Looking into the lectionary
22nd Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 25)
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, and Matthew 22:34-46
October 25, 2026
We recently celebrated Pride here in the “Friendly City” of Harrisonburg, Virginia. Our congregation joined with others for the second annual ecumenical worship service the evening before Pride. This year, we had company. Standing on public sidewalks with big signs and a video camera, protestors were stationed close enough to church entrances to shout at participants. One protester asked a worship leader if he had read Leviticus 20:13.
The leader, referencing Leviticus 19:19, responded by asking about the material of the protester’s clothing. For Leviticus 19:19 instructs: “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.”
He told me, “I hope my brakes still work after the service!”
That’s a frustrating thing about Leviticus in particular. Some of the laws are easy for us to embrace and promote. Justice is evergreen. Others we quickly brush aside. I’m comfortable in my cotton-blend shirt, petting my mixed-breed rescue dog, and I have no idea what is growing in my yard, but I guarantee there are more than two kinds of seed.
How, then, shall we live?
Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians is generally accepted as the earliest New Testament writing in our canon. It is full of assurances of Paul’s love for that early church community, and his prayers that the people will be strengthened in love to love more completely. That love will lead the church to be blameless before God. Paul then goes on to encourage the Thessalonians to do even better in how they’re living and pleasing God — and by the way, here are a few more guidelines, while we’re at it.
Which laws do we keep, and which ones do we ignore? Thankfully, Jesus points to the most important commandment — love God with your whole heart, soul, and mind. But wait: there’s more! Right behind it, inseparable from it, we are told to “love your neighbor as yourself.” 1 John 4 makes this connection explicit. We can’t love God without loving each other.
Many of the laws in Leviticus focus on how we care for and relate to one another. Paul’s writing in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 doesn’t focus on adherence to specific laws. His first concern is how to please God. Beyond that, it’s all about how he cares for the church. Love God, love neighbor. Everything else hangs on that.
Most Epistles were written to churches in conflict. The interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees in Matthew 22:34-46 follows a similar attempt at a “gotcha” question from the Sadducees. All of this happens in the final week of Jesus’s life. Tensions between Jesus and the leaders had been rising since he entered Jerusalem on the donkey, and he’d be dead by the end of the week. In other words, the appeals to love God and neighbor were made amid tumultuous conflict. These also happened to be times of deep transition.
The Levitical laws were written to offer structure and guidance to a nascent nation. Similarly, the early church was still figuring out what it meant to follow a post-resurrection Jesus who was no longer with them in body. Jesus’s encounter with the Pharisees builds upon the crescendo of growing tension. Six times in Matthew 23, Jesus cries out: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” Soon, Jesus would be on the cross, initiating a transition that would forever change the world.
When strife and division are the rule rather than the exception, when we’re facing uncertain times and questions about who we are today and who we will be tomorrow, it’s often an easier move to fall back into the trenches and dig in even deeper. If there’s a fight, we’ll defend ourselves. If the very future is at stake, we’ll do what we need to do to make sure the right side – our side – prevails. In these times, it is especially important to go back to the greatest commandments. Love God. Love each other.
I confess, it can be hard for me to find much sympathy for, or respond with compassion to, those who amplify views that have done so much harm to God’s beloved children. Many Pride service participants entered the sanctuary despite having been deeply wounded by the church, and they still had to encounter the same hurtful messages, going in and coming out. Some colleagues engaged in conversation with the protestors. I did not. Love God and neighbor? I’m still working on it, Jesus. Maybe next year I’ll bring them a piece of cake.
Questions for reflection on Matthew 22:34-46
- How is your faith community currently experiencing transition? How does that contribute to tension or conflict?
- On this Reformation Sunday, where do you see a need for reformation and transformation in the church? In what ways is it already happening? How might the commandments to love God and neighbor be at the heart of transformation?
- How do the laws listed in the Leviticus pericope challenge us today? What parallels do you see in our contemporary context?
View the corresponding Order of Worship for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
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