The Whole Counsel of God

For more than 30 years I have been using the Ecumenical Lectionary, the outline of scripture passages for the Sundays and seasons of the Church Year. Beginning in Advent, a few weeks before Christmas, we have the options a Psalm, Old Testament passage, an epistle reading, and a gospel lection each week. Okay, that pattern varies in some seasons, but it is the general idea. We have a three year cycle, poetically named A,B, and C, and we cover a lot of scriptural territory over the course of those three years.

Not enough though. I have always used the lectionary but the longer I have been in ministry, the more I have digressed at times. I do theme preaching series now, and the lectionary gets put aside for a while. In addition, there is the feeling I share with many colleagues that the lectionary is good, but not complete. And sometimes we feel a little like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, repeating the cycle over and over.

Now there is an initiative to introduce a fourth year --yup, Year D -- to the cycle. I am intrigued. http://theyeardproject.blogspot.ca/ Here is a description:

Although one often hears of the need to preach "the whole counsel of God," few resources have seriously and specifically attempted to assist the preacher and planner of worship to do just that--until now. 'Year D' makes the case for the need and promise of supplementing the Revised Common Lectionary with a fourth year of lections and arranges many previously excluded biblical texts in an orderly, one-year preaching plan. It fills a need widely voiced by preachers that the lectionary effectively limits and censors the functional canon of Scripture. Destined to serve as a staple source of significant revitalization in mainline preaching and worship, 'Year D' banks on the agency of Word and Spirit to renew the church as few practical proposals have done in the last twenty years, lending new focus and impetus for exploring the Bible's forgotten riches. A timely and urgently needed "return to the sources," Year D represents a fresh appropriation of neglected and marginalized texts for preaching, worship, education, and devotion, and thus constitutes a substantive, scriptural attempt to address what Walter Brueggemann has called "the current preaching emergency."

Ding, Ding, Ding --preaching emergency, preaching emergency! I love the phrase. I will pay attention to the resources now being made available and I have a feeling I will participate. Even though I see the finish line of active ordained ministry I'm still up for a challenge, if it enhances worship and encourages spiritual growth.

Is this lectionary stuff all new to you? Were you just getting accustomed to three years and now...? Do you not really care as long as scripture is read and your spirit is fed?