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The Hidden Storytelling of the Lectionary

June 11, 2026 by Matthew Allen

Bible

We’re all media critics in 2026.

Whether we’re online or in the office, we love to hold court about movies and series we love (or love to hate). It’s not uncommon even to throw media terms into conversations about life in the real world and use them, in the words of Patrick Star, like ‘sentence enhancers’.

I write, for instance, as the timestamp on the clock nears 10.15pm. Should be time to roll credits on today’s narrative arc (and roll into bed, for that matter). Instead, I have an article to finish…

In film and TV, there is a narrative device known as foreshadowing, which Merriam-Webster defines as ‘an indication of what is to come’. This is a bit vague, so let’s flesh it out with an example from Disney’s Toy Story: the line, ‘falling with style’. This quote is used in two different scenes; and the contrast in how it is used at first, and then later on, shows us how the characters of Buzz and Woody have changed.

Foreshadowing is also used in the Revised Common Lectionary, the schedule of readings used in a lot of mainline Protestant denominations, to create a smooth progression of ideas and events from one week to the next. (The Catholic Church uses a similar lectionary.) For the rest of this article, we will think about how readings and lessons are able to roll the thematic lawn for crucial feasts. Remember, a ‘feast’ is a date in the Christian calendar; it has no modern connection with dinners or meals!

Epiphany (6 January)

Foreshadowed, this year, on the 2nd Sunday of Christmas

In the weeks after Christmas Day, the next major feast is Epiphany. This marks the revelation to the gentiles – the moment when salvation for all, not a salvation exclusive to Jews only, was made known. John’s Prologue (1.1-18), a reading heard on the Sunday before – that is, on the Second Sunday of Christmas 2025 – laid the theological groundwork to reflect on this.

John describes Christ as ‘the light of men’ (v. 4) – rather than ‘the light of Israel’, or ‘the light of the Jews’ – which is inclusive of all humankind; of course, the Jews are included in this, as well!

The Three Wise Men, also known as the Three Kings, are the figures most associated with Epiphany. Their narrative role is to stand in for all gentiles. Famously, the Wise Men followed the Star of Bethlehem – again, we notice the theme of light, as introduced in John’s Prologue on the Second Sunday of Christmas – until it hovered over the stable where Christ was born.

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (2 February)

Foreshadowed, this year, on the 4th Sunday after Epiphany

Also known as Candlemas, this feast is a time to remember the dedication of Jesus to the work of his Father. Psalm 15 was appointed for the Sunday before Candlemas 2026, which foreshadowed this well. David, in verse one of the psalm, asks the question, ‘O Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tent?’, or, as the RSV subtitle rewords it, ‘Who Shall Abide in God’s Sanctuary?’ David answers his own question with a sketch of a virtuous man, described as ‘he who walks blamelessly’ (v. 2).

This, from a Christian outlook, is a reference to Christ. It is he who lives and reigns in God’s Temple. Now that such a clear link between Christ and the Temple has been established, Psalm 15 becomes one of the Old testament’s most astute character studies of Our Lord. It is, therefore, an ideal source of reflection on the Sunday before Candlemas.

The Annunciation of Our Lord (25 March)

Foreshadowed, this year, on the 5th Sunday in Lent

Nine months (three trimesters!) before Christmas Day, the Annunciation commemorates Gabriel’s news to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would conceive and give birth to the Christ Child.

Bear with me, here, but I would argue that, of all the lessons heard on the Sunday before Annunciation 2026, the one which best foreshadowed this feast was Ezekiel 37.1-14. In this, his most famous vision, Ezekiel witnesses the revival of lifeless bones, ‘the whole house of Israel’ (v. 11), which God restores from the dead.

How does this link to the Christ Child? Well, Christ is named, in St Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, as ‘the first-born from the dead’ (1.18). Given that Ezekiel’s vision of resurrection was read on the Sunday before Annunciation 2026, the feast on which we celebrated the beginnings of incarnation, the thematic link between resurrection and childbirth starts to form in our heads. This is the same connection that Paul makes in Colossians 1.

The tone of Ezekiel’s vision – its bold, confident outlook on the future – also makes it ideal as a bridge to the Feast of Annunciation, even if all the talk of rattling bones is a little disconcerting!

All Saints’ Day (1 November)

Foreshadowed, this year, on the 5th Sunday before Advent

This emotive feast is a time to remember the men and women of God, the Saints, who have gone before us. In 2026, Deuteronomy 34, the Death of Moses, will feature on the Sunday before the Feast of All Saints.

The final act in the Mosaic drama, Deuteronomy 34 is a blend of narrative and eulogy. The chapter acknowledges the sense of loss we feel whenever someone with great influence on our faith dies.

Moses is allowed to see the Promised Land, but he cannot enter it; he did not achieve all, in the service of God, that he had once desired. It fell to those who succeeded Moses, under Joshua, to finish what he started. It is our task, as well, to continue the work of saints we revere, and those whose Christian influence molded us. This is a theme we consider on the Feast of All Saints.

Conclusion

Just as a crucial scene in a film or TV series needs to be foreshadowed ahead of time, so do the feasts we celebrate as Christians. This is often done via the construction of narrative and thematic foundations in advance. We have looked at a selection of Christian feasts and how these have been, or will be, contextualized on the Sunday before.

Oh, for an alternate world where liturgists rounded out Game of Thrones!

6/11/2026 7:33:59 PM

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About Matthew Allen

Matthew Allen is a writer and musician based in Northern Ireland. He is a graduate of Queen’s University, Belfast, where he studied Theology and Liberal Arts.

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