Lectionary
24/09/23 00:41
A lectionary is a cycle of readings of scripture for use in worship. The Protestant Reformation resulted in the development and growth of many Christian denominations that, once separated from the Roman Catholic Church, followed their own patterns and styles of worship. Among the rejection of certain parts of the worship of the Roman Church was a falling away from the use of lectionaries. Many Protestant congregations allowed clergy to choose their own readings. While this allowed for different parts of the Bible to be used in worship and for clergy to offer a wide variety of texts for interpretation, many clergy fell into the pattern of preaching on only a small set of texts and over the years many faithful worshipers became less familiar with the scope of the Bible, hearing only selected texts in worship.
Following the dramatic changes in worship brought about by the Second Vatican Council in 1962 - 1965, liturgical scholars of the Roman Catholic Church began the process of coming up with a new lectionary of readings for worship. In 1969, the Ordo Lectionem Missae was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. It was a three-year cycle of readings for worship that offered four readings for each Sunday: A reading from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), a Psalm, a reading from the Epistles, and a reading from the Gospels. Year A focused on the Gospel of Matthew, Year B on Mark, and Year C on Luke. Readings from the Gospel of John were divided among all three years, with a slight emphasis on year A.
That same year, 1969, the Consultation on Common Texts was formed. This was a broader ecumenical gathering of scholars that included many denominations and Christian communions, including the United Church of Christ. This group has continued to meet to work on common ways of sharing scripture in worship ever since. In 1976, the Consultation on Common Texts published a psalter, or cycle of reading Psalms. In 1978, the year that I was ordained, the group took up the work of harmonizing various lectionaries currently in use and devising a calendar of readings. The Common Lectionary was published in 1983. This lectionary was updated in 1992 after nearly a decade of use and comment by many different congregations.
I began to follow the Common Lectionary as a guide to worship preparation in the mid 1980’s. I found its use to be meaningful for me because it allowed me to follow the scriptures in worship planning instead of adopting my own choices which had previously led me to be less than thorough in my choice of readings. I was growing in my skills as a preacher and working hard on developing a style of worship that was attentive to and led by the texts. When the Revised Common Lectionary was adopted, I began immediately to use it and to follow the cycle of readings. For the rest of my career I was immersed in the study of and preaching on the texts of the Revised Common Lectionary. That meant that I preached my way through that three-year cycle nine full times and a bit more. I learned the cycle of readings and began to look forward to the seasons of the Christian year as they unfolded.
In 2005, the Consultation produced the Revised Common Lectionary of Daily Readings that provided weekday readings related to the Sunday readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. The daily readings expanded the range of Scripture for study and worship.
Living in that lectionary meant that every third year the readings of the Hebrew Scriptures took worshipers through the story of the Exodus from Egypt. I began to look forward to those readings and developing sermons that made connections between the daily lives of the members of the congregations I served and the story of liberation at the core of Hebrew tradition. There is a rich heritage of preaching on Exodus texts in the Protestant Church and I drew upon sermons from many different sources for inspiration for my own preaching.
It is that point in the cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary this year. Were I still preaching, I would be thinking of the story of the Israelites, having recently escaped slavery in Egypt, discovering manna and water in the wilderness. The Gospel for today is the story of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew 20. Those texts are familiar to me and I naturally find connections between contemporary life and those texts.
However, a little over a year ago, while I was working as Minister of Faith Formation at First Congregational Church of Bellingham, that congregation adopted a different cycle of readings. The Narrative Lectionary was developed through the website WorkingPreacher.org. It is a cycle of readings that began with a focus on Children’s Sunday School. It is a four-year cycle of readings offering a single text for each week and only offering readings for nine months of the year. While the intent of this lectionary was to provide a narrower focus for Christian Education, it has been adopted by many clergy for use as focus texts for worship. Our congregation embraced the Narrative Lectionary last year and is continuing with that focus this year. The lectionary, while not completely new to me, is not the cycle of texts upon which much of my career as a preacher was based. The emphasis on a single text and a cycle that does not continue in the summer, results in a much smaller set of readings, leaving out huge Biblical themes and stories. In addition, it is less closely connected to the flow of the liturgical year, visiting texts at different times of the year. It does give a small nod to Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter texts, but the flow of texts is much different than the cycle to which I have grown to expect.
Now that I am once again retired from congregational leadership, I find that I am retiring a bit from the Revised Common Lectionary. I don’t read the texts each week the same as I did when I was leading a congregation. For me retiring has involved a slight withdrawal from the pattern of study and reading. I am, however, finding it to be a bit disorienting. I miss the cycle. I find my personal study and reading to be out of sync with congregational worship. Hopefully this will lead to me seeing the scriptures freshly. I am surprised by texts in worship these days. I see certain texts differently. Maybe I’m not too old to learn new ways.
Still, there is a bit of nostalgia and longing for the familiar cycle of readings. I began my preparation for today with the reading of the texts of the Revised Common Lectionary and I’ll wait until I get to church to discover the focus for the congregation. The Spirit continues to move and God continues to create. New things are happening even in the life of an old preacher.
Following the dramatic changes in worship brought about by the Second Vatican Council in 1962 - 1965, liturgical scholars of the Roman Catholic Church began the process of coming up with a new lectionary of readings for worship. In 1969, the Ordo Lectionem Missae was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. It was a three-year cycle of readings for worship that offered four readings for each Sunday: A reading from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), a Psalm, a reading from the Epistles, and a reading from the Gospels. Year A focused on the Gospel of Matthew, Year B on Mark, and Year C on Luke. Readings from the Gospel of John were divided among all three years, with a slight emphasis on year A.
That same year, 1969, the Consultation on Common Texts was formed. This was a broader ecumenical gathering of scholars that included many denominations and Christian communions, including the United Church of Christ. This group has continued to meet to work on common ways of sharing scripture in worship ever since. In 1976, the Consultation on Common Texts published a psalter, or cycle of reading Psalms. In 1978, the year that I was ordained, the group took up the work of harmonizing various lectionaries currently in use and devising a calendar of readings. The Common Lectionary was published in 1983. This lectionary was updated in 1992 after nearly a decade of use and comment by many different congregations.
I began to follow the Common Lectionary as a guide to worship preparation in the mid 1980’s. I found its use to be meaningful for me because it allowed me to follow the scriptures in worship planning instead of adopting my own choices which had previously led me to be less than thorough in my choice of readings. I was growing in my skills as a preacher and working hard on developing a style of worship that was attentive to and led by the texts. When the Revised Common Lectionary was adopted, I began immediately to use it and to follow the cycle of readings. For the rest of my career I was immersed in the study of and preaching on the texts of the Revised Common Lectionary. That meant that I preached my way through that three-year cycle nine full times and a bit more. I learned the cycle of readings and began to look forward to the seasons of the Christian year as they unfolded.
In 2005, the Consultation produced the Revised Common Lectionary of Daily Readings that provided weekday readings related to the Sunday readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. The daily readings expanded the range of Scripture for study and worship.
Living in that lectionary meant that every third year the readings of the Hebrew Scriptures took worshipers through the story of the Exodus from Egypt. I began to look forward to those readings and developing sermons that made connections between the daily lives of the members of the congregations I served and the story of liberation at the core of Hebrew tradition. There is a rich heritage of preaching on Exodus texts in the Protestant Church and I drew upon sermons from many different sources for inspiration for my own preaching.
It is that point in the cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary this year. Were I still preaching, I would be thinking of the story of the Israelites, having recently escaped slavery in Egypt, discovering manna and water in the wilderness. The Gospel for today is the story of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew 20. Those texts are familiar to me and I naturally find connections between contemporary life and those texts.
However, a little over a year ago, while I was working as Minister of Faith Formation at First Congregational Church of Bellingham, that congregation adopted a different cycle of readings. The Narrative Lectionary was developed through the website WorkingPreacher.org. It is a cycle of readings that began with a focus on Children’s Sunday School. It is a four-year cycle of readings offering a single text for each week and only offering readings for nine months of the year. While the intent of this lectionary was to provide a narrower focus for Christian Education, it has been adopted by many clergy for use as focus texts for worship. Our congregation embraced the Narrative Lectionary last year and is continuing with that focus this year. The lectionary, while not completely new to me, is not the cycle of texts upon which much of my career as a preacher was based. The emphasis on a single text and a cycle that does not continue in the summer, results in a much smaller set of readings, leaving out huge Biblical themes and stories. In addition, it is less closely connected to the flow of the liturgical year, visiting texts at different times of the year. It does give a small nod to Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter texts, but the flow of texts is much different than the cycle to which I have grown to expect.
Now that I am once again retired from congregational leadership, I find that I am retiring a bit from the Revised Common Lectionary. I don’t read the texts each week the same as I did when I was leading a congregation. For me retiring has involved a slight withdrawal from the pattern of study and reading. I am, however, finding it to be a bit disorienting. I miss the cycle. I find my personal study and reading to be out of sync with congregational worship. Hopefully this will lead to me seeing the scriptures freshly. I am surprised by texts in worship these days. I see certain texts differently. Maybe I’m not too old to learn new ways.
Still, there is a bit of nostalgia and longing for the familiar cycle of readings. I began my preparation for today with the reading of the texts of the Revised Common Lectionary and I’ll wait until I get to church to discover the focus for the congregation. The Spirit continues to move and God continues to create. New things are happening even in the life of an old preacher.
