Crazy Theological Thoughts

When the ILCW developed the Three Year Lectionary in the 70s, the committee asked itself a number of questions. Four of these questions are as follows: 1. Can this passage be expounded meaningfully today, can one preach relevantly on it? 2. Do the readings as a whole reflect the whole counsel of God? 3. Is the reading exegetically defensible? Are there textual problems in the Hebrew or Greek which render the meaning of a passage uncertain? 4. Is the reading ecumenical? How widely is it used to express past usage and current practice? Are there passages in Scripture that are not relevant to the world today? Some might think of the many genealogies in scripture. Some might even think of the Oracles against the Nations in the Old Testament. Some might even talk about the Sexist comments by St Paul. But why were these things written if not for pastors, teachers, evangelists, and prophets to build up people in the truth. This question is better faced to our Preachers and Teachers. Are You a...

Letter From Dr. Allen Unruh, This one of the most important appeal letters you will have received in a long time regarding the ultimate issue – Human Life. I want to explain why! Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against the state of South Dakota this last week. They are claiming the new South Dakota House Bill 1217 law is the greatest threat to abortion in the country and will set the stage for the beginning of the end of abortion as we know it. They are ignoring the language of the legistlation signed by our governor and spinning different meaning to the language of the legislation to deceive the American public. Their intent is to demonize and destroy the Alpha Center in South Dakota in any way possible while ignoring the testimony of women who were victims of their deception and what really goes on in their abortuaries. I watched the documentary, "Gettysburg," this past Memorial Day weekend. Gettysburg was the battleground that turned the tide of the Civil War and e...

HT Allen wrote, "If all scripture is equally scripture there would seem to be no problem. But 'all scripture' cannot be read at Sunday eucharistic celebration, if only because of time constraints, ... The question then becomes one of selectivity. And then the 'canon within the canon' looms." All Scripture may be equal, but people do not treat all scripture equally. People are very selective in the parts of scripture which they read and accept. Some people disregard geneologies or comments on the construction of Temple or Tabernacle. Others disregard complete sections of the Bible as being old or no longer valid. All Scripture may be equal, but people do not hear it equally. What people hear on Sunday mornings is a limited canon based on Texts. But it is also a limited canon based on Preaching. What do most preachers preach on? What is the text for the Sermon on Sunday mornings? Generally speaking it comes from the Gospel lesson. Both these situation...

Uitti suggested a Seven Year Lectionary. Some say a One Year Lectionary. Most people follow a Three Year Lectionary. Why Three Years? Which makes the most sense, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, or Seven? Well lets think about it. A Three Year Lectionary makes sense because of the Holy Trinity. There are three persons in one God. The First Year you would focus on the Father and his work in Creation, Sending his Son, Raising his Son, and Answering Prayer. The Second Year you focus on the Son's action of Redemption and Holy Life. The Third Year is focused on the Holy Spirit both in Old Testament Prophecy and the New Testament Church. But this is not how our Three Year lectionary is set up. A One Year Lectionary makes sense because we are One people of God or God is one. Therefore, you celebrate the Father Son and Holy Spirit throughout the year. This could also focus on how the Church is united throughout time and space. All Christians are united together. One Year is ...

I really enjoyed reading an article by R. Uitti titled "A New Lectionary for a New Church." He describes that with the advancement in our liturgical life we can include all of scripture. This idea would basically have you start at the beginning and walk through the Bible in Seven Years. Basically, you would be able to spend quality time in every book of the bible. Most Lectionaries do not include even a small portion of the Minor Prophets. They include even less of the later historical books like Ezra and Nehemiah. But this would have you go through these books in detail. It would be a great opportunity for a Seminary or Christian University to use this type of lectionary. When you have daily services and are helping future church workers become engaged in these parts of Scripture. I do not think Uitti's suggestion is really something for every church. But it does make a good suggestion for those who chose to part from the Lectionary from time to time. I really do enjoy h...

I came across an article recently, the author talked about certain texts being for eucharistic services and other texts are for non-eucharistic services. This author was commenting on the lectionary of the catholic church coming out of vatican II. Now I found it interesting attending a church that only has communion once a month. Are there texts that should not be read on communion sundays and others that should be only read on communion sundays? I do not know how to determine these textual differences. Maybe like some have said unless you can use a sacramental hermanuetic on the text it should not be used. Therefore, if the feeding of the five thousand is not sacramental it should not be read on communion sundays. But what about churches that have communion every Sunday, when would they hear the other lessons? Some might say, when they come to bible study or a midweek service. This brings up another thought: are some texts only meant for bible study and not a service beca...

During Vatican II the Catholic Church set out to develop a three year Lectionary or lessons for Mass. Since, this change took place others have took it upon themselves to react to this. Protestants, Reformed, Anglicans, Lutherans, and many others have come up with a variety of ideas about the Lectionary. Prior to Vatican II, most churches did not have a lectionary. They just read from the Bible. There was no unified Lectionary. Once the Catholics chose to change there lectionary structure, others saw this as an opportunity to unite all churches throughout the world and across denominations. The result was a Common Lectionary in 1981. The Lutheran Churches developed a commission to help develop for themselves a three year lectionary which was found in LBW or LW. This again shows the reaction to others changing the Lectionary. Since then even the Common Lectionary has been revised. The LCMS then adopted changes to the RCL to develop there own three year lectionary for their new Hymnal LS...

I was doing pretty good with this bloging thing. You can look at the posting history. But there was another project that has been consuming my spare time. I have been working on a new lectionary. Many people at first asked me why. But some of those same people have expressed similar concerns I have with the current lectionary. I plan on in the next couple of weeks using this blog to post various reasons for a new lectionary. But I am still finishing work on this new lectionary. The plan now is to begin unveiling it here in september. Hopefully I will have everything in order by then. I just would hope that if you have any problems or even things you find admirable about the various lectionaries we do have, please share them. Thank you. Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.1