Love That Lectionary

In church every Sunday, my ears are blessed to receive three Scripture readings before the sermon. There is first an Old Testament reading, then there is a reading from one of the Epistles (Romans through Revelation), and finally we all stand for the reading of the holy gospel according to one of the four evangelists.

The readings for each Sunday of the Church Year are compiled into something called the Lectionary. There is a One-year Lectionary and a Three-year Lectionary. Since the churches I attend use the Three-year, I'll tell you about that one in particular. For all 52 Sundays of the first year (Year A), there are three readings. Then Year B comes around and there is a new set of readings for 52 different Sundays. Finally, in Year C (which the Church is about to end and move into Year A again), a fresh set of passages are arranged to be read in church every Sunday. This is a great system for a number of reasons. First, I get to hear God's precious Word from three different Books of Scripture every week. Second, I know my pastor won't just read his favorite passages Sunday after Sunday. And also, since the Lectionary is cross-denominational, I know that I'm hearing the same Scripture readings that millions of other Christians around the globe are hearing every Sunday.

Each reading in the Lectionary is called a pericope (per-i-kuh-pee). And every Monday here at Westfield House, the entire seminary meets for an hour and a half to study one of the pericopes we will be reading on an upcoming Sunday.

Since I am one of two people at this entire school who does not know Greek, I'm lost some of the time, but I still get something out of it. We meet in the fantastic Westfield House library, which is home to practically every useful theological text in print. Some of my favorites in the library are the Concordia Commentaries, Francis Pieper's Christian Dogmatics, and CFW Walther's Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel. It's helpful to really slow down and look at a handful of different aspects of a reading that you would otherwise just hear once on a Sunday morning.

Yes, I love the Lectionary. I enjoy studying it in Westfield House Pericope in our grand library, too. But my favorite part will always be closing my eyes during the readings in church and letting the Word of Christ wash over my ears and strengthen my faith, bestowing God's grace upon me with every pericope.