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Lectionary for Aug. 23, 2026
13th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 51:1-6; Psalm 138;
Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20
What’s the best thing about your church? No, think for a minute before going on. What is the best thing about your church?
Obviously, answers will vary across time, space, local culture and the rest. Some of my favorites are the way my pastor looks each of us in the eyes as we receive communion (I also really like the grape juice we now have as a wine-alternative for those of us trying to avoid alcohol!). And I love how our congregation has partnered with others to build and support an inclement-weather house. In our small town, this volunteer-staffed property gives people a warm place in the winter and a cool place in the summer if their sleeping and housing options aren’t great. I also just visited my little sister’s congregation. They do amazing children’s ministry and have probably just as many kids as they do adults. I love how warm (and not weird) they are in welcoming absolutely everyone who comes through the door.
Of course, there are many answers to this question. But when I ask friends, students and fellow clergy to name the five or 10 things they love most about their church, almost no one mentions that all the congregants think or believe the same, correct things. Favorite things usually are things, or experiences, or actions or physical matter. Yes, beliefs are important because they help shape what we do. And that is exactly the case: beliefs are important (and only important) because of how they shape embodied actions. This week’s lectionary texts proclaim the important linkage between belief and embodied actions.
We start with the Gospel reading. Jesus asked his chief disciple who he thought Jesus was. Peter’s textbook answer—“You are the Messiah, the son of the living God”—led to a blessing but also a future responsibility. Peter is a rock, and Jesus will build his church on a mountain that will invade and overcome the gates of death (Matthew 16:18). That sounds like a clear belief to action pipeline to me!
But Jesus went further, giving Peter the keys to the kingdom. Whatever actions Peter forbade on earth would be forbidden from heaven, and whatever actions Peter permitted on earth would be permitted from heaven. A confession is all well and good, but then what do you teach people to do, and not do, with their bodies, not just their beliefs?
Some are to serve, some are to prophesy, some are to teach, some are to encourage, some are to give generously, some are to lead and some are to be professional cheerful mercy-givers.
Looking back to Isaiah 51, the linkage between beliefs and behavior is adamantine, unyielding. The section is addressed to “you who pursue righteousness” and attempts to shore up their beliefs in God’s unfailing protection and provision (1). In a time of despair, God-through-the-prophet made a powerful rhetorical move. Think back to Abraham and Sarah. Remember how they were almost dead with no heirs together? God changed their bodies (that “cutting of rock” and “shaping of quarry” language is meant to be anatomically suggestive) so they could have a child in their old age. And just as God delivered Sarah and Abraham, bodily, from childlessness, God’s strong arms will judge and deliver the people again (5). Then the Lord will make the wilderness like Eden, and the Aravah will be like God’s own garden.
In the psalm, we also see the unification of belief and embodied action. The psalmist speaks of singing, bowing down and giving thanks with all his heart. Why? Again, God’s embodied salvation—God’s strong right hand has saved the psalmist from enemies (Psalm 138:7). God doesn’t abandon the works of God’s hands!
In the letter to the Romans, Paul insists that beliefs must be accompanied by diverse actions performed by a diverse body of believers, together making up the body of Christ on earth. After the renewing of our minds, our embodied living is to be a gift to God and the world. Some are to serve, some are to prophesy, some are to teach, some are to encourage, some are to give generously, some are to lead and some are to be professional cheerful mercy-givers (12:5-8). This last one I would really like to see in our congregations: someone insisting that we all give each other mercy after slights. But perpetual mercy without leadership and encouragement to fix abusive systems will just prolong problems. We need everyone working together. Belief is a good starting point, but it must not be an ending point!
Our favorite things about church—and the things that Jesus insists that his church are to be about—start with belief and continue into holy action for the sake of God and the world!
