Topic 3: Overview of The Four-Gospel Journey and Construction of the Three-Year Sunday Lectionary
I. In Brief: The Four-Gospel Journey
A) Gospel of Matthew
1) Site: Great Antioch on the Orontes (present day Turkey)
2) Date: early to mid 70s first century
3) Written to Jewish believers in Jesus as their Messiah
4) Dilemma: Following the destruction of the Temple and massacre of the Jewish priests, many believed they were living in the end days.
5) Question: How do we face change?
B) Gospel of Mark
1) Site: Rome (present day Italy)
2) Date: mid 60s first century
3) Written to Jewish believers in Jesus as their Messiah
4) Dilemma: Following the Great Fire of Rome in July 64 AD, the Jewish believers in Jesus were accused of setting the fire and condemned to execution by the Emperor Nero.
5) Question: How do we move through suffering?
C) Gospel of John
1) Site: Ephesus, port on the Aegean Sea (present day Turkey)
2) Date: mid to late 90s first century
3) Written to the Christian community that was a mixture of Gentiles and former Jews
4) Dilemma: Christianity must discern how to form a pan-tribal religious community with the same bonds as communities based on bloodline or socio-economic status.
5) Question: How do we receive joy/union? And how do we know joy‘s meaning?
D) Gospel of Luke
1) Site: from Great Antioch on the Orontes (present day Turkey)
2) Date: mid to late 80s first century
3) Written to the emerging Christian communities across the Roman Empire
4) Dilemma: The Christian community was told they could no longer consider themselves Jews, and subsequently faced oppression by the Roman Emperor who charged them as an enemy because their values and actions broke Roman taboo.
5) Question: How do we mature in service?
E) The four chapters form the one Gospel, the good news of how through the presence of Jesus the Christ we resolve dilemmas.
II. Composition of the Three-Year Sunday Gospel Reading Cycle (Lectionary)
A) The Three Year Cycle follows the Sequence of the Spiritual Life:
1) Year A: Matthew and the question of change
2) Year B: Mark and the question of suffering
3) Year C: Luke and the question of maturing in service
4) Lent & Easter (every year): John and the question of joy/union
(a) John‘s placement in the Lectionary is as the primary text for Lent and Easter in each of the three years.
(b) Lent, at its origins, seems to have served as the church‘s annual springtime retreat. The focus of that retreat was to heal divisiveness from theological debates and to build a greater sense of union and communion with God and each other.
(c) The text of The Gospel of John, and its question of joy and union, perfectly met the church/community‘s need.