ROOTS and the lectionary

How the ROOTS resources are structured around the lectionary

Introduction

The purpose of the ROOTS resources is to provide ideas and material for worship and learning each week using the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). This lectionary is basically ecumenical, used and commended by many denominations across the world. Some denominations modify it on occasion and worshipping communities will use it in different ways. Nevertheless it is encouraging to think that across the world a large network of Christian people uses a common framework to read the Scriptures on Sundays. For some users the following material will be familiar territory, but if you are new to ROOTS resources, or the Revised Common Lectionary – or if you have always wondered why it works like it does – then you might like to read on. And actually, even if this is well known to you, it may be helpful to share it with others who assist in the design and leading of worship, for whom it may not be so familiar.

A three-year cycle of readings

The RCL provides a three-year cycle of Sunday readings based on the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Each Gospel is allocated to a year: Matthew is represented in Year A, Mark in Year B and, of course, Luke in Year C. Through the course of each year, much of the text of the relevant Gospel is read at Sunday worship. John’s Gospel is used to supplement this, used rather more during Year B, because Mark is quite short. John comes into its own, however, during the festive cycles of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, and Lent, Holy Week and Easter.

The cycle of readings in the circle of the Church year

As the secular calendar divides into four quarters, roughly corresponding to the four natural climatic seasons of Europe, so the Church year falls into four blocks of time. These are less equally distributed than the seasons of the natural year, but nevertheless predictable and recurring. There are two blocks of seasonal time.

The Lent, Holy Week and Easter cycle runs from Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent to Pentecost, which marks the end of Easter. There are forty days of Lent plus the six Sundays that occur during that period. Easter Sunday to Pentecost is fifty days, creating a season of 96 days, just over three months.

The other great festive cycle is Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. This runs from Advent Sunday, the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, until the 2 February, the day we remember the presentation of the Christchild in the Temple in Jerusalem and his acknowledgement by old Simeon and Anna. Depending upon the day on which Christmas Day falls, this period of time is about two months, sometimes a little more.

The rest of the year is simply ‘Ordinary Time’, though some traditions use other names (Sundays after Trinity, for example). Generally, Ordinary Time falls into two unequal blocks: a short period between the Christmas and Easter cycles and a long period after Pentecost until Advent Sunday, covering the months of summer and autumn. It is during this ‘Ordinary Time’ that the continuous reading of each Gospel is undertaken.
During the two festive cycles, readings are selected to reflect the season and to tell the important stories of the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.

The lectionary pattern in Ordinary Time

During Ordinary Time the pattern provided by the lectionary is the semi-continuous reading of books of the Bible with a primary focus on the Gospel of the year. The second New Testament reading (often called the Epistle reading because it is more often than not from one of the New Testament letters) is also semi-continuous. There are two possibilities for reading Old Testament passages. One possibility or strand provides an Old Testament passage each week which has some kind of relationship with the chosen Gospel passage. A psalm is then selected as a comment on the Old Testament passage. The second possibility or strand is a semi-continuous reading from the books of the Old Testament, which, over a period of three years, offers the possibility of engagement with some of the major narratives of the Hebrew Bible. It also has an accompanying psalm.

After considerable research and deliberation, ROOTS generally continues to work with the ‘related’ (to the Gospel) Old Testament approach. Thus our Scripture readings during Ordinary Time, as in the seasonal cycles, have a relationship to the Gospel. The relationship between the Gospel/Old Testament reading/Psalm with the Epistle passage is less close, and because of the semi-continuous nature of its provision, this reading will sometimes stand alone.

One Gospel each year

The three-year cycle of readings takes a Gospel as its basis each year. For much of the year this allows a continuous reading from week to week, and allows a familiarity with each Gospel writer’s voice to develop. We can appreciate that each writer, like a modern newspaper, has his own slant on a story, and the way in which the different writers select and use their material gives valuable insights. This allows the reader to go beyond the general outlines of stories which appear more than once in the Gospels. We can appreciate that the Gospels may have been written for different audiences. Matthew’s readers would appreciate his scriptural references; Luke ministered alongside Paul and must have written for both Jewish and Gentile believers; tradition suggests that Mark’s Gospel could have been based on Peter’s preaching. Rather than trying to compress the Gospels into a single account of the life of Jesus, we experience the different perspectives of the evangelists, each providing a distinctive witness. Even though the Synoptic Gospels tell very similar stories, complete verbatim agreement across them is surprisingly limited. Each story is carefully crafted in a distinct way. It could be that we come closer to Jesus by recognising that our vision is not just the stereo of John and the Synoptics, but actually a four channel record, building a rounded picture of Christ.

The ROOTS’ approach to the lectionary from September 2008

Our approach to the passages of Scripture provided each week by the lectionary is an integrated one. Each week there is one common thread across the two magazines, Adult & All Age and Children & Young People . This thread is determined by the relationship between the Gospel passage and the Old Testament reading and psalm. The common thread provides material for children and young people, all-age worship and one of the sets of adult sermon notes. The second set of adult sermon notes, the Alternative thread , is more ‘stand alone’ and often relates each week to the Epistle reading.

Within the common thread, for the adult and all-age provision, passages of Scripture are sometimes used alongside each other. Within the material for children and young people, there is one focus passage: a story to tell or a particular passage to explore.

Each week we provide a set of notes on the Bible passages appointed by the lectionary. These are written by a different commentator for each issue. In addition to providing some background and insight into the four readings for each week, the notes writers is asked to focus on the way in which the passages work together. Each writer has their own approach to this and we hope that you find the variety of styles refreshing. We hope, too, that it helps those who work together in your churches to offer worship and learning among your people, to develop an increased understanding of the relationships embedded in the Scriptural texts. 

For a table showing the focus readings for 2011 click HERE .

We hope that by using all that the two magazines and the website have to offer together, you will find something that will be good for your situation, whatever the provision you make.