Today is very exciting. Why? Because we're moving from Year A to Year B on the Revised Common Lectionary Calendar! "Wow, you say . . . What's so exciting about that?" It's exciting because a whole new year is in front of us. "But isn't that what happens New Year's Eve?" Well. . . yes, if you are basing your life on the milestones of the secular calendar? "But why pay attention to any other calendar?" Because it brings a spiritual rhythm to life that infuses each moment of each secular day with divine significance.
The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) is based on a 3-year cycle (Years A, B, and C). One of the distinctives of each of the 3 years is the variation in Old Testament readings during the normal (non-holiday) parts of the spiritual year. Year A focuses on the Exodus narratives; Year B on the Monarchial narratives; and Year C on the Prophets. For more information on the RCL see the FAQ page.
Personally, I find it tremendously challenging and exciting to be part of a larger community that is reading and responding to the Scriptures together. This is what the RCL offers us.
In addition to entering a new spiritual year, we've entered a new spiritual season, having just transitioned from Ordinary Time (the Season of Nurture and Growth) to Advent (the Season of Expectation). I am expecting God to do great things in my life and in yours in this new spiritual year and season.
Are you longing for something more than the secular rhythm of Black Friday (today), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve, punctuated by mind-numbing commutes? May this new church year and new spiritual season be a call for us to commit ourselves anew to being the church (the people of God committed to the way of Jesus) in the world (God's marvelous creation suffering from sin and desperately in need of redemption and reconciliation).
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