Eclectic Amateur

In the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the Gospel reading for the Daily Office, Year One, Proper 3 on Friday is listed as Luke 16:10-17(18). So, Luke 16:18 is not part of the actual reading but a “suggested lengthening.”

In the Sunday lectionary, Luke 16 is split in Year C between Proper 20 (Luke 16:1-13) and Proper 21 (Luke 16:19-31), which entirely omits Luke 16:18 from ever being read on the Sunday public readings.

So, what saying of our Lord do Episcopalians never speak aloud in our common worship, and is relegated to optional obscurity for those few who read the Daily Office?

Only this:

“Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”

— Luke 16:18, RSV(CE)

Now, why would we omit that teaching?

In comparision, the 1928 BCP does have the reading (Friday of the 15th week after Trinity Sunday) as Luke 16:1-18. So, it was a deliberate decision by the editors of the 1979 BCP to relegate this teaching of the Lord to the dustbin.

God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
God have mercy.