First Reading Archives - First Reading

Genesis 15:1–12, 17–18

Descendants and Land

Lectionary Date: March 16, 2025 [2nd Sunday in Lent, Year C]

Paul tries to unpack the mysterious vision of God’s promise to Abram.

Deuteronomy 26:1–11

My Ancester was a Perishing Aramean

Lectionary Date: March 9, 2025 [First Sunday in Lent, Year C]

Rosy explores the firstfruits liturgy from Deuteronomy—but stick around for her masterful connection to the temptation scene in Luke’s Gospel!

Exodus 34:29–35

Transfigurations: Moses, Jesus, and Us

Lectionary Date: March 2, 2025 [Transfiguration Sunday, Year C]

Rachel and Tim discuss Moses’s shiny (?) face, the apostle Paul’s comments about it, and Jesus’s Transfiguration. We cover a ton of ground in this episode!

Genesis 45:3–11, 15

Finding Agency in Impossible Situations

Lectionary Date: February 23, 2025 [7th Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C]

Paul is up with some reflections on the climax of the Genesis Joseph novella—both its “Hallmark-ish” quality and its reflection of real-life trauma.

Jeremiah 17:5–10; Psalm 1; Luke 6:17–26

Kidneys?

Lectionary Date: February 16, 2025 [6th Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C]

Rachel finds an important thread running through all three lectionary texts this week… and “kidneys.”

Isaiah 6:1–8, (9–13)

Here am I

Lectionary Date: February 9, 2025 [5th Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C]

Paul explores the prophet Isaiah’s iconic call story.

Psalm 71:1–6

Our Refuge

Lectionary Date: February 2, 2025 [4th Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C]

Rachel digs into the poetic Hebrew of the Psalm reading for the week!

Nehemiah 8 and Psalm 19

Reading and Interpretation

Lectionary Date: January 26, 2025 [3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C]

Three of our hosts are together for a party episode about the public proclamation of God’s word!

Isaiah 62:1–5

That’s “Right”!

Lectionary Date: January 19, 2025 [2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C]

Rosy is up, and she explores the “rightness” of this beautiful prophetic text.

Isaiah 43:1–7

You are My Beloved

Lectionary Date: January 12, 2025 [Baptism of the Lord, Year C]

Tim peeks under the hood of a beautiful poem about God’s love.

First Reading is an audio podcast to help you preach with confidence from the Hebrew Bible. We equip you with relevant linguistic, historical, and literary background for each week’s Old Testament lesson (the “first reading”) as scheduled in the Revised Common Lectionary. With help from our guests—some of the best thinkers and teachers in modern biblical scholarship—each episode probes some of the central questions raised by the text, and offers a couple potential angles for preaching it.

We want to see a community of clergy and congregations who have formative access to both testaments of Scripture. Our hope is that this weekly resource can help encourage more preachers to craft sermons that open up the Old Testament to their congregations!