You are having one of two thoughts – really, revised common lectionary — that’s a topic. Or you are thinking, what is the revised common lectionary. The lectionary is a three year plan of Bible readings used by Protestant churches. Each weekly reading includes a reading from the Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament and Gospel. If you follow the lectionary over the course of the three years you will have read through the majority of the Bible. Except for specific seasons of the year, Easter or Advent, the readings are not necessarily thematic.
If you knew what the lectionary is, you probably can’t imagine focusing on it. Many clergy believe that the lectionary is a set of chains, binding you. Many clergy refuse to use the lectionary because it establishes a random structure, which is not easily bent to a more thematic sermon series. Well, I believe that the lectionary calls us to a discipline of discovery of the Biblical text. It wasn’t randomly thrown together, a group of clergy worked and negotiated for several years to finalize the Revised Common Lectionary. And I am willing to believe that God was in that plan, and that God intends for us to discover what is hidden in the discipline of following the lectionary. So I am committing to following the lectionary for three years and to use this space on Thursday’s to reveal the thin place I have discovered in the lectionary for the week.
searchingforthinplaces 