Sunday, November 5, 2023

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:
– First Reading: Joshua 3:7-17
– Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37
– Second Reading: I Thessalonians 2:9-13
– Gospel Reading: Matthew 23:1-12

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

[Note: it is also permissible to preach from the texts for All Saints’ Day, as this is the first Sunday since that festival day.  The service of Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant goes nicely with such an observation.]

This Sunday’s Gospel Lesson is right on point for life in this culture.  In the lesson which many Bibles entitle, “Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees,” Jesus lifts up the corruption of religious practices and how those are used for self-aggrandizement of some and diminishment of others. 

The issue was that religious people of the day (namely the scribes and Pharisees), lifted up and focused on minute and perplexing interpretations of the law.  This was then used to exclude others and point out their own religious superiority.

Seemingly not much has changed.  We continue to have many standards in the church and in the culture that serve to lift up some and diminish others.  In the name of religious purity, we put standards for behavior or conformity above the mandate of love and inclusion. 

It is the age-old lesson that still needs to own our being—God’s love is before and above every other standard or description or condition of any person.  Yet, our nature is to lean into self-aggrandizement of ourselves and diminishment of others.  That very nature needs vibrant transformation as the Jesus of the Gospels makes it clear: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

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Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk