Wow, I never, ever thought I'd be considering using the Lectionary. I mean, that's just a tool of high church tradition, right? A boring, mind-numbing string of Bible passages that have no connection to one another, and no rhyme or reason to their selection. Besides, this is a complex world. People need help with specific issues in their lives, so in order to do it right, a preacher should exegete his congregation properly and use relevant, helpful topical series to preach where people live - not some ancient, holier-than-thou, outdated, powerless ministry tool.At least, that's what I used to think.
However, more and more, I'm beginning to appreciate the Lectionary as something powerful, useful - and quite possibly even relevant for use in local church ministry. It's not just the Sunday readings that intrigue me - you know, the Psalms, Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel selections. There's another function of the Lectionary - something I never even knew of until recently - called The Daily Office. The purpose of the Lectionary goes well beyond Sunday mornings (who knew?). It also provides us an excellent resource for daily Bible reading. Generally speaking, it is designed to help students of the Word (i.e., disciples of Jesus) gain a more fully-orbed experience of the biblical stories and teachings through a two-year cycle. Essentially, if you consistently read the Daily Office for two full years, you'd have a solid understanding of the major stories, teachings and doctrines found in God's Word. Not bad.
Not only that, but the Lectionary readings beautifully coincide with the Church calendar, connecting us with a 2,000 year old tradition of attuning ourselves with the major events in the life and ministry of Jesus. For example, there are two major seasons of the church year which make up "Sacred Time", (1) Advent-Christmas-Epiphany, and (2) Lent-Easter-Pentecost. The balance of the year is known as "Ordinary Time." Ordinary in this case does not mean mundane, but rather "counted time." Alternative terms for this season of the church calendar are Kingdomtide and Dominiontide. Whatever you choose to call it, this period begins on the Monday after Pentecost and lasts until the day before the First Sunday in Advent.
I know this may be basic stuff for some of you... and yet completely alien territory for many others. Nevertheless, it's a rather new concept for me, and I'm finding the Lectionary to be an intriguing resource - one in which I'm becoming more and more comfortable reading and utilizing personally. What I'd really like to do is find a way to combine all the daily readings in one place - to make it easy for people to read each section without having to do a lot of flipping back and forth in their Bible or surf the web incessantly. It's a fast-food, sound byte generation, you know. :-)
I may be wrong, but I'm convinced that most Christians today are biblically illiterate. Hey, I struggle to read the Bible consistently and systematically each day... and for goodness sake, I'm a pastor! How much more difficult for people whose living is not at least partially made by studying and interpreting the Bible? Perhaps the Lectionary could help maxed-out generation of busy disciples by providing a timely, communal, comprehensive, and yet mercifully short daily guide through the Scriptures? Is there a downside to this?
However, so far I've not yet found the Daily Office in one convenient place. Perhaps that is what the Book of Common Prayer is all about... I don't really know. (I know... another ignorant Protestant!) Anyway, currently, I use Bible Gateway to look up each text based on the Lectionary resource at CRI Voice. But frankly, that takes a lot of time and energy... more that most would probably be willing to spend each morning. There's got to be a better way.
Do you know of one? What is your plan for daily Bible reading?
Or, maybe I should ask it this way: Do you have a plan for reading the Bible?
Please, don't be shy. Tell me about it.
