A post at the recently redecorated Boy in the Bands about the Oremus Lectionary has got me thinking about alternative lectionaries and what a Unitarian Universalist lectionary would be about.

The traditional Christian lectionary runs in three year-long cycles that mirror the Christian liturgical year. One year is devoted to each of the first three Gospels, with readings pulled to reflect the liturgical season. Additional readings are then pulled from the Hebrew Bible, the Psalms, and the New Testament Epistles to further fill out the themes developed in each week’s Gospel readings. Worship services are then planned around the week’s lectionary reading, including liturgy, collects, hymns, and the sermon. After three years almost all of the first three Gospels have been covered and explored.

If we draw on the Purposes & Principles, a UU lectionary would draw from six sources:

1. Direct experiences of mystery and wonder.
2. Words and deeds of prophetic men and women.
3. Wisdom from the world’s religions.
4. Jewish and Christian ethics.
5. Humanist teachings.
6. Spiritual teachings of earth-centered religions.

Direct experiences of mystery and wonder are, well, direct, and end up either as incomprehensible or as wisdom literature (which is #3), so we’re down to five sources. That gives us room for a lot of variety and diversity.

Walter Brueggemann’s Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom is one alternative lectionary we could draw on. A liberal biblical scholar, Brueggemann is master of the short biblical interpretation book, perfect for consumption by busy pastors while still carrying some scholarly heft. His lectionary includes only two readings each week–one from the Hebrew Bible and one from the New Testament–leaving plenty of room for UUs to fill it out with additional texts.

Another candidate is The Tao of Jesus: A Book of Days for the Natural Year, put together by John Beverly Butcher. (Now out of print, so good luck finding it.) Intended as a daily devotional reader, Tao of Jesus includes readings from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, heretical Jewish and Christian texts, and Taoist classics. The themes for the readings follow a unique combination of the Celtic (read “Wiccan”) spiritual year and major Christian feasts (Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter). Although not intended as a lectionary, combining any week’s readings would pull quality readings from two to four of the five sources.

(Now that I’ve written this post, I notice that Butcher has a full fledged alternative lectionary of his own. It includes several heretical texts, and this week’s readings seem to all be extra-canonical. Looks like excellent work. Now to locate a copy…)