Advent Lectionary: the First Four Centuries
As with other aspects of his two prayer books, Thomas Cranmer adapted his lectionary from the Sarum Missal (the Salisbury variant of the Roman Catholic rite). The standard summary of the 1979 US prayer book notes:
Cranmer retained the Sarum lectionary, for the most part, though he made some substitutions, lengthened some lessons and abbreviated a few. (Hatcher, 1995: 325).
Those changes did not included the Advent season. From the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, today’s communion service for Advent 1 uses the same collect and readings. Using the 1662 spelling of the collects:
ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.Since 1662, the BCP has stated that the Advent 1 collect “is to be repeated every day, with the other Collects in Advent, until Christmas-Eve.”
Meanwhile, the Advent 1 lessons from 1549 to 1662 remained unchanged with Romans 13:8 and Matthew 21:1-13. Those were the lessons we used this morning out of the 1928 U.S. Book of Common Prayer, when from the NKJV we heard about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, followed by his driving the moneychangers out of the temple:
In his most famous book, Charles Wheatly — an English clergyman and onetime fellow at St. John’s College — wrote:
Gospel lesson today
at St. Matthew’s Church, Newport1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
The Collects for the first and second Sundays in Advent were made new in 1549 being first inserted in the first Book of King Edward VI. That for the third Sunday was added at the Restoration, in the Room of a very short one not so suitable to the time. The Collect for the fourth Sunday is the same with what were meet with in most ancient Office, except that in some of them it is appointed for the first Sunday. (Wheatley, 1770: 209)
The Epistles and Gospels appointed on these Days, are all very ancient and very proper to the Time: They assure us of the Truth of Christ's first Coming; and as a proper means to bring our Lives to a Conformity with the End and Design of it, they recommended to us the Considerations of his second Coming, when he will execute Vengeance on those that obey not his Gospel(s). (Wheatly, 1770: 209; spelling modernized).
The Three Year Lectionary
After Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church developed a new three-year lectionary for the Sunday readings. This proved the basis of a series of three-year lectionaries over the past 50 years, including two from the ecumenical Consultation on Common Texts: the Common Lectionary (1983) and the Revised Common Lectionary (1992). The three years are customarily termed Year A (emphasizing readings from Matthew), Year B (emphasizing Mark) and Year C (emphasizing Luke).For the Episcopal Church, a three year lectionary was used in the 1979 US prayer book, while in 2006 it officially adopted the RCL. Meanwhile, for its new liturgy (beginning in 2013), the ACNA in 2016 adopted its own lectionary based on the 1983 CL rather than the 1992 RCL.
The Matthew 21 reading of 1549 (and 1928) is nowhere to be found in the CL/TEC/RCL/ACNA lectionaries for the Advent Sundays. Instead, they present variations on Christ’s eschatological warnings from the synoptic Gospels. Those using the ACNA lectionary today heard the Advent 1 lesson for Year B, which is Mark 13:24-37. From the ESV:
24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.This is the same lesson heard on Advent 1 by ECUSA or others using the RCL (except that the former tend to use the NRSV). Last year, the ACNA used Matthew 24:29-44 (RCL, verses 36-44) in Year A, with Luke 21:25-33 (25-36 for the RCL) next year in Year C. The ACNA’s reading from Luke exactly matches the 1549 (and 1928) Gospel reading for Advent 2.
28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
The Roman Catholic church and most of the liturgical Protestants have stuck with the three year lectionary, which makes that the popular ecumenical option. The exception is the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which provides the option of both the three year lectionary (with Mark 13:24-37) or the one year lectionary (Matthew 21:1-9).
However — as with all other liturgical reform — the creation of liturgy committees means that “progress” is an ongoing process without end. Meanwhile, the Continuing Anglican churches (and the Reformed Episcopal Church) retain continuity with more than four centuries of Anglican worship dating back to the 16th century.
References
Hatcher, Marion J. 1995. Commentary on the American Prayer Book, New York: HarperOne.Wheatley, Charles. 1770. A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Church of England, London: Bettesworth & Rivington. Available at Google books: https://books.google.com/books?id=XIUxAQAAMAAJ
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