Monday, November 24, 2025

It is the 24th of November 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Hey everybody- welcome to a new week of shows, wherever and whenever you are- in the United States, kids are off for Thanksgiving Week- I spent last night with my family at SoFi stadium to watch the Rams… I wonder how we are feeling this morning?

So many great emails- keep them coming at danv@1517.org- they are really fun to see in their breadth and depth and for shows like today’s- two similar questions came in recently- Erich in Virginia, when not somewhere in Asia, as well as Grace in Sierra Madre… Somewhere in Asia is very far, Virginia- pretty far, and Sierra Madre, well- quite close! Nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley, movies from the time of D.W. Griffith were filmed there.

You both asked questions about the lectionary- specifically the thing I read from at the end of every show, and more generally the history of these readings.

The Lectionary is the book of “lections,” which means readings. I’ve read that the modern English habit of calling readings “lessons” comes from them being “lections”. So, the habit goes back to the Jewish synagogues, which grew up in the intertestamental period. In Acts 13 and 15, we read about Paul showing up at synagogues amidst their- what can be translated as ‘appointed readings’. It’s fair to think that when Jesus got up to read in the synagogue, his Isaiah passage was the reading for the day.

So, the early church kept this practice of appointed readings- from the earliest documents we have the readings of the Gospels, the Prophets, and the Apostles as central to the church gathering.

In this same time period, we see the development of the church calendar, which, like the Jewish calendar, runs by feasts and fasts and memorials, so too would the Christian church. The church calendar starts with Advent- then Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost… the rest of the year is “ordinary time” where other readings, not associated with those events, could be centered.

There is not a whole lot of uniformity until the 5th century and Jerome’s Lectionary- the same guy who translated the Vulgate, the Bible into Latin. This wasn’t likely by him, but attributed to him, and that made it standard enough.

 There are regional differences and calls for uniformity through the Middle Ages and then the Reformation. The Reformation is split on whether to keep it or not. Some, like Zwingli, wanted a kind of “verse by verse” approach (but verses came a little later), and others wanted to keep a lectionary but create their own.

It remains something of a regional issue with shades of uniformity until the 20th century. With the explosion of Bible manuscripts and translations and Bible societies, it made sense that around the 1950s or so we might see an explosion in new lectionaries… and there was, kind of, until Vatican II and the call for a uniform 3-year Lectionary (3 years instead of 1 to get through more Scripture). The 1969 Ordo Lectionum Missae from the Roman Catholics proved so successful that many Protestant groups ditched their plans and, through various committees, came to use a common, for the most part, lectionary. Since 1992, many Protestant churches, from conservative to progressive, have used the Revised Common Lectionary. Some make alterations more than others. There have been debates about the appropriateness of linking some passages- the older lectionary was rather haphazard with some linkage, and the modern lectionary is much more deliberate- but denominational differences might call for different interpretations. Protestants have historically trimmed the originally Catholic lectionary by omitting long passages about the Old Testament priesthood and have expanded on the readings from Paul.

The daily lectionary that I read from was established through the CCT- Consultation for Common Texts and redesigned to fill out the three-year lectionary and to have readings looking forward to the weekend’s readings.

So- there will be alterations and some groups making their own- but the history of the lectionary is a surprisingly ecumenical 20th-century tool. May the reading and preaching on the same texts throughout the churches lead to some good conversations!

I use lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu - it’s easily clickable and takes me to biblegateway where I can choose my own translation. My default is NIV because that’s what my church uses- but I can dig a lot of them- from the RSV to the Message.

Thanks for the questions- have a great week in preparation for Thanksgiving and the Advent/Christmas History Almanac next weekend.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Revelation 21- we are ending the end of the year, as Advent is the New Year

5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give waterto the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life, without cost.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 24th of November 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who wonders if the water will be without cost, but maybe there will be like a fast pass, + upgrade to get it whenever… no? That’s not the Gospel…. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man far too impatient for an Advent. That’s the point… but the lights go up Saturday! I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.