while maintaining confidence in God’s protection. The words echo the emotional reality of the Passion story.

Summary:Even in suffering and rejection, the faithful place their lives in God’s hands.

Philippians 2:5–11 — The Humility of Christ

Paul describes Christ’s self-emptying: though equal with God, he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant and becoming obedient to death on a cross. Because of this humility, God exalted him above all.

Summary:The path to glory for Christ—and for his followers—is humility and sacrificial obedience.

Matthew 26–27 — The Passion Narrative

The Gospel recounts the betrayal of Jesus, his arrest, trial, suffering, crucifixion, and burial. What appears to be defeat becomes the unfolding of God’s plan for redemption.

Summary:The rejected king gives his life to redeem the world.

Preaching Cautions

1. Avoid romanticizing the Palm Sunday crowd.With all the exultation in the air, it would be easy to assume that this crowd was “all in” for Jesus. But the same voices shouting “Hosanna” can quickly turn toward rejection when expectations are not met — or fear and political persuasion take hold. (Not to mention a few shekels crossing palms, no pun intended.)

2. Do not separate Palm Sunday from the cross.The triumphal entry only makes sense when read in light of the coming crucifixion. Prettty much ‘nuff said about that, but it become especially important if your schedule is light on the other services of Holy Week (or most folks simply won’t be there for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday.)

3. Avoid portraying the Passion as merely tragic.The suffering of Jesus is part of God’s redemptive plan. Again, this is a basic and important theological stand. There were plenty of other individuals crucified this week and all of them were tragic. But none of them had the deep significance of THIS crucifixion.

Narrative Lectionary Text:

John 19:16b–22 — The Crucifixion Begins

Big Idea

The world believes it is executing a criminal, but in reality it is lifting up the true king whose cross becomes the throne of God’s redeeming love.

Summary

Jesus carries his cross to Golgotha where he is crucified between two others. Pilate orders an inscription to be placed above him: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Though meant as a charge against him, the title reveals the deeper truth of John’s Gospel: the crucified one is truly the king.

Summary:The cross exposes both human injustice and the paradoxical kingship of Christ.

Preaching Cautions

1. Avoid portraying the crucifixion as accidental.In John’s Gospel, the cross unfolds within God’s sovereign plan.

2. Do not focus solely on brutality.The Gospel emphasizes theological meaning rather than graphic detail.

3. Avoid antisemitic interpretations.The conflict reflects specific leadership decisions, not the guilt of an entire people.

4. Do not overlook John’s irony.The inscription meant to mock Jesus actually proclaims the truth.

5. Keep the resurrection horizon visible.John presents the cross as the beginning of Jesus’ glorification.

A Unified Sermon Outline

The King We Did Not Expect

One Line Summary

Jesus is the true king, but his kingdom is revealed not through power and conquest, but through humility, suffering, and sacrificial love.

Introduction

Palm Sunday begins with celebration.

Crowds line the road.Branches wave in the air.People shout:

“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

They believe the king has finally arrived.

And they are right.

But they misunderstand what kind of king he is.

The same paradox appears again in the Narrative Lectionary reading.

Above Jesus’ cross Pilate posts a sign:

“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

Pilate means it as mockery.

But John wants us to see something deeper:

The cross itself becomes the throne of the king.

Movement 1

The King Who Comes in Humility

Jesus enters Jerusalem riding a donkey.

This fulfills Zechariah’s prophecy:

“See, your king comes to you, humble and riding on a donkey.”

In the ancient world, kings entered cities on war horses after military victory.

But Jesus comes differently.

Not on a war horse.Not surrounded by soldiers.

He arrives as a king of peace.

The crowd expects liberation from Rome.

Jesus comes to bring liberation from sin and death.

Movement 2

The King the World Rejects

The excitement of Palm Sunday quickly fades.

Within days:

* religious leaders oppose him

* the crowd turns

* Roman authorities condemn him

By the time we reach John 19, the king is hanging on a cross.

And yet John fills the scene with irony.

The soldiers dress him in royal clothing.A crown rests on his head.A sign announces his kingship.

Everything meant to mock Jesus actually reveals the truth.

The world thinks it is executing a criminal.

In reality, it is witnessing the enthronement of the king.

Movement 3

The King Who Reigns from the Cross

The cross completely redefines power.

In most kingdoms:

Power means taking control.Power means defeating enemies.Power means domination.

But in the kingdom of God:

Power looks like sacrifice.Power looks like forgiveness.Power looks like love.

The cross becomes the place where God defeats sin—not by destroying enemies, but by absorbing evil and overcoming it with grace.

Closing Illustration

On Palm Sunday the people waved palm branches.

In the ancient world, palm branches were symbols of victory and triumph. When a king returned from battle, people welcomed him by waving branches and celebrating his conquest.

So when the crowd waved palms for Jesus, they were declaring something important:

“The king has come to win the victory.”

But the victory they expected was not the victory Jesus came to bring.

They expected a king who would overthrow Rome.They expected a king who would take political power.

Instead, within days the story takes a shocking turn.

The palm branches disappear.

The cheering stops.

The crowd that welcomed him fades into silence.

And the king who entered Jerusalem in celebration is given a different crown.

Not a crown of gold.

A crown of thorns.

To the world, that crown looked like defeat.

But the Gospel tells us something extraordinary.

The crown of thorns was actually the beginning of the king’s victory.

Because the cross would not be the end of the story.

Three days later, the one who wore the crown of thorns would walk out of the tomb alive.

And the victory the crowd longed for on Palm Sunday would finally be revealed—not as a political triumph, but as the defeat of sin, death, and evil itself.

The palms were not wrong.

They were just too small.

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

RCL Texts

Ezekiel 37:1–14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6–11; John 11:1–45

A “Big Idea” for Preaching

The readings for this Sunday proclaim that the God of Scripture is the God who brings life where death seems final. In Ezekiel, a valley of dry bones—symbolizing a people who believe their story is over—is restored by the breath of God’s Spirit. Psalm 130 gives voice to those living in the depths of despair, teaching that hope rests not in human strength but in the Lord’s steadfast mercy. Romans 8 reveals that this life-giving power is now at work through the Spirit who dwells in believers and who raised Jesus from the dead. Finally, in John 11, Jesus stands before the tomb of Lazarus and declares, “I am the resurrection and the life,” demonstrating that the power promised in prophecy and experienced through the Spirit is fully embodied in Him.

Together these texts proclaim a single message: when God speaks and God’s Spirit moves, even the deepest despair and the finality of the grave cannot prevent the new life God brings. We are, of course, preparing for Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Christ’s own challenge to death through the power of God.

Text Summaries

Ezekiel 37:1–14

The prophet Ezekiel is shown a valley filled with dry bones representing Israel in exile—spiritually and nationally dead. At God’s command, Ezekiel prophesies and the bones come together, are covered with flesh, and finally receive breath, becoming a living army. God explains that this vision symbolizes God’s promise to restore Israel, bring them back to their land, and give them new life through God’s Spirit.

Summary:God promises to restore a hopeless people and breathe new life into what appears completely dead.

Psalm 130

This psalm begins with a desperate plea for mercy from “the depths,” expressing human awareness of sin and dependence on God’s forgiveness. The psalmist declares that if God counted sins strictly no one could stand, yet forgiveness is found with teh Lord. The psalm ends by urging Israel to wait for the Lord with hope because His steadfast love brings redemption.

Summary:From deep distress and guilt, the faithful cry out to God, trusting in God’s mercy and redemption.

Romans 8:6–11

Paul contrasts two ways of living: life controlled by the flesh and life guided by the Spirit. A mind set on the flesh leads to death and hostility toward God, while the Spirit brings life and peace. Believers belong to Christ because God’s Spirit dwells in them, and the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to their mortal bodies.

Summary:Those who belong to Christ live by the Spirit, sharing in the life and resurrection power of God.

John 11:1–45

Jesus’ friend Lazarus becomes ill and dies before Jesus arrives in Bethany. Speaking with Martha, Jesus declares, “I am the resurrection and the life.” At Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus calls him out of death and restores him to life, demonstrating His authority over death and revealing God’s glory. This miracle leads many to believe in Him but also intensifies the opposition that will soon lead to His crucifixion.

Summary:Jesus reveals Himself as the source of resurrection life by raising Lazarus from the dead.

Cautions for Preaching

One caution: do not flatten Ezekiel into a generic proof-text for end-times resurrection. It certainly contributes to later resurrection theology, but its first burden is the restoration of exiled Israel.

A second caution: do not reduce Psalm 130 to vague emotional comfort. It is explicitly about sin, forgiveness, reverent fear, and covenant hope.

A third caution: do not read Romans 8 as anti-body or anti-material. Paul is not denigrating the body; he is proclaiming that even mortal bodies are destined for life through the Spirit.

A fourth caution: do not treat Lazarus as though it were simply “Jesus proves he can do miracles.” John’s whole point is larger: Lazarus is a sign unveiling Jesus’ identity and preparing the reader for the paradox of the cross and resurrection.

An Illustration

In many parts of the American West there are towns that once thrived—mining towns, railroad towns, farming towns. When the industry collapsed, the people left. Buildings decayed. Windows broke. Streets filled with weeds.

If you walked through one of those ghost towns you might think, Nothing will ever live here again.

But occasionally something surprising happens. A new road is built, a new industry arrives, or a group of families decides to restore the place. Houses are repaired. Lights turn on again. Children ride bicycles down streets that were once empty.

What looked like a place where life had ended becomes alive again.

Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones is God’s declaration that He specializes in restoring what looks like a ghost town. Israel thought their story was finished. God said, Not yet.

The God of Scripture is the God who walks into abandoned valleys and says,“Live.”

(By the way, if you ever have the opportunity to visit the town of Jerome, Arizona — pictured above — do it! A fascinating history and perfect example of a town that “died” and has come back to life in a brand new way!)

Narrative Lectionary Text(s)

John 19:1–16a — Jesus Condemned

Summary and Context

This passage occurs within John’s Passion narrative (John 18–19) and specifically within Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate.

The movement of the trial unfolds in stages:

* Jesus before Pilate (18:28–40)

* Jesus scourged and mocked (19:1–3)

* Pilate’s attempts to release him (19:4–12)

* Final condemnation (19:13–16)

The text therefore functions as the moment when Jesus’ fate becomes irreversible.

Psalm 146 (Optional Psalm)

Psalm 146 serves as a theological counterpoint to the trial narrative.

Key declaration:

“Do not put your trust in princes.”

This line speaks directly into the political drama of John 19.

While Pilate, Caesar, and religious leaders exercise earthly authority, the psalm reminds the faithful that true hope belongs only in the Lord who reigns forever.

The “Big Idea”

John’s Passion narrative consistently reveals a paradox:

The moment that looks like defeat is actually the beginning of victory.

Jesus is mocked as king, yet he truly is king.He appears powerless, yet he governs history.He is condemned by human authority, yet his death will bring salvation.

Thus the trial of Jesus exposes a profound truth:

The kingdoms of this world cannot recognize the king who rules through sacrificial love.

Some Preaching Cautions

* Avoid collective Jewish blame — Do not present “the Jews” as responsible for Jesus’ death; the conflict in John reflects a dispute with specific leaders, not an entire people.

* Do not portray Pilate as innocent — Pilate’s hesitation does not make him virtuous; he ultimately chooses political security over justice.

* Do not reduce the passage to modern politics — While political pressure is present, the deeper issue in the text is the identity and kingship of Jesus.

* Preserve John’s irony — The mockery of Jesus as king actually reveals the truth that he truly is the king.

* Do not portray Jesus merely as a victim — In John’s Gospel, Jesus remains sovereign and willingly moves toward the cross.

* Avoid turning the story into a simple moral lesson — The passage is not primarily about good and bad behavior but about recognizing who Jesus is.

* Keep the story connected to the resurrection — The condemnation of Jesus must be preached within the larger movement toward the cross and the victory of Easter.

An Illustration

In 2007 a young man walked into a busy Washington, D.C. subway station during the morning rush hour. He opened a violin case and began to play classical music.

People hurried past. A few dropped coins into the case. Most never slowed down.

For forty-five minutes he played some of the most beautiful violin pieces ever written.

Thousands passed by.

Almost no one stopped.

What the crowd did not realize was that the musician was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest violinists in the world. The violin he was playing was worth over three million dollars. Just days earlier, people had paid hundreds of dollars to hear him perform the same music in a concert hall.

But in the subway station, no one recognized him.

In John 19 something similar happens—but with infinitely greater stakes.

Jesus stands before Pilate wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe. Soldiers mock him. The crowd demands his death.

No one recognizes who is standing in front of them.

The King of the universe is standing in the room—and the world thinks he is a criminal.

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

Hi, gang; it’s nice to be back among the land of the living and (mostly) to have my voice back! Thanks for the notes of encouragement last week.

I’m going to continue with the updated format we rolled out last week, giving some summaries of the texts for this Sunday, along with some preaching notes and such. As always, I truly welcome your feedback as to what is helpful and what is not — particularly. So, away we go!

“The Great One” aka Jackie Gleason demonstrating his Away We Go pose

RCL Texts

1 Samuel 16:1–13

God sends Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint a new king from Jesse’s sons. Samuel assumes the oldest, strongest-looking son must be the one, but God interrupts that instinct: “The Lord does not see as mortals see… the Lord looks on the heart.” One by one, the obvious candidates pass by. Finally David, the youngest, is brought in from tending sheep, and God says, “Rise and anoint him.” The Spirit rushes upon David from that day forward. The passage confronts human fixation on appearance, status, and first impressions, and it highlights God’s freedom to choose the overlooked.

Preaching note:

God’s election disrupts our ranking systems. The text is not anti-giftedness; it is anti-reduction of people to image, polish, or social weight.

Pastoral caution:

Don’t weaponize “God looks at the heart” to dismiss responsible leadership discernment or to romanticize inexperience.

Application move:

Invite the congregation to reconsider one person they have underestimated — in church, family, or community — and pray for eyes trained by God rather than by appearance.

Psalm 23

This psalm speaks in intimate trust: the Lord is shepherd, host, guide, and protector. It moves from green pastures to dark valleys without pretending the valley is unreal. God’s presence is not only for peaceful seasons but also for threatening ones: “You are with me.” The tone shifts from third person (“he”) to second person (“you”) in the valley, suggesting nearness in trouble. The psalm ends not with escape from life but with confident belonging — dwelling in God’s house, held by goodness and mercy.

Preaching note:

Psalm 23 is not sentimental denial. It names threat and still confesses trust because God is near, not because life is easy.

Pastoral caution:

Avoid using this psalm to force quick comfort on grieving people (“you should feel peaceful by now”).

Application move:

Offer a breath prayer for anxious moments this week:

Inhale: “You are with me.”

Exhale: “I will not fear.”

Ephesians 5:8–14

Paul reminds believers of identity and calling: “Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.” Not merely “in darkness,” but darkness — a condition now transformed by Christ. Because of that change, the church is to “live as children of light,” producing goodness, justice, and truth. The passage rejects unfruitful works of darkness and calls for discernment about what pleases the Lord. The closing line (“Sleeper, awake… and Christ will shine on you”) sounds like a baptismal wake-up call: step out of hiddenness and into Christ’s illuminating life.

Preaching note:

Paul roots ethics in identity. We don’t behave into belonging; we live differently because we already belong to Christ.

Pastoral caution:

Don’t preach “light vs darkness” in ways that fuel self-righteousness or stigmatize those in depression, doubt, or struggle.

Application move:

Ask people to choose one concrete “light practice” for Lent: truth-telling, restitution, reconnection, or daily examen before bed.

John 9:1–41

Jesus sees a man blind from birth, and the disciples ask whose sin caused it. Jesus refuses that blame framework and says God’s works will be revealed. He heals the man with mud and water, sending him to wash in Siloam. As the man gains sight, conflict escalates: neighbors debate, religious leaders investigate, parents fear social consequences, and the healed man grows bolder in testimony. Ironically, those who claim spiritual sight become harder and more blind, while the one once blind comes to faith and worship. The story is about more than physical healing; it is about revelation, courage, and the cost of confessing Jesus.

Preaching note:

Jesus rejects simplistic blame and restores dignity. The healed man’s journey moves from partial understanding to public witness to worship.

Pastoral caution:

Do not imply disability is a spiritual object lesson or punishment. The text centers Jesus’ works, not human fault.

Application move:

Challenge the church to interrupt blame-language this week (“Who caused this?”) and replace it with mercy-language (“How can God’s care show up here?”).

An optional sermon outline (with illustration ideas)

“From Blind Assumptions to Living in the Light”

Core Claim: God sees truly, stays near, and calls us to walk in Christ’s light.

1) God Sees What We Miss

Text: 1 Samuel 16:1–13

• Samuel looks at appearance; God looks at the heart.

• David is overlooked, yet chosen and anointed.

• Lent confronts our habit of judging by surface: polish, confidence, résumé, class, age.

Preaching move:

Name the church’s temptation to mistake visibility for calling.

Illustration #1 (Hiring Panel / Audition):

A hiring committee nearly rejects a candidate because they’re quiet and unimpressive in first-round small talk. But their portfolio reveals deep wisdom and consistency. The “obvious” pick had charisma; the right pick had substance.

Point: We often confuse presentation with depth.

───

2) God Is With Us in the Valley, Not Just Beyond It

Text: Psalm 23

• The psalm includes both green pastures and dark valleys.

• The turning point is not changed scenery but changed presence: “You are with me.”

• Lent teaches trust in God’s companionship when outcomes are unresolved.

Preaching move:

Pastor people away from shallow optimism toward durable trust.

Illustration #2 (Night Drive in Fog):

Driving in dense fog, you can’t see far ahead. You move safely not because you can see the whole road, but because headlights give enough light for the next stretch.

Point: God often gives “next-step” light, not full-map certainty.

───

3) Christ Moves Us from Blame to Witness

Texts: Ephesians 5:8–14; John 9:1–41

• Disciples ask, “Who sinned?” Jesus refuses blame logic.

• Healing leads to conflict, interrogation, and eventually worship.

• Paul: “You were darkness, now you are light… live as children of light.”

• Christian maturity means truthfulness, courage, and mercy—not scapegoating.

Preaching move: Call the church to be a community where people are restored, not reduced.

Illustration #3 (Recovery Story / Public Testimony):

A person in recovery says, “People used to ask what was wrong with me. A mentor asked what happened to me and what healing might look like.” That shift changed everything.

Point: Blame imprisons; grace opens a future.

───

Conclusion / Invitation

This week, invite the congregation to:

1. Re-examine one judgment they’ve made by appearance.

2. Pray Psalm 23 daily in one anxious moment (“You are with me”).

3. Replace blame with witness in one hard conversation (“How might Christ bring light here?”).

Narrative Lectionary Text

John 18:28–40 (Jesus and Pilate)

Jesus is brought from the religious hearing to the Roman governor’s headquarters. The leaders avoid ritual defilement so they can eat Passover, while simultaneously pressing for Jesus’ execution — a sharp irony about outward purity and inward injustice. Pilate questions Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus reframes kingship: his kingdom is “not from this world,” meaning it does not arise from coercion, violence, or imperial logic. He says he came to testify to the truth, and those who belong to the truth listen to his voice. Pilate responds with the famous, evasive question: “What is truth?” Though Pilate repeatedly signals Jesus’ innocence, he yields to crowd pressure and offers the Passover release choice. The crowd chooses Barabbas, and Jesus is rejected. The scene exposes political fear, compromised leadership, and the quiet authority of Christ’s truth.

Preaching note:

The passage is not mainly about a private religious dispute; it is about the collision between God’s truth and public systems of power. Jesus is not passive — he is clear, composed, and sovereign even while being judged.

Pastoral caution:

Avoid preaching this text in a way that collapses into anti-Jewish blame. The Gospel scene includes multiple compromised actors (religious and political), and the deeper diagnosis is human fear and sin across the board.

Application move:

Invite the congregation to examine one place this week where they are tempted to choose convenience over truth — then take one concrete step of truthful speech or faithful action.

Psalm 145:10–13 (Optional NL Psalm)

These verses are a doxology of God’s kingship. All creation blesses God; the faithful speak of God’s glory so that all people may know God’s mighty acts. The kingdom of God is described as everlasting and enduring through every generation. In context with John 18, the psalm functions as a theological contrast: earthly rulers protect fragile power, but God’s reign is steady, trustworthy, and not subject to panic or spin.

Preaching note:

The psalm gives the church its public vocabulary: we announce God’s reign not as propaganda, but as testimony to God’s enduring character.

Pastoral caution:

Don’t turn “God’s kingdom” into partisan language or culture-war slogans. The text points to God’s universal, generational, mercy-shaped reign.

Application move:

Give a simple Lenten practice: each day name one headline-driven fear, then pray, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; steady my heart in your rule.”

Optional Sermon Outline

“What Is Truth? Christ’s Kingdom in a Fearful World”

Core Claim: When fear distorts judgment, Jesus remains the truthful King, and the church is called to bear witness to God’s enduring kingdom.

1) Religious Appearance Can Hide Moral Compromise

Text: John 18:28–32

• Leaders avoid ritual defilement before Passover, yet pursue an unjust outcome.

• John exposes the disconnect between external purity and internal posture.

• Lent calls us to integrity, not image-management.

Preaching move:

Name how easy it is to keep religious habits while avoiding hard obedience.

Suggested illustration #1 (Polished Exterior):

A house can have a freshly painted front porch while the foundation quietly cracks.

Point: Cosmetic faith is not structural faith.

───

2) Jesus Redefines Kingship Through Truth, Not Force

Text: John 18:33–38a

• Pilate asks political questions; Jesus gives theological answers.

• “My kingdom is not from this world” = not sourced by domination, manipulation, or violence.

• Jesus’ mission: “to testify to the truth.”

• “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Preaching move:

Show that Christian allegiance is formed by Christ’s voice before it is shaped by public anxiety.

Suggested illustration #2 (Tuning Fork):

A tuning fork sets the reference pitch; every instrument must tune to it or the whole ensemble drifts.

Point: Christ is the reference tone for truth; without him, we normalize dissonance.

───

3) Fear Chooses Barabbas, but God’s Kingdom Endures

Text: John 18:38b–40 + Psalm 145:10–13

• Pilate knows Jesus is innocent but caves to pressure.

• The crowd chooses Barabbas — immediate control over inconvenient truth.

• Psalm 145 counters this instability: God’s kingdom is everlasting, generation to generation.

• The church’s task: speak of that kingdom clearly and calmly.

Preaching move: Call the congregation from reactive fear to steady witness.

Suggested illustration #3 (News Cycle vs. Bedrock):

Headlines change by the hour; bedrock does not.

Point: Public narratives shift fast, but God’s reign is not up for reelection.

───

Conclusion / Invitation

This week, invite people to three responses:

1. Confession: Where am I curating appearances instead of walking in truth?

2. Discernment: Which voice is shaping my fear most — Christ’s or the crowd’s?

3. Witness: One concrete act of truth-telling, mercy, or courage in Christ’s name.

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