For the majority of Christian (not to mention Anglican) history, this was not a question that has needed to be addressed; for centuries lectionaries were how many (if not most) people encountered the Bible and how so many of the early biblical manuscripts were made and preserved. It was not until the Reformed tradition arose in distinction to the Lutheran reformation that serious questioning of the lectionary took center stage. And, although many Presbyterian churches today do use a version of the Revised Common Lectionary, they are historically part of the “free church tradition” along with the more radical reformation churches (now the evangelical majority) which rejects such impositions on localized freedom and authority. Their question, therefore, must be answered: why should we submit to a lectionary at all? This can be answered in four parts: it is good for us, it is good for the Church, it carries biblical authority, and it is within the Church’s right and authority to decree.

First of all, as I have written about elsewhere in greater detail, the Church’s lectionary is a discipleship tool. Just as the goal of many evangelicals is to read the entire Bible in a year, it is the Church’s goal to preach the entire gospel in a year. From Advent’s prophecies, to the twin revelations of Christmas and Epiphany, from Lent’s call to repentance and faith and Easter’s proclamation of new life, from the Pentecostal gift of the Holy Spirit to the Trinitytide discipleship course, the lectionary commits the entire year to the preaching of the Gospel from every angle and facet. This also thus helps protect the congregation from any incompetence, favoritism, and topical bias on the part of the ministers – where in the free church tradition the worshiper might be subject to a preacher’s constant obsession with predestination or the end times or social justice, with preaching through the Book of Acts in meticulous detail for two and a half years, or any number of other personal hobby horses, the lectionary tradition holds the preacher accountable to preach “the full counsel of God” every year.

Next, the lectionary tradition is also good for the Church. It is one of her instruments of unity: with the same lessons read in local churches on the same Sundays and Holy Days, the people experience the Bible in direct solidarity with over a billion other believers across the globe. And, in the case of the sadly-neglected historic lectionary, it binds the Church to 1,500 years of preachers and teachers who followed that pattern of readings. The lectionary is one of the pegs holding the Church’s tent together.

Regarding authority, the lectionary is also deeply biblical. Of course, it is not directly commanded in the Bible, let alone is any particular lectionary prescribed. But the principle is sound, for God created the sun and moon to “rule over” the day and night and set seasons (Genesis 1:14-16, Psalm 136:7-9, Sirach 43:6), God’s timing is intentional and ordered (2 Chronicles 2:4, Sirach 39:16, 1 Corinthians 7:29a), and there is a time and season for every purpose under heaven (Psalm 69:13, Ecclesiastes 3:1-17, 10:7, 2 Corinthians 6:2). The lectionary is an enactment, an echo, a fulfillment of these principles – by having set Sundays, holidays, seasons, and times of day for certain forms of prayer and readings from Scripture, we are invited to “live in to” the Gospel and unify the spiritual with the material, the theological with the natural. As the Great Vigil of Easter proclaims, “Christ, yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, all time belongs to him, and all ages; to him be glory and power, through every age and for ever. Amen.”

Finally, a point of doctrinal conviction in distinction from the beliefs of the radical reformers: “The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies” (Article XX). God instituted mandatory holidays in the Torah and commanded that his covenant be read aloud regularly (Exodus 23 & 34, Deuteronomy 16 and 31:9-13); Mordecai and Queen Esther (without divine mandate or priestly authority) instituted a whole new holiday complete with required reading (Esther 9:20-32); Jesus observed the feasts of the Old Covenant (Matthew 26:17-19, John 10:22-23); under the New Covenant St. Paul still ordered his ministry work around the feasts of the Church (Acts 20:16, 1 Corinthians 16:8). Furthermore, prophets such as Joel called upon the people to gather, consecrate themselves, and begin a time of fasting and prayer – disciplines which Jesus affirmed would continue after his ascension (Joel 2:15-17, Matthew 6:1-18). As the Lord and his prophets have the authority to tell us what do to, the Church has the authority to tell us “now.”