Discussion of the Lectionary

There are many lectionarys available on the web, some quite good. So why another lectionary? Basically, I wanted one place where I could see the entire three year cycle, with supporting information such as season, color, whatever, without having to click here, click there, click, click.
 
Because of the large amount of information presented, the page is arranged about as simple as possible. It seems that any attempt to "pretty up" the page, color, boxes, bold, only complicates and confuses. Finally, there is absolutely no promise that the page is error free, although we do try. Please email us about any errors or suggestions that you may have.
 
Introduction
This website presents some of the thoughts and guidelines used to create the lectionary pages. This paper is entirely inadequate for discussing the history of the lectionary. The site attempts to conform closely to the lectionary as presented in the ELW, pps 16-63 and to use the ELW notation (mostly), focusing specifically on Sundays, plus a few special holidays. There is an entirely separate set of daily readings, with no Sundays, presented as a two-year cycle. Abbreviations are explained at the bottom of this note.
 
The Liturgical Year
The lectionary provides a three-year cycle for the Sunday readings, with each year centered on one of the synoptic gospels; Year A the year of Matthew, Year B the year of Mark, Year C the year of Luke. John is read each year, especially in the times around Christmas, Lent, and Easter, and also in the year of Mark, whose gospel is shorter than the others.
 
Year A always begins on the First Sunday of Advent in years that can be evenly divided by 3 (2007, 2010, ...). The readings for year A will be exactly the same as the readings for year A three years later, with some exceptions when Sunday falls on some special day, such as Christmas or New Year's Day. The following discussion presents the seasons as they occur during the liturigical year, starting with Advent.
 
Advent
A very orderly season, uses the readings in numerical order over the four Sundays of Advent.
 
Christmas
Christmas I is used on Christmas Eve. Christmas II, III are used on Christmas Day. The readings for Christmas I-III for year A are exactly the same for year B and for year C. Some Catholic churches generally use one reading for Mass at Midnight, one for Mass at Dawn, and one for Mass during the day.
 
Use Christmas 2 for the first Sunday after Christmas, and Christmas 3 for the second Sunday after Christmas. When Christmas falls on a Sunday, one of Christmas II-III may replace Christmas 2. The Christmas season includes two special holidays, the Holy Name of Jesus and New Year's Day, both occurring on January 1. If New Year's Day is a Sunday, then use the readings for the Holy Name of Jesus instead of the readings for Christmas 2. Does anyone know why the first Sunday after is called Christmas 2.
 
Epiphany
The primary reason for the season appears to be to celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, when the three Magi visited the baby Jesus. This is always celebrated on January 6, regardless of year, using the readings for the Day of the Epiphany.
 
The secondary reason seems to be to fill in the Sundays between Christmas and Lent. If January 6 falls on a Sunday, then the readings for the Day of Epiphany are celebrated. Otherwise, the readings for Epiphany 1, Baptism of Our Lord, are used. The readings for Epiphany 2-9 follow the readings for Epiphany, until Lent begins. Depending upon when Lent begins, there may not be enough Sundays to use all of the readings for Epiphany.
 
Lent
Lent always begins on Ash Wednesday. With forty days of Lent plus five Sundays, Lent always ends nicely on the last Sunday before Easter Sunday.
 
Holy Week
Holy Week deals with the Monday to Saturday before Easter Sunday. Since the web site focuses primarily on Sundays, this web site does not include the readings for Holy Week. If I get sufficiently bored some winter, I may revisit this decision.
 
Easter
Easter 1 is also called Easter Day. Then, follows readings for Easter 2-7, ending with the Sunday of Pentecost.
 
Time After Pentecost
The Propers are used after Pentecost, presented in correct numerical order. In 1983, the RCL introduced the concept of tying the Propers to the civil calendar. Thus, Proper 29 is always the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, occurring sometime between November 20 and November 26 (inclusive).
 
The color green, is used in the season of Epiphany and the season Time After Pentecost to indicate Ordinary Time. This means that the readings for both seasons are connected to the civil calendar. Some authors on the web try to relate the word ordinary to the word ordinal, meaning countable. I believe this is incorrect. Other authors relate certain seasons as "special", such as Christmas and Lent, with the less special seasons then being "ordinary".
 
Epiphany 6 may called Proper 1 and Epiphany 7 may be called Proper 2. Epiphany 8 and Proper 3 are both designated as Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany. Epiphany 9 and Proper 4 are both designated as Ninth Sunday after the Epiphany. It should be clear that for either Sunday, only one of the two alternatives will be used. The choice depends upon whether Easter occurs early in the calendar year or late in the calendar year. For some reason, the readings for Epiphany 8 are the same as the readings for Proper 3.

Sunday Lectionary

Notes
a. ELW: Evangelic Lutheran Worship
b. Revised Common Lectionary
c. ELCA Lectionary
d. Vanderbilt Divinity Library (very good)
e. Gloria Wall (very good monthly pages)
f. The Unbound Bible (good Bible search tool)
g. Ken Collins (lots of info)
h. Wikipedia Liturgical Cycle