Proper 17 (Ordinary 22) · The Episcopal Church

Start with the Gospel

Begin your study in Matthew 16:21-28 — read it aloud, slowly, more than once, and note the first image or line that snags your attention before turning to commentaries.

Read the first reading alongside it

Jeremiah 15:15-21 was chosen to sit next to the Gospel this week — ask what conversation the two texts are having with each other, and let that conversation shape your outline.

Let the Psalm set the tone

Psalm 26:1-8 is this week's prayer language — its emotional register (lament, praise, trust, complaint) is a clue to how the congregation may be arriving on Sunday.

Temptation

“It is not Satan's tempting, but my assenting; it is not his enticing, but my yielding that mischieves me; temptations may be troubles to my mind, but they are not sins upon my soul, whilst I am in arms against them.”

— Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod

Self-denial and the cross

“If thou wilt know the truth, believe in Me. If thou wilt be perfect, sell all that thou hast.”

— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

New birth

“Let the man deny himself and be wholly changed, as in the fable they relate of a certain youth, who left his home because of his love for a harlot, and, having subdued his love, returned; then one day meeting his old favourite and not…”

— Ambrose of Milan, Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 10