2025 After Pentecost Series I: Raise Her Voice
The season After Pentecost in the liturgical year focuses on discipleship rather than particular milestones in the life of Jesus. During Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary, we hear from the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. The connection to the featured gospel, Luke, reminds us that the ministry of Jesus, and therefore his disciples, was prophetic. We continue to be called, invited, and challenged into the kindom of God where we may stand still and know that God is God, but we also speak up and speak out against injustice on the side of the marginalized, oppressed, and subjugated. Within the kindom, justice and righteousness reign when we hear and heed the cries of the least and respond as the Body of Christ, loving our neighbor by sharing our abundance and holding one another accountable.
In this series, we center the words found in Proverbs 8:
8 Does not wisdom call
and understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
4 “To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all who live.
(Proverbs 8:1–4)
After Pentecost I Scripture and Themes: “Into the Deep”
We embody jubilee when we live toward restoration and flourishing for all, when we embrace not only the teachings of Jesus but the way of Jesus. This moment calls us to go Into the Deep. We may cast our nets fishing for nourishment, livelihood, vocation, or community. In this series, we will go deeper in exploring passages from the Gospels according to Luke and John with expectation that we will find new meaning, revived direction, and refocused energy for a life in and with Christ.
Into the deep.
Trinity Sunday C, June 15: John 16:12-15 | “Of Truth”
After Pentecost 2C, June 22: Luke 8:26-39 | “From the Tombs”
After Pentecost 3C, June 29: Luke 9:51-62 | “Along the Road”
After Pentecost 4C, July 6: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 | “Like Lambs”
After Pentecost 5C, July 13: Luke 10:25-37 | “The One Who Showed Mercy”
After Pentecost 6C, July 20: Luke 10:38-42 | “Few Things are Needed”
After Pentecost 7C, July 27: Luke 11:1-13 | “Teach Us”
Year C 2024-2025 Seeds and Ways Focus and Roadmap: Embodied Jubilee: Justice, Righteousness, and Redemption
In the biblical narrative, justice and righteousness were often encapsulated in the same word. In fact, when reading the text, when encountering the word “righteousness”, it would be entirely appropriate to substitute the word “justice.” In Year C, with an emphasis on the Gospel according to Luke, the emphasis will be on reclaiming justice as an essential element of the reign and realm of God and both a hope and sign of the kindom of God manifested on earth. Luke’s account gives particular attention and significant emphasis on the marginalized, oppressed, and silenced in society. Individual righteousness, a derivative or consequence of following the way of justice, will be treated as such.
Jubilee, represented by the settling of all debts, will be claimed as the ultimate destination of the collective and communal faith journey. The call to discipleship throughout this liturgical year will be to participate in Embodied Jubilee. The Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection will point to and offer a path to engage with this call.
Finally, no treatment of justice and jubilee would be complete without a focus on the redemptive acts of the Holy One and God’s disciples in human history. That is good news. Let’s proclaim it!
The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology, United Church of Christ, (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves as a local church pastor and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities.