The Revised Common Lectionary is used by many churches to shape worship around a scripture passages that rotate in a three year cycle (A,B, and C). The church year begins on the first Sunday of Advent (today). If you are a part of a church that follows this cycle, today you began reading from year A. The senior pastor at Third Church decide that this year he would like to explore year D. The Year D project is an effort to include texts that the RCL does not include (that’s the short version, if you want to learn more there is a lot to explore on the project’s website). I’ve mentioned this concept briefly in “Abigail Who?” and also voiced concern that many of the texts that are left out are texts about women.
I started a “year F” spreadsheet thinking that I could create a year that highlighted women, but I’ve abandoned that project for a number of reasons: 1. Because I found “Remembering the Women” which is an alternative texts for the lectionary. I have used these texts with other lectionary texts assigned for the same dates to highlight the stories of women; 2. I found out through a Facebook group that a young clergy woman had a similar idea and was getting it to a publisher, so I plan to purchase her book when its available; and 3. I created a giant spreadsheet and eventually got overwhelmed by it. Then I decided to create a book list for feminist theology so that I could interpret the texts for the weeks I’m assigned to preach from that perspective.
So, here we are in advent, with a ‘new’ lectionary and I’m hoping that it includes more women or that I can find a way to continue to use “Remembering the Women” or at the very least, I can interpret these texts in light of feminist/womanist theology. I’m responsible for preaching on week 4 so I have some time to work out my own preaching but I thought it would be fun to try to work out the other weeks on the blog.
I’m going to try to post a reflection each week (not necessarily on Sundays) that highlights women in year D or finds ways to include a feminist perspective on the text. Feel free to share your ideas/thoughts/reflections in the comments and bonus points if you have something to share that I can preach week 4.
Here are the texts for Year D for the four Sundays in Advent:
The First Sunday of Advent
Malachi 1:1-14
Psalm 18
Luke 1:1-25
Hebrews 1:13—2:4
The Second Sunday of Advent
Numbers 12 OR 20:1-13 (14-21) 22-29
Psalm 106:(1) 7-18, 24-28 (43-48) (OR Psalm 95)
Luke 1:(57) 58-67 (68-79) 80
Hebrews 3:1-19
The Third Sunday of Advent
Joshua 23:1-16
Psalm 81:(1) 2-9 (10-16) (OR Psalm 95)
Luke 3:23-38
Hebrews 4:1-11 (12-16)
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
Numbers 14:1-25
Psalm 144
John 3:22-38
Hebrews 5:11—6:20
Period Pastor Pad 