From the Rector

EDITOR’S NOTE: During Fr Robert’s sabbatical, the Bell & Tower will publish a series of articles he wrote to explain the Episcopal liturgy.

This week we look at the reading of Scripture in the context of the liturgy.

A Gospel procession occurs at the 9:00am and 11:15am liturgies and brings the Gospel out to the center of the congregation for the deacon to proclaim it (and occasionally sing it). As she or he announces the Gospel, the deacon is busily crossing—with the right thumb, thrice: over the forehead, over the lips, over the chest—over the mind, that it might be read with understanding; over the voice, that it might read decently; and, over the heart, that the words may be taken within and she or he be kindled to love.

The people repeat this very ancient three-fold crossing with their thumbs as well.

All of this action—processing, sometimes censing, crossing, and the like—is not done for any other book because we are not gathering around a book.  We are gathering around Christ made present in the Word. It is as if we are gathered in orbit around Christ as he teaches us to love him and one another.

Word and Sacrament are the chief means that we encounter Christ. We do so also in the life and witness of the gathered community but that community is forged, formed, and fed by these two chief manifestations of Christ so that we may be one with him and be him to the world. So we give weight and dignity to the proclamation of the Gospel because it is the Living Word. We are not lifting up a textbook about Jesus; we are lifting up the very life of Christ. We come not to learn about Jesus but to be one with Jesus.

Have you ever spent time with a loved one that is rich, poignant, suffused with love, and maybe even tinged with that recognition that such times are fleeting? Yet you may spend time with that same person and have it be a thing of absolutely mundane superficialities and mindless chatter. You may be around her or him for long hours and just have glimpses of deeper relationship. In many ways, liturgy is that time when we gather in the Presence of One who is calling us to richer, deeper engagement with him. So we do not just saunter in, toss a book on the table, and have a tidy chat about the Prince of Peace and Lord of Lords.

We gather before the throne of grace with attention. And, like Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with oil, we perform acts of love and service which seem wasteful to some, excessive to others, or just unnecessary. So we read the Gospel—we proclaim the Gospel—with rather more dignity than we might muster for Sports Illustrated.

It may be helpful to think a bit more about what Scripture is and is not. Scriptures were gathered to be used by the community in the context of our liturgical life.

Reading Scripture alone is a relatively modern concept. The early Christians couldn’t take a bible home, close their bedroom door, and do personal meditations on the Word. The Scriptures were meant to be read and heard in the context of the gathered assembly of the people. The Bible was assembled to resolve a major problem in the early Church. The early Christians didn’t know which books they could read in the liturgy, i.e., at Mass, and assorted churches often read from various books.

I am certainly not discouraging your own study of the Bible. But understand that study is not done for your edification alone but in the context of a community of fellow-hearers and learners so that we can learn and grow together into the likeness of Christ.

Scripture is not for your personal edification but for our communal transformation. A friend of mine says, “The sacred nature of the Bible is not in what the text says, but in what it does.”

Let’s unpack that a bit. Scripture is holy because it can be holy food for holy people. It can change us in holy ways if we let it. However, it can be used demonically and diabolically, as well. It is holy when we use it in holy ways; it was put together for the sole purpose that we might be brought, bit by bit, into a closer walk with Jesus. It is there for us to be pilgrims of the Way.

Think of the passage from Acts 8:26-40: the story of the Ethiopian and Philip. The Ethiopian is traveling along and reading from Isaiah and Philip asks him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The Ethiopian replies, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” Then, Scripture says, “…Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” We read and learn Scripture together and bear witness to the good news about Jesus.

Scripture is not a solitary pursuit. Scripture is a way for us to meet Jesus. We will meet him in other ways, too, but we are trained for the seeing and hearing of the promises of Christ through the window of the sacred text. Scripture is the poetry of the Incarnation. It is the weaving together of multiple strands of wisdom, tradition, and story to illustrate that God longs to be with us and does so in multiple, manifold, and multivalent ways culminating in the coming of Jesus among us.

Yet there is one more step to the story. It is our response to hearing the Word, taking the Bread, and being the Body.

The most dangerous assumption we can make is that the story is done when that holy book closes. The story begins freshly with each hearing because the Spirit is still speaking. It is the story of the Gift of God given to the People of God.

How we respond will determine just how holy a thing we have been given.