Yearly Lectionary

Let’s start with a simple belief – the Bible is life for the Christian. It is the sanctuary where we engage our hearts, our souls and our minds with the Spirit of God who is at work in this world, making all things new. It is the quiet study where we learn to think God’s thoughts after him. It is the haven where we find rest, hope and healing from the gospel message.

Now let’s move on to the challenge – the Bible is not, nor was it ever meant to be an easy read. It wasn’t easy for the original hearers. As the Bible itself makes clear, the prophets challenged the people's understanding of God, their understanding of the world and their understanding of themselves. And if it was difficult for the original hearers, who had the benefit of comprehending the terms and rhetoric and were familiar with the customs and cultural situations, how much more difficult must it be for a people who are thousands of years removed from their worlds and worldviews? So there lies the challenge. Christians are called to engage, comprehend, trust and live by a series of ancient texts written by various authors over the course of hundreds of years. Difficult? Yes. But while we cannot make this challenge easy, we can make it easier.

The first way to make Bible reading easier is simply to read it. Like any skill it becomes easier over time. As we read it again and again and again the pieces of the story better fit together and we glean more from the fifth reading than we did the first. Another important way to make reading the Bible easier is to read the individual books quicker. To say that we should read the Bible quicker is not to say that we should speed-read through the Bible but that we should attempt to read the literary units in as few sittings as possible. Reading larger chunks in fewer sittings allows the reader to more readily grasp the themes and particular interests of the author. It allows us to see the big picture before we try to understand and apply individual verses.

The reading schedule below attempts to help the reader read the individual books quicker by dividing every book into 10 readings or fewer. With the exception of Psalms and Proverbs the books are read one at a time so that the reader's interest is not divided. The arrangement of books is designed to allow the reader to benefit from their previous reading. For instance, the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah are read immediately after Ezra because they are mentioned in the book of Ezra. There will be certain disadvantages with this approach, but hopefully it will maximize the time and effort of the person who desires to engage their heart with the Word of God. Happy reading.

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