Reading from the “Three Year Lectionary”

Greetings from Faith Lutheran Church of Saline County in Eldorado,

For those of you praying for my surgery on Thursday, I am grateful to the Lord for you and your prayers. I, like you, am trusting our Lord's promise to hear and provide for us according to His will. I mentioned last week that we would begin looking at some of the teaching of the Lord during these season of Pentecost. First though I want to talk a little bit about the Scripture readings we follow, called the lectionary. This will be a "reader's digest" explanation.

This past Sunday was the called the Second Sunday after Pentecost. In the lectionary, the selected Scripture readings that have been selected and approved focus on the Gospel readings from the Gospel of Mark. There is a series of lectionary readings entitled the "Three Year Lectionary" that is approved and used by a number of mainline Christian churches such as the Episcopal, the United Methodist, the Presbyterian, the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Lutherans, along with the Roman Catholic Church. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) also makes use of a lectionary series that is slightly different that the "Reformed Lectionary" used by some of the churches just noted. In the LCMS, of which Faith Lutheran congregation is a member, there are two different lectionary readings that may be used. The first one is the "one year historic" lectionary readings and is composed of Scripture readings selected from all four of the Gospels that are appropriate for the liturgical calendar year. The second lectionary readings is called the "Three Year Series" and is entitled A, B, and C.

The "A" series of the Three Year Lectionary will focus on the Gospel readings of the Gospel of Matthew. The "B" series will focus on the Gospel readings from the Gospel of Mark, and this is the series we are presently following at Faith Lutheran, Eldorado. The "C" series of the Lectionary will focus on the Gospel of Luke. All three years of the Three Year Lectionary series will make use and intersperse readings from the Gospel of John to support the church calendar year. One of the reasons we use the Three Year Series is the variety of Scriptures readings we will cover from the Sacred Scriptures.

Both the "one year historic" lectionary and the Three Year Lectionary will include 4 reading from the Sacred Scriptures that follows the church calendar for Sundays and other holy days. The First Reading will be from the Old Testament except during Easter, when it will be from the Book of Acts. There will be a selected Psalm, and a Second Reading, also known as the Epistle Reading which by its name are readings selected from the various letters of the New Testament. Finally, the last reading will be a selection from one the Gospels as noted above.

Next week, we continue with the Season of Pentecost and will look as some of the teachings of our Lord in Scripture. We pray for the blessings of our Lord for you as we daily remember our Baptismal Covenant in the Name of the Father, and the (+) Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Pastor E. James Rivett