Meaty Monday: Lectionary vs. Sermon Series

I just found this post and thought it really interesting. Ironically, some of the lectionary cycles to allow for a more continguous reading of some books of the bible. For instance, right now (Epiphany, Year B) focuses on going through 1 and 2 Corinthians. And last summer, year A, was all the book of Romans. So even within the lectionary cycle, you do get some of the sermon series on books.

Something that I have tried to do is see if a sermon series was going to fit with the lectionary readings. When it has truly been an inspired idea, it actually doesn't fit too bad. For instance I'm doing a series on a book written by my bishop "Becoming Jesus' Prayer" and each chapter actually fits fairly well with the themes of this season after Epiphany and leading up to Lent. I'm putting the gospel readings of the season along side a selected text of my choosing for the sermons.

I'm the associate, so I have less say on the overall strategy, but we preach the lectionary Advent through Pentecost, and then during the intervening "Ordinary Time" we do thematic sermons. This keeps us in a familiar rhythm while allowing some good creative work "outside the box" during a good chunk of the year. And while I'm the associate, I still think this is a pretty good strategy.

Tony Jones' new book The New Christians talks about a critique of the Lectionary that I think is spot on: There's too much elision of "offensive" parts of passages. Its not just that entire parts of scripture are left out of the lectionary cycle, but sometimes particular passages are chopped up to take out statements say divine condemnation of someone or another, etc. Jones says that's often because we don't want to have to confront those kind of passages and either modify our stated hermeneutic and reject that we think God actually is like that, or we don't want to deal with such things in the first place...

With only one exception, I preach from the lectionary passages. Last Lent I did a sermon series on the Last Seven Words from the Cross. I didn't enjoy the sermon series as much as I thought I would, perhaps because I bit off more than I could chew, or perhaps because it was really challenging to sit at the foot of the cross for six weeks - whatever the case, it threw me off and it felt good to be back on the lectionary.

I preach from the lectionary for all of the reasons you discussed. I find a rhythm in it, even in the sometimes randomness of it. Prior to a new church year, I try (try being the operative word!) to at least read the Gospel in its entirety in one or two sittings, and I do alot of the historical, literary, theological work up front. I find it challenging as well for many of the reasons that you mention. I subscribe to a couple of lectionary-based journals - Lectionary Homiletics and Pulpit Resource - which I've found helpful as far as illustrations - Lectionary Homiletics, in particular, has sections on theological themes, pastoral themes, movies, arts and literature. I'm also involved in a local clergy study group where we meet weekly and study the lectionary passages, and I've found that really fruitful.

My first year here was Year B, and I had a goal to preach through Mark as a foundational and formative thing for the congregation and me to do together. About half-way through I found myself really bored - one of my mentors told me that if I was bored, I could probably bet the congregation was bored, too! So I try to be open to all three readings, and preach on the one that I feel most (or least, sometimes) drawn to.

For all my talk of the lectionary, though, I'm considering this summer preaching through the Old Testament prophets - picking one a week and picking one passage to preach from. Challenging, I know, especially with the major prophets.

Thanks for these thoughtful posts your writing - it helps me to reflect on why I'm doing what I'm doing, and opens my eyes to new ways as well.

For what it's worth, Dave's only a lectionary preacher during the Advent, Lent, & Easter.

Yeah, it was a bit of an eye opener in my "reformed worship" class to realize that lectionary preaching was a fairly recent adaptation in presbyterian churches. That same professor also suggested that a fun sermon series would be to preach on everything that wasn't in the lectionary. He actually took a Bible and marked all the texts that are covered so we could see which one's weren't....another eye opener.

I'm ending through my third time through the three year cycle, and I'm mildly irritated by what's left out. I've resisted breaking out of it, because I like the connection with the world-wide church. But... there's a whole lot of the Bible that I've never preached on. So, starting next year, I'm going to wander into the other texts a bit.

And, of course, the Reformation was all about breaking with the lectionary. I'm not sure why we hold on to it so tightly now...

Yes, that was one of my other frustrations with lectionary preaching...I felt like passages were being pulled out of context and that I hadn't done enough big picture study in a particular biblical book to really know the full context of a passage on any given Sunday. It all felt so disconnected.

We did the "bible in 90 days" last fall. That had people reading the bible, a weekly class, and then I also preached from a passage that was read that week. It was great to be able to provide a sweep of the narrative of the Bible.

I really like the idea of preaching through a book. Maybe I'll tackle one of those following Easter or over the summer.

Dude - I also struggled mightily with the lectionary and dropped out of that plan a few years back. The most rewarding and meaningful program I've gotten into is preaching books of the Bible. I'm starting my fifth book this April (only 61 to go!). Upshot -- you get in depth exegetical work on the whole book. and then much of the basic work is done as you work through each section. An added benefit is that anyone in our congregation can tell you what we are studying and what are the major themes. If I'd ever get organized enough we'd connect all our Bible studies, small groups, children ministries to the particular book at hand....but that's another project!
We desperately need to be deeply connected to that Book!

-Mark