Pericopal politics
By: Mollie
Each year, liturgical congregations — which include, Roman Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran churches, work through every major part of the Holy Bible and the story of salvation accomplished through Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection. The church has, through tradition, assigned Old Testament, New Testament and Gospel readings that are to be read to the congregation. Each week also has its own Psalm and other liturgical elements unique to the day. The sermon is built around these readings.
Keep that in mind as you read this Los Angeles Times report of Barack Obama’s visit to a church yesterday:
Barack Obama began his campaign day in Eau Claire, Wis., surprising most of the congregation at the town’s First Lutheran Church by attending service there. But Pastor John Kerr had been tipped that his listeners might include the almost-official Democratic presidential nominee, and he was ready with an on-point message.
Obama brought his own Bible and settled into an aisle seat in the fourth row. Kerr’s then offered as his first reading Romans 12:1-8 — which preaches humility.
Indeed, according to pool reporter John Broder of the New York Times, Kerr summarized its thrust as counseling against cockiness because one is a good singer or public speaker. And the passage urges one “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.รข€?
In his 13-minute sermon, Kerr refrained from any mention of Obama or politics.
Um, no, the pastor didn’t include Romans 12: 1-8 as his “first” (first?) reading because he’d been tipped off that Obama might attend. I’d be willing to wager that the pastor follows a three-year lectionary. Some congregations, like mine, follow a one-year calendar. Others use a three-year cycle so that you repeat the readings every three years. Anyway, it just so happens that the first year of the three-year lectionary lists the following readings for August 24, the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Is. 51:1-6
Psalm 138
Rom. 11:33-12:8
Matt. 16:13-20
Liturgical calendars are created precisely to help pastors avoid preaching on whims or fancies that may detract from the overall message of Christ and his crucifixion. And while I’m sure any pastor and congregation would be excited to have Barack Obama or any other major political figure in their midst, sermons aren’t supposed to be composed for one individual. Lutherans believe that the Romans passage applies to everyone, not just high-profile members of the day’s congregation.
I know that reporters like to think that everything is about politics. But some things are more important than politics.
2 comments:
Andrew,
Good thoughts. I think that on balance, evangelical churches would be better off following a liturgy and the liturgical calendar. And for the reasons you state here.
I like the thought of a balance between liturgy and spontaneity in a service/gathering. Of course there is a set order in most any church, but the riches of the church in words is lost for many of us, as found in the prayer books.
Ted, for ten years (after I adopted Chelsea as a baby), I attended regularly a black Baptist church so that my daughter and I might come to know black Christians more intimately. During that time I was slowly returning to the church; in that returning the realization came upon me, by degrees, that I needed to come back to my Lutheran roots: Christ-centered, corporate liturgical worship anchored in daily prayer, and more. At the same time God sent me "catholic" friends who mentored me with long conversations, good books, and dependable support. In short, I returned (like C. S. Lewis, in some ways) to my baptismal waters, back into the death and of Jesus Our Lord. His mercies are great.
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