BGail Ramshaw. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1997. Paper, 140 pp. Reviewed by Emily R. Brink, editor of Reformed Worship.
Last year, and again in this issue, RW provided an opportunity to connect Sunday worship with devotional life during the week by means of HomeLink (see p. 19). Here is another resource with the same basic concept. Gail Ramshaw, author of Words that Sing, provides a series of daily Scripture readings that reflect on the readings appointed for each Sunday in the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary. As she comments in the helpful introduction, "a habit of daily Bible reading is more important now than in the past," since a majority of people in our culture no longer know or honor the Bible. She also mentions the long heritage of daily Bible reading in Christian homes, a practice that dates from the Reformation but needs nurturing today.
The readings are very modest in length: only one passage, usually less than a chapter, is given for each day. First the Sunday readings are given, then two Old Testament passages for Monday and Tuesday, a Gospel reading for Wednesday, another Old Testament reading on Thursday, a reading from the New Testament on Friday, and a psalm on Saturday. The three Old Testament readings illumine or parallel the Sunday gospel reading. The New Testament reading illumines or parallels the Sunday gospel or includes a passage omitted from the lectionary.
Between Sundays also includes readings for "Lesser Festivals," a Scripture index to the Daily Readings, and a complete Scripture index of the Revised Common Lectionary.
Congregations that follow the lectionary could well recommend this list of daily Bible readings to their members who need encouragement in their daily devotional life.