Worship: Bible Readings
The Bible is a defining and central collection of texts for Christians. As Christians,
we believe that we can hear God 'speaking' through the diverse witness of the Bible. We believe we are called to be attentive
to God's Word. The Word we discover there, however, is not frozen in time. "Indeed, the word of God is living and
active" (Hebrews 4:12). It is then not as history, moral lessons, or beautiful poetry that the scriptures are first of all
read. They are read so that we may encounter the truth about God in Jesus Christ enlived by the living Spirit.
If you explore the Bible and move from book to book, you may discover that God is revealed in different ways, sometimes even
in seemingly contradictory ways. At distinct moments in biblical history, God speaks in new ways about God's unchanging intent
of love, justice, deliverance, community, reconciliation, and peace. God continues to shed more light and truth in our world.
In a similar way, we are not limited by past understandings of scripture, but we seek new insights and help for living the faith
today. God is not finished with us yet.
The Bible in Worship: The Lectionary
In our worship here at Second Congregational United Church of Christ, readings from the Bible are given
a central place in our services. We choose which readings to share based on something called "the lectionary" or, more
precisely, the "Revised Common Lectionary". A lectionary is a pre-determined schedule of which readings to use on each
Sunday of the year, as well as on other special days. The Revised Common Lectionary, more specifically, is a schedule of readings
that is "common" across much of Christianity—it is used by most mainline Protestant churches (UCC, Presbyterian,
Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Episcopal/Anglican, Disciples of Christ, and others), and it is very similar to the lectionary
used by the Roman Catholic Church.
In the Revised Common Lectionary, each Sunday is given 4 selections: a reading from the Hebrew Bible (a.k.a. the Old
Testament), a selection from the book of Psalms that is intended as a 'response' to that first reading, a reading from the New
Testament letters (a.k.a. epistles), and a reading from one of the four books of the Bible known as 'the Gospels' (Matthew, Mark,
Luke, or John). The cycle is 3 years long, with each year of the cyle focusing more heavily on a different set of books from the
Bible.
 By using a lectionary, we are able to follow the pattern of the church year, taking us from the coming of the Messiah in
Advent (the weeks leading up to Christmas), to Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and the cross during Lent (the weeks leading up to
Easter), to the Holy Spirit empowering the church at Pentecost some 50 days after Easter. The readings for the rest of the
year (called "Ordinary Time") offer a wide variety of groupings allowing for different themes to be examined and
preached. By following the readings suggested by the lectionary,
During the "festival" half of the year, from the beginning of Advent (around the beginning of December) to Pentecost
(50 days after Easter), the readings given for each Sunday by the lectionary usually have some sort of connecting thread or
theme. For example, on the 3rd Sunday in Lent in Year A of the lectionary, the gospel reading is the story of the Samaritan woman
at the well receiving living water from Jesus from John 4 and the Hebrew Bible reading is the story of water coming from the rock
in the wilderness from Exodus 17. On the other hand, during the "Ordinary Time" part of the year, the readings may or
may not have any explicit connection to one another.
A listing of the entire three year lectionary cycle, provided by the library at Vanderbilt Divinity School, can be found here.
The Bible in Worship: Here at Second Congregational UCC
Here at Second Congregational United Church of Christ, whichever one of our pastors is preaching for a
particular Sunday will usually choose 2 (or occasionally 3) of the 4 lectionary-suggested readings to be read aloud in worship.
We read aloud more than one reading because it helps us to see a fuller picture of the diverse witnesses contained within the
Bible, and because it helps us to see the fullness of the God revealed to us in the Bible.
Usually, we will print the full-text of the reading in your worship order, for those people who like to follow along—
although we encourage you to take the opportunity to simply sit and listen too: almost every text in the Bible was originally
composed to be heard from someone speaking aloud, not read from a written page.
The readings suggested by the lectionary also affect other elements within our worship service. The music of worship, both
songs and hymns sung by the whole congregation and the pieces offered by the choir or other musicians, is usually chosen based
on themes that emerge from the lectionary readings for the week. Often, the spoken elements of the service, such as prayers or the
Call to Worship, are chosen from lectionary-based resources or may even be composed directly from the text of one of the readings.
And, of course, each week's sermon is a more direct exploration and proclamation of one or more of the readings from the Bible
for the week.
There are many English translations of the Bible available in the world today. We find the most accurate and inclusive
version to be the New Revised Standard Version, and this is almost always the version that we use when reading aloud in
worship.
(back to Our Worship) |
