The Lectionary and Collect: Shaping our hearts, minds, and souls with scripture and prayer
A few years ago, I started subscribing to Spotify. As a music junkie, it has been one of the best investments I have made. In my opinion, Spotify has the greatest DJ of all time – me. I love everything from classic rock to choral music to hip hop to jazz. The only thing that will never come on my Spotify playlists is the worst music ever created by humanity—music so repulsive that I would not even subject my worst enemies to listen to it: country music. Okay, I know I lost some of you here. Please do not burn me at the stake. I get that country music is popular. In fact, it is the most popular music in the United States. For this American, however, I would rather listen to the sound of a dentist’s drill than listen to country music. Some of you might be thinking to yourself, “But, Fr. Chase, you’re missing out on some great songs and musicians.”
Lectionary
You may also be asking yourself, “what does this have to do with the church lectionary and collects?” For a moment, I want you to think of the Bible as a music playlist. The Biblical playlist has various genres: history, poetry, wisdom, epistles, narrative, prophecy, apocalyptic, and gospel. In the church I grew up in, our pastor loved to preach from Paul’s epistles. We only read one passage of scripture in the service, and fifty percent of the time it was one of Paul’s epistles. I would title pastor Dennis’s playlist “Paul, the Gospels, and an Occasional Old Testament Story.” I do not remember hearing a passage read from the Psalms or Proverbs. As great of a pastor as he is, unfortunately, we missed many of God’s beautiful treasures. That little Methodist church in Pittsburgh is not alone. Many churches follow the same pattern of only reading and preaching from a select few books from the Bible.
The early church, however, had a different approach. As early as the second century, Christians started reading through portions of the Old Testament, Psalms, Epistles, and Gospels in rotation during their worship services. This pattern was inherited from the Jewish synagogue’s liturgical customs. The Jewish tradition prescribed readings each Sabbath from the Torah (first five books of the Bible), Psalms, and Haftarah (Prophets and Wisdom books). You can easily see how these patterns align.
By the fourth century, specific readings were assigned to “holy” days (This is where we get our word “holiday”), such as Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and Christmas. The number of holy days grew and expanded. This expansion eventually developed into a year-long systematic reading of Scripture tied to a liturgical calendar.
Liturgical Calendar
The liturgical calendar aims to take us on an annual trip through the different parts of Christ’s life and the story of God’s Kingdom. We begin by anticipating and celebrating the birth of Christ (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany) and then journey up to the cross and onwards from the resurrection (Lent and Easter, and up to Pentecost). During “ordinary time” (summer and the time between Epiphany and Lent), we focus on the ministry and teachings of Jesus. The lectionary ties together the theme of the liturgical calendar with corresponding themes found in Scripture.
The early church selected the Old Testament, Psalms, and Epistle readings that correlated with the life of Christ. If you read carefully, you will often notice a “golden thread” running through the lessons. For example, this past Sunday, we read Exodus 32:1, 7–14, Psalm 51:1–8, I Timothy 1:12–17, and Luke 15:1–10. The theme of these lessons is our inability to follow God’s law or will on our own. We need grace and the help of the Holy Spirit to empower and enable us.
The “golden thread” shows us that the Bible is one big story (metanarrative). It is a cohesive story written over a period of 1,500 years by many authors, passing through the hands of editors and redactors, each book having its own more or less complex textual history. The Bible has a narrative shape and a clear overarching structure. Its main character is God, its conflict is sin, and its theme is redemption. If we were to only read from one part of the Bible, we would easily miss this. We need the whole playlist – even the parts that are not our favorites.
Collect
Now we come to the question, “how does the collect fit into all of this?” I’m glad you asked. A collect (pronounced KOL-ekt) is a prayer the priest offers on behalf of the people (the collection of the assembly). A collect has four parts: invocation, petition, aspiration, and ascription. There are two collects prayed during the liturgy. At the beginning of the liturgy, we say the Collect of Purity. There is also the Collect of the Day offered by the priest just after we sing the Gloria. This is the collect we need to focus our attention on because it often captures the golden thread of that week’s lessons. For example, let’s look at this past Sunday’s collect:
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (emphasis mine)
If the lectionary is our playlist of the day, then the collect will act as the title and description of our playlist. It also connects the mind with the heart and soul.
Why Follow the Lectionary and Pray the Collects?
I have grown to appreciate and cherish the Lectionary and Collects. What I love about them is three-fold. First, they show us that the Bible is a cohesive book and story. God’s redemption has been unfolding from the beginning. Connecting the lectionary readings with the liturgical calendar encourages us to see ourselves as part of this ongoing story. Second, the lectionary forces us to read portions of Scripture we might not naturally gravitate toward. Third, they encourage us not to view scripture as a mere academic exercise. Connecting prayer with the readings reminds us that God shapes our minds, hearts, and souls.
Fr. Chase