For years I\u2019ve assumed that the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) dictates what we hear read on Sunday mornings in Episcopal worship. I took it almost as a law of nature: the RCL provides the appointed readings, and our parish simply follows them.<\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s service at my Episcopal church weaned me out of that assumption. It was St. Francis Sunday\u2014the Sunday after his feast day, October 4\u2014and also the kickoff of Stewardship Month. The readings struck me as unusually pointed, even a bit on the nose:
\n\u2022 Job 39 : 1\u201318 \u2014 God questioning Job about the freedom of the wild animals.
\n\u2022 Acts 4 : 32\u201335; 5 : 1\u201311 \u2014 the believers sharing all things in common, followed by the grim story of Ananias and Sapphira.
\n\u2022 Psalm 121 \u2014 sung by the choir.
\n\u2022 Luke 12 : 13\u201321 \u2014 the Parable of the Rich Fool.<\/p>\n
As a listener I thought, how remarkable that the lectionary readings just happen to line up so perfectly with stewardship! Job\u2019s wild creatures, the early Christians\u2019 communal generosity, the warning against hoarding\u2014it all fit. Then, in my spiritual autobiography group, a few members who also attend the Sunday morning Bible study mentioned that some part of the RCL reading was supposed to be from Lamentations, not Job. That piqued my curiosity.<\/p>\n
This morning I checked the Lectionary Page myself. Sure enough, for Proper 22, Year B (October 5 2025), the appointed texts were Lamentations 1 : 1\u20136 (or Habakkuk 1 : 1\u20134; 2 : 1\u20134), Psalm 137 (or Psalm 37 : 1\u20139), 2 Timothy 1 : 1\u201314, and Luke 17 : 5\u201310. In other words\u2014completely different.<\/p>\n
Puzzled, I turned to Perplexity and then to ChatGPT to find out what had happened. Both confirmed that while the RCL is the Episcopal Church\u2019s official Sunday lectionary, rectors have discretion to substitute readings for pastoral or thematic reasons. The Book of Common Prayer explicitly allows alternate readings for \u201cfeasts or special occasions.\u201d It\u2019s common, apparently, to transfer the Feast of St. Francis to the nearest Sunday and to pair it with stewardship themes. My rector had simply made an intentional liturgical choice\u2014one that many parishes make every October.<\/p>\n
So my perspective has shifted. I used to marvel at how the RCL passages seemed to \u201cfit\u201d or not fit a given Sunday, as if by providence. Now I realize that sometimes the fit comes from pastoral curation\u2014the rector choosing readings to match what the parish most needs to hear. It\u2019s a different kind of providence, perhaps: human discernment guided (one hopes) by the Spirit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For years I\u2019ve assumed that the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) dictates what we hear read on Sunday mornings in Episcopal worship. I took it almost as a law of nature: the RCL provides the appointed readings, and our parish simply … Continue reading