OK, so I’m starting work a bit early on the sermon for the Sunday after Ascension Day (4th May). The Gospel reading, this being Year A, is John 17:1-11, the first chunk of Jesus’ high priestly prayer. The question in my mind was, when does the rest of this prayer occur in the Common Worship principal service lectionary? Does it occur at all? (Some bits are notably left out of the three-year lectionary, such as Revelation 22:19.)
In the end I searched through the PDF version of Common Worship for the phrase “John 17”, which turned up the answer fairly quickly. (The answer is that John 17.6-19 is read in year B and John 17.20-26 in year C.) But before that I had tried the Index of Biblical References at the back of Common Worship (pages 823-836). I’m sure it’s a very nice index, but all it gives are the page numbers. I think what I need is some sort of Biblical index to the Lectionary that tells me where each chunk of Scripture occurs – which Sunday of the year and which year of the cycle.
Of course, all my faithful readers (ha!) from non-lectionary-compliant churches will now be wondering what on earth I’m on about.
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