What is heard on Sunday mornings

I hope you don't mind sharing my gradual journey as I discover more of the tradition I have known these past 10 decades. As I noted, there is some considered analysis of the readings at the liturgica blog by Doug Chaplin. I am most grateful that he has done this.

I have lots of questions. The first was what portion of the Hebrew Bible is read on Sundays and major Festivals if one uses the RCL. The result surprised me. I noted in my book on the Psalms that some traditions have little experience with the Psalms.

It is clear that not all liturgical traditions make use of the Psalter. ... Here are two examples:
1.       I guess my question about the psalms is with regard to the key theological concepts of the New Testament: grace, justification, the fruits of the Spirit, love. These all seem to be missing in the psalms and thus we can’t really embrace them as representative of our New Covenant experience. Second, the ideas of community and family seem lacking while nation seems to be overly prominent in ways that I don’t know how to appropriate. [From a professional Bible translator with many years’ experience in Greek.]
2.        I’ve been looking for ways to appropriate the Psalms in my own devotional life. They are practically non-existent, as far as the Free Churches that I know go. The one I’m at now is an exception, in that we read a Psalm about once a month. [From a doctoral student in Biblical Studies.]

One could write another book with just these opinions as a stimulus. I hope they are no longer true today among 'the elect'.

Anyone who follows the RCL will not lack for reading of the Psalms. Here is the rough proportion, the number of times we open a book, that is regularly read or sung.

Proportion of the Books of the Hebrew Scripture 'opened' in the three year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary

This is not a bad result. The Psalms are by far the most popular book of the Hebrew Scriptures. And there is nothing lacking of grace, justification, the fruits of the Spirit, love in this book, or when you read it, the rest of the Tanakh.

I was thinking this morning that even the great 1 Corinthians 13 is a reflection on the character of Yahweh as portrayed consistently in Tanakh (Exodus 34:6). The attitude we have towards this history needs a radical change from the punitive model of our 16th century.

So that is what we read - but it highlights also what we do not read.

A few chapters from Torah, at least one from each book. A few from the former prophets and some from each of the major prophets, 10 of the 12 minor prophets. Two of the remainder, missing out Ezra and Chronicles entirely.

We read from the Psalms over 300 times, but we only cover pieces of 102 chapters. If I took this down to the verse level, the percentages would be lower.

Yahweh doesn't have good press from the Churches, so it's no wonder Christians read so little, but in the RCL tradition, what we read is considerably more than nothing. The top five are Psalms, Isaiah, Genesis, Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. (I am still asking myself why this hireling is administrating, composing, and programming during a pandemic. O my overworked obsessions!)

Book	Chapters	Opened	Chapters Read	Percent
GENESIS	50	43	21	42.00
EXODUS	40	29	13	32.50
LEVITICUS	27	1	1	3.70
NUMBERS	36	10	3	8.33
DEUTERONOMY	34	12	7	20.59
JOSHUA	24	4	3	12.50
JUDGES	21	1	1	4.76
1 SAMUEL	31	13	7	22.58
2 SAMUEL	24	9	7	29.17
1 KINGS	22	8	5	22.73
2 KINGS	25	5	3	12.00
ISAIAH	66	84	30	45.45
JEREMIAH	52	26	16	30.77
EZEKIEL	48	14	7	14.58
HOSEA	14	2	2	14.29
JOEL	4	5	1	25.00
AMOS	9	7	4	44.44
JONAH	4	2	1	25.00
MICAH	7	3	3	42.86
HABAKKUK	3	4	1	33.33
ZEPHANIAH	3	5	2	66.67
HAGGAI	2	1	1	50.00
ZECHARIAH	14	1	1	7.14
MALACHI	3	6	2	66.67
PSALMS	150	332	102	68.00
PROVERBS	31	11	6	19.35
JOB	42	10	6	14.29
SONG	8	1	1	12.50
RUTH	4	2	2	50.00
LAMENTATIONS	5	6	2	40.00
QOHELET	12	5	3	25.00
ESTHER	10	1	1	10.00
DANIEL	12	3	2	16.67
NEHEMIAH	13	1	1	7.69