For the Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELB), March 3, 2026.
La version en español se puede encontrar acá.

The Lutheran Church has a theology about the Bible in which we understand that the whole scriptures contain the gospel. When we leave a part aside, we have a too-narrow view of our Lord Jesus. For that reason, we always try to use readings from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Gospels in our worship. The Psalms, historically, provide a good accompaniment to the others, and congregations often use them as a response to the first lesson.

The specific scripture readings for each worship service ought to offer a wide survey of the Bible, so that the congregation can encounter a wide view of the history of salvation. There are many ways of doing this. The has found that, if we all that decision to each individual pastor, the choice will be those scriptures that the pastor prefers. This can support a very biased agenda or perspective on the gospel. It’s a source of errors, and has been one reason for the birth of other denominations. So then, how ought we protect the church from this?

Many national churches, then, offer a lectionary—a chosen list of readings from the Holy Scriptures for use in worship. The benefits are numerous. When we use them, it is a way we can express that we are one single community in Christ. People from various congregations can also discuss the sermons and reflections over the readings each week and learn even more about God’s message. But finally, above all, we avoid one single person choosing the scriptures with an agenda or bias.

The lectionary that is used in this moment by the IELB in its national calendar is called the “Revised Common Lectionary.” It was not written by one person, but by an international group of pastors and scholars of the Bible. They came from various denominations, including Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Calvinists. Anglicans use a modification of this, and even Roman Catholics rewrote their lectionary to conform more closely with ours. It was adopted by churches in all parts of the world, and of all theologies; for example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in [North] America, the progressive Lutherans in the USA, use it, as does the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the conservative Lutherans in the same church. How lovely, that so many very different churches hear the same readings every Sunday—a unique and single testimony to Christ!

It is arranged in a cycle of three years. Each year, the readings of the Gospel follow one book in order—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John does not have it’s own year, because the purpose of this Gospel is not narrative, but spiritual; for that reason, it appears on special holidays like Christmas and Easter. The readings of the Old Testament are chosen to accompany the Gospel for each day in its theme.

But there are also problems with the lectionary. It is impossible to include the whole Bible in any cycle, even in three years! It is an inevitable problem that we leave some readings out. Sometimes, too, the connections between readings are not evident. And some people say that the lectionary has a bias or agenda on purpose, which isn’t true—but it is possible to say that there is an accidental bias.

Our Lutheran theology is clear: The only rule for worship that we cannot break is that we need the Word of God proclaimed and the Sacraments of God offered to the whole community. Other than this, we may arrange worship so that it helps us to draw near to God and encounter Jesus in the world. That is why the lectionary is a suggestion, and not a requirement. It has much to offer us, but we can depart from it also. There are other available lectionaries, and we can even live without a lectionary and choose our own readings. A responsible pastor will depart from the lectionary where there is a good reason, and then will do so with care, thought, and prayer. A responsible congregation will ask its pastor why this has been done, and will assure that it hears, without questions, the whole story of salvation, whether it uses the lectionary or not. A pastor that tries to offer a message with an agenda—for example, either the inclusion or the exclusion of women from leadership positions*—is leaving behind the gospel of Jesus’s grace and his death and resurrection, and should be replaced as quickly as possible.

Our brother and ancestor, Martin Luther, said that the Bible is the cradle or the manger in which Jesus was placed. That is to say, Jesus is the Lord, and the Bible swaddles him, and invites us to come to know him. May the whole Church be able to rise again with Jesus, through our encounters with this Holy Word.

* The Bolivian Lutherans are in the middle of a controversy over women’s ordination just now, and some are insisting that the lectionary deliberately omits exclusionary texts. I have no question in my mind that the Bible insists on allowing women’s ordination, but use it here as an example because it’s connected to what’s going on now.