On Censored Lectionaries

Dr. Deidre Good of GTS has written a short thought about ++Rowan’s lecture on Scripture interpretation. (h/t *Christopher) In it, she specifically addresses something that is a major concern of mine. That is, if the liturgical gathering is the primary and normative locus for the Body of Christ encountering the Word of God, why are our lectionaries piece-meal? Why do they consciously skip certain texts–and what does this say about us as an interpretive community…

One of the fundamental things that make Christians Christians is that
we share a canon. We have wrestled and struggled with the Scriptures for centuries and that is part of what makes us who we are. What does it do to us and to our formation when we choose to not wrestle with God?

Some of the comments engage the whole idea of selected readings at all. I have thought a bit about this and point back to something I wrote on this topic a while ago. I’d like to revisit it again soon but time, at present, does not permit…

2 thoughts on “On Censored Lectionaries

  1. *Christopher

    Derek,

    Indeed. I take Jacob as instructive for how we are to be as interpretive communities, wrestling with God, one another, and ourselves. What is troubling to me is that some of the portions cut out by the lectionary leave us not having to wrestle with ourselves. We are then set free to rather point the finger at others or pretend we’re without sin.

  2. Pingback: On Lectionaries, Texts of Terror and Clobber Verses « haligweorc

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