The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Overview and Connections
Welcome to Ordinary Time! A bit of liturgical trivia: there is actually no “First Sunday of Ordinary Time,” as that Sunday is always superseded by the Baptism of the Lord.
Liturgical seasons are no more abrupt changes than our natural seasons. We don’t go to bed one night in shorts and wake up in fleece. There is a spilling over of one season into the next. So it is liturgically. At the end of the liturgical year, the last few readings build us up to Advent themes. The season of Advent gives way to Christmas. The season of Christmas officially ends with the Baptism of the Lord, but today we see themes of Christmas and Christ’s coming, his being revealed to the nations.
One question we might ask: Why do we keep cycling through the lectionary year after year?! The good news is the message we are called to bring to the world. But the good news can often lose its punch amidst all the bad news of the world. We have to continually remind ourselves and be reminded of what we’re about. That’s why we celebrate frequently in community – so that we can help remind each other. And that’s why we go through these stories again and again.
The other reason is that you are different today than you were this time three years ago. It might be the same reading, but it will fall on different ears and a different heart. That’s why Scripture is always fresh and new.
If you haven’t done so recently, take a moment to review how the readings relate to each other each week in the lectionary.
Isaiah 62:1-5
This passage is one we also read at the Christmas Vigil Mass; yet another reminder of how the season run together.
This reading from chp 62 comes from “Trito Isaiah,” or the third section. The people are returning home from Babylonian captivity, but they must start over completely. There is a struggle to understand how to be God’s people in a new setting and a new context.
Our lives offer many experiences that force us to reinterpret who we are and how we are called to be in the world. When I originally wrote the commentary on today’s readings, it was January 2022. We were two years out from COVID lockdowns and many were still asking how to get back to “normal,” back to the way things were. Even as most of us realized that things would never be that way again.
The Jews in exile in Babylon wanted the same: let’s get home, back to the Temple, back to the way things were. Except that the exile had changed them in the same way COVID changed us. There really is no going back to “normal.” But guess what?! The vision of what they went back to, as laid out in 3rd Isaiah, was something much better than before. It was a vision of an inclusive faith that embraced the whole world. They were challenged to open up their thinking, to expand their horizons. As are we.
Chp 60-62 envision a New Jerusalem. Remember that the “old” Jerusalem had been obliterated by the Babylonians. Solomon’s glorious Temple had been reduced to rubble. The city was besieged for over a year and everyone in it witnessed starvation and death on a catastrophic scale. They wanted to get back to the way things were before such suffering colored their memories. But there are numerous verses in these chapters (I’ll let you go on a hunt for them!) that show a memory of the suffering in the midst of the glory of the new. New life does not mean going back to an infant state, before we were wounded. The new life that God envisions encompasses the healed wounds and the scars that have served to form us into new beings.
God speaks in v1. It is as though God is bursting at the seams, so eager she can’t be quiet. Recall the reading on the 3rd Sunday of Advent from Zephaniah which pictures God dancing over and with us in jubilation. One commentary called this a “song of splendid impatience.” God doesn’t want us to wallow in exile; God wants so much more than that for us!
V2 brings more echoes of Epiphany. And it says that they will be called by a new name. New names are always significant in scripture: Abram/Abraham, Jacob/Israel, Simon/Peter. See also Revelation 2:17. New names are often given after a deep struggle, as a person or a nation emerges into a new identity.
The Hebrew in v4 is a play on words with Forsaken/Delight and Desolate/Espoused. Israel is not just saved but restored. Salvation is not just being saved from something but also for something! “Espoused” in the King James Version is “Beulah,” which is a transliteration of the Hebrew word be-ula. In John Bunyan’s allegorical story, Pilgrim’s Progress, Beulah Land is a place of peace near the end of the Christian life, on the border of the Celestial City. This name comes up in a lot of southern hymns and folk music.
V5 gives a connection to the Gospel. This verse sets an image context of a wedding banquet, a connection to the Gospel reading.
Think of times in your life when things changed and you longed to back to “normal.” In what ways is the “new normal” better than anything you could have envisioned then?
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
Today’s reading is from Chapters 11-14, a section on problems in liturgical assemblies: dress, the Eucharist, gifts of the spirit, love, prophecy, order in the use of spiritual gifts. These chapters, including today’s passage, are in the context of things that go on in a liturgical/communal assembly.
Paul has discerned an egocentric competitiveness that was detrimental to church unity. Some people in Corinth had the ability, the gift, to speak in tongues and they thought that gave them a status above other people – it made them better. It’s telling that even Christians can become divided over what are essentially good things! I remember the world in after Covid, when things were beginning to open back up. Some folks came back to Mass right away, others were much more cautious. After a while, one could detect a subtle elitism in some who seemed to think their presence at Mass made them somehow more holy. Perhaps Paul might chastise us and remind us about the unity that comes from being one body in Christ.
If we had to sum up today’s reading, we could say it like this: No one has it all; everyone has something. And in order to do this Christian thing, we’re gonna have to figure out how to work together.
Paul begins this section in 12:1 by saying that there’s misunderstandings about spiritual gifts and he is now going to address that.
In v4-6 he says the same thing three times, a Semitic parallelism, like we often see in the Psalms. These are different ways of saying the same thing. In v4 he speaks of gifts, charismaton; in v5 it is of service, diakonian; and in v6 he speaks of workings, enegema – energy or power. The actions manifest in different ways but God is behind them all.
Then Paul gives a sample list of some of the ways the spirit manifests. This is not a comprehensive list and you will find other lists sprinkled throughout Paul’s letters. This is not trying to say: here’s a list of gifts – pick which one you have. This is more like these are some possibilities. He’s saying that the spirit produces a rich giftedness within the community. It is less about individual gifts and more about the rich giftedness of the community as a whole.
Each person is given something to do that shows who God is.
1 Corinthians 1:7, The Message
In v11 he sums it up by saying once more that the same spirit is behind it all. All have something but no one has all. That’s why we need unity while we respect the diversity. This is what the Trinity is all about: unity in diversity.
As I look at each person I come into contact with, as they use their gifts, what can they tell me about who God is?
What are your gifts and what do they tell others (and yourself!) about who God is?
What gifts in those around you have you benefited from?
John 2:1-11
This Sunday and this reading in particular kick us off on the long road of ordinary time by giving us the full picture of what Jesus came for, what his life will accomplish: the joy of the wedding feast when we are finally united with God.
This passage opens up with John saying that this is the 3rd day. Numbering is very significant in this gospel. Beginning in John 1:19 and going through our story today is a succession of “days” where John reveals a gradual recognition of who Jesus is. And we must use the term “days” loosely, because we’re not necessarily talking literally about a 24 hour period of time.
- First day 1:19-28 John the Baptist explains his role in relation to Jesus
- Next day 1:29-34 John the Baptist explains Jesus’ role
- Next day is the third day of John the Baptist and the first day of Jesus 1:35-42 Jesus is shown as teacher and Messiah with his own followers
- Next day 1:43-51 Jesus is shown as the one described in the law and prophets, Son of God, king of Israel
- Next day (which, in John’s accounting is also Jesus’ third day) 2:1-11 wedding at Cana, the disciples begin to believe in him
Apocryphal tradition says the bridegroom is John the son of Zebedee and that Mary was his aunt. It makes sense in the story that Mary will intervene to protect the honor of her own family, whereas if she wasn’t part of the family, her actions to intervene would be seen as shameful.
It’s important to know for this story that ancient rabbis saw wine as equivalent to joy: “Without wine there is no joy.” We could hear Mary saying to Jesus, “They have no more joy.” They have run out of joy. Wine was associated with feasting and banquets, and all of that is associated with the Messianic age – that time when God would set up his earthly reign. John is careful to lay out all these elements, which his original audience would have known all pointed to the Messiah.
Beginning in v1 we see that it’s the 3rd day, which also calls to mind the resurrection. We can read this story (like everything in John’s gospel) as functioning on multiple levels. It’s a story about who Jesus is; it’s also a story about who the church is. There’s a wedding. Mary is there, although she is never called by name in this gospel. V2 tells us that Jesus and his disciples are also there.
In v3 the mother of Jesus tells him the situation: they have no wine; they’ve run out of joy. Was this a request or a simple statement? The text does not clarify but I think this is a place where universal human experience comes into play. Did your parent ever make a statement to you, leaving absolutely no doubt that some act was required on your part? Your shoes are in the middle of the hall. Your dirty plate is in the sink. They have no wine. Can you hear the tone of voice, perhaps see the arched brow and the posture? I think Jesus’ response in the next verse supports that Mary was asking him to intervene, to do something.
In that culture, inviting a large number of guests brought great honor to a family. Running out of something, especially wine, would bring great disgrace. It makes sense that Mary is getting herself involved in this if she is a member of the extended family because the disgrace would be hers as well. It also makes sense that she knows about it before anyone else because the women were the ones in the kitchen, even if they were guests at the party.
Jesus’ response feels to us like a somewhat rude way to address one’s mother, and that was true even in that culture. John’s gospel never refers to Mary by name, and he goes to great lengths to emphasize Jesus’ divinity, sometimes by downplaying his humanity. Some scholars see this as Jesus distancing himself from his mother.
How does your concern affect me? This is translated in many different ways:
- Why do you involve me? NIV
- What business do you have with me? NASB
- What have you to do with me? RSV, KJV
If you translated the Greek literally, it would be something like, “What to me and to you?” This is a classic idiom: an expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words, but has a separate meaning of its own. In the culture, it meant “Why are you asking me to get involved in something that I have no business being involved in?” Jesus implies here that Mary has no idea what the launching of his ministry will cost him (and her, by extension).
Don’t you love Mary’s response to this question? “Do whatever he tells you.” Literally, “whatever anyhow he may say to you, do.” It’s pretty clear that she’s expecting him to do something.
V6 references six large stone jars. Jews would ritually wash before meals and other events. Six is a large number of jars indicating a lot of people needing to wash. Because the banquet was already underway, the ritual washing would have occurred before it started, and so now the jars are empty. Jesus instructs the servers to go fill the jars and they do so, “to the brim.” A detail, incidentally, that only one of the servers would have known.
In v8, Jesus tells them to take some of the water out of the jars and take it to the head waiter. Mind you, these are jars used ceremonially for washing. But Jesus is telling them to take some for the person overseeing the banquet to drink. They do so, although one has to wonder what was going on in their minds!
The head waiter would have assumed that someone went out and procured more wine. Or perhaps he didn’t even know about the shortage yet. It was common, when new wine was about to be served, to have it brought to the head waiter for tasting. This head person knew nothing more than that.
No doubt you’ve heard at some point the explanation that wedding feasts could last a week or more. So they would serve the good stuff first to make the best impression when people could most appreciate it. It’s not clear whether the head waiter’s response is praise or a rebuke. It could be either.
This first part of the gospel of John is called “the book of signs”. Think about a sign on a freeway: exit one mile. The sign directs you where to go or where to look. A sign directs our attention to the mystery of faith. I love this translation, that the disciples “began to believe” in Jesus by seeing this sign. Metanoia, transformation, faith is a process. Belief evolves. V11 says this sign “revealed” his glory, meaning the sign brought it to light. This word is the same root word in Greek as in the New Testament reading today: “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” (1 Corinthians 12:7)
The seven signs in the gospel of John reveal who Jesus is: the one sent by the Father to bring salvation to the world. The sign in today’s story shows the theme of replacement: replacing Jewish institution, replacing the water for purification by the choicest of wines. All previous religious institutions and customs lose their meaning in light of Jesus’ presence. The stone jars had a purpose under the old order but Jesus finds them empty. Jesus, manifested as the Son, brings new purpose, new life.
The challenge of this Gospel is to accept the scope of what Jesus wants to do in our lives. He did not come just to lift up our behavior a little bit or just to heal the wounds of sin. He came to transform human life entirely, to make it divine. He is not just a healer or prophet or teacher, although he is all of those things. He is God sharing the life of God with us.
The following poetic snippet comes from a commentary somewhere on my shelf!
I wonder: if a hundred and twenty
author unknown
Gallons is the measure of extravagance
At the beginning of glory,
What will be the end?
Think about those empty jars. They once had a purpose but now they sit idle. What are some empty jars in your own life? Perhaps things you once found joy in doing but now seem dry and of no use. Perhaps as a child, you delighted in drawing pictures or telling stories. Perhaps, once upon a time, you had a talent for something and using that talent brought you great delight. Often when we imagine things in this way, something will pop up into our conscious mind and we will dismiss it as a distraction or an irrelevance. But it might be that the Spirit has brought up something that needs to be given attention. What comes up for you? In what ways might God be wanting to repurpose something and bring it new life?
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© 2025 Kelly Sollinger