This article was downloaded by: [McMaster University]On: 20 December 2014, At: 13:36Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Click for updates

LiturgyPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ultg20

Lectionary Triangulated: Insights fromthe Late Twentieth CenturyFritz WestPublished online: 10 Jul 2014.

To cite this article: Fritz West (2014) Lectionary Triangulated: Insights from the Late TwentiethCentury, Liturgy, 29:4, 3-10, DOI: 10.1080/0458063X.2014.921999

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0458063X.2014.921999

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &

Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014

LECTIONARY TRIANGULATED: INSIGHTS

FROM THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Fritz West

In the decade of the 1960s the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and AnglicanChurches all engaged in producing lectionaries:

. In 1967 the British Joint Liturgical Group published The Calendar andLectionary: A Reconsideration (JLG1).

. In 1968 the Lutheran World Federation launched a global lectionaryinitiative.

. In 1969 the Roman Catholic Church promulgated the revised Romanlectionary, Ordo Lectionum Missae.

Each of these lectionary efforts in turn spawned liturgical families. Onthe basis of JLG1 lectionaries were created by various Protestant churchesin Great Britain and in the world Anglican communion. Lutheran churchesin Europe used the Geneva Guidelines to produce lectionaries published inthe 1970s. The new Roman Lectionary provided the impetus for a varietyof Protestant denominational lectionaries as well as ecumenical ones, notablythe Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) in 1992.

It is fruitful to reflect upon the similarities and differences of these lection-ary efforts. Not only can this lead to a deeper understanding of each, but itmay also give insight into the lectionary genre, that is, the form of scriptureshaped at the juncture of canon and calendar. While the lectionary familiesare part of this harvest, I only have space in this article to focus on the initialBritish, Lutheran, and Roman efforts. Being three in number, they allow fortriangulation: viewing each in light of the other two.

Studying three items at one time increases the opportunities for under-standing. The study of one item is limited. While extraneous material can bebrought to bear upon that single item, it is by definition unique and in theend can be seen only in and of itself. In the late nineteenth century, FriedrichMax Muller, a scholar of Sanskrit and comparative religion, captured this limi-tation with a pithy dictum, ‘‘He who knows one knows none.’’1 This applies tocurrent lectionary studies. The spectacular spread of the three-year lectionarysystem has resulted in its predominance among churches with historic rootsinWestern Christianity. In this development there is both affirmation and limi-tation. In marked contrast to most ecumenical agreements, hammered out bycommission or dialogue in arduous negotiation, this was a spontaneous

Liturgy, 29 (4): 3–10, 2014 Copyright # The Liturgical Conference ISSN: 0458-063XDOI: 10.1080/0458063X.2014.921999

3

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014

ecclesial event. A large swath of the Christian church now reads the same orsimilar scripture during Sunday morning worship week after week. At thesame time, however, the predominance of a single lectionary system limitsvision. The euphemism ‘‘Fish did not discover water’’ is relevant here. Withsuch widespread use, it is easy for persons to ‘‘swim’’ in the three-year lection-ary system, as oblivious as fish are of water. True, other lectionaries exist along-side it. In the Christian East one finds the Orthodox lectionary and those ofvarious Oriental churches; in the West, in addition to the Lutheran lectionariesof northern Europe, a plethora of alternative lectionaries have sprung up overthe past decade or so, often in reaction to the RCL. These realities notwith-standing, the predominance of the three-year system easily leads to theimpression that it is The Lectionary, the only game in town, a perspectivereflected in most literature about it, both critical and popular.

The singularity of this approach contrasts with the triangularity thisarticle explores: a comparison of the JLG, Lutheran, and Roman lectionarysystems. After warning that ‘‘he who knows one knows none,’’ FriedrichMax Muller and others set out to explore linguistic development by compar-ing not two languages, but three—Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek. These scholarsposited aspects of the putative original language that gave rise to the three:Proto-Indo European (P.I.E.). Trigonometry demonstrates how treating threeitems in space simultaneously enhances analytic power. Knowing thelocation of two loci, the distance between them, and the angles from eachof them to a third, allows one to both locate the third and calculate how farit lies away from the other two. Or, in the language of trigonometry, onecan locate the apex of a triangle if one knows the location of the ends of afixed baseline and the angles from them to its apex.

Used originally for map-making, triangulation is now used mutatismutandis in various fields: sociology, psychology, organizational analysis,and so on. While some of these applications have negative connotations, asin psychology, I use it here in its neutral sense: the procedure of using twoentities to conceptually locate a third on a landscape they all share. In thelandscape of lectionaries of the late twentieth century, knowledge of twoof them allows us to locate the third. The strong contrasts between these threelectionaries aids this effort: each uses a distinct hermeneutic and differentversion of the church year.

The Calendar and Lectionary: A Reconsideration (JLG1)

The context of JLG1 was ecumenical and missional. The Joint LiturgicalGroup gained inspiration from the Book of Common Worship of the Churchof South India, published in 1963, the same year the group was formed. Inthis book a church in the mission field, uniting various Protestant denomina-tions, produced a fresh liturgical resource, including a lectionary. The JointLiturgical Group was similarly ecumenical, with representation froma number of Protestant denominations in England and Scotland. It was alsocognizant of Great Britain’s missional needs arising from the challenges mod-ernity posed for the church, a perception of ‘‘the strangeness of the Bible.’’2

This problem required a two-pronged solution, pastoral and catechetical.

4

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014

Pastorally the Bible needed modern garb, certainly using contemporarylanguage, yet also employing contemporary idioms, for example, ‘‘to portrayChrist as being born in a shed or executed by a firing squad or appearing tous ‘not on Gennesaret, but Thames!’’’3 Such an approach works, however,only when persons are familiar enough with the Bible to recognize how themodern interprets the original . . . and that knowledge was in marked decline.It was this latter problem the Joint Liturgical Group sought to address.

JLG1 presents the whole sweep of salvation history by putting scripturalflesh on a trinitarian structure; it uses biblical theology to interpret theApostle’s Creed. While the first half of the traditional western liturgical yearcan be seen to focus on Christ and the Sundays after Pentecost on the HolySpirit, no segment is devoted to the first member of the Trinity, the subjectof the opening article of the Apostle’s Creed. To correct this perceiveddeficiency, the Joint Liturgical Group increased to nine the number ofSundays before Christmas, beginning the year with a focus on the firstmember of the Trinity before moving on to Advent themes. JLG1 fleshedout this trinitarian skeleton with scripture in the spirit of biblical theology,that is, understanding the history of salvation as the progressive history ofGod’s revelations to humankind. In this framework the members of theTrinity are revealed in succession: the first member of the Trinity at thebeginning of the year is followed by the Son in the middle and the Holy Spiritin its last half. Using scripture to mirror this trinitarian pattern, passages fromthe Old Testament control all readings for the Father’s segment before Christ-mas, readings from the Gospels during the segment for the Son, and peri-copes from the epistles during the time of the Holy Spirit followingPentecost. Accordingly JLG1 presents the whole sweep of the biblical narra-tive, from the creation recorded in Genesis (read on the first Sunday of theyear) to the consummation prophesied in The Revelation to John (read atyear’s end).

To fulfill its catechetical goals, the Joint Liturgical Group selected scrip-ture to present the Bible in its fullness, reading the most important biblicalpassages over a two-year cycle. The group’s procedure may be describedschematically as follows: (1) they listed all readings to be heard in worship,(2) from that list they selected controlling readings for each day in the calen-dar, assigning Old Testament, Gospel, and epistle readings to Sundays intheir segments of the church year, (3) these were ordered according to the his-tory of salvation, with some specificity in the first half of the year, more gen-erally in the second, (4) from the initial list of readings, they chose readingsfrom the other two segments of the Western liturgical Bible to accompanythe reading controlling each Sunday or occasion, and (5) they identifieda theme arising out of the three assembled texts. This use of themes, foundalso in the lectionary of the Church in South India, was criticized forimposing on scripture preordained ideas. Members of the Joint LiturgicalGroup, on the other hand, claimed that the themes arose out of the scripturechosen. After discussing the two systems of selecting scripture to createlectionaries, lectio continua and lectio selecta, A. Raymond George wrote,‘‘[The Joint Liturgical Group] claims, however, that it has used a thirdmethod. The primary aim is to let scripture speak and impose its own terms.It is to give place to the totality of biblical revelation in all the diversity of its

5

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014

witness.’’4 This is a thoroughly Protestant stance: seeking to engage the Bibledirectly, encountering scripture without mediation.

Lutheran Lectionaries

In the mid-1960s, Lutheran churches worldwide felt a strong pull to use thehistoric calendar and lectionary as the basis for developing a modern order ofreadings. Over more than a millennium, between 800 and 1970, the church ofthe West made use of the lectionary coming out of the Carolingian Renaissance,an annual cycle with two series, an epistle and a Gospel. After the sixteenth cen-tury all of the ecclesial communities retaining the liturgical year continued itsuse: the Roman Catholic, the Lutheran, and the Anglican. Its profile was highestin the Lutheran church, however. Though a part of the Roman Catholic mass formore than a millennium, until 1962 its pericopes had to be read in Latin, whenreading them the vernacular was permitted. The Anglican Church also obscuredthem, though differently. Since the usual form of Sunday worship was MorningPrayer, its readings were customarily heard. The historic lections were read onlyfour times a year when the Eucharist was celebrated. This pattern changed overthe nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the Eucharist was celebrated moreoften. But, as these readings became more familiar, they came widely to be seenas inadequate. In the Lutheran Church, on the other hand, these readings were aregular feature of liturgical life. In Germany, for example, they served as the the-matic foundations for German chorales, which in turn spawned an extensivemusical corpus of cantatas, preludes, symphonies, masses, and motets. Theredeveloped the tradition of the hymn for the day, used on the same day year afteryear along with the readings that inspired them. In the realm of the spoken andwritten German language, the pericopes inspired sermons, meditations, devo-tions, and poems—such as those of Paul Gerhardt (1607–1767). The LutheranChurch valued the readings of the historic lectionary for being a constitutive partof the cultural fabric and a vestigial sign of the unity of the Western church.

Beginning in the 1960s, the Lutheran World Federation organizeda pan-Lutheran lectionary initiative, hosting four consultations of experts.The first of these gatherings produced the ‘‘Geneva Guidelines,’’ a setof principles to guide national Lutheran churches around the world inconstructing lectionaries using the historic pericopes:

1. the reading of three lections on Sundays—from the Old Testament,New Testament writings, and the Gospels

2. the development of a foundational cycle using the ‘‘old pericopes,’’ revised inlight of their ‘‘suitability and comprehensibility’’

3. ‘‘in order to include the richness of the Holy Scriptures in the readings ofthe worship services’’ additional cycles need to be selected, either with thefoundational cycle read every year and supplemented by preaching texts,or using a multiyear cycle5

From 1968 to 1974 Lutheran churches, especially those in northern Europe,worked intensively to develop lectionaries based on these guidelines. Wide

6

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014

correspondence with Lutheran churches around the world reflects the globalnature of this initiative. In each case the historic liturgical year was retained,including the ‘‘gesima’’ Sundays before Lent and the pattern of numberingthe Sundays in the second half of the year ‘‘after Trinity.’’

For our example of this effort, we will take the lectionary of the GermanLutheran church. First, the Gospel and epistle pairings of the historic peri-copes were scrutinized in light of both biblical studies, and homiletical andpastoral needs. Second, a biblical promise was discerned, certainly in theGospel reading and whenever possible in the consonance between the Gospeland the epistle. This promise was captured in a verse from scripture, whole orpartial, which is printed in the lectionary at the head of the scriptural andliturgical material provided for each day. Third, readings were chosen oradjusted in light of this promise: an Old Testament reading was chosen forall Sundays and occasions; the Gospel and epistle readings of the historiclectionary were reviewed and occasionally altered or replaced. Takentogether, these three readings from the Old Testament, epistles, and Gospelsformed the foundational cycle of liturgical readings for the day, to be readyear after year. Fourth, both to insure that more scripture be read and tosupply a variety of texts for preaching, this foundational cycle was used tobuild a six-year preaching cycle. In the first and second years of this cyclethe preaching text is the historic Gospel and epistle, respectively; thesubsequent four years use the Old Testament liturgical reading and threefurther texts, in some order. All these readings, both the liturgical and thepreaching texts, were selected—to quote the Geneva guidelines—for their‘‘suitability and comprehensibility.’’ Fifth, a psalm, an alleluia verse, and ahymn for the day were chosen in light of the biblical promise. Printedin the lectionary and invariable, this ordinary forms a stable interpretativestructure through which the readings, both liturgical and preaching, revolveyear after year.

The Roman Lectionary

The Roman Church took a step beyond the Lutheran. Setting aside the tra-dition of the historic lectionary, the Consilium proceeded to reshape theRoman calendar and devise a new set of readings. To prepare for this work,it directed a working group to carry out an extensive survey of lectionaries,past and present, used by the church. Drawing upon this broad spectrum ofpractice, it responded to both pastoral issues raised in the church and the criti-cal perspective of biblical studies within the framework of the liturgical tra-dition of the lectionary broadly construed: the liturgical year, the practice ofreading of scripture in the mass, and its essential relationship to the Eucharist.

Concerns of the church—theological and liturgical, pastoral andmissional—were clearly present. The ritual of reading was shaped to lead upto the Gospel, when the vox Christi is heard in assembly; psalm antiphonspointing to the Gospel message were chosen. The liturgical year and itsreadings were revised to clearly proclaim the Gospel of Christ and celebratehis presence in the assembly. The year was streamlined, notably the seasonalcycles of Christmas and Easter. Transitions were marked out clearly: Epiphany

7

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014

and Baptism of the Lord close the Christmas cycle, Pentecost and TrinitySunday conclude the Easter cycle, and Christ the King ends the year. Thepre-Lenten ‘‘gesima’’ Sundays were dropped, eliminating that perplexingpreparation to a preparation. For the sake of theological clarity, and in responseto the needs of the mission field, the relationship of baptism to Easter was setforth boldly. Easter was affirmed as the premiere occasion for baptism, theSeason of Lent as the time for baptismal preparation, and the Season of Easterthat for mystagogical catechesis. As Christ’s presence in the Gospel anticipateshis presence in the Eucharist, both were interpreted in light of the paschalmystery. Indeed, the hermeneutical heart of the Roman calendar is the Eastercycle, and its heart of hearts the Easter Vigil, when the light of Christ shinesforth, the Gospel of Christ is proclaimed, and the sacramental presence ofChrist is celebrated at font and altar.

At the same time scripture is formative for the Roman calendar andlectionary. The literary structures scripture employs, particularly those foundin the New Testament, exercise considerable influence. The Sundays of theYear (‘‘Ordinary Time’’ in common parlance) form a structure devised toproclaim much of the synoptic Gospels semicontinuously. This structure,notwithstanding interruption by the Easter cycle, treats these Sundays asa single series. Running parallel to these readings, but customarily unrelatedto them, is another series of readings from the New Testament epistles, onceagain read semicontinuously. During the Season of Easter, passages from theActs of the Apostles are read semicontinuously over the three years; passagesfrom 1 Peter, 1 John, and the Revelation to John are read in subsequent years.With pericopes from the Gospel According to John appointed primarily in theseasonal cycles, increasingly so as the Solemnities approach, the Christologyof the Fourth Evangelist enjoys a high profile. The first readings during Lentare chosen to reflect phases in the history of Israel: Origins, Abraham, TheExodus, The Nation, and The Promise. Though gross literary structures inthe Bible (notably the synoptic Gospels and the epistles) exercise a directinfluence upon the structure of The Roman Lectionary, its readings are some-times too brief to honor the literary forms biblical writers employ.

The Roman Lectionary embraces a Eucharistic hermeneutic. Created toproclaim the Gospel in a Eucharistic liturgy, it is emphatically Christological.As a paschal theology is used to understand the Eucharist in the Liturgy ofthe Meal, a paschal hermeneutic is applied to scripture in the liturgy ofthe word. This orientation established a hierarchy among the segments ofscripture, according to their proximity to the revelation of Jesus Christ.Among the categories of scripture used by the lectionary, the Gospel of Christis encountered directly only in the Gospel reading, as the church proclaimsthe vox Christi, the voice of Christ. While the epistles carry a Gospel message,they do so indirectly, in the second-person reflections of the redeemed ratherthan the first-person revelations of the Redeemer. As the scripture of the OldCovenant, the Old Testament by definition can never proclaim the NewCovenant initiated by Christ. It can offer hints, it can foreshadow, but itcannot proclaim what God had not yet fully revealed. During the Sundaysof the Year, this hierarchy has the apostle in the epistle reading speakingits own voice but alone and not in concert with the Gospel, while the voiceof the prophet in the Old Testament offers the Gospel reading muffled

8

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014

support. During the Sundays of the Seasons the Roman Lectionary employsthe voice of apostle to offer reflection on the Gospel proclaimed, but drawsthe Old Testament so deeply into the Christological compass that—attimes—it is seen but not heard. While the decision of the Consilium to employan Old Testament reading shows a fulsome understanding of the peopleof God, God’s revelation to Israel is valued only as it relates to Christ.To convey this Eucharistic hermeneutic using planetary image: the Gospelsin the Roman Lectionary radiate Christ’s Gospel with the brilliance of thesun. The epistles reflect that glory like the near side of the moon, whilethe Old Testament lies in darkness on its far side. There, aided by the lanternof faith, the church has (had) to search for signs of revelation.

Some Insights from Triangulation

Our discussion of these three lectionaries demonstrates the fruitfulnessof triangulation. Clearly all three stand on the same landscape. All employthe lectionary form, arising at the conjunction of canon and calendar. All usevariations of the traditional church year. All had to decide whether to crafta lectionary using the historic one or to build anew. All draw one reading foreach Sunday and holy day from the scriptural categories traditional to Westernliturgy: the Hebrew scriptures, epistles, and Gospels. All were composed bya church or church body to proclaim the triune God, revealed with particularityin Jesus Christ. All responded to the pastoral needs of the day and contributionsfrom biblical studies. At the same time, they stand on that landscape at some dis-tance one from one another, each occupying its own specific theological location.

JLG1 lays stress upon the trinitarian character of the Godhead as revealedthrough the biblical narrative. The goal of setting forth the Bible has a longhistory in Protestant Great Britain. In services of Morning and Evening Prayerfound in the English Book of Common Prayer, the whole Bible is read overthe course of a year; the Westminster Directory of Worship (1645) embracedthe same goal for scripture read at Sunday morning worship. While JLG1does not seek to read through the whole Bible, it certainly attempts to presentit as a whole. The calendar was reorganized to present the full sweep of theBible’s saving history—from Genesis to Revelation, from beginning of time tothe end of history. It seeks to lay out the fullness of biblical revelation, as Godunfolds it progressively in the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the epistles.Interpreted through the Apostle’s Creed, this history can be seen to revealeach member of the Trinity in turn. JLG1 attempts to read in worship allbiblical passages of significance for portraying the history of salvation andimparting Christian knowledge.

Although the German Lutheran calendar and lectionary are not shapedby the biblical narrative (as is JLG1), it holds the Bible to be one in itswitness to the Good News of God. Already evident in the Old Testament,that Good News assumes incarnational particularity in Jesus Christ. AsGod’s intentions have been the same throughout the history of salvation,the Gospel can be preached from all segments of scripture: the OldTestament, the Gospels, and the epistles. The German lectionary sets outthe Good News proclaimed each Sunday in the biblical promise, reflected

9

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014

mutatis mutandis in all readings, and the liturgical ordinary accompanyingthem. As JLG1 puts its theological stress upon the Trinitarian aspect ofGod unfolding over the history of salvation, this lectionary has a theocentricfocus on the Good News of God.

Being in service to the celebration of the Eucharist, the Roman lectionaryis Christocentric. Its focus is Jesus Christ, who is rendered present to theassembly in word by proclamation as he is by action in the Eucharist. Theunitary witness of the Bible, whether found in its saving narrative (JLG1)or its saving promise (German Lutheran), exercises no influence here. Thiscontrast distinguishes Protestant and Catholic worship: whereas the Bible inthe form of a book is a necessary feature of Protestant worship, it is nottraditionally found in the Eucharistic liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.What one finds there is scripture—in the Gospel book, the lectionary book,or the Missalette in the pew—organized by the paschal hermeneuticto proclaim the paschal mystery present in the Eucharist, that is, the voiceof Christ in the Gospel and the direct apostolic witness of the epistle withprophetic support coming from the Old Testament. The influence of thecritical study of the Bible does play a role here, though significantly onlyas it relates to the New Testament. Through the semicontinuous readingof Gospels and epistles—through the tacit acknowledgment of the distinc-tive theological orientations of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in subsequentyears and John at seasonal high points—the Roman Lectionary employsNew Testament genres to liturgically proclaim the paschal mystery. Genresof the Old Testament, composed before the light of Christ was revealed,receive no similar attention.

All three of these initiatives stand proudly on the lectionary landscape.The differences between them become apparent as we view each in lightof the other two: JLG1 proclaims the trinitarian revelation of God and theGerman Lutheran Lectionary the promise of God’s Good News, while theRoman Lectionary is emphatically sacramental and Christocentric.

Fritz West is a retired minister of the United Church of Christ andauthor of Scripture and Memory: The Ecumenical Hermeneutics

of the Three-Year Lectionaries (1997).

Notes

1. Friedrich Max Muller, Introduction to the Science of Religion [¼Collected Works XIV] (London andBombay: Longmans, Green, 1899), 13. Accessed April, 2014, at http://books.google.com/books?id=6xXmUJzW0CEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=%22knows%20one%22&f=false.2. Colin P. Thompson, ‘‘Language and the Bible,’’ 16 in The Word in Season, ed. Donald Gray(Norwich: The Canterbury Press, 1988).3. Ibid., 15.4. A. Raymond George, ‘‘The JLG Lectionary,’’ 100 in The Word in Season.5. See Exhibit XI, ‘‘Proposal Looking to the Creation of a Common Liturgical Lectionary forthe Lutheran Churches of the World,’’ in the LWF archives for the Commission on Worship andSpirituality, WO-A-1 (1968).

10

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

McM

aste

r U

nive

rsity

] at

13:

36 2

0 D

ecem

ber

2014