Moving to a Narrative Lectionary

Our church is about to experiment with the narrative lectionary.  What is the narrative lectionary, you ask?  This website explains: 

"The narrative lectionary is a four-year cycle of readings. On the Sundays from September through May each year the texts follow the sweep of the biblical story, from Creation through the early Christian church:


•From September to mid-December the preaching texts begin with the early chapters of Genesis, move through the stories of Israel’s early history, the exodus, the kings, prophets, exile, and return.

•From Christmas to Easter there is sustained reading of one of the four gospels

•From Easter to Pentecost the texts are chosen from Acts and Paul’s letters."

I'm intrigued by this different approach.  I'll miss the knowledge that across the world, many Christians are reading the same texts, as we do with the Revised Common Lectionary, but I know that many churches go off lectionary for at least some of the time.

What does this mean for this blog and for my meditation on the weekly Gospel?  Well, now there will be two. 

I originally started writing the meditation on the Sunday Gospel for a different church when I sent out a weekly e-mail.  Then my mom's church started using it.  Then I switched churches, and I posted it on their blog, along with my own blog that I was keeping by then.  I'm syndicated!

I'll keep posting that meditation on Wednesdays, and then, on Thursdays, I'll post a response to the readings for the narrative lectionary.  At least, that's my plan.  We'll see how it works.

I like this idea:  "The texts include the major episodes in Scripture. They are arranged in a narrative sequence to help people see Scripture as a story that has coherence and a dynamic movement."

I went to a Presbyterian elementary school, so I have more Bible training than many people do.  I'm always amazed at what Christians don't know about the Bible, as well as by their inability to see larger pictures that the Bible presents.  I know that I'm also trained as a literary scholar and thus, I approach the Bible that way--another skill that many in our societies don't have.

It will be an interesting experiment.  I'll weigh in, periodically, on this new approach that many are adopting. And it will give me new writing challenges.  That's always good.