This week’s readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, and my pick for which one you’ll be hearing a sermon about on Sunday:
1. Ruth 1:1-18
2. Psalm 146
Hebrews seems like a longshot this week, unless you’ve got a preacher who loves talking about penal substitutionary atonement. If there’s a sermon in there, it seems a bit of a one-note affair. It may get a mention in contrast to the mercy-not-sacrifice business in the Gospel reading, but I doubt many pastors will be landing here for the basis of this week’s sermon. 16-1
Psalm 146 is dynamite stuff, and it’s somewhat timely following the recent presidential primary debates (“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.”) Verses 7-9 will be catnip for preachers looking for a justice-y angle, so adjust these odds accordingly if you’re going to that kind of church, but for most churches this is probably an unlikely pick. 8-1
The Gospel reading is always going to be a strong contender, and this week’s passage from Mark about the Greatest Commandments seems, at first glance, like an easy pick for sermon fodder. But Mark’s version of this story is quirky — the “love one’s neighbor as oneself” stuff here isn’t in red letters. That’s some nameless “scribe” talking here, not Jesus. That and the utterly Mark-like ending — “After that no one dared to ask him any question” — makes this a difficult passage to anchor a Greatest Commandment-type sermon. 4-1
Everybody loves the “where you go, I will go” bit from the book of Ruth. And even the cool justice-y preachers who might’ve been leaning toward Psalm 146 are thinking they can fold its message about strangers, orphans and widows into this story. There’s also a good chance that your preacher has previously written a sermon based on this passage for a wedding — preparation and effort that might be recycled for this week’s sermon with a few minor adaptations. So that’s my best guess — that you’ll be hearing a sermon this Sunday on Ruth 1:1-18. 2-1
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I should probably explain what that’s all about.
If you’re a None, or an evangelical, or anyone else who wouldn’t have any reason to have encountered this before, let me explain that the Revised Common Lectionary is a calendar of Bible readings for every Sunday of the year (with a three-year cycle that covers most of the Bible, eventually). Each week there’s an “Old Testament” reading from the Hebrew scriptures, a reading from the Psalms, one from the Gospels, and one from the rest of the New Testament.
This lectionary is used by a whole host of Protestant denominations, and it’s pretty close to the lectionary used by the Roman Catholic church. All of that means that every Sunday millions of Christians all over the world are reading the same passages, which is pretty cool, if you think about it.
This also means that pastors and preachers all over the world will be preaching sermons this Sunday on one of the four passages from this week’s readings. I’m sure I’m not the only one who looks at the church bulletin — or sometimes peeks ahead at the lectionary — to try to guess which passage their preacher is going to pick for that week’s sermon. And if I’m going to play that little game in my head, I might as well also play it out loud here on this blog.
I’ve attempted to give racetrack-style odds for each of the readings above, as though we were prepping for some seminary-nerd’s Fantasy Homiletics League, but keep in mind that this is an exhibition, not a competition. So, please, no wagering.
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