From the Lectionary for 8 March 2026 (Lent 3A)

John 4:5-42 (The Woman at the Well)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%204%3A5-42&version=NRSVUE

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Instead of presenting the whole passage here, below are comments on selected verses from James Alison's video "Homily for Third Sunday in Lent 2023 A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CxyCdRf0tM)

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v 10: Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

JA: "Now this word gift, [...] it's the only time this word appears in this Gospel, in fact in any of the Gospels. The only other times this word appears in the New Testament [is] in the Acts of the Apostles and in some of Paul's Epistles, and there it almost invariably means the gift of the Holy Spirit. In other words, he's not talking about a passive gift at the same level as a drink of water might be. [...] He's talking about the gift of God, which of course she could not possibly have known about, and the gift of God is the self-giving of us, that which turns us into people who are capable of giving ourselves away, which is how we receive who we really are. And it's that which is this *making utterly alive of us* which is then brought out in the discussion about the well, but it's the notion that the gift of God is something which turns us into gifts that's what the gift of God is about.

"I think it's really quite important to remember that one of the moments when 'the gift of God' becomes, I feel, a matter of controversy is in the Acts of the Apostles, precisely when [...] Simon the Magician tries to buy the gift of God, and it's understood that really that is the ultimate way that you cannot have it. The gift of God is that which by nature turns you into giving yourself away, which is the richest thing you could possibly have, because as you give yourself away you're on the inside of God's self-giving, which means that you're held by the Creator and turned into an endless source of generosity for others. And this is what Jesus is attempting to offer, “If you knew the gift of God,” in other words, what it's like to be turned into this self-giving. And who it is who's asking you for this gift, precisely giving you the chance [of] getting involved in this self-giving of yourself away - you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. In other words I'm inducting you into a conversation which is going to end in you being able to give yourself away with living water."

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vv. 17-18: The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”

JA: "Why did Jesus say that? Well, the easy answer is to say, well he's detected that she had a, let's say, an interesting matrimonial history: one. Or two, that he's making reference to the fact that Samaria was considered a place that had been under the rule of five idolatrous kings, and was now under the rule of someone who was also an idolatrous king, so he's referring to Samaria's prophetic history, the history which would have been well known, and this would be a Jewish way of referring to Samaria and its past under the rule of these idolatrous kings, that's part of the history which you get in the in the Hebrew scriptures.

"But it appears to be a mixture of the two, so he's referring to her marital status which, let's remember, almost certainly means that she is a greatly mistreated woman, that if she is a person of unstable marital life it's almost certainly because she has been passed amongst people for their own advantage. So the notion that she's particularly bad a person makes no sense at all, she's a particularly vulnerable person which is why he's able to speak with her. He's speaking to a vulnerable bearer of her city's idolatry. As has been pointed out this makes her rather like the Gerasene demoniac who was clearly living out in himself the violences of his entirely pagan city. But here the woman is rational, she knows what's going on, she understands why she has to live in this precarious and humiliating situation. But she also understands that Jesus is not trying to get at her, he's talking about her town as well."

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vv 23-24: “But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

JA: "So it's going to be this strange relationship between people in which we are enabled to turn each other into gifts by bearing witness to the gift that we are receiving that is going to make all the difference from here on out."

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vv. 28-29: Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”

JA: "So something about how she has felt spoken to that didn't shame her and that put her in the same place as the inhabitants of the city enabled her to talk to people without shame, and because of that she develops quite a power of invitation. She convokes other people of the Spirit, the gift has started to work itself out in her, she's being able to give herself away in the midst of others."

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v. 42: They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.”

JA: "Her witness - she's been able to give herself away, she's not in control of it, she's been able to give herself away, and because of that it's become a multiplied and a fruitful thing. The gift that Jesus is bearing witness to, enabling others to bear witness to, and which is able to spread especially amongst the humiliated, the apparent heretics, those who are not caught up in bizarre discussions about laws and things like that [as in Jerusalem], that is where it flows easily. And the disciples need to be shown this to be able to learn that this is the way that the Lord enjoys sharing the harvest with reapers and laborers."

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"The encounter is an interesting parallel to the story of Eve. In Genesis, the devil tempts the woman to eat forbidden fruit to gain divine knowledge. At the well, Jesus invites this Samaritan woman to drink God's water to gain spiritual wisdom. The entire story is a reversal of the one recounting the origin of sin; here, Jesus and the woman re-enact Eden with a different result. The woman's eyes are opened; she understands. Yet, instead of being run out of the garden by an angry god, she runs and tells her friends that she has met the One who is Living Water. She is not cursed. Rather, the woman is blessed and offers blessing. Water is present at creation, and it is here also, at the world's re-creation through Jesus."

- Diana Butler Bass, Grounded, pg. 76

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"In John 4, Jesus meets a woman at a well. The conversation quickly turns to the question of Jesus's identity when she asks, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask of drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (4:9). Jesus speaks of water, wells, and worship, and then springs it on her that he is the Messiah. How does the woman respond? She drops her water jar, runs back to town, and tells everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” (4:29). In this story, questions of Jesus's identity and her identity thread together in mutual revelation. Knowing who Jesus is leads her to know who she is - and, instead of feeling shame about her mistakes, she feels new freedom to tell her story.

"And so it goes throughout the Gospels. Almost everyone leaves Jesus's company saying: “He made me whole!” “I have been healed!” “I'm not a prostitute, a sinner, an outcast, or a leper. I now know who I really am!” “I may be a Samaritan, but I can still know God.” “I am loved!” “I am accepted as I am!” Being “in” Jesus, in his presence or in conversation with him, pushes the other person beyond social roles and masks to deeper awareness of “Who am I?” transforming the question from an external one to a relational one that might be better rendered “Whose am I?”

"Thus, the biblical query “Who am I in God?” is a starting point of Christian spirituality. Why do Christians pray? Christians do not pray to have wishes granted; rather, Christians pray to find themselves in God and that they might be more aware of their motives and actions. Why do Christians worship? Christians do not worship to be entertained; rather, Christians listen to sermons, sing, and partake of bread and wine in community to be in Jesus's presence and come to know themselves better. Why do Christians serve others? Christians do not act charitably to earn heavenly credit; rather, Christians find Jesus in their neighbors and such proximity enables greater insight to live fully in the world. Christians practice seeking Jesus in their lives because when they find themselves in God, pretence slips away to reveal the truest dimensions of selfhood and gives individuals the power to act in transforming ways."

- Diana Butler Bass, Christianity After Religion, pp. 186-87

[Source of Diana Butler Bass quotes, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for Lent 3A, see: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/lent3a/]

From the Lectionary for 1 March 2026 (Lent 2A)

John 3:1-17 (NRSV Updated Edition)

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

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"[I]f you're a Pharisee what you're really interested in is the Law and the Text. The temple was important but it was less important and especially not the elements of it from the old Temple which were to do with mystical things, to do with Heaven and the Son of God being born in the Holy of Holies. And there were remnants of those texts still in the holy scriptures, they hadn't yet been edited out completely - they were edited out shortly afterwards. Now we have to read the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures in order to understand what's being referred to because the Hebrew version was edited afterwards so that there are certain parts that were in the Bible at the time Jesus was alive and are no longer in the Hebrew Bible.

"But Jesus says, effectively he's saying, okay you are part of the Mosaic order the order that is to do with law and security and the temple but in fact no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above - he's referring to the birth of the Son of God in the Holy place. In other words, the ancient sacrificial structure of the temple was so that God could come through and make God's self visible and known through God's sons, the first son being the High Priest, the Melchizedek priestly figure. And the prophecy was that the Melchizedek priest would come and would do the sacrifice. So Jesus is saying you have like a two dimensional view of all this but remember that there actually a three-dimensional reality in the center of the temple which is the coming of the Son and the performing of the sacrifice in the midst out of love for people.

[...]

"Now Nicodemus, from the Deuteronomistic world - the text, history, one thing after another, if you like what I call the two-dimensional understanding - says, “How can anyone be born after having grown old. Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?” But Jesus of course is living in the world, if you like, of the first Temple. He has been baptized, which has meant him coming up out of the waters and the Spirit coming upon him and the words to do with the birth of the Son of God in the Holy of Holies having been heard, Psalm 110. That's the world in which Jesus lives, so he's well aware that the ancient world in which the one who was going to come into the temple was this Son of Man figure who was both earthly and heavenly at the same time. That's what had happened to him he had undergone this, he'd seen what had happened, he'd borne witness to it. And remember that after that had happened to him John the Baptist bore witness to him and the next time Jesus came by, John said, “Behold the Lamb of God,” meaning this is the one who is going to be the Son, the Priest of the sacrifice at the end of the time in the temple. But that required a much more ancient understanding than the authorities of Nicodemus generation wanted.

"So Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit” - he describes what had happened at his baptism, and what happens at all our baptisms - “What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Now flesh in John's gospel doesn't only mean simply [...] 'meat', it refers to the structure of the world that's not run by Spirit, the world, if you like, run by memetic desire - violence closed down on itself unable to break out, of trying to resolve all its problems by shortcuts, sacrifices, casting people out, all that sort of thing - that's the world of flesh. And the world of Spirit is the reverse of that, the Spirit of God coming in at an absolutely earthly level, taking hold of our lives and turning us into people who begin to open up that world. Spirit, if you like, is as worldly just a different sort of world.

[...]

"This is what enables us to be born from above because we understand that the heavenly reality is vastly bigger and not on the same level as the earthly reality, it's able to undo it from within through the Spirit. So this is what he's saying to Nicodemus: this is not a two-dimensional thing, this is a three-dimensional thing. This is what's happening. It's not that I'm just the teacher you say, but I'm the One coming in.

"And then he says the lines which we know and which are so famous even though usually mistranslated. The usual translation is, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” But the translation is slightly wrong because it makes it sound as though “for God *so* loved the world” as though it was an emotional thing. But actually it means “For God loved the world in this way,” this is a demonstrative: for God loved the world in this way. What was the form it took? Well that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. So he's talking about, not the intensity of God's love, but the shape of God's love. The shape of God's love is [...] going to be God having come into the midst of us who are inclined to perish and get involved in every sort of violence with and against each other and he's going to offer himself into our midst so that in fact by believing in that love we can give up that. We can, believing in him, receive eternal life. That's what the center of all this is about. [...]

"Now Nicodemus must have been baffled, he had the two-dimensional approach, it was the words, it was the text - that sacrifice stuff yeah it had to happen but not really very important. Whereas Jesus is saying, no the real thing is going to take the form of what happened in the temple - he didn't explain it will actually happen outside the temple, on the city dump, but it will be the same thing as what was being enacted in the temple - and for those who understand the depth of my love, of God's love for you in empowering me to come and do this, to give myself to you."

- James Alison, from video "RCL Homily for Second Sunday in Lent, Year A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSnShOBp15g)

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I think that the English translation "believe" in John 3 of the Greek word 'pistis' is misleading and unhelpful, especially in modern times where belief for Christians is so closely identified with intellectual assent to certain propositions about Jesus and God. Michael Hardin offers the following reframing of 'reason' and trust:

"The Gospel has broken into [the intellectual maze of 'reason'], it's given us a different frame of knowing, a different way of knowing, a different form of knowledge. [..'] It's a knowledge that is not simply limited to the social construct [in our minds], to the way we perceive ourselves, the way we perceive others, the way others perceive us, the way others perceive themselves, and everything in between about perception and knowledge and reality.

"The Gospel invites us to take a completely different orientation. It invites us to begin with 'pistis' - trust - and [...] this particular trust is cruciform in its very character. It's the trusting of the Father in spite of what is perceived. It is trusting that God will raise you from the dead as you hang on a cross. It's trusting the Father loves you that much, and cares for you that much. That's pistis.

"You see, it begins there, without that there is no proper conversion, there's no proper re-orientation. It's only from that point that one is able to look at all reality and all life in a completely different frame - through the lens of the forgiving victim, through the lens of the Father who loves, through the lens of the Spirit who brings about this inner crucifixion, or, to use the old reformed term, mortification of the flesh. Well, we need the mortification of the mind.

"Now [...] I'm not about being irrational. [...] I'm talking about the way we approach the whole phenomenon of the intellect and knowledge. Because the one thing we followers of Jesus are not, is we are not Gnostic. We do not believe in secret knowledge. We do not believe there's a certain knowledge limited to a very select few, that if you know this you can somehow be free. [...] That's an illusion, a total illusion."

- Michael Hardin, from video "Michael's Musings" posted on in July 2018

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"Interestingly, John almost never uses the term “kingdom of God” (which is at the heart of Jesus' message for Matthew, Mark, and Luke). There are two exceptions, both of which occur in this unique conversation [with Nicodemus in John 3]. Instead, John normally translates 'kingdom of God' into another phrase ['zoé aionios'] that is notoriously hard to render in English. Most commonly, John's translation of Jesus' original phrase is rendered “eternal life” in English. Unfortunately, the phrase eternal life is often misinterpreted to mean “life in heaven after you die” - as are “kingdom of God” and its synonym, “kingdom of heaven” - so I think we need to find a better rendering.

"If 'eternal life' doesn't mean 'life after death', what does it mean? Later in John's Gospel, Jesus reduces the phrase simply to 'life', or 'life to the full'. Near the end of John's account, Jesus makes a particularly fascinating statement in a prayer, and it is as close as we get to a definition: “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [God has] sent” (John 17:3). So here, 'eternal life' means knowing, and knowing means an interactive relationship. In other words, “This is eternal life, to have an interactive relationship with the only true God and with Jesus Christ, his messenger.” Interestingly, that's what a kingdom is too: an interactive relationship one has with a king, the king's other subjects, and so on.

"The Greek phrase John uses for 'eternal life' [zoé aionios] literally means 'life of the ages', as opposed, I think we could say, to 'life as people are living it these days'. So John's related phrases - 'eternal life', 'life to the full', and simply 'life' - give us a unique angle on what Jesus meant by “kingdom of God”: a life that is radically different from the way people are living these days, a life that is full and overflowing, a higher life that is centered in an interactive relationship with God and with Jesus. Let's render it simply 'an extraordinary life to the full centered in a relationship with God.'"

- Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, pp. 36-37

[Source of Brian McLaren quote, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for Lent 2A, see: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/lent2a/]

From the Lectionary for 22 February 2026 (Lent 1A)

Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV Updated Edition)

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
    and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God,
    and serve only him.’ ”

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

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The Old Testament reading for this week is Genesis 3 (the temptation and "fall" of Adam and Eve), and the Epistle reading is Romans 5:12-19, culminating in the following verses:

Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19, NRSV Updated Edition)

The thread through the Matthew 4 passage of Jesus' temptation is clear: the 'failure' of Adam, the faithfulness of Jesus, and the consequence thereof.

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"I would like to suggest that St. Paul’s typology of the first Adam and Second Adam is highly resonant with the evangelical anthropology around fallen desire, rather than some version of fallen human nature itself. Our desire is fallen because it takes the wrong model: each other. Desire isn’t bad in itself. It’s simply that the First Adam put us all on the road of desiring according to each other’s lesser desires.

"It takes the coming of the Second Adam to finally have a human being who fully lives God’s loving desire in this world. His perfectly loving desire can become, through the help of the Holy Spirit, the model for our [imitative] desire on its way to becoming more loving. Prior to this Second Adam we had no such model to imitate, short of learning to somehow model God’s love directly, so our redemption is impossible without the coming of the Second Adam. The way of the First Adam is one that leads to death; the way of the Second to life."

- Paul J. Nuechterlein, from "Reflections and Questions" on Romans 5:12-19 on the Girardian Lectionary page for Lent 1A (link in comments below)

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"[The imitative] nature of desire is illustrated graphically in the accounts of the devil’s temptations of Christ in Matthew and Luke. First the devil tries to undermine Jesus’ identity, “if you are the Son of God,” attempting to make him feel a lack, and so prove himself out of a feeling of lack of being. Jesus’ replies show that he receives his sense of being as Son from, and by a non-envious obedience towards, God. The final Matthaean temptation shows the devil explicitly as deviated transcendence: the devil offers to give Jesus power over everything if he will worship him. That is to say, distorted desire is the ruling principle of all the kingdoms of the world, and Jesus was being offered to incarnate that principle if only he would distort his desire from pacifically imitative of God, to conflictually acquisitive.

"The devil here is represented not only as obstacle, but as [...] distortion of desire, making gifts that should be received from God turn into obstacles that turn us away from God. The irony of this passage is that, by his obedience to God, his allowing God to constitute his consciousness pacifically and without obstacles, Jesus is in fact enabled, himself, to become the bread by which men can live because it is the same as the word which comes out of God’s mouth. He is able to become the Temple from which he refused to cast himself down. Finally he becomes, in his death, the king of all the kingdoms of the world. However, all this comes about as something he receives the hard way, through obedience to his Father, not something he grabs via a short cut, through allowing his desire to be distorted to an acquisitive [imitation]."

- James Alison, The Joy of Being Wrong, pp. 158-59

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"Now please notice what Jesus has done: he has rejected the three classic Messianic temptations: that of prophet, that of priest, and that of king. He is going to redefine hereafter what is meant by prophet, what is meant by priest, and what is meant by king: the principle of power, the principle of blessing, and the principle of speaking and living the truth. These three are going to be radically altered by what Jesus is going to live through hereafter.

"It says, “Then the devil left him and suddenly angels came and waited on him.” So it's interesting that the movement from the water of baptism, which in Luke he comes straight up, and the sense is that already his ordination has kicked in, and so now he is able to be within the Holy Place; the Holy Place has now become associated with him. Here it's interesting that the wilderness acts as a psychological step through into the Holy Place, so that the real Holy Place is not simply something that happens by an extrinsic act like baptism, but it's something that actually we grow through and into by our baptism, like by Jesus's baptism.

"As we become the priest, the prophet, and the king, so we are to learn to say no to the shortcuts, to agree to be held in being and allow ourselves to be given the capacity to be good to others, to be given the capacity to forgive and make forgiveness available for others, and to be given the capacity to exercise the kind of power that actually helps people live in truth. All of these are processes into which we are taken by baptism, and Jesus is showing us that this is the true path of Israel. The same elements will come up in different readings over the next weeks and I hope you will keep this in mind as we invite our Lord to help illuminate our Lenten Journey."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for First Sunday in Lent 2023 A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DLHErAUKYw)

[Source of quotes from Paul Nuechterlein and James Alison's The Joy of Being Wrong, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for Lent 1A, see: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/lent1a/]

From the Lectionary for 15 February 2026 (Transfiguration Sunday - Year A)

Matthew 17:1-9 (NRSV)

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

~

"When the disciples heard the voice from the bright cloud, they “were overcome with fear.” What were they afraid of? Was it just the power of a voice from Heaven? That could account for the fear. But maybe there is more to it. The disciples had been following Jesus for some time but they often failed to understand him, not least when Jesus predicted his imminent suffering and death. Were these predictions giving the disciples second thoughts about Jesus? If so, the heavenly affirmation of Jesus would have been frightening if it was Jesus’ willingness to suffer that made Jesus the beloved Son with whom God was well pleased. Worse, this could mean that being willing to follow Jesus through the same suffering and death was the way for them to be sons with whom God was well pleased. The glory revealed on the mountain was a powerful encouragement, but the kind of encouragement that must have left the disciples shaken, as it should leave us shaken."

- Andrew Marr, Abbot of St. Gregory’s Abbey (Three Rivers, MI), from 2020 blog post titled “The Beloved Son on the Mountain” (https://andrewmarrosb.blog/2020/02/22/the-beloved-son-on-the-mountain/)

~

James Alison, in an essay on the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16, describes how the priest readies himself to enter the Holy of Holies:

"At this stage, the High Priest is going to get into a brilliant white robe or tunic, pure, glistening white, and this is because he is about to acquire angelic status - not an angel in the modern sense, but in the more ancient sense in which the “Angel of the Lord” meant “a particular localized instantiation of the Lord”. It is as “Instantiation of the Lord” that the High Priest will emerge from the Holy of Holies, in glistening white, with the Tiara bearing the Name YHWH - the Tetragrammaton - upon his head, and maniples, or cufflinks, also bearing the name.

"Of course, we have a memory of this moment of the rite in the narrative of the Transfiguration where Jesus is revealed as the instantiation of YHWH in refulgent white. Naturally Peter and the other disciples want to stay with this bit of the rite, so Jesus has to insist from then on that he is going to head down the hill and up to Jerusalem to perform the sacrifice which is the next part of the rite."

- James Alison, Jesus the Forgiving Victim, pp. 245-46

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"How do we know all this? Is it mere theory? It is just what the church says? Is it myth or fiction?

"Barth has already given his reply in principle: the ground of being is the ground of knowledge. We do not know it 'a priori' nor can we come to know it by demonstration. The divine act has a subjective as well as an objective character.  It establishes itself in the knowing subject. It has the character of revelation.

"Noetically [ie. according to what know intellectually] we begin with the church and particularly holy scripture, but these lead us to the unique history of Jesus Christ in his self-revelation, which we can read and expound but cannot control. The Holy Spirit opens it up to us [...] by disclosing what is objectively concealed. In this witness Jesus Christ is present as the one who rose again in an unequivocal self-demonstration intimated already in his life, for example, at the Transfiguration, but fully given only when what is revealed had been effectively completed at the cross.

"Corresponding to that death, taking historical form yet also as an act of divine majesty or a miracle, the resurrection gives us a particular knowledge of the one who first loved us - a knowledge which rests on a genuinely historical investigation of the texts. In its totality the resurrection includes the ascension, thus telling us where Jesus came from - he rose from the dead - also where he went to - he ascended to the right hand of the Father. In this exaltation, which is his for us, is manifested also the exaltation of the cross."

G. W. Bromiley, "An Introduction to the Theology of Karl Barth", pg 200

~

Now, the Son of Man, the true human, has been glorified, and God is glorified in him. And if God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and will glorify him at once. (John 13:31-32)

"All of this glory language [...] refers, not to Jesus being magnified by God, not to Jesus being vindicated by God, none of that. [...] When Jesus says, “God is going to be glorified in him,” you might as well translate this as “God is going to be humiliated in him,” because for this writer, it's this act of humiliation that Jesus does, [...] going to the cross, that's the act of service, and what is happening on the cross is the forgiveness of sin. And this writer sees that as the ultimate glory of God - God is most glorious [in the act of] forgiving the human species from the cross.

"This is utterly different than beginning with the presupposition that God is majestic and God is almighty like we do in the Western tradition, the Calvinistic tradition, the Charismatic tradition. We start off with how great God is, how powerful God is, how all-knowing God is, and all this - no, no, no, no. The ultimate glorification of God for this writer is to bear witness to the crucified Jesus, and that is the most difficult thing in the world, for the world to do, or for Christians to do. Because what's happening here on the Cross is that there is a Creation that's being completed, and that act of creation includes the forgiveness of all."

- Michael Hardin, from a lecture on John 13

[Source of James Alison quote and link to Andrew Marr's blog, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday, see: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/transfiguration_a/]

[In the Roman Catholic lectionary, today is the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (corresponding to Epiphany 6A in the Revised Common Lectionary). For James Alison's reflections on that Gospel text (Matthew 5:17-37): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU3LaT0FTMo)]

From the Lectionary for 8 February 2026 (Epiphany 5A)

1 Corinthians 2: 6-7 (NRSV Updated Edition)

Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed. But we speak God's wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory

Matthew 5:13-16 (NRSV)

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot. 

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

~

"In Matthew's gospel Jesus tells us that we are salt. Does that mean we know about God's secret wisdom? Is that what makes us salty? Paul says God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory. God was working for our benefit in a way beyond our imagination before the world began. It's so good we have trouble believing it and it's for our glory, not God's glory. It's from God but for us. [...]

"God's wisdom embraces self-sacrifice and forgiveness; that's the secret hidden from the beginning of time and now revealed in Jesus and him crucified. Living out self-sacrifice, co-suffering love and forgiveness makes us the salt of the earth. [...]

"God's wisdom is grounded in non-violent, non-rivalrous, and totally forgiving love. It contrasts sharply with human wisdom where every word and action is subject to rivalry and fear, vengeance and hierarchy. [...]

"[... O]ur saltiness comes from being attuned to the wisdom of God; that wisdom that knows about sacrificial self-giving rather than sacrificing the other, that knows about co-suffering love rather than making sure only the other suffers, and that knows about a forgiveness so deep it leaves no enmity in its wake. This wisdom knows we are the light of the world, a city on top of a hill that cannot be hidden."

- Thomas L. Truby, from sermon delivered on February 5, 2017

(https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Truby-Epiphany5-2017-The-Big-Difference.pdf)

~

"[T]he Christian religion continues to sing and preach and teach about Jesus, but in too many places (not all!) it has largely forgotten, misunderstood, or become distracted from Jesus' secret message. When we drifted from understanding and living out his essential secret message of the kingdom, we became like flavorless salt or a blown-out lightbulb - so boring that people just walked away.

"We may have talked about going to heaven after we die, but not about God's will being done on earth before we die. We may have pressured people to be moral and good or correct and orthodox to avoid hell after death, but we didn't inspire them with the possibility of becoming beautiful and fruitful to heal the earth in this life. We may have instructed them about how to be a good Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, or Methodist on Sunday, but we didn't train, challenge, and inspire them to live out the kingdom of God in their jobs, neighborhoods, families, schools, and societies between Sundays."

- Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, pg. 84

~

"What would it mean to seek to be table-salt Christianity today? How is it possible to be salt that dramatically changed the taste of human life for the better, giving life to the earth in the 21st century? To answer this question you have at once to take into account an entirely other perspective about the “spread abroad” quality of inherited Christianity.

"Elsewhere I have argued that Christianity has had such a profound cultural impact it decisively and progressively affects our underlying responses and opinions, above all in our recognition of the victim through an undertow of Christ's compassion. This paradoxical impact explains why there is in fact so much implicit Christianity in so-called secular culture and why it is so easy to find a kind of diffused humanism and spirituality entirely away from the churches. For this kind of thing Jesus used parables of seed and its amazing, unstoppable growth. If we take the liberty of mixing this phenomenon with the image of the salt, it's as if the whole world is suspended in a kind of saline solution! Everything today is mixed with Christianity.

"However, this is of very little comfort when there are also many accumulated crises facing humanity. As a planet we have desperate decisions to make about inequality, poverty, the climate, weapons and war. Never in fact has the need for genuine disciples been more critical. I would say, therefore, that it's the single tangy grain of salt resting in the water which reveals what the whole medium really is. [...]

"Such a single grain can be achieved only in direct relationships where it is possible to see the qualities of compassion, nonviolence, forgiveness and peace at work. It is a challenge, and failure and false-starts are a constant possibility. But [we should not underestimate] the seasoning power of a single grain of salt, that tangy thing Jesus was talking about!"

- Anthony Bartlett, from blog post entitled “Salt Solutions” (no longer available online)

~

"The salt - this would have referred to two sorts of things. The salt was sometimes referred to wisdom, the kind of salt that comes with the savour of fine things that have been understood. These are people who are going to be producing the wisdom of this world the salt of the world. But also the salt that would be put on sacrifices that they would be pleasing to the Lord. These are the people who, by giving themselves away in the midst of the world and its lies and its violence, are showing what is true and a revealing God. So they are taking part, going to be taking part, in his one true sacrifice which is to come, which of course is not the same as any of the world's sacrifices, which are to protect us from the light, but are the ways of allowing the light to come in. So he's saying this is going to be up to you this is going to be your task. [...] [T]he savour is going to be related to you learning how to give yourself away and discover wisdom during that.

[...]

"[Putting your lamp on a lampstand] gives light to the whole house, whether you want it or not, so he's saying. “So here in the same way let your light shine before others.” In other words, you're going to become the celebratory lights that other people might try to put out, but you are not to allow yourselves to be put out. You are going to become that which lights the whole house, the whole city, you're going to become the light of the world.

"“So that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven.” In other words, you're going to become witnesses through going through this process that makes you radiant witnesses for the one who is bringing you into being, so as to show the light of God, [...] your Father in Heaven.

[...]

"So, another challenge to us to find the way of radiance, the way of saltiness, as we come through Matthew's gospel, finding ourselves on the inside of the precarious of the world, and finding that God is in there, always trying to come through into us so as to make God's self better known through us, who will be discovered to be God's daughters and sons."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_19HUQX1UQ)

[Source of Brian Maclaren quote and links to Thomas Truby sermon and Anthony Bartlett blog, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday, see: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/epiphany5a/]

From the Lectionary for 1 February 2026 (Epiphany 4A)

Matthew 5:1-12 (NRSV Updated Edition)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

~

"Now, the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount points to what I have called ‘the intelligence of the victim’. It starts with the beatitudes, where the people chosen as exemplars of proximity to God are all marginal, dependent people. People who have a certain relationship to others which one might describe as precarious: the poor in spirit are poor relative to people who might use power and riches against them; those who mourn are those who are in a relationship of vulnerability owing either to some loss, or some overbearing situation; the meek are meek in the midst of a social other that despises meekness; the merciful refuse to be involved in a vengeful relation to the other, that is they don't insist on their rights over against another; the pure in heart have acquired their purity of heart with difficulty in the midst of a world which does not encourage it; the peacemakers are notoriously those who eventually get blamed by both sides for not sharing their violence - each side sees them as traitors and those who are persecuted for righteousness [...] Well, the intelligence of the victim couldn't be more explicit - and this is emphasized again in the final beatitude: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you, and utter all kinds of falsehood against you.”

"The key feature of blessedness is that it involves living a deliberately chosen and cultivated sort of life which is not involved in the power and violence of the world, and which because of this fact, makes the ones living it immensely vulnerable to being turned into victims. That is the center of the ethic as taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount."

- James Alison, Knowing Jesus, pp. 42-43

~

"Jesus has been speaking for only a matter of seconds, and he has already turned our normal status ladders and social pyramids upside down. He advocates an identity characterized by solidarity, sensitivity, and nonviolence. He celebrates those who long for justice, embody compassion, and manifest integrity and non-duplicity. He creates a new kind of hero: not warriors, corporate executives, or politicians, but brave and determined activists for pre-emptive peace, willing to suffer with him in the prophetic tradition of justice.

"Our choice is clear from the start: If we want to be his disciples, we won't be able to simply coast along and conform to the norms of our society. We must choose a different definition of well-being, a different model of success, a new identity with a new set of values.

"Jesus promises we will pay a price for making that choice. But he also promises we will discover many priceless rewards. If we seek the kind of unconventional blessedness he proposes, we will experience the true aliveness of God's kingdom, the warmth of God's comfort, the enjoyment of the gift of this Earth, the satisfaction at seeing God's restorative justice come more fully, the joy of receiving mercy, the direct experience of God's presence, the honor of association with God and of being in league with the prophets of old. That is the identity he invites us to seek."

- Brian McLaren, We Make the Road by Walking, pp. 128-29

~

"Jesus is not speaking, as it were, from a starting point but from a midpoint. This is God in the middle of us, speaking into the midst of all our lives and indicating something about a quality of being alive which is what he is promoting.

[...]

"[T]he Greek 'makarioi' can be translated as blessed or happy, those are the two standard translations. “Happy” suggests [...] a good mood and it's perfectly nonsense - many of the people in this situation are not happy in the normal sense. “Blessed” suggests a kind of a fictional description of them, that although life is really awful they're blessed, so it's kind of extrinsic and outside them, a label.

"The translation which I've chosen - which is not really translation, it's a proposal - is “radiant.” Why do I say that? Because each one of the groups described are people who are in the midst of the grind in one way [or another]. They are precarious on the inside of the grind of being human, but they're beginning to turn up the right side. There is something about going through the grind in which they are being brought to radiance. [...] I know it's not a translation, it's just a suggestion, but I think it's suggestion that indicates something of the quality of someone who's going through the grind and is [...] beginning to come out with a sense that they're doing something real.

[...]

"[I]t seems to me [...] that he's saying these are not instructions from above, these are indications of what really is from within. And that's going to be the extraordinary thing about what we're going to learn over the next few weeks [from the Sermon on the Mount]: it's all to do with patterns of desire in the midst of living with real things. It's never a question of “I give you an order and now you must fulfill it.” It's always a question of: this is what is going on and this is what desire looks like, let's work out how to live this in such a way that it bears witness to God.

"So, “radiance” [and] the notion of God not coming down from above but being in the midst and actually beginning to show forth what it's going to be like to be radiant with life alongside him, with him being alongside us and enabling us to inhabit and to discover the kingship of God."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK7aJyYupVU)

[Source of quotes from James Alison's Knowing Jesus and Brian Maclaren's We Make the Road by Walking, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday, see: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/epiphany4a/]

From the Lectionary for 25 January 2026 (Epiphany 3A)

Matthew 4:12-25 (NRSV Updated Edition)

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
    light has dawned.”

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, people possessed by demons or having epilepsy or afflicted with paralysis, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

~

"So it's a very interesting beginning, the universality of the mission does seem to start very early on in Matthew's Gospel, and we'll see how that works itself out over time as we as we get on. But anyhow, here at the very beginning [...] of his ministry Jesus is kind of marking his territory. Once John is arrested he moves into place and starts. And he starts by saying the same thing as John: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

"And then he already begins to create the sign of the Kingdom that is coming and in the face of which, therefore, people are going to be able to repent. Because, of course, it's always God showing God's self first that enables repentance, rather than a moral instruction followed by something nice. The indicative always comes before the imperative in practice, even though in rhetoric sometimes it's the other way around. That's central to Matthew, as it is to all the Gospels and to any understanding of grace. A powerful beginning, with Matthew setting up quite clearly how he is going to be tackling these things from now on: first teaching and then signs."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mao7mtdLLQ)

~

"In Mt. 4:17, Jesus says:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Repenting does not mean to make a laundry list of our little sins and try to stop doing them. Repenting means to turn around, to switch our minds and our hearts, to see life in a new way. This is the fundamental thrust of the Kingdom. But what specs can we get from the blueprint?

[...]

"What does the Kingdom of God, founded on the foolishness of the cross look like? The blueprint we have in these readings doesn’t look like much, but then a crucified criminal in Roman times doesn’t look like much either. When we read just a bit further in Matthew, we enter the real-life rooms of the Kingdom outlined in the blueprint. We find many rooms, many mansions, all of which offer contagious possibilities such as being blessed for being poor or for being a peacemaker, or turning the other cheek or walking the extra mile, and then finding in these weaknesses the rock that supports the house of faith we are building against the storm of Rome and Assyria and the power brokers of our time."

- Andrew Marr, Abbot of St. Gregory’s Abbey (Three Rivers, MI), from blog post titled “Blueprint of the Kingdom.” (http://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/blueprint-of-the-kingdom/)

~

"Repentance is about where we place our bodies…and where we place our bodies is always close to Jesus. And Jesus' body is always close to the vulnerable, the oppressed, those in anguish. Matthew's story about Jesus and the Kindom of God, about repentance and transformation, is about where we place our bodies. “Immediately, they left.” [v.22] Their leaving is a bodied movement. It's a change in the location of their bodies. It's a change in their focus and attention. It's a physical, visible change in the placement of their bodies and lives.

"And it is also a spiritual and internal change and transformation. The verb translated “they left” is the same Greek verb we encountered two weeks ago: aphemi. To let go, to release, to forgive. Jesus, the light shining in the darkness, is inviting us to keep our bodies close to his body. But more than just our bodies, in order for the light to shine in the darkness, we let God's Spirit breathe our repentance.

"The Spirit of God is the life and breath of our transformation. It is the Breath of God breathing in us that makes it possible to live letting go, releasing, forgiving. We listen and watch Jesus with Andrew and Peter and James and John. And everywhere they went, Light shone on those where were in anguish. And there was no gloom. The Light of the world, the Light of Christ, was being embodied.

[...]

"There is darkness. There is anguish. And we may we be foolish enough to trust the Light of the world. May we be foolish enough to follow the Light. May we be foolish enough to embody the Light... in all places... with all bodies."

- Suella Gerber, from sermon delivered on 22 Jan, 2017 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Gerber-012217-sermon.pdf)

[Source of links to Andrew Marr blog post and Suella Gerber sermon, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday, see: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/epiphany3a/]