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Community of Joy Lutheran Church |
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110 Balboa Road Hot Springs Village, AR 71909 501-915-9569 |
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Christian Education Schedule
February 3rd “Rapture, Tribulation, and Eschatology” February 10th “Looking at Judaism and Islam” February 24th “The ‘Unforgivable Sin’” March 2nd “What Seminarians Learn Today” March 9th “What Christian Scientists Believe” March 30th “Consumerism and Christianity” April 6th “What is ‘The Kingdom of God?’” April 13th “The Politics of Jesus” April 27th “Spirituality in America” May 4th “Busy-ness’ and Christianity” |
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Ash Wednesday is February 6th. That begins our season of Lent. For some reason, it seems that I concentrate even more on Scripture during this holy season. I am aware of the readings and the whole idea of really trying to understand how much Jesus suffered for us. With that in mind, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about where our weekly |
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readings come from.
The ELCA uses a system of readings for each Sunday in the church year. Any system of readings is called a “lectionary.” Lectionaries come in two basic forms: a list or table of the Scripture citations to be read from the Bible, or a book in which each lesson is printed out in full for the purposes of public reading and proclamation in the worship assembly. This church uses both forms of lectionary.
The lectionary system authorized for use by the ELCA is called “The Revised Common Lectionary” (often shown as “RCL”). Several church bodies in North America have adopted this lectionary system. The result is that there is an ecumenically shared use of the same readings in a growing number of church bodies each weekend. You may visit an Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Methodist, or other church where the readings are the same or similar to those of our congregation.
The Revised Common Lectionary is divided into three annual cycles of readings. In year A the gospel readings come primarily from St. Matthew. In year B from St. Mark and in year C from St. Luke. St. John is “sprinkled” through all three years. Each cycle begins on the First Sunday of Advent and ends on Christ the King Sunday.
The lectionary is a weekend lectionary, that is, it includes a set of readings and a psalm for each of the Sundays in the church year. Readings for daily |
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celebrations or “lesser festivals” and commemorations are not a part of this lectionary.
Some people in the ELCA have raised a question about a few readings listed in the RCL that come from the apocryphal books (those books between the Old and New Testament in many Bibles). These books are not within the 66 books that we recognize as inspired Scripture. They are, however, very closely related. Luther himself recommended the study of these books. Because the RCL is an ecumenical lectionary for use by both churches that use and those that do not use readings from these books, whenever a reading from these books is listed, an alternative reading is also provided.
The Sunday lectionary readings do not include the whole Bible. They are chosen specifically to highlight the unique and saving ministry of Jesus Christ, and they work with the church year to unfold that reality. The lectionary is a powerful tool for the church’s proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord of all.
I wish you all a very holy and meaningful Lenten season.
In God’s Peace, |
