the best choice

My friend Mitch was lamenting the lectionary on facebook this morning. His issue, as I read it, is that a lectionary with so many options isn't really prescriptive and in no way guarantees that worshipers around the world will hear the same lessons read and preached on in the context of corporate worship. Valid complaints, until you look through the 7 possible choices and realize that there is really only one best choice.

All Saints. BCP. Service I.

It is the only place where you hear the text from Ecclesiasticus 44, which is the perfect lesson for a celebration of all the saints; lower case.

"Some of them have left behind a name,
so that others declare their praise.
But of others there is no memory;
they have perished as though they had never existed;
they have become as though they had never been born,
they and their children after them.
But these also were godly men,
whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten;"

This weekend St. Paul's will dedicate its newly refurbished Memorial Garden. Already buried there are 10 folk who for the most part fall into the latter category, except, of course for those whose faith was nurtured by them and their example. So, Mitch, there are many choices, but only one worth selecting. I hope that helps.