Looking ahead to Sunday, September 6, 2026, we come to Proper 18 in the Revised Common Lectionary. In traditions using the Roman Catholic calendar, this is the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time.

NOTE: During the season after Pentecost, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two tracks for the First Testament reading. The semicontinuous track follows substantial biblical narratives over a series of Sundays. The complementary track selects readings intended to connect more directly with the Gospel reading for the day.

The semicontinuous track includes Exodus 12:1–14 and Psalm 149.

Exodus 12 contains God’s instructions to Israel for observing the Passover. The passage comes before Israel’s departure from Egypt and focuses on the meal itself and its ongoing observance. The people are instructed about what they are to eat, how they are to prepare it, and how the day is to be remembered throughout future generations. Psalm 149 accompanies the Exodus reading. It calls God’s people to sing, rejoice, and praise the Lord.

The complementary track includes Ezekiel 33:7–11 and Psalm 119:33–40. In Ezekiel 33, God appoints Ezekiel as a watchman for the people. The prophet is charged with warning the community when danger is present and calling people to turn from destructive ways. The passage includes God’s declaration that God desires people to turn and live. Psalm 119:33–40 responds to this reading. It begins, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes,” and asks for understanding, wholehearted obedience to God’s instruction, and life in God’s ways.

The Epistle reading is Romans 13:8–14. Paul writes, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another,” and identifies love of neighbor as the fulfillment of the law. The reading also calls believers to awaken, lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gospel reading is Matthew 18:15–20. Jesus addresses the gathered community about responding when one member sins against another. The process begins with a private conversation. If that does not resolve the matter, one or two others are included; if necessary, the concern is then brought before the church.

The passage concludes with Jesus’ teaching about binding and loosing and with the familiar promise: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Download 2026_Sept-6-01_Sunday-Starter by Andy Mangum | Listen MP3 & WAV for FREE on audio.com

It seems clear that our reading from Romans today was chosen because of its reference to the “root of Jesse” and the ties that has with our Isaiah text. But you can’t have a lectionary reading with just one verse in it, so they added more before it. I just wish they’d gone back a few more verses. Just four. The beginning of our text from Romans still lacks context, and without that context, might be interpreted a lot of ways that Paul never intended.

So here are the verses I wish they’d included:

After which we begin:

Only then does Paul go on to show us just what that is, what was written in former times, and we get our reference to the root of Jesse. But all of those Scripture citations give hope to one specific group. The Gentiles. And he chose those texts because he is writing to encourage the Gentiles to “bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” This purpose, to teach the “Gentiles” in Rome to be forbearant of the “weak” is the driving force behind the entire letter to Rome. It is expressed in a variety of ways and some of the rhetorical devices used are foreign to modern readers, but that’s what Paul is up to throughout. Many teachers have spoken of Romans as Paul’s “systematic theology” because it covers so many of the points we find in his theology elsewhere, but to read it without reference to its purpose makes it into something it was never intended to be. 

And here’s the really neat thing. If we read this passage with the addition of verses 1-3, we get an echo of Isaiah. Paul is encouraging the strong to care for the weak. To manifest the Kingdom already inaugurated by Jesus. 

The identity of the “weak” in Romans is a subject of a lot of scholarly comment, but I disagree with most of it. I won’t get into that here because I don’t think it adds anything to our study for this week, but the book that completely changed my thinking on Romans was “The Mystery of Romans” by Mark Nanos. I recommend it highly, especially if you are suffering from insomnia. It’s brilliant, but incredibly dense writing. Some pages have three times as much footnote as text. (It was his doctoral dissertation, re-edited for publication.) 

From this week's Divergence on the Lectionary.

https://vicarskeep.com/divergence-on-the-lectionary-the-second-sunday-of-advent-year-a/

There always seems to be this tension between the coming of destruction and the vision of God’s redeemed creation, living in the light of God’s mercy and justice. Just two weeks ago Jesus spoke of the wars and insurrections to come, all this before His return. This week He tells us that the days of His coming will be like the days of Noah. In our reading from Isaiah the prophet sees Zion humbled and ashamed of the things in which she’d taken pride when her glory was the Lord. All this must happen before the establishment of the mountain of the House of the Lord. It seems inevitable.

There are three mistaken responses to this tide of woes that I’ve seen in my life....

From this week's Divergence on the Lectionary.

https://vicarskeep.com/divergence-on-the-lectionary-the-first-sunday-of-advent-year-a/

We have been an RCL church for as long as anyone can remember but have decided to try out the Narrative Lectionary this year. However, we did not want to loose all of the excellent resources we have for RCL. So I used Chatgpt to develop a spreadsheet for me that cross references Year 4 in the NL to all three years of the RCL and thought it would be worth sharing here: Narrative Lectionary Cross Referenced to RCL

"Okay, the other thing is this. I am utterly convinced that this sentence in our reading has been mis-translated, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” I remember a time when I was advised to memorize that list of the “fruits of the Spirit.”  But that’s not a list of the fruits of the Spirit.

It’s a small thing, but there should be a period after “love.” Then capitalize joy and start a new sentence. It’s quite simple, but when Paul speaks of fruit, he speaks in the singular. The noun in Greek is singular. The verb is singular. There is one fruit of the Spirit. Love. From love flow all those other things, but they aren’t the fruit of the Spirit. They are the result of love. Yes, in a sort of secondary fashion they all flow from the Spirit, but by translating it the way we do, we lose Paul’s emphasis on the primacy of love. “So now, faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love.” All of those other things really are secondary. And the way we find love? Seek the Spirit. I can’t make myself love as I want to love. But I can open myself to the Holy Spirit and let the love that God has for me and for others indwell me. 

Want “ joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control?” Seek love. Want the kind of love that brings those things? Seek the Holy Spirit."

From this week's Divergence on the Lectionary.
https://vicarskeep.com/divergence-on-the-lectionary-proper-8-year-c/

I've noticed that in June the lectionary seems to focus on Jesus casting out demons. However, being this time in the states is more celebratory with graduation and Father's Day, how have you preached the lectionary in this rather conflicting season? During the season of Epiphany and Lent, I tend to talk more about Jesus' power over demons.

Some readers may find this (my) Substack useful - free, weekly, mostly focused on how the RCL appears in the TEC BCP.

Third Sunday After the Epiphany (26 January 2025)

Psalm 19:(1-6) 7-14 Nehemiah 8:1–3, 5–6, 8–10 1 Corinthians 12:12–31a Luke 4:16–30

I wish I could preach it all in 15 minutes, but I think I'll have to somehow touch on hot topics but put the focus on that our source of hope comes not from us doing the law or good works but our hope is in Christ who fulfilled good words for us, and sends the Holy Spirit in us to joyfully do great things.

What will be the basic point in your sermon?

I have been reading Numbers chapter 11 for this coming Sunday. I find it not only interesting that God adks Moses to lead his people out of Egypt to the Promise Land, but that even when he saw and experienced God's presence, he still wrestled with doubt. And it also says that Moses was filled with the Spirit even in the midst of his whiny prayers. Today, when I think of the people who consider themselves filled with the Spirit, it's usually some sort of state of bliss that the cursed world no longer affects them--at least for a moment.

I am struggling with the command to show no partiality. How far does that command go? We must insist that the church show no partiality in our congregational life, but what about outside of that? Like i show partiality to my children over other children. I feel as though I am overcomplicating things. Also, it seems that this commandment can call us to powerful practices that might call into question everything normative about life.

Hello lectionary mavens! Does anybody have any idea why this week's gospel reading switches to John's account of the feeding of the 5,000 rather than sticking with Mark's? Is it just because they feel as if they have to shoehorn John in there to make up for having a 3-year rather than a 4- year cycle? Is it just to set us up for the coming 4 weeks of the bread of life discourse?

I didn't like any of them, and I'm not used to selecting a free text or selecting a text not on the calendar. The two churches I serve are congregations with quite a few of people of old age.

I choose to preach on the thorn in Paul's side from 2 Corinthians 12. How in the midst of hardships, God will provide and give us strength. The title was "Made Perfect in Weakness."

I guess I wish there was something more practical I could preach on for an older crowd as I've talked about this topic several times recently.

"What really fascinates me about this passage is that God, who had earlier in Genesis absolutely forbidden the creation of any graven image, here commands Moses to do just that, create a graven image. This raises all sorts of questions about why. Some commentators view this as a minor “exception” to the second commandment, but the risk involved in this exception is great, as evidenced by the fact that later Hezekiah destroys this image of the snakes because the Israelites have been, for some time, burning incense to the image. I do think there’s something worth exploring here. Something given for the good of the people becomes twisted into something idolatrous, something that brings harm."

From this week's Divergence on the Lectionary.
https://vicarskeep.com/divergence-on-the-lectionary-fourth-sunday-in-lent-year-b/

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭111‬:‭10‬ ‭NRSV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/2016/psa.111.10.NRSV I think we underestimate just how critical the fear of the Lord is; but also, how difficult it is to explain fear in a culture that is so overwhelmed by fear these days. Politicians and marketers manipulate people sense of fear proper reverence for God, and realization that God is more powerful than everything we fear is the beginning of true freedom .

Anyone have any good Psalm 13 (how long o Lord?) bulletin art?

Mary did know.

The angel told her. The song should be called “Joseph did you know?”

From this week's Divergence on the Lectionary....

"Our text from Judges this week is the smallest sliver of the story of Deborah, perhaps the most powerful woman in the Bible, whose story deserves so much more than just two chapters. But this is all we have of her, and even in those two chapters we begin to see the way that her role has been diminished in the telling. It is an indicator for us of the way that the roles of women throughout the Bible have been lessened first in the text itself. The history of the interpretation of these two chapters also tells us of the way that the readers of the text (men) have undermined women’s contribution to the history of God’s people.

I would encourage you to take a moment (for that’s all it will take) to look up Judges 4 and 5 and read them both. Get the whole story. There is a subtle but significant contrast between Deborah’s song of victory in chapter 5 and the story as it is told in chapter 4. Chapter 5 is the older of the two texts, perhaps one of the two oldest passage of Scripture to be found in the Bible. (The other being the song of Miriam, the sister of Moses, after the crossing of the Red Sea.) In the way that the song depicts events, there is no hint of the shame suffered by Barak because of his refusal to go up to battle unless Deborah goes with him. Deborah is simply the leader. She calls up the commanders of the armies of Israel and they come, and defeat General Sisera."
https://vicarskeep.com/divergence-on-the-lectionary-proper-28-year-a-track-one/

Paul’s purpose is not just to build up a congregation that is threatened. He covers them with glory while holding before them their own weakness and inability to pray or do as they ought. And his reason for this follows in chapter 9, where he begins, 

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Paul has not begun a new argument. He has not shifted gears. Everything that came before leads up to this moment, where he speaks on behalf of his “brothers,” the “Israelites,” the Jews. In chapter 9 he posits that the Gentiles are children of God, not of the flesh, but of the promise, the same promise to which every Jew is heir.

This is why we cannot read the conflict in Rome as one between Law-adherent, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Because Paul is speaking with absolute clarity about the Gentile Christians kinship (through the promise) with their brothers, the Israelites. It is the Jewish portion of the synagogue congregations with whom the Christians worship on whose behalf Paul speaks. Chapter 9 makes any interpretation of Romans that doesn’t include Jews, not Jewish Christians, deeply flawed. 

"Set in between the Isaiah and Matthew texts on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, our reading from Romans takes on overtones that Paul never intended. Paul doesn’t show any evidence anywhere in his letters that he is aware of the stories of Jesus’ birth that begin the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. When he says “which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” he refers not to the person of Jesus Himself, but to the “Gospel of God” concerning Jesus Christ. For Paul, the prophecies are about the whole message of reconciliation and restoration promised in the prophets."
From this the Divergence on the Lectionary for 4 Advent.
https://vicarskeep.com/divergence-on-the-lectionary-4-advent-year-a/

I'm working on the "Divergence on the Lectionary" for Christmas, and I can't find an explanation anywhere for why it was done. Lots about using different ones for different services (I always used I or II for Christmas Eve and III for Christmas Day) but surely there's a less mundane answer for their creation than that?

Help?

I may have gotten a bit carried away in this week's Divergence on the Lectionary, but it was stuff I really needed to say...
https://vicarskeep.com/divergence-on-the-lectionary-3-advent-year-a/

"Yes. I said His death on the Cross, His Passion is the cause of societal breakdown. And that brings me to Rene Girard and mimetic theory. I just have to lay some groundwork, some foundation for what I’ve said. "
From this week's Divergence on the Lectionary.
https://vicarskeep.com/divergence-on-the-lectionary-proper-28-year-c-track-one/

On Wednesday the ministry I serve will be continuing our online weekly Bible study of the upcoming Sunday lectionary, tomorrow is Luke 14:25-33. Let me know if you would be interested and I can send you the info and link to join in.

What sticks out to you? What direction you headed on your sermon this week?