2026 After Pentecost Series: Faithful and Vital
Year A 2025-2026 Seeds and Ways Focus and Roadmap: Stay Awake
Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
(Matthew 24:42 NRSVue)
The liturgical calendar calls us to remember expectation. While our memories of the days preceding Christmas may include anticipating gifts and festival gathering around meals and decorated trees, that is not the memory Advent amplifies. While Epiphany greets us at the dawn of a new year, memories of midnight toast and kisses does not frame that season. Lent may evoke shudders as we consider how difficult it may have been to forgo that favorite practice, menu item, or other thing in order to share in the sacrificial activity of Christ. Yet, if that struggle fails to generate empathy for the suffering of our neighbor on our block and across the world, the sacrifice was empty. A sunrise service on Easter Sunday morning may transport our imagination to the empty tomb, but that shocking moment led to uncertainty, discovery, and an empowered movement that launched on the Day of Pentecost and continues today.
The future of the church faces threats. While some have the reasonable fear of closing church doors, the more urgent and salient problem is the church that has lost its way, its voice, its witness, and its commitment to embodying good news in the world as Christ’s agents in the world.
The call to remember expectation is a call to hope, to agency, and to activation in a world in need of conduits and co-creators of good news. In the anchoring text for the liturgical year, Jesus cautioned and encouraged their followers to “keep awake.” The command encompasses attentiveness, alertness, and readiness. The context of the passage emphasizes the anticipated return of Christ, the Chosen One. Could the Body of Christ reclaim its mantle and mandate to embody God’s love and liberating power in the world? Could that be the return we expect…to the movement to follow the way of Jesus in spirit and in truth…not to give us an escape to heaven but to realize the kindom on earth through our collective, Spirit-led salvific acts in the name of Jesus? Are we prepared and willing to be that church?
That is the question we will ponder in Year A even as we heed the call to “Stay Awake.”
2026 After Pentecost Series: Faithful and Vital
The season after Pentecost constitutes roughly half of the liturgical year and focuses less on the pivotal moments in the life of Christ that shape the other seasons (i.e. Advent, Easter) Rather, this season is bound together by threads of discipleship: what is expected, what has been demonstrated, and what has been the response to the costly call of discipleship. This time has been identified as ordinary time. Yet, faith alive, active, and embodied in the world has proved to be extraordinary. As we ponder the texts and the insights relevant for living today, we delve into our collective call to be faithful to the gospel-informed life in Christ, through Christ, and because of Christ.
In the United Church of Christ Constitution, the preamble declares, “The United Church of Christ acknowledges as its sole Head, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior.” As followers of the Still Speaking God, we acknowledge the continuing testimony that the Holy One works through people, individually and especially gathered in community. The church is that institution inspired and called by God to ministry in the name and way of Jesus. Therefore, for this season after Pentecost Year A, worship resources of Sermon Seeds and Worship Ways will invite us to remember who we are in order to nurture who we could be through the framework of the Marks of Faithful and Vital Local Churches from the United Church of Christ Manual on Local Church.
During the Season after Pentecost, the subseries themes will reflect the categories organizing the Marks.
“The Manual on Local Church is also a resource for the whole United Church of Christ, imparting a vision of faithfulness and vitality by offering Marks of Faithful and Vital Local Churches that build upon the specific and continuing witness and ministry of the United Church of Christ.” (Introduction, Manual on Local Church)
The scripture readings and weekly themes relate to those categories. Further, the suggested congregational response will center one Mark per subseries. Local churches may want to substitute another Mark within the same category or choose a different Mark each week. As always, feel free to contextualize the response.
Scripture and Themes
Exhibiting a Spiritual Foundation and Ongoing Spiritual Practice
Trinity Sunday A – May 31: Genesis 1:1-2:4a | “Rest Made Holy”
After Pentecost 2A – June 7: Genesis 12:1-9 | “Journeyed on by Stages”
After Pentecost 3A – June 14: Genesis 18:1-15 | “Shall I Be Fruitful?”
Mark for Congregational Response: Encouraging opportunities for all to practice sabbath and spiritual renewal.
Engaging Sacred Stories and Traditions
After Pentecost 4A – June 21: Genesis 21:8-21 | “And God Heard”
After Pentecost 5A – June 28: Genesis 22:1-14 | “It Shall Be Provided”
After Pentecost 6A – July 6: Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67| “Drink”
Mark for Congregational Response: Embracing risk-taking and a spirit of innovation as exemplified in the Gospels.
Shaping Church Community
After Pentecost 7A – July 12: Genesis 25:19-34 | “Granted Prayer”
After Pentecost 8A – July 19: Genesis 28:10-19a | “You Shall Spread”
After Pentecost 9A – July 26: Genesis 29:15-28 | “What is This?”
Mark for Congregational Response: Relating to one another with gentleness, kindness, and compassion, with sympathy, empathy, and healthy, life-affirming behaviors.
Organizing Community with Intention
After Pentecost 10A – August 2: Genesis 32:22-31 | “Wrestling”
After Pentecost 11A – August 9: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 | “Lived as an Alien”
After Pentecost 12A – August 16: Genesis 45:1-15 | “Will Not Come to Poverty”
Mark for Congregational Response: Implementing safe conduct and abuse prevention practices and policies to foster a healthy environment for all people, particularly vulnerable individuals.
Building Leadership Skills Within Local Churches
After Pentecost 13A – August 23: Exodus 1:8-2:10 | “Out of the Water”
After Pentecost 14A – August 30: Exodus 3:1-15 | “Beyond the Wilderness”
*After Pentecost 15A – September 6: Matthew 18:15-20 | “There Among Them”
*Creation in Christ Sunday – September 6
Mark for Congregational Response: Nurturing gifts for ministry among lay people and equipping new generations of faith leaders.
Caring For the Wider Community
After Pentecost 16A – September 13: Matthew 18:21-35 | “To Settle Accounts”
After Pentecost 17A – September 20: Exodus 16:2-15 | “Heard Your Complaining”
After Pentecost 18A – September 27: Exodus 17:1-7a | “The People May Drink”
Mark for Congregational Response: Seeking to understand the lived experiences of the wider community, particularly those whose experiences differ from those in the Local Church in identity, ability, age, gender, race, and/or religion.
Working Together for Justice and Mercy
After Pentecost 19A – October 4: Matthew 21:33-46 | “A People That Produces Its Fruits”
After Pentecost 20A – October 11: Matthew 22:1-14 | “Those Who Have Been Invited”
After Pentecost 21A – October 18: Matthew 22:15-22 | “Whose Head”
After Pentecost 22A – October 25: Matthew 22:34-46 | “Love God and Neighbor”
Mark for Congregational Response: Dismantling physical and cultural barriers that hinder accessibility or inhibit connection or relationship with the Local Church and community.
Living into United Church of Christ Identity
All Saints Day A/After Pentecost 23A – November 1: Revelation 7:9-17 | “Who Are These”
After Pentecost 24A – November 8: Joshua 3:7-17 | “God Among You”
After Pentecost 25A – November 15: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 | “We Will Serve”
Reign of Christ Sunday/After Pentecost 26A – November 22: Judges 4:1-7 | “Position Yourself”
Mark for Congregational Response: Engaging with the various settings of the United Church of Christ, including other Local Churches, as well as the Association, Conference, General Synod, and global ministry partners.
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.