Posts tagged “Lectionary”

Fiddlers will fiddle

Posted on December 3rd, 2011

An ELCA seminary student proposes a four-year lectionary. He’s actually on to something: Year 1: Matthew, The Law, Non-Pauline Letters Matthew goes to certain lengths to connect Jesus with Moses and the Law, what better place to point this out than in the books of the Bible we read. Additionally, giving the non-Pauline letters some space to talk to the church on their own seems healthy. Year 2: Mark, The Histories, Pauline Letters Mark is a shorter Gospel, but that just means we can focus on smaller sections of Mark and larger sections of Paul and really get to know the history and story found in Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Ester. Year 3: Luke, The Prophets, The Book of Acts…

Categories: Liturgy

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Preparing for the change of seasons – 2010

Posted on January 18th, 2010

Reminder: traditional Lutheran congregations begin the season of Pre-Lent this year on January 31, Septuagesima. That means Transfiguration falls this year on January 24. Here are the seasonal customs for this time, from the wonderful liturgical resource Lex Orandi: The Season & Customs of Pre-Lent The three Sundays before Ash Wednesday are called Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. These Sundays are privileged, not yielding to any other celebration. From Vespers on the eve of Septuagesima until Shrove Tuesday, the Alleluia is omitted, the Gloria in Excelsis is not sung except on festivals, and the Benedictus replaces the Te Deum in Sunday Matins. Flowers may still be used and the organ played as usual. At Vespers on the Eve of Septuagesima, the Alleluia, the ancient exclamation of…

Categories: Liturgy

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Lectio Divina

Posted on August 31st, 2009

The story of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath is very familiar, as it occurs in the lectionary every year (Trinity 15 and 16). Today’s OT reading in the TDP (1 Kings 16:29–17:24) cast a different light on that story for me this morning. Before Elijah goes to the Widow of Zarephath and asks her for water and bread, Elijah had been in hiding by the brook Cherith. During the divinely-imposed drought, Elijah received his water from the brook, and food was brought to him by ravens each morning and evening. As the ancient Israelites received their manna at the appointed time, so Elijah received his food. In all of this, they were learning through experience the petition, “Give us this day our daily…

Categories: Theology

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Glory from all eternity

Posted on January 31st, 2009

I’d post this on the Historic Lectionary blog, but I need the Logomaniac to up my permissions (hint hint). St. Ephraem on the Transfiguration: He took them therefore up to the mountain, that He might show them His Kingdom, before they witnessed His suffering and death; and His glory before His ignominy: so that when He was made a prisoner, and condemned by the Jews, they might understnad that He was not crucified by them because of His own powerlessness, but because it had pleased Him of His goodness to suffer, for the salvation of the world. He brought them up to the mountain that He might also show them, before His Resurrection, the glory of His Divinity, so that when He had risen…

Categories: Theology

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More Bible? Not really.

Posted on August 22nd, 2008

The classic argument for the contemporary “Three-Year Lectionaries” inspired by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960′s is that they cover more of the Bible. In a post on Cyberbrethren, Rev. Paul McCain notes that the historic Lectionary (which, I believe, is the only lectionary authorized for use in churches of the Augsburg Confession) covers approximately 14.8% of the Bible in a single year, while the latest “Three-Year Lectionary” in use in the LCMS (as opposed to the one used by WELS, as opposed to the one in LW, as opposed to the RCL, as opposed to the… (so much for “catholicity”)) covers only 23.9% of the Bible over three years – much lower than one would expect. Assuming these statistics are correct, if…

Categories: Liturgy

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Independence Day Diversions

Posted on July 4th, 2008

Pastor Benjamin Harju reports on a Lutheran church (albeit not LCMS, ELCA, or WELS) distributing consecrated Goldfish crackers during the communion. Former parishioner and now fellow pastor David Juhl revises some advice on praying for pastors. Pastor Juhl also reproduces an ultra-brief history of how Lutherans came to adopt a Roman Catholic lectionary from the 1960s. National Review looks at how Obama is playing the race card. [Anybody remember that great Simpsons episode when Homer said to his attorney, "Play the race card! Play it!"?] Google releases an iPhone-optimized Google Talk site. Finally, the General wonders why Herman and Black Jack are racists.

Categories: Liturgy

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Saturday diversions

Posted on June 21st, 2008

Cruising Down the Coast of the High Barbaree has an interesting post on on how the three-year lectionary omits verses where God declares His judgment. “Obama, Political Viagra” by Mark Steyn analyzes the media’s infatuation with Obamessiah and his desire to “remake America.” The Ragnarok assesses the 10 best passing seasons in Vikings history, where we see that Fran Tarkenton’s best year had a higher QB rating than the best years of Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. The Daily Norseman wonders if Dr. Z’s pick of the Vikings to win the SuperBowl has cursed the 2008 season already.

Categories: Liturgy

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