It's historic.
The historic lectionary is just that: historic. It unites us to the tradition of the church. It causes us to remember our history, where we came from, and where we now are. It compels us to see our place in the history of the church.
It's catholic.
The historic lectionary is catholic in the true sense of the term. It is universal. It crosses denominational barriers and connects us with all of western Christendom. In the historic lectionary, we are united with the lessons heard by the saints of the church of the past and into the future.
It's Lutheran.
The Lutheran Confessions carry on the traditional use of the historic lectionary. Article XXIV [the Mass] of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states: "We also keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of readings, prayers, vestments, and other similar things."
It's unified.
The pericopes of the historic lectionary correspond well with each other, so that the Old Testament and the Epistle fit with the Holy Gospel, the theme for the day. Accordingly, the Introits, Collects, Graduals, and Verses all fit together with the lessons of the day.
It's repetitive.
Year after year, Christians hear the central events in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ through the historic lectionary. In this way, these themes and passages are committed to memory for life. In this way, the lectionary is also catechetical. The historic lectionary teaches the basics of Christianity.
It's supported by quality resources.
For pastoral theologians and church musicians, there are many good resources available to help with planning for the Divine Service and for preaching on the historic Gospel lessons, such as Lindemann's "The Sermon and the Propers" or the seven volume set of Luther's Sermons.
It's not driven by quantity.
The point of the historic lectionary is to faithfully rehearse the key events and teachings in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. A lectionary for the Divine Services of the Sundays and Feasts of the Church Year is not to cover massive amounts of texts, but rather the central themes.
It's supported by Lutheran music and hymnody.
J. G. Walther, J.S. Bach, and the other kantors of the Lutheran Church wrote endless pieces of choral, instrumental, and organ music based on the chief hymns of the historic lectionary.
It will be included in the Lutheran Service Book of 2006.
The compilers of the new hymnal wisely decided to include the historic lectionary, realizing that "we are a historic church and acknowledge the value of what has been handed down to us." Additionally, they recognized that in our biblically illiterate society, it will be best for many congregations in the future to return to the use of the historic lectionary.
What are some issues with the three-year lectionary?
It's divorced from the history of the church.
The three year lectionary does not correspond with Christendom prior to the 1960s. Contrary to popular myth, the three-year lectionary did not evolve out of the historic lectionary, other than that the Church Year is still followed.
It's Catholic.
The three-year lectionary is Catholic in the denominational sense of the term. It is Roman through and through. The Roman Church made it up and other denominations quickly adopted (variations of) it.
It's disunited.
The Epistles in the three-year series are done in a continuous reading fashion, prohibiting most connections to the Old Testament and the Gospel. The Introits and Collects are forced to serve for three different cycles of readings, so that many times there is little to no connection between the Introit, Collect, and the pericopes. This is a huge prohibition to unified, meaningful liturgy.
It's divided.
There reall is no such thing as the three-year lectionary. Each denomination "tweeks" it for their own purposes. The Vatican II original was then modified by various Protestants as the "Revised Common Lectionary." The Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship made up their own version of this revisition, which appears in Lutheran Worship (1982).
It's confusing.
Pastors and laity alike will find it difficult to remember the key themes of each Sunday in the three-year lectionary because the lessons are only presented every three years.
It provides problems for future planning, because pastors must constantly think about which year (A, B, C) it now is and which year it will be on a particular church festival in the future.
The new process proposed for Lutheran Service Book (2006) for determining the numbering of Sundays is confusing at best.
It's driven by quantity.
The common argument given as a benefit for the three-year lectionary is that it covers more of Scripture. No one can deny that this is true. However, contrary to the popular opinion of many congregation members, the three-year lectionary comes no where close to covering all of the Bible (for this is not a lectionary's purpose). This argument is really one of the three-year lectionary's greatest disadvantages. As noted above, a lectionary's purpose is to cover main themes, not the most passages.
It doesn't fit with historic Lutheran music and hymnody.
The kantors of the Lutheran church until the 1960s all worked with the historic lectionary. The hymnody and sacred music of the church has been designed to fit around those themes in the liturgical year. Attempting to fit the historic chief hymns and their corresponding service music with the three-year lectionary will, on many Sundays, result in frustration and disconnected liturgy.