The Revised Common Lectionary

One of the hallmarks of our Sunday worship in the Episcopal Church (and other Catholic and Protestant traditions) is the use of a 3-year cycle of appointed texted for the Liturgy of the Word. Rather than having the preacher or senior pastor choose a passage to focus on, we decided to follow a pattern similar to what is used in our Daily Office tradition and establish a fixed rotation of readings from the Bible to give continuity to our corporate worship. 

The current iteration of this practice is called the “Revised Common Lectionary” or RCL, which was adopted for use in 1994.  Its roots go back to the Second Vatican Council, but this version was developed by a wide range of Protestant groups.  The 3 years are entitled “A,” “B” & “C”.  In general, the Gospel of Matthew is used in Year A, the Gospel of Mark is used in Year B, and the Gospel of Luke is used in Year C, with the Gospel of John interspersed throughout the triennium.  Similarly, passages from the Hebrew Scriptures and other New Testament writing are selected, to a certain extend, to coordinate with the Gospel reading thematically, as well as help share the narrative biblical stories.  

However, since some of those narratives did not get used, the editors decided to offer two tracks to use during “Ordinary Time” (that period between Pentecost and Advent), which we are in currently. Track 1 offers semi-contiguous portions of the Hebrew Scriptures that offer longer passages of the great narrative stories of our patriarchs and matriarchs (Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Esau, Rachel, Leah, Joseph, etc.).  Track 2 connects the Hebrew Scripture passage thematically with the Gospel passage.  Both tracks have their pros and cons; I generally choose Track 1 to offer more opportunities to hear the salvation narratives of the people of Israel.

Even though this seems like a LOT of Scripture, there are portions that are left out, even in the appointed passages.  For instance, this Sunday the appointed Gospel reading is Matthew 13:1-9,18-23 – notice that verses 10-17 are left out.  As explained on Wikipedia,
       . . . there has been a certain amount of editing so that some verses of most books are omitted. Sometimes the omission is simply an introduction to a book; sometimes more substantial material has been excluded, but the overall intention, that of allowing, say, the substance of a biblical writer's thoughts to be read and heard in church, has arguably been achieved at least more substantially than before. There have been arguments over individual editorial judgements and the Church of England, in its use of the RCL, has re-inserted verses, in brackets, which were felt by its Liturgical Commission to be more properly included.
At St. Barnabas, we intentionally put the citation of the Scripture passage in the bulletin so worshippers can see where and what is being read, specifically so they can look up things during their own prayer time and see what was or wasn’t included.  For the reading this Sunday, which is Matthew’s version of the parable of the sower, the editors left out the questioning of the disciples as to why Jesus used parables to teach and his pithy answer to them (“Let anyone with ears, listen!”).  It is a bit distracting from the parable and its explanation, although I think it offers a wonderful window into Jesus’s relationship with his disciples, amongst other things.

And here is where I make my plug for Bible Study, because Sunday morning cannot be the end-all and be-all for our study of God’s Word.  We need to make more time to dig deeper into the context of the passage and the history in which it is placed.  While these words have eternal meaning, they were written over 2000-4000 years ago. They were also written in languages other than modern English, so we are reading a translation, which necessitates changes to the language and perhaps unintentional changes to the meaning.  So we need to make time to “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” what we hear from our lectionary because half an hour on Sunday morning is not enough. 

Currently, we only have a Wednesday morning Bible Study at the church (during the program year), but if anyone is interested in hosting a Bible Study in their home, I would highly encourage and support it. Please let me know. This is part of our disciple work! 

In Christ,

Rev. Valerie+

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