St. James Lectionary Bible Study for 09 20 2026

St. James Presbyterian Church Bible Study Companion Guide
Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time · Year A
September 20, 2026
Scripture Focus: Psalm 105.1–6, 37–45 · Exodus 16.2–15 · Philippians 1.21–30 · Matthew 20.1–16
WHY THESE TEXTS FOR THIS SUNDAY
This week’s readings do not need to be pressed into a single theme. Each opens a different human and theological world, inviting us to listen closely before deciding what the texts must mean together.
Psalm 105 remembers God’s acts of liberation and provision. The wilderness is retold from the far side of the journey: quail, bread, water, guidance, promise, and joy become part of the community’s memory of who God has been.
Exodus 16 meets Israel inside hunger, fear, complaint, and uncertainty. The people remember Egypt through the ache of the present, while Moses hears their complaint through his own history with Egypt. God hears them, draws them near, and gives food they do not yet know how to name.
Philippians 1 finds Paul discerning the meaning of life, labor, faithfulness, and suffering while imprisoned. His concern turns outward toward the community: their progress, joy, courage, and life together matter even when circumstances remain uncertain.
Matthew 20 places day laborers inside an unsettling story of work, waiting, wages, and generosity. Those hired last explain, “Because no one has hired us,” while those hired first struggle with being made equal to them.
TOGETHER
These texts do not have to resolve into one message for us to hear them faithfully. They ask us to stay long enough with each story to notice what fear, memory, power, need, vocation, and generosity look like from different places.
Our work this week may be less about finding the connection and more about practicing attention: What becomes visible when we resist deciding too quickly that we already understand the people in the text—or the God they are learning to know?
FOR REFLECTION
·       How does Psalm 105 remember wilderness struggle differently once the community can look back on it?
·       What do the complaints of Israel—and the responses of Moses and God—reveal about fear, memory, and learning to trust?
·       What gives Paul’s life meaning when he cannot control the circumstances surrounding it?
·       What changes in Matthew 20 when we hear the late workers say, “Because no one has hired us”?
A PRACTICE FOR THE WEEK
Practice looking again before assuming you know the whole story:
·       Notice an Assumption: Catch one moment when you quickly explain another person’s behavior, need, or circumstance.
·       Ask What You Do Not Know: Name what may be missing from your view of their story.
·       Listen Before Concluding: Make room for an explanation that could complicate your first judgment.
·       Look Again: Return to the situation and notice what becomes visible when certainty loosens.
Then ask: What changes when I listen long enough for the story beneath what first appears obvious?
CLOSING PRAYER
Attentive God, meet us in these texts without requiring easy answers. Teach us to listen before assuming, to notice what fear and longing may conceal, and to receive what Scripture gives rather than what we expect to find. Open us to one another, and to your presence among us. Amen.
© 2026 Rev. Derrick McQueen, Ph.D. All rights reserved.