Thoughts on the Divine Service
13. The Readings
Dear friends,
Here’s a little article on the next part of the Divine Service, the readings; but given the busyness of the next few days, I don’t think anyone will mind if it’s not that long.
First of all, here are three terms so that you sound like a pro the next time you find yourself hobnobbing at the next, er, liturgically-themed cocktail party or something: ordinaries, propers and lectionary. Ordinaries are those parts of the Divine Service that don’t change: we ordinarily sing the Agnus Dei on Sunday, so it’s an ordinary. The propers are those parts of the service that do change, like the Collect of the Day and the Readings. These are proper, or appropriate, for individual Sundays. Finally, a lectionary is a schedule of readings for worship services throughout the year.
The idea of a lectionary is nothing new: in fact, there’s evidence that the Jews had an annual schedule of Old Testament readings during the Babylonian captivity. Historically, the Christian Church has made use of a one-year lectionary, repeating the same readings annually. The past 75 years have seen the development of a three-year lectionary, a form of which we use at Good Shepherd.
We’re not required to follow the lectionary, but there are advantages for doing so. One is that the lectionary is designed so that you hear every significant doctrine of Scripture at least once a year. Second, the lectionary serves as a good discipline for the pastor and relief for the hearer: instead of the preacher preaching on whatever he wants to, he disciplines himself to proclaim the whole counsel of God over twelve months’ time.
When I wrote about the Introit, I mentioned that there are five readings for any given Sunday (six, if you count the gradual): an Introit, a psalm, an Old Testament lesson, an epistle and a Gospel reading. The most important reading each Sunday is the Holy Gospel, in which we hear the incarnate Jesus speaking and acting. From Advent to Pentecost, these readings more or less follow a timeline from His birth to His ascension. The other readings are designed to support the Gospel reading. This demonstrates that the Lord’s teachings are the same throughout Scripture and that all of Scripture points to Christ.
Last week’s readings were a straightforward example:
When John the Baptist sent disciples to ask Jesus if He really was the Messiah, Jesus answered, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5). Why is this evidence? Our Old Testament lesson said why: Isaiah 35:5-6 declares of the Messiah, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Isaiah 35:5-6) Since Jesus was fulfilling this prophecy, the prophecy was the Old Testament reading.
Another theme of the Gospel reading is that John or his disciples seemed to doubt that Jesus was the Christ, probably because John was in prison for being a true prophet. This explains the selection of James 5 for the epistle, including, “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord” (James 5:10). It serves as an important reminder that we will have our share of suffering, but Jesus remains the Christ and our Savior.
Sometimes, the tie-in between the readings isn’t as obvious as last Sunday. It’s an excellent exercise, however, to spend time in your private devotions studying the Sunday readings, searching for common themes among them, then praying them back to the Lord (see last week’s email). As we’ve mentioned before, another great resource is Carl Fickensher’s “Looking Forward to Sunday Morning” (available at CPH.org) in which the good doctor provides a summary of the lectionary each week.
Why spend so much time hearing and speaking and chanting the scriptures? Because “the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). It’s by the Word of God, Old and New Testament, that the Holy Spirit is at work to move us to repentance, grant us forgiveness and strengthen our faith. Don’t discount the importance or the precious nature of the readings: you’d be surprised how many visitors express their thanks that our service is full of the Bible. It is why a large portion of the Divine Service is called the “Service of the Word,” because by His Word the Lord visits you with life and salvation. What joy!
A few nerdy notes and noted exceptions:
· For a few Sundays (like the Sundays of Easter), the “Old Testament lesson” becomes the “First Lesson,” as we hear New Testament selections from the Acts of the Apostles or the Book of Revelation.
· I noted above that there is also a psalm appointed for each Sunday, but we make use of this at our Wednesday morning matins service instead.
· I also noted the gradual, a 1-2 verse reading between the Old Testament and epistle readings. This doesn’t change each Sunday, but instead it provides an overview for the season of the church year.
· Sometimes, you might hear the lectionary readings referred to as pericopes, pronounced puh-RIH-Kuh-peas. This is from a Greek word meaning, “to cut around,” meaning that the readings are “cut out” (excerpted) from around the Bible for each Sunday.
· During parts of the church year, usually after Pentecost, the epistle readings aren’t chosen to match the Gospel reading: rather, we read through an entire epistle over the course of a few weeks. This practice is called lectio continua.