Kirkepiscatoid

I have had more than my share of "Christian Twilight Zone" moments in the past couple of weeks--those moments when you and someone else come up with almost the same sort of profound spiritual thought or realization within 24 hours of each other, and you discover it "after the fact."

I have a theory how this happens. Now some of these friends are Episcopalian, some are not, but we all have one thing in common...we all belong to a church that uses the Revised Common Lectionary and we all tend to do a certain amount of study in the same texts each week, independently. I have an idea that using a common set of Scripture texts sort of "molds" all of our collective thoughts in a certain direction, and the end result is a little like female college roommates who all have their menses within a few days of each other. This "molding" gets us to thinking about similar topics but with the background of our own experiences. This ups the chances we might all have a similar profound near-simultaneous thought.

It makes me realize that a lectionary is not just about standardizing worship between Christian denominations. It is about creating a rhythm among God's people of a certain general persuasion, and an "instinct". It makes me wonder if this is how the collective memory of things like migration patterns of birds happens.

What happens in a "energy and power" sense when you literally have millions of people on the same Gospel text? I realize you have some variations from holiday to holiday, "Track I vs. Track II" etc. but it's still a fascinating thought, isn't it?