If I may call it the “Sunday Lectionary Lottery,” I think it’s fair to say that Matthew is still the winner—as he was in the historic one-year lectionary, originating in sixth- and seventh-century Rome,[1] which held sway until the liturgical reforms of the 1960s produced the three-year lectionary scheme. The runner up, if you will, is Luke. For some years now, I’ve thought the big loser was Mark. But I’m close to thinking that the big loser is John. He didn’t get his own year. I’m not sure why Anglicans, Lutherans, and others still use a lectionary structured by the theological framework of the Roman Catholic Church, but we and they do.
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