My career as a preacher came at a time when the wider church was exploring patterns of reading scripture. The Second Vatican Council in 1963 resulted in a careful process of examination of worship in the Roman Catholic Church. One of the products of that examination was the publication of the Order Lectionem Missae in 1969, a cycle of readings for worship. Although very few Protestant congregations embraced that lectionary which was a unique product of the move of the Roman church away from the Latin Mass to worship in the common languages of church members, biblical scholars and worship planners did take notice. Conversations began in circles of Protestant congregations about the creation of a shared cycle of bible readings that might lead to greater unity among Christians. Those conversations became talks between Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars and gave rise, in 1983, to the Common Lectionary. The Common Lectionary was Revised in 1992 and the Revised Common Lectionary has been in use in many congregations since that time.

I was ordained in 1978 and was in my first call as a pastor in 1983 when the Common Lectionary was released. Fairly quickly after that release I began to use the lectionary as the source of readings for my preaching. By the time I moved to my second call as a pastor, in 1985, I was fairly entrenched in the practice. For the rest of my career, the lectionary was a guide for worship planning and preaching that was important to me. It is a three-year cycle of readings, with four texts for each week: A reading of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), a Psalm, a reading from the Epistles, and a Gospel Reading. The first year’s readings focus on texts from the Gospel of Matthew. The second year draws from the Gospel of Mark. The third year focus on readings from the Gospel of Luke. Readings from the Gospel of John are scattered throughout the other years of the pattern, with a few more coming in year two in part because the Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the gospels.

There are some drawbacks to preaching from the lectionary. The most serious of these is that congregations hear only part of the Bible in worship. The readings do not cover the entire Bible, but rather present short passages around themes related to the cycle of the year.

Nonetheless, I served my career steeped in the Lectionary and immersed in the cycles of the Christian year. The readings became familiar and natural to me. I began to anticipate and look forward to certain weeks and events and they cycle of wrestling with familiar texts over and over again. My preaching did not become repetitive because the congregations I served continued to grow and change as we journeyed together through the years. Receiving the text is only part of the process of preaching. Faithful preaching requires making connections between the text and the lives of the people in the congregation. For me, following the lectionary helped to prevent me from simply preaching about what I wanted to present and later selecting texts to support what I wanted to say in the first place. Rather, I hope, I approached each worship service with a careful study of the scripture for guidance for the life of the church. As I often said, I wanted to be led by the scriptures rather than using the scriptures to serve my ideas.

One of the things that guided our choice of a congregation to join after we retired was that the church we found was following the Revised Common Lectionary. Worship was familiar and I found that I was still motivated by examining the texts freshly in each cycle of the lectionary. However, after we began to serve as Interim Ministers of Faith Formation, our congregation switched from the Revised Common Lectionary to the Narrative Lectionary and I learned to look at different texts freshly.

This week, however, the text was not from either lectionary. Instead a text from Acts was substituted. the last minute substitution was inspired by a book the lead pastor was reading, by a popular Christian writer, Kenda Creasy Dean. I have read several of Dean’s books. She was a popular author of books on Youth Ministry a few years ago. I have not, however read her most recent book, which focuses more generally on the nature of the church. A product of the pandemic, the book explores radical change win Christian congregations including declines in membership and giving. The themes of the book line up with the decisions facing the congregation during the annual meeting which followed yesterday’s worship. The congregation agreed to cutbacks in staff for the second year in a row in the face of declining income.

However, the preacher soon wandered away from the chosen text from Acts and from the themes of Dean’s book to end the sermon with a passionate declaration about her commitment to the congregation. The declaration might have been appropriate but it rang hollow in my ears because of its emphasis on her desire to retain her title and existing role in the congregation. It made it clear that in the midst of great change in the church, the lead pastor is firmly entrenched in retaining her position. Despite other staff members facing decreases in hours and income from the church, the budget had a cost of living increase for the lead pastor. The sermon struck me as self-serving and I felt my temper rising.

I kept my reaction to myself and remained silent during the meeting following worship. I am careful not to abuse the power of my status to influence the congregation’s decisions. I don’t want to criticize the leader of our church in any public forum. I know that retired pastors can cross ethical lines and I don’t want to venture into that realm.

However, I feel that something critical has shifted in my relationship with this congregation and its leadership. My plan is to do nothing short term, to trust God and to listen carefully to the Spirit. This journal entry is as close as I will come to criticism of our pastor. Today, however, it feels like something important has broken. Fortunately for me, my faith calls me to follow the great healer. May I find the grace to welcome the healing in God’s time. I begin Lent with a heavy heart, which may be appropriate. Easter still is in the future. I pray for patience.