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properly and use relevant, helpful topical series to preach where people live - not some ancient, holier-than-thou, outdated, powerless ministry tool.At least, that's what I used to think.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.
4 comments:
You may want to try Oremus. They have most of the Book of Common Prayer online as well the Psalter and a few versions of the Bible. They do have a page where the daily reading are together.
I've been using the Daily Office as a guide for two or three years now. I've been chanting the psalms for the last 4 or 5 months. (It's really fun!) I have the Book of Common Prayer that I keep with my Bible. I don't always do all the readings, but keep bookmarks where I'm at. Right now I'm just doing the Psalms and Revelation readings.
I've also decided to use the lectionary when I start preaching in January. I really like the flow of the Christian year and having four Scriptures to choose from or preaching through one of the readings. Currently at church we are going through the readings in Luke. If you start using the lectionary, you'll be amazed at how the readings will somehow line up with what's going on in church, kind of like Sunday School lessons have a way of doing. I think it's a great way of forming yourself and your people with Scripture instead of us forming Scripture to whatever the new "in" thing is.
Howdy Jeff. I love A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants. It has lectionary readings and some great readings by folks I love, like Henri Nouwen, Gregory of Nazianzus, Jesus...
I know this will sound completely contrary to my nerd nature, but I have found that my meditation times are far more intense when there is not a computer around. I love CRI Voice and Biblegateway. I use them all the time. But there are many other distractions on this beautiful mac that keep me from focusing on the one who deeply desires to have a conversation with me.
Enjoy life and spend time with the one who gave it to you.
Josh
I woke up this morning and began reading the Advent 3 readings from A Guide to Prayer. As I read the Gospel reading about John's disciples talking with Jesus I kept thinking that I wanted to know more about the back story. The little Gospel reading for the day loses its meaning when pulled from its context. As I was reading, my mind was drawn to what I had read and written on your blog last night, for some reason. Then, I had this somewhat deeper thought... Why do those of us who are pursuing this other kind of church experience, whether you call us emerging or postmodern or church burnouts, like the lectionary so much? Postmoderns and Emerging folks live on story and experience, yet we are drawn to a resource, the lectionary, which rips the Story of God into little pieces and dishes up only a bit a day? Why is that?
Josh
Thanks for the resources, guys. Joshua, I'm not certain how to answer your question about the Lectionary. Perhaps it's because - imperfect though it may be - it puts us in touch with 2000 years of Church history... something that seems to be of no use to the modern church as I know it. I reject their rejection of following the Church calendar, even though the way it's done through the Lectionary is flawed. And let's face it... cutting the epic story of God's salvation into little (orderly) pieces is better than picking whatever passage I happen to think needs addressing in my church. It provides a sense of balance to the Scriptures... and hopefully inspires true disciples to wrestle with the WHOLE Testament of God in their time with Him... and bring that to the community of faith.
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