The Lectionary.
A lectionary is a list of readings. As a spiritual discipline, a person may simply open The Bible at the beginning, and start reading. They might read a chapter or more each day. The weakness of this kind of reading is that it is the reading style of our time, the method for reading a novel, or even a text book. It assumes a narrative thread from beginning to end. However, a text book is often not read from cover to cover. It may be designed as a resource with discrete sections to be consulted at appropriate times.
The Bible is even less novel-like. With 39 "books" in the Hebrew Scriptures, and 27 in the Christian Scriptures, there are multiple authors, times, geographic locations, and theological perspectives represented. This considers only the main collection (Canon) of the books common to most Christian traditions. There are also the books not present in the Hebrew Scriptures or "Old Testament" which are often known as the deutero-canonical books. How does one read all this and make sense of it?
Christian groups have traditionally created lists of texts that are considered important to read. They sketch out some of the key planks of that group's tradition, and its understanding of the Christian faith.
One well known modern lectionary is the Revised Common Lectionary, which is used by many churches world wide. It divides the bible over a three year period, based around the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The readings are chosen to reflect the cycle of church year as it progresses from the hope for a Messiah (Advent), through Christmas, and on to Easter. Each week also has a reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Psalms, and from the letters of the New Testament. The Gospel of John is used in each year around the times of the major festivals. There are often readings assigned for special days which do not occur on a Sunday.
Many ministers preach from a lectionary. It provides a discipline which works against the temptation to avoid uncomfortable subjects and concentrate on favourite themes.
A lectionary provides an overview of the Christian tradition. Unfortunately, it also represents a particular theological and historical outlook. Some people point out, for example, that women's stories, often already marginalised in Scripture are further submerged by the RCL . The lectionary is also constructed of short readings, excerpts from the whole, so that some parts of the bible will never be read in public worship under this scheme. It also means that the wider flow of a narrative is interrupted, and perhaps divided in ways never anticipated by the authors. In their own devotions, many people will at least read from the end of the previous week's readings to the end of the designated readings of the current week, in some attempt to overcome this disintegration of the narrative.
Of Cheese and Choices
We have youth group with a bunch of 11-14 year olds after church, and eat lunch on the way through. I discovered last Sunday that cheese is not a favourite for some Dinka Sudanese people. Arok abandoned his main course in disgust, ate a few more strawberries, and then reached for the apple and custard rolls. He looked suspiciously at the custard centre. "Oh, no! Is this cheese, too?" After explanation, and a very careful taste test, he decided custard is sort of acceptable!
"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others." We were examining these are verses from Philippians 2. Some our members are on a fast track learning English as their second language. We worked out that "do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves," might mean "Don't be up yourself." Slang gets learned fast!
Then we looked at "Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others," and how these words might speak to us today. I asked what would happen if next Sunday we had lunch after youth group, and went down to the local shopping centre. Where would we go? I took a straw poll. The majority vote was for the pizza place. Significantly, two of the Dinka people wanted KFC- chicken. I asked how we would decide which place to visit.
Ross said we could have a vote. I agreed, but said the problem with votes was that someone wins, and someone loses. If we voted we would go to the pizza place, then Arok and Grace would miss out, because you don't get Pizza without cheese. That wouldn't really be a case of each of us "looking not to our own interests, but to the interests of others!"
"I know," said Ross. "We could go to a place where there is a Pizza Hut and a KFC together, and then everyone could have what they wanted! We would all be happy."
Kids just get it. We talked about how the Uniting Church doesn't vote, if possible. We use consensus decision making, so that we can go forward together. Having to vote on a course of action is really a failure! "Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others."
Andrew Prior
Direct Biblical quotations in this page are taken from The New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Previous page: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith
Next page: Where God is Today...