Working The Lectionary

Episode 22: Pentecost 21 & 22, 2024

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne examine readings from The Gospel According to Mark for weeks 21 and 22 of the season of Pentecost. For Pentecost 21, they reflect on how a false idolisation of the poor and of poverty can justify exploitation through the ideology of hard work as an alleged signifier of human dignity; while for Pentecost 22, they examine how a self-serving misinterpretation of servanthood can facilitate harm in work - even within the Church.
Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 21: Pentecost 19, 2024

In this episode of Working The Lectionary, your hosts, John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne, examine a passage from The Gospel According to Mark, in which the disciples try to stop an exorcist who is not part of the disciple group from performing miracles in Jesus' name - and how Jesus' response and his injunction against placing obstacles in the path of others calls on Christians to reflect on the ways in which their own formation blinds them to God's movement in the world, including the world of work and economics. 
Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 20: Pentecost 6 & 7, 2024.

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne discuss readings for Pentecost 6 and 7 in Year B. They begin with Mark's account of Jesus' encounter with Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, and analyze how Jairus, stripped of all his socio-political importance and reduced to basic human need, is emblematic of the way in which modernity's construction of work victimizes even its "winners". In the second reading, the unbelief of the people symbolizes the bitter irony of our own age, in which cynical rationalism has led to belief in all manner of conspiracy theories and self-serving narratives that become the cornerstone of modernity's mythologies of self-autonomy and the moral value of "hard work".
TRIGGER WARNING: This episode does contain some discussion of suicidal ideation.
Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 19: Pentecost 4 & 5, 2024

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne examine a reading from First Samuel for Pentecost 4, discussing how superficial interpretations of God looking "for the inner self" disguise what this text has to say about the injustices that are built into economic systems and the social hierarchies they create. For Pentecost 5, a pietistic reading of a passage from The Gospel According to Mark, in which Jesus calms a storm, are eschewed in favour of a closer examination of how this passage speaks into God's presence in the world and the injustices created by modernity's construction of work.
TRIGGER WARNING: There is some discussion of self-harm and suicidality in this episode.
Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 18: Pentecost 2 & 3, 2024

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne discuss readings for Pentecost 2 and 3. For Pentecost 2, they examine how a reading from the Gospel According to Mark, in which the Pharisees attempt to dictate what the sabbath is and how it should be observed, mirrors the way in which economic ideology (and those who are its beneficiaries) attempt to dictate what work is and means in human life. In the reading for Pentecost 3, a text from The First Book of Samuel reminds us of the reality of judgement in God's response to the Hebrew people's desire to imitate the structures of abusive power, and how that judgement extends to those institutions - including the Church - which replicate these structures today. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 17: Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, 2024

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne examine readings for Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. What does the ancient reading from Ezekiel tell us about our tendency to skip over the "bad stuff" and get to the bits we find positive and hopeful - and what does this tell us about our need to remember our involvement in the structures of injustice, and how those structures destroy covenantal relationships? The reading from the Gospel According to John likewise challenges our tendency to separate the personal from the political and thereby differentiate between "truth" and "facts" - and why it is disastrous for the church to divide the pastoral from the prophetic, the private from the public.
Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 16: Lent 5, 2024

In this episode of Working The Lectionary, a reading from the Gospel According to John, in which Jesus responds to the request by some foreigners for a meeting, is utilised to examine the way in which the ideology of neoliberalism has become modernity's oppressive imperium. And just as the political and religious leaders of Jesus' time were co-opted by the Roman Empire to be the agents of its oppression, this reading examines how church and state in modernity have likewise been subsumed by neoliberalism to become agents of oppressive prerogatives - and how Jesus both commissions and challenges the Church to be the liberating fruit of Jesus' ministry instead.
Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 15: Lent 3 & 4, 2024

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne utilize readings from the Gospel According to John for weeks 3 and 4 of the season of Lent. For week 3, we examine how the violent Jesus who clears the Temple is God's response to the idolatrous corruption that makes what should be a means to an end an end in itself; and how this reflects the corruption of both the economic world and the world of work. For week 4, we reflect on the graciousness of God who, in the person of Christ and notwithstanding the corruption of the world, still makes God-self present to the world as an act of love; and how this act of loving presence calls the Church to do likewise instead of being co-opted by the concerns and measures of the ideology of success.
TRIGGER WARNING: This episode does contain some discussion of self-harm, suicide, and work-related death.
Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 14: Lent 1 & 2, 2024

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, for Lent 1, John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne consider how the flood narrative in Genesis is emblematic both of the destructiveness of humanity's construction of work and economy, and also of the graciousness of God who maintains relationship with humankind despite our wrongdoing. For Lent 2, they discus how the centrality in Paul's Letter to the Romans calls us to reconsider how modernity's construction of relationships through the contractual arrangements of work and economy mirror the violence of unjust power, instead of the relational commitment to graciousness and generosity available through covenant.
TRIGGER WARNING: This episodes contains discussions of work-related harm and suffering, including mentions of suicide. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Episode 13: Epiphany 4 & 5, 2024

Working the Lectionary is back! Your hosts, John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne have been away for a while, but they return in a new calendar year and a new lectionary year to discuss readings for Epiphany 4 and 5 2024.  For Epiphany 4, Brendan and John ponder the message about prophetic ministry from Deuteronomy 18 and what it might mean both for a church all-too-often co-opted by capitalism's metrics of investment in future profitability; while, for Epiphany 5, they discuss Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 9, and its message of liberation from economic ideology's demands for compliance and what it means to be a community of faith in the world today.
Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. A NOTE ON THE AUDIO: Unfortunately, our primary recording technology malfunctioned during the recording of this episode, and we had to rely on backup technology to produce this episode. We have done our best to clean up the audio file, but it is of lesser quality than usual. Our apologies for the inconvenience.