For the next few months, Director of Faith Formation and Pastor Margo will preach on scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary. Although this week’s worship service and devotions will feature these scriptures, Pastor Margo will preach on John 14:1-7, and you will see why this Sunday! But I’ll begin Monday with a text that reinforces why we read all of scripture, not just our favorite books or passages.
Read 2 Timothy 3:10-17:
Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
Paul’s advice for Timothy comes at a good time: “You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come” (3:1). Paul explains that people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure, not lovers of God. We’ve been through a “distressing time” in the transition from one presidential term to another. People quote scripture to justify their beliefs and actions (nothing new here). Christians must read and reflect on the fullness of scripture. That’s why many devotionals use the Revised Common Lectionary. Vanderbilt University has a great lectionary resource and explains what it is (https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/faq2.php):
The Revised Common Lectionary is a three-year cycle of weekly lections used to varying degrees by the vast majority of mainline Protestant churches in Canada and the United States. The RCL is built around the seasons of the Church Year, and includes four lections for each Sunday, as well as additional readings for major feast days. During most of the year, the lections are: a reading from the Hebrew Bible, a Psalm, a reading from the Epistles, and a Gospel reading. During the season of Easter, the Hebrew Bible lection is usually replaced with one from the Acts of the Apostles. The lections from the Hebrew Bible are sometimes chosen from the Apocrypha.
The seasons of the Church Year reflect the life of Christ. Consequently, the gospel lections for each Sunday provide the focus for that day. The other lections for a given day generally have a thematic relationship to the gospel reading for that day, although this is not always the case. In Ordinary Time, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two sets of readings for the lessons from the Hebrew Bible. One set proceeds mostly continuously, giving the story of the Patriarchs and the Exodus in Year A, the monarchial narratives in Year B, and readings from the Prophets in Year C. In the other set of readings for Ordinary Time, the readings from the Hebrew Bible are thematically related to the gospel lections. Denominations or local churches generally use either the semicontinuous readings or the thematic readings during Ordinary Time. They do not typically move back and forth between the two over the course of a single season. The gospel readings for each year come from one of the synoptic gospels according to the following pattern:
- Year A – Matthew
- Year B – Mark
- Year C – Luke
Readings from the Gospel of John can be found throughout the RCL.
Pray:
God who breathes life into scripture, show us your truth, expose our rebellion, correct our mistakes, and train us to live your way. Amen.