Abstract
In this work, the three editors strive to create a homiletical resource that highlights what they believe to be God’s ideal reality: a social world. For them, a social world is one in which all of God’s people are fully included in the Kingdom of God, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. In order to achieve their goal, the editors recruited an extremely diverse staff of writers, across lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. The intentionality behind the diverse writing staff is to expose the readers to theological worldviews vastly different from their own. As a pastor myself, I continually found myself pausing to jot down a sermon idea sparked from ideas—both with which I agreed and disagreed—that these individuals brought to the forefront of the text.
Not only does this lectionary include a diverse writing staff, it adds several “Holy Days for Justice” throughout the church year. These days celebrate the diversity of God’s people and call Christians’ attention to hardships others face on a continual basis. Some of them are days observed in more secular circles (such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and World AIDS Day), some celebrate ethnic diversity (such as Asian American Day), and others incorporate religious observances from other Abrahamic traditions (such as Shalom Bayit from the Jewish tradition and the twenty-seventh night of Ramadan from the Muslim tradition). For these additions to the church calendar, the staff links scriptural events to current social concerns in a way that invites the pastor and congregant to think more faithfully about those issues. These days also invite congregants to find commonalities with people from our sister faith traditions.
Some of the days, though (namely, the Gifts of Sexuality and Gender day), do not wrestle with the Scripture passages that some would say discount or directly question the importance of inclusion. Although the commentary on God’s intentional creation of each person and Paul’s notion that each part of the body of Christ are worthwhile and affirming discussions, those commentaries would be more powerful if read alongside the verses typically used to condemn persons identifying under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. Discussing those verses in tension with affirming ones would open the door for richer conversation for people on all sides of this issue, and is something I hope the editors may consider in a later edition of this work.
It is clear from the table of contents, the introduction, and the entries themselves that this lectionary is both theologically and socially progressive in its leaning. The content of the devotions, thoughts, and exegesis of the lectionary passages, although progressive, make connections that would appeal to more moderate or evangelical audiences, and could be a powerful conversational tool across conservative/progressive lines. The Easter Sunday commentary, for example, focuses on resurrection as freedom from bondage—a belief central to evangelical theology. At the present, though, I struggle to envision those from a more moderate or conservative background willingly picking up this resource of their own accord. It could be a very powerful spiritual resource for those communities, however, and I would encourage the editors to consider how they could make this resource more attractive to those communities in a later edition. It could be a valuable resource for numerous conservative and/or evangelical congregations seeking to practice God’s justice in their daily faith walks.
This lectionary should be on the shelf of every pastor struggling to help her congregation think both critically and theologically about its role in bringing God’s justice and compassion into social issues, from systemic racism to xenophobia to gender discrimination. While geared toward churches and congregations who rely on the lectionary to determine their weekly worship order, this lectionary is also a friendly resource for pastors outside of liturgical high church worship. It includes both a Scripture index and a table of contents highlighting the Holy Days for Justice, so that those unfamiliar with the lectionary format can craft social justice sermons by either Scripture passage or topic. Regardless of denominational affiliation, pastors from numerous backgrounds would benefit greatly from this source, as would their congregants.