Why do we use a lectionary?

- The Rev. Canon Robert J. Brooks

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When I was growing up in Texas, it was quite common to come across Christian preachers on many television channels. I remember how they would string together a sentence here or a phrase there taken from the Bible into a sermon that might last nearly an hour. The service in which they were preaching had little or no readings from the Bible. As one got familiar with these preachers over the years, a dedicated viewer could almost recite what verses the preacher would quote over and over, leaving out most of the Bible. These favorite passages of the TV preachers were used to drive home the same point every time.

Years later, when I was in a class studying for the priesthood, the professor asked, "Why do we Episcopalians have a Lectionary?" The answer was, "To protect the congregation from only hearing the priest's favorite passages of scripture. The people get to hear the whole Gospel." I thought of those television preachers I had seen growing up, offering to the people only pre-selected tiny morsels from the banquet of scripture and realized that the Episcopal Church's worship services provide to all a rich feast from the Table of God's Word.

The Lectionary is a list of four Bible readings for every Sunday. There is a different set of four readings provided for every Sunday over a three year period. The first reading is usually from the Hebrew scriptures and the people make a response to that reading in God's own word through a psalm. The psalm response, is the second scripture passage and is from the hymnbook of ancient Israel. The first reading and psalm echo the Gospel of the Sunday, showing the trustworthiness of a God who acts with a consistent pattern in the lives of his people and the life of Jesus.

The second reading is usually from a letter of one of the early followers of Jesus who witnessed to seeing him risen from the dead. That letter will be read through completely from start to finish to share the teachings about the meaning of Jesus' ministry that the writer wants the Church to understand. Because these readings are done for the whole letter over several Sundays, the priest is able to do a preaching series on the theology of that particular letter.

The third reading is from a Gospel. Like the second reading, the Gospel is read from start to finish, in this case over the period of a year. Matthew, Mark, and Luke respectively are read on all Sundays over a given year, except for the Sundays of Easter Season and those that fall during the Christmas Season. On those Sundays, the Gospel of John is read, being divided up over those seasons during the three years. In this way, all four Gospels and the Epistles are read over a three year period. The people get to hear the whole of the Gospel of Christ. During Easter Season each year, the Acts of the Apostles replaces the first or second reading to point to the continuing ministry of the Risen Christ in the Church and world. The Book of Revelation is also read during the Easter Season in some years.

The Lectionary ensures that Episcopalians sit down at the table of a rich banquet of the Word  on Sundays. It is like a family gathered around a table at Thanksgiving that tell again the stories of relatives and friends over the years that bind those gathered together through the pains and the joys of life. It is storytelling that is an act of praise and thanksgiving at the family table, not an advanced Bible study in a classroom, that gives way to the sharing of the Great Thanksgiving meal that incorporates us again into that story and into the Risen One, enfleshed in these people, and who fills everything that is.