Preaching & Reading the Lectionary: A Three-Dimensional Approach to the Liturgical Year

Wesley Allen offers a helpful book that provides preachers with strategies to preach the lectionary season by season so that sermons build upon each other week to week. Allen defines the concept of cumulative preacing and explores the relationship between the different lessons for each Sunday, for each season, and for each year. A useful resource for both preaching and worship planning, Preaching and Reading the Lectionary examines the relationship between the readings called for by the Revised Common Lectionary while explaining the three dimensions of the lectionary: Width, the relationship between the lessons preached on a given Sunday; height, the relationship between the lessons preached on consecutive Sundays; and depth, the relationship between the lessons preached in different years. The included CD-ROM complements the cumulative preaching strategies with brief explanations of each liturgical year, season, Sunday, and individual lection. They are written to help the congregation view the larger biblical, liturgical, and lectionary contexts and connections. These can be printed in the bulletin or read aloud in worship.