Where do I begin?

 

You may be familiar with the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL).  In a nutshell a lectionary is a table of prescribed scripture readings for each Sunday of the year.  A more expanded lectionary may have readings for individual days of the year.  Lectionaries have been in use throughout the history of the church.  In some denominations the use of these readings is mandatory, though in most communions use of a lectionary is an option.

The RCL lists readings for Sundays and Special Days over a three-year period.  There is a lesson from the Old Testament, a reading from the Psalms, a portion of one of the Epistles, and a pericope from the Gospels.  Churches that employ the RCL can plan worship well in advance, and can easily involve multiple participants in the worship preparation.  This facilitates the work of musicians, liturgists, those who work with visual arts and others who labor together in the organization of worship. 

When planners use the RCL they do so knowing that other churches and denominations embrace this tool as well.  It is not unusual for people to fall into conversation mid-week and find that the worship in their churches mirrored the experience of other congregations as the several Sundays' activity centered around the same lectionary selection.  There is a Christian unity in such moments that spreads beyond individual church walls or the bounds of a particular denomination.

Those who utilize the RCL can easily find resource materials that relate to a particular day’s reading.  Preachers who make some kind of commitment to following the RCL avoid repeating sermons on their favorite passages over and over again.  I have observed that, in my own preaching, if left to my own devices and desires I would probably end up preaching from the Sermon on the Mount about 45 Sundays out of the year.  So, as regards the RCL, it would be safe to say that I am a fan.

I say all this in reflection of my attendance in worship the last couple of weeks.  I have been worshiping in various locations since my retirement, hoping to experience different takes on worship after having been in a leadership role for so long.  In the last two churches I attended, neither congregation followed the lectionary.  I wouldn’t say that a church “must” or “ought” to pursue that path, but I can’t help but ask “Why?”  Secondary to that query is the question, “How?”  What I mean by that is I wonder what the decision-making process might be when each week the preacher begins with a blank sheet of paper.  The lectionary user knows what the suggested text will be for next week, and next month, and next year.  I would find that blank page intimidating.  Those who do not follow the RCL sometimes consider me lazy.  That might be a fair point.  But, after making a decision on the text, we all begin (or take the next step) from the same place.

Now, there are exceptions.  Circumstances may dictate a departure from the lectionary, of course.  When the Twin Towers fell, or when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit, some of us took an alternate approach to the sermon in those days.  That is part of being a pastor.

But, in the normal course of things, I can’t help but wonder what gets preaching – and worship planning – kick-started.  There are seasonal considerations.  In liturgical churches the preacher would gravitate to those texts that we traditionally associate with certain seasons.  I would be hard-pressed to find a justification for preaching the Parable of the Prodigal Son on Christmas Day.  So, if a leader embraces the cycle of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost, that preacher can make some decisions more easily. Congregational circumstances have a voice in the preaching decision.  The local church stewardship campaign, a significant congregational anniversary, the school term and the season of graduation might inform the direction a particular Sunday might take.  A death in the faith family or a tragic accident might prompt pulpit reflection. 

I suppose that sometimes the preacher might desire to scratch a homiletical itch.  Gossip, immorality, dissention, political bickering, economic depression and other circumstances might spur the preacher to an address from the pulpit.

I am good with all this.  But, in the churches where I have worshipped recently there was none of any of this.  I was present on garden-variety Sundays where there were no discernable winds of need blowing around and arbitrary texts were at the center of the worship.  “Why?”  “How?”  I can’t help but wonder.

It would be insensitive of me not to allow for genuine Divine Inspiration.  A preacher with a blank page might honestly say, “As I began the preparation process for Sunday’s sermon, I started as I always do, with earnest, fervent prayer.  In the course of my praying, I perceived that God was directing me toward this particular text.”  The preacher might also contend that the preacher  engages in a conscientious discipline of Bible study, and that sermons grow out of that immersion in Holy Writ.  How do I argue with that?  Such a response clears up “why? And “how?” pretty efficiently.

I hope that in the congregations with which I have worshipped these last weeks that this has been the case.  I would love to fall into conversation with the preachers and get their take.  But I probably won’t get the chance.  So, I’ll be content with my questions.

For now.

The peace of the Lord be with you.

Searching the scriptures

I have, for a long, long time now, participated in a weekly Bible study with other ministers with an aim toward enhancing our work as preachers.  I have been in groups that have met in various towns and in a number of churches.  In recent years I have been the convener of such a group.  We initially met in person, but of necessity moved to the Zoom platform, and that method of gathering continues to this day.

 The format of the various incarnations of this study has not varied much through the years.  We use the Revised Common Lectionary as a rule.  While we are open to studying any of the four lections before us, we usually gravitate toward the Gospel Lesson for the day.  We work a week out from our meeting day, so when we gather, we do not consider the readings for the upcoming Sunday, but rather we examine the lessons for the Sunday following.

 The intent is that we approach our designated reading “cold.”  This is the first reading of the text as we prepare to preach.  It is what Fred Craddock called “the first naïve encounter with the text.”  We ask questions, make speculations, and bounce ideas off one another.  I have found this practice to be tremendously helpful in preparing for my weekly journey into the pulpit.  More often than not, my sermon introduction grows out of this give-and-take with other pulpiteers.

 Sometimes, though, one (or more) of our participants will say something like, “Well, I was looking at this study Bible or that commentary, and this resource says…”  This always amuses me.  And I think it is representative not only of ministers, but of students of the Bible who function at any level of sophistication.

 What I mean by that is that frequently we hurry to sources, to “authorities” or “experts” and entreat them to tell us what the bible means.  We are timid in making our own approach.  If we pass the task of interpretation off to someone else, we never fully answer the question, “What does this reading say to me?”

 Now, don’t hear me saying that commentaries and lexicons and study Bibles and Bible atlases don’t have their place.  I would be lost without my books!  But I believe that pulling a volume off the shelf has its place in our process of “Searching the Scriptures.”  Do it too early, and the personal element gets lost.  Do it too late, and we can fall in love with our own impressions, even if they are at odds with the intent of the scriptures.

 When we engage the Bible for our own benefit and spiritual growth, I encourage everyone to read the selection.  Read it out loud.  Read it from more than one translation (and let me emphasize “translation” here).  Ask questions.  Go through the process of what I call “Slamming the doors and kicking the tires.”  This is the Word of God; it can stand up to that.  And it is not irreverent to say, “I am not sure about that!  But, how about…?  So, does that really mean that…?”  The closer we draw to the text the more it lives in us.  Then, if we wish to consult someone who has spent much more time than we in the examination of the text, we do not slavishly bend ourselves to the words of some published author.  Instead, we use that person’s expertise as another tool in our toolbox. 

 Then, THEN, we appropriate scriptural truth as our own.

Another hill far away...

Brow of the Hill Near Nazareth by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

 

This week’s gospel lesson from The New Revised Common Lectionary (NRCL) is from Luke 4:21-30.  Verse 29 reads, They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.

That line has always been a peculiar one as I considered it.  Intellectually it is not puzzling at all.  Jesus’ words in the preceding verses border on blasphemy.  Although as the text progresses it is not Jesus' proclamation that he fulfills the words of Isaiah the Prophet that anger the crowd at the Nazareth synagogue.  When he speaks these words, folks seem to be impressed.  It is when Jesus as much as says that he will heal no illness or exorcise no demon in his home town that people get riled up.

It is as if they say, “We don’t mind a little borderline blasphemy, but we won’t be ignored or discounted.”  The reaction is human enough.  It is fraught with resentment and rage.  The mob mentality takes over and the people chivvy Jesus to the edge of town and to “the brow of the hill.”  Their intent is to toss him over the side.  However, with little fanfare apparently, Jesus halts their murderous progress and goes back the way he came.

In studying the passage, I came across this painting by Tissot.  I was somehow taken by it.  It is not particularly detailed.  In fact, it is difficult to single out Jesus in the picture at all.  But it has a kind of scope that draws me into it.  It depicts the commotion and chaos that must have been present in the moment.  There are other depictions of the story that seem to have Jesus in charge the entire time.  He stands heroically facing his fellow Nazarenes and appears to be facing them down.  Tissot puts Jesus in a bit of a defensive posture and places Jesus within the panoramic frame of all Nazareth.  It is as if, for a moment, we are not sure who is going to win here.

I still have a lot of questions about this passage.  But I find the picture has helped me focus a bit, and perhaps helps me to ask some of the correct questions. 

Moving on

As we enter the month of November, our year-long journey with the Gospel of Mark is coming to an end. We have observed before that our church uses The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) to help order its worship life. A lectionary is a table of prescribed readings for each Sunday of the year. It normally lists an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, an epistle reading, and a lesson from one of the gospels for each week. There are many lectionaries that churches or groups within the church have used over the years. The RCL is a document that much of the modern-day church employs for worship, for study and for devotions.

The RCL contains lessons over a three-year period. The first year – Year A – begins with the first Sunday of Advent and runs through The Feast of Christ the King. This year’s gospel lessons come primarily from the Gospel of Matthew. Year B – in which we find ourselves involved currently – spends a year focusing on the book of Mark. Year C – which begins November 28 of this year – has the gospel of Luke as its focus.

The use of a lectionary brings a sense of order to the liturgical life of the church. It observes the Christian Liturgical Year and so moves through recognition of the anticipation of Jesus’ birth, the celebration of the coming itself, a time of thanksgiving for Christ’s salvation of all people, a season of penitence and self-reflection prior to observing the Passion of Jesus, fifty days of observing a festival dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ, and finally a season of concentrating not so much on the events of Jesus’ life as on his instruction to the church.  Lectionary readings that pursue these topics in an orderly fashion move us through much of what a given gospel says about the entire life and mission of Jesus.

The use of a lectionary allows for long-range planning for preachers, teachers, musicians, and for people who use the lectionary as a devotional tool. The church does not mandate lectionary use for its congregations. And there are other legitimate models for the church to utilize. But this is one approach to the addressing of scripture that has born fruit for the church over the years.

As I say, our time with Mark’s gospel is coming to a close. We have talked about Mark’s being the first gospel composition. As such it serves as source material for Matthew and Luke. Mark spends a lot of time describing the works of Jesus. There is far less dialog in this gospel than we find in the other three. Mark speaks with a great sense of urgency – the phrase “and immediately” appears fifty-two times in this short work. And all of Mark moves toward the Cross and Christ’s atoning act. There is virtually no Easter story in this book. All eyes look to the sacrifice of Jesus.

So, we soon take our leave of Mark. There is plenty to get excited about in year C and its examination of St. Luke. But it is with a little bit of regret that we turn the page on the Second Gospel for a while.

Do you follow the lectionary?

These days. one of the questions that comes along when there is a pastoral change is, “Do you follow the lectionary?” The curiosity behind this comes from several concerns. Worship planners and musicians are curious because they want to do planning and embracing of lectionary texts makes it possible to look well ahead in designing the worship experience for a congregation. Sunday School teachers and other small group leaders want to know if they will be able to tie in their lesson or programming material to those things that the church addresses in Sunday worship. Sometimes office people want to know about lectionary usage because they are looking for graphics and other material that they can use in bulletins, newsletters, and church publicity pieces. If a pastor commits to using the lectionary, people with a variety of tasks can look well ahead in gathering resources for their particular concerns.

What is a lectionary?
When the church speaks of “the lectionary,” it is generally referring to The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). That is the resource that comes to mind, and it is the default meaning when we employ the simple term “lectionary.) But, since so many of our church endeavors refer to the lectionary in one way or another, let’s try to come to a little clarity.

A “lection” (pronounced /ˈlekSHən/) is a scripture reading chosen or assigned for a particular day. So, a lectionary is a table or listing of designated readings from the Bible for a specified period of time. The lectionary usually includes readings for an entire year, but compilers may create certain lists for a particular season such as Advent or Lent. The use of lectionaries is as old as the church itself. In fact, Judaism (as well as other faiths) have used lectionaries for their worship or devotional readings prior to the emergence of Christianity.

A Christian lectionary typically offers a reading from the Old Testament, a Psalm for the day, a reading from the Epistles and a gospel reading for each Sunday of the year. In addition, the lectionary may include lessons for observations that fall on days other than Sunday. Most lectionaries have readings for Ash Wednesday, the days of Holy Week and Ascension Day, for instance. There are denominations in which their own lectionary readings are requirements, while in others – such as the United Methodist Church – the use of these readings is voluntary.

In 1944 The Methodist Church issued The Book of Worship (The Methodist Publishing House, 1944) which included a on-year "Calendar and Lectionary for the Christian Year."  This listed two lessons for each Sunday and special day.  The first came from either the Old Testament or the Epistles, with the second reading being from the gospels.  The 1965 Methodist Book of Worship for Church and Home (Nashville: the Methodist Publishing House, 1965) included a one-year lectionary that contained Old Testament and Gospel readings for each Sunday and special day of the year.

In 1969, in accordance with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church published the document named Ordo Lectionum Missae, a three-year lectionary. This greatly influenced the release in 1974 of a document entitled “A Common Lectionary” by the ecumenical group the Consultation on Church Union. In 1993 the Consultation on Common texts formally issued a new version of the Common Lectionary. Prior to the official distribution of that publication The United Methodist Church included its own adaptation of the RCL in its new Book of Worship (Nashville: the United Methodist publishing House, 1992). The United Methodist version omits readings from The Apocrypha that some denominational include in their sequences. The United Methodist version also modified some texts for the sake of continuity or clarity.

How is a lectionary structured?
The RCL is set up in a three-year cycle of readings. It designates the individual years in the rotation as Years A, B, and C. The years begin in Advent. We are currently in Year B, so the readings for most of 2021 began their progression in Advent of 2020. Year C gets underway on November 28 of 2021 and moves through most of 2022. The next Years B start in Advent of 2024, 2027 and 2030.

For each Sunday and “special day” there is an Old Testament Reading, a Psalter Reading, an Epistle Reading, and a Gospel Reading. In Year A the Old Testament Readings come primarily from the primordial stories concerning the Creation and moving through the Abraham and Isaac readings. The RCL offer a reading from the Psalms as a comment on the first lesson. The Epistle readings run semi-continuously through a portion of the New Testament, but the books that it considers are not sequential. That is to say that a series of readings from Romans will not be followed by selections from First Corinthians. The Gospel readings for Year A come mostly from the Book of Matthew. The Old Testament lessons from Year B concentrate on the David and Solomon narratives. The Gospel for Year B is Mark. In Year C the Old Testament moves through the Elijah/Elisha record, and the Gospel for that year is Luke. The lectionary makes use of the Gospel of John in all three years of the cycle, particularly in the Christmas Season and in Lent.

Even over a three-year period, the RCL omits significant portions of the Bible. To include all of scripture would necessitate either significantly longer lections for each day, or the lectionary would have to run considerably longer than three years. That is why The United Methodist Church designates the readings as “suggested” rather than “mandatory.”

Why use a lectionary?
The advantages to using the RCL are several. First, it offers preachers and worship planners a tool for doing long-range planning, perhaps even over the course of the entire three years. The lectionary provides a methodical way of moving through the Bible instead of a random selection of readings for a given Sunday. The RCL provides a way for multiple planners and leaders to interact while considering the same material. Preachers, liturgists, musicians, and those who work with visuals can be about their work without constant meetings and repetitive communication.

The use of the RCL also compels preachers and others to deal with material that they might not ordinarily consider. I know that I have observed to some people that, left to my own devices and desires, I might well preach 45 Sundays of the year on the Sermon on the Mount. The complex parables or hard sayings of Jesus would be easy to overlook without the encouragement of something like the Revised Common Lectionary.

There is also a spiritual strength in knowing that sister congregations are considering the same texts on Sunday morning as we ourselves study. Then when we meet members of other lectionary-employing churches later in the week, the conversation might well turn to last Sunday’s worship, and our friends might say something like, “You know, we read the exact same thing in our congregation, and here’s what our preacher said…” The RCL allows Sunday School teachers and other group leaders to look ahead, knowing that their lessons can be connected to what will go on in the sanctuary on a given day.

So, those are some of the reasons why I embrace “the lectionary.” Let me be quick to say that it is not a perfect tool, and I diverge from time to time (though I try to let our music people know about those instances in advance). The lectionary is a marvelous tool. But I would day that it is always a servant of our worship, never our master. There are times in the life of a church or community when events and lectionary readings just don’t intersect. Part of the pastoral task is to determine when the use of the lectionary is appropriate and when overriding concerns dictate an alternative.

I would be happy to talk about these things if I have left any stone unturned.

 Peace.

_______________

Our scripture reading for Sunday, August 15 is John 6:35, 41-51.