Readers will remember Jesus returning to Nazareth during his public ministry and being given the scroll to read on the Sabbath day, at worship in the synagogue. Continuous reading of the Torah was a regular feature of worship for the Jews and probably dates back to the time of Moses. Singing of psalms regularly was also part of the Sabbath worship in the Jewish tradition. The continuous readings took one to three years to complete and were interrupted only for special, feast, days.
So much of early Christian worship was based on Jewish traditions, and the practice of reading both Jewish (Old Testament, OT) and Christian Scriptures became accepted by Jewish and Gentile Christians from very early days. Indeed, it is thought that the new Testament, especially the epistles were meant to be read out after the OT reading. This sequence was followed at Eucharistic services from at least the 2nd Century.
Before the Second Vatican Council (~1965) Scripture readings at Mass were on a yearly cycle for Roman Catholics. The Book of Common Prayer also has readings specified for each Sunday of the year. Since the late 60s, Catholics moved on to a three-year cycle of readings for Sunday Mass, with four readings each Sunday— from the Old Testament, Psalms, Epistles and the Gospels—being prescribed.
Many Protestant and reformed churches saw the merits of the three-year cycle of the Roman Catholic Lectionary and so the ‘Consultation on Common Texts’ produced the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). Now the majority of Christians in the world probably follow RCL every Sunday, although some variations have been introduced by individual churches for special reasons important to them.
The three years of the RCL cycle are often referred to as Years A, B and C, with Matthew, Mark and Luke being the dominant Gospels in them respectively, . (Daily Worship also has set readings, usually two, as well as Psalms.) The continuous readings tend to come in the long periods of Ordinary Time, after Trinity Sunday, for example.
In case you are wondering ‘what about John’s Gospel’, it is read widely—more of it in fact than Luke’s— especially during the seasons of Advent and Lent.
I find that the liturgical seasons and the lectionary are a blessing for church and church life. They are also a gift from the church to us, an effective way of teaching and encouraging discipleship. We are following the ancient Jewish tradition, of course, by trying to cover virtually all of the Scriptures in the cycle of readings–in our case a cycle lasting three years. We go through most of the Gospels, using special times such as Advent and Epiphany and Lent to study the stories about Jesus’ life, and concentrating on the teachings and sayings of Jesus during Ordinary times.
The way RCL is structured helps us to be rooted in the ways of God: from his early interactions with his chosen people, the gift of his son to us ’in the fulness of time’ and how the early Church Fathers made sense of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
While rejoicing in the gift of liturgical seasons and what the Lectionary brings us week by week, we should perhaps be aware of one danger: that is, of familiarity breeding complacency. To guard against that, we need to do our part, constantly reflecting deeply on the readings to find fresh insights.
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