From the Lectionary for 12 July 2026 (Proper 10A)

Isaiah 55:10-11 (NRSV Updated Edition)

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose
    and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Matthew 13:1-17 (NRSV Updated Edition)

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. If you have ears, hear!”

Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

‘You will indeed listen but never understand,
    and you will indeed look but never perceive.
For this people's heart has grown dull,
    and their ears are hard of hearing,
        and they have shut their eyes,
        so that they might not look with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart and turn—
    and I would heal them.’

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

~

"Jesus was indeed teaching about the arrival of something which is, for his listeners, very weird. That's why he has to teach in parables. And please note the justification which he gives for teaching in parables. He quotes Isaiah, when he says:

“Listen as you will and you will not understand; look as you will and you will not see, because this people's heart has waxed gross. They are dull of hearing and have closed their eyes against seeing and their ears against hearing lest they be turned to me that I may heal them.” (Mt 13:14-15 quoting Is 6:9-10; cf. Mk 4:12 and Lk 8:9-10)

"That is, there is no direct understanding of the kingdom: it is a strange thing, and people's minds are dulled, which is exactly what we would expect as a result of what we've seen about the human condition, our own included, shot-through with death.

"It's worth our while to stop a little to see what this teaching in parables consists in. The parables are highly creative little stories sprung from Jesus' imagination and have as their aim helping people to overcome their being blocked-up with respect to God and his project. However, behold, they are two edged weapons, capable of different interpretations. It is perfectly possible to interpret the greater part in terms of a violent God. In that case the parables only serve to reinforce what people already think anyway, and they move on no further. What I'm suggesting is that this would be the ‘dull-hearted’ reading of the parables.

"At the same time it is perfectly possible to read the same parables as obliging us to overcome this vision. This means that there is an interpretation for those who understand, and that what they understand will increase exponentially, and there is another interpretation for those who do not understand, so that what little they do understand is in the process of being lost, for they will get into an ever more tied-up and painful understanding of the things of God."

- James Alison, Raising Abel, pp. 83-84

~

"Please notice that one of the key things that has been assumed here, silently, is the work of the ploughing [which in 1st century Palestine was done not before but after the seeds were scattered on the soil]. The ploughing is going to go on. So what's Jesus talking about here? He's asking people to listen to an image with which they'd be very familiar, but it's also an image which, if they have ears to hear, they'll understand perfectly well is an image that comes from [Isaiah 55].

"So supposing you start to listen to this parable, a simple description of agricultural reality, but actually here there is a promise - this is the promise that God's Word will produce fruit, and it will produce fruit absolutely abundantly. [...] So behind this there is the image of someone who is speaking, and whose word will produce fruit, and the question is: how involved in it are we going to be? How are we going to be involved in it?

"Now, when Jesus was finished [speaking to the people], the disciples come up and said, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered, “To you it's been given to know the mystery.” I think that the mystery is this transfiguration from within of all the signs that are natural to us into signs of the incoming King, the new Temple, the crucified Lamb, the Lamb standing as one slain on the throne, who is coming in and who is in fact going to be the new sower [who] makes everything come alive. It's a transfiguration of all that. So something of that, he's saying, “you're on the inside of that process, that's what I've been preparing you for.”

[...]

"And so Jesus then says, incidentally what I'm telling you is what's been known ever since the great Isaian vision, because [...] he's quoting from what happened immediately after Isaiah had his wonderful Temple vision in Isaiah 6, where he sees the Lord high and lifted up on the throne, and he hears the voice of the Lord, who tells him to go and preach [...] but warns him that he's sending him out to preach to a people who “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” That's us.

"So strangely enough what Jesus is doing is saying, “I am the fulfillment of that promise, and I am speaking precisely into the midst of these people who are bound [to not know], and the whole question is to what extent are [the disciples], you, me, [...] going to allow ourselves to be sucked into the ploughing over of the earth until we find ourselves able to take part in the rediscovery of the signs that are pointing in a completely different direction, things we take for granted as part of our systems of security undone, and thus finding ourselves born into belonging to a completely new way of being together, sharing together, loving together. [...]

"So for me this is the greater challenge: at what depth are we prepared to allow ourselves to be ploughed into the earth, so as to become part of the bearers of the sign of the Kingdom?"

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 15 in Ordinary Time Year A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeVj6YKeWEU)

~

"At the death of Jesus, when the disciples had scattered, for all the world it looked like the sower and the seed had come to an end. That birds and thorns and rocks had thwarted the Word that God had sent into the world. But from the Kindom of God, our eyes begin to perceive another reality, one in which the Spirit of God is at work. With Kindom eyes we see the slow, long work of the Spirit, through time and seasons and conditions that the eyes of empire are unable to see. It is the Spirit who is producing fruit in the world and in us. The production of fruit is not a result of our work or of our well-meaning efforts [...] it is the Spirit of Life causing the Word of God to grow and thrive and accomplish Its intended purpose. And we find ourselves growing and being formed, more and more, into the image of our Creator, living and thriving into our intended purpose.

"God is not measuring our yield, determining whether or not to bless or curse us depending on what we've done or not done. Rather, God keeps wasting the Word on us until we receive It and live into the fullness of love and grace and beauty; until we are healed and reconciled, all bodies, every body together. It is God's delight that all bodies, everywhere, anywhere, thrive in love and grace, in life and aliveness, unbound, in joy and well-being."

- Suella Gerber, from a sermon in 2017 titled “The Sower of Love.” (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Gerber-071617-sermon.pdf)

[Source of quote from James Alison's book Raising Abel and link to Suella Gerber sermon, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday, see also: http://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/proper10a/]

From the Lectionary for 5 July 2026 (Proper 9A)

Zechariah 9:9 (NRSV Updated Edition)

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you;
    triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Matthew 11:25-30 (NRSV Updated Edition)

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

~

"Back in 2005 we moved to Lancaster, PA. As I sit here writing this from my home office, I can look out my window and watch the Amish farmer across the way plowing his field with mules. The mules are yoked together with the farmer riding the plow behind them. The yoke functions to keep the mules from going in directions different than the farmer would have them go. I am told that when a young mule is first learning to plow a field, they team him up with a veteran mule that has plowed the field for many years. This way the younger mule learns how to respond to the farmer's guidance because when the older mule turns, the younger mule has to go the same way, the yoke making it impossible for him to go another.

"In the same way, we are yoked with Jesus who knows the Abba's will. When the Father moves the reins in a certain direction Jesus responds and we respond not by choosing, nor out of our own initiative but simply by submitting to the yoke. The only choice we make is to be yoked with Jesus. After that it is no longer about choice but about something entirely different. It is about “trust.”

[Discussion of yoke in 1st Century Jewish context, including  citation of several Mishnah sayings, where rabbis use the image of yoke, sometimes for Torah and sometimes for imperial oppression.]

"It's not an either/or when it comes to Jesus' offer. The Mishnah saying above combines the two possibilities of Torah and Empire as backgrounds for the word “yoke.” Whether religion or Empire (culture) we are under “the rule of law.” Western jurisprudence grew out of religious taboo. Jesus' yoke takes us out from under the rule of law, religiously conceived, and places us in the rule of love. Our ethics, our social behavior is normed by Jesus, not by an abstract set of morals, values or mores.

"This means that our choices are developed from a living intimate relationship with Jesus, not from a codebook. Ethics is no longer a question of trying to figure out right and wrong, it is about living in relationship with others in the same manner that Jesus lived in relation to others."

- Michael Hardin, The Jesus Driven Life (2nd Ed), pp. 86-88

~

In his homily for "Sunday 14 in Ordinary Time Year A" (as this week is called in the Roman Catholic lectionary), James Alison points out the apparent contradiction in the Zechariah verse above: at least the way we normally see things, one who is "triumphant and victorious" is not one who is "humble and riding on a donkey," the two images don't fit together in our concepts.  He also highlights that the Matthew passage above comes right after the story of John the Baptist sending messengers to Jesus to ask him if he is indeed the Messiah, because Jesus is not acting in the "triumphant and victorious" way that John expects the Messiah should act.

This story in Matthew 11 is followed by Jesus comparing certain contemporary towns with ancient cities which had 'mythical' destruction stories, saying that if "the deeds of power" done by Jesus had been done in those ancient cities the people would have repented. Jesus is trying to convey to them that the way of the Father is not violence and destruction of the wicked, but a meek and humble man displaying true divine "power" which is entirely non-violent, gentle and life-giving.

I also think that the link between the two paragraphs of the Matthew text is significant: it is in Jesus knowing the Father that he is the one who can give rest to the weary and heavy laden. The way of Jesus, the 'yoke' of Jesus, is the way of coming to discover the utter gentleness and unconditional love of the Father, in whom there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5), from whom we need fear no condemnation or punishment, in whom we can find true and complete rest for our souls, free of any threat, or any need to perform or hide who we really are.

~

"“At that time Jesus declared, 'I thank thee Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes.” He's saying, “Do you know, actually I realize that no one is gonna get who I am. People seriously are expecting something to come with violence. It would make sense to them if I were to go all 'Sodom and Gomorrah' on them. They seem to be unable to understand that it's tiny, little, gentle, peaceful bringing things in being. That completely breaks their oppositional bindings because it shows them to be completely moot. Those are the things that show that I am the Creator. [...] Not even John the Baptist [gets it], not the people among whom I was doing all these works. Tiny little babies get it, they haven't yet reached adult complication, but everyone else is stuck in notions of good and bad and violence. It's difficult for them to see that I am bringing things into being for them on their behalf and that this is what the Father looks like. He is showing people, through me, what He's like. It's only if I share with those people what I am doing that they will get a glimpse of who the Father really is.”

"It's this astounding gentleness that we find so hard to get. So then he says, “Come to me all who labour and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” He's saying  all of us tied up in our complexities are fighting about things, including our desperate keenness to be good. He says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” [...] 'Lowly' is the same word which is used both of the humble one coming on the donkey and of meek Moses - Moses was the meekest. Jesus is saying, “You want to know what the real meekness behind Moses' meekness looks like? This is it. I'm not here to put demands on you. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. You're not going to be ridden by a foreign invader, you're not going to find yourselves forced into becoming someone you are not by having to obey things that are extrinsic to you. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. You will be [...] indwelt by my Spirit, which will enable you to become even more who you are than you were able to think of. And this will be done so gently that even you will find it difficult to imagine the sign of work in you, bringing you to life - such is the gentleness of my Father."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 14 in Ordinary Time Year A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEbhfOP8Efw)

[Source of Michael Hardin quote, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday, see also: http://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/proper_9a/]