Christchurch Parish News, May 2019
What does it mean to be a church that takes the Bible ‘seriously’?
A few years ago, a church noticeboard caught my eye. In big blue capital letters, it read: ‘This is a Bible-believing church!’ Underneath that confident statement, in only slightly smaller type, were the words, ‘We are a church that takes the Bible seriously!’
I remember asking myself what exactly those two phrases meant: were they some kind of code, as if to say ‘We’re this kind of church, not that kind of church’?
Since seeing that sign, I’ve often found myself wondering whether or not we in the parish, especially at the Priory but also at St. George’s and St. John’s, would describe ourselves as being ‘Bible-believing churches … that take the Bible seriously’. Each time I do, the conclusion I reach is that whilst we might not primarily think of ourselves as being such, we do in fact take the Bible far more seriously than we realise.
Proclaiming the Word
Firstly, just think about the sheer volume of Scripture that together we hear read out loud. On any given Sunday, across our three churches there will normally be upwards of 14 readings from the Bible. And because we use a lectionary, this ensures that the readings are from across all of Scripture. Every Sunday, on average we have four readings from the Old Testament, 10 readings from the New Testament, including four or more readings from the gospels. That’s a lot of Bible. In addition, the fact that we have readings from all of Scripture, both Old & New Testaments alike, often whole chapters at a time, shows that we value all of Holy Scripture.
Secondly, think about when we hear the Scriptures read. Before a verse from the Bible has been spoken, we say our confession to Almighty God and the priest declares our absolution. This further shows that we take the Bible more seriously than we might realise. Guided by the liturgy, we learn not to assume that we’re in a fit and proper state to hear the Bible in church straight away when we walk in off the street. We know that first we need to confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness, and that it is only then that we are spiritually ready to hear the Bible, the Word of God, proclaimed.
Thirdly, consider the symbolism of where in the church the Bible is read. Taking the Priory as an example, when members of our congregation read the Bible, they do so at the lectern. You will have noticed that it is shaped into the body of an eagle. This is because each of the gospel writers is associated with a living creature and St. John’s creature is the eagle. St. John’s gospel famously begins with the reading we have every Christmas Day, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ The lectern is fronted by a carving of an eagle’s head, wings and body because it is from here that the Word of God is proclaimed.
Note that the reader of the first two readings from the Bible concludes each with the phrase: ‘This is the word of the Lord’, to which we respond, ‘Thanks be to God’. This exchange of words reveals that we understand all of Scripture to be ‘of the Lord’, for Christ is present in all of Scripture, not just the gospel reading that will follow. Likewise, our response shows that whenever we hear a reading from Scripture—no matter from where in the Bible—we understand ourselves to have received a gift from God for which we must say thank you.
The symbolism continues when the gospel is read. Before leaving the sanctuary with the book of the gospel readings, the deacon kneels before the celebrant who prays for what the deacon is about to do: namely, proclaim the gospel. Then the deacon holds the book of the gospels aloft as he or she proceeds to the centre of the church. As a congregation, we don’t sit down at this point but instead we stand as the Word of God is brought into the very centre of our community. And as it is, we all turn to face it.
Then, before proclaiming the gospel, and prior to announcing what the reading will be, the deacon greets the congregation with these familiar words: ‘The Lord be with you’. ’And also with you,’ we respond. This simple exchange underscores the all-important context in which the gospel is about to be read and heard. We trust and in that moment pray that we are about to hear the Word of God in the very presence of God. In all the preparation that leads up to this moment, there is nothing casual or frivolous. Quite the contrary. It is all very serious. More serious than perhaps we realise.
The deacon then proceeds to announce the reading with these words, ‘Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to …’ Matthew/Mark/Luke or John depending on the day. We respond, ‘Glory to you, O Lord’ because we understand that in what we are about to hear we will be receiving something of the utmost worth, for which the only appropriate response is to accord all honour and praise to the Giver. To remind ourselves of the cost the Giver bore, some of us choose to make the sign of the cross on our foreheads, echoing the one that was made at our baptism when we were marked with the cross by the priest. The deacon then reads the appointed passage whilst we stand in attentive silence. Then, the reading concluded, the deacon holds up the gospel once more and proclaims, ‘This is the Gospel of the Lord’. And we respond, ‘Praise be to you, O Christ’, for Christ is the Word of God whom we have just heard proclaimed and we address him directly, praising his being present amongst us in the Scriptures.
Sermon time
Having heard these three readings from Holy Scripture, we then proceed to the sermon. This is the part of the service that you might expect to receive special emphasis in a church that takes the Bible seriously. And to be sure, in some services at other churches, the sermon can last up to 40 minutes, whereas those at our three churches last only between 10 to 15 minutes—sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more. Could it be said that the shorter time we accord to the sermon shows that actually, for all the solemnity with which we treat it in in our liturgy, we don’t really take the Bible ‘seriously’?
It’s reassuring to know that when faced with such questions, we’re not the first generation to encounter them. In fact, this difference in understanding how we should strike the right balance — between on the one hand, hearing multiple readings from the Bible followed by a short sermon, and on the other, a short reading from the Bible (usually just the one) followed by a much longer sermon — dates back centuries, to the very early years of the Church of England.
One of the innovations in the Prayer Book that Archbishop Cranmer instituted in the 16th century was the inclusion of the lectionary, hitherto the preserve of worship amongst the religious orders. By introducing daily readings from all of the Bible into the regular worship life of the parish, Cranmer was motivated by his desire that everybody hear all of Scripture, and thereby ‘profit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed with the love of his true religion’ (Preface to Book of Common Prayer, 1549 edition).
Several decades later, this approach was met with resistance by some, especially the Puritans. A theologian in our own time, Ephraim Radner writes, ‘Simply hearing the Scriptures read in church, Puritans like Thomas Cartwright argued, was of little value, and perhaps even deleterious, without the kinds of careful and extended explications in sermon form’. In essence, it’s the criticism that might be made of churches such as the Priory—long readings from the Bible followed by short sermons that don’t allow for making plain the sense of Scripture for the congregation. What’s the use in that? At least, that’s how the argument normally goes.
The Living Word
This position was countered by the first prominent Anglican theologian, Richard Hooker, in the early 17th century. Ephraim Radner explains it as follows: ‘The church “preaches” in two ways, Hooker writes, only one of which is what we now normally call the delivery of sermons. The first and primary way that the church preaches is by publicly reading the Scriptures, thereby offering “testimony” in that act itself to the fact that God speaks and that the Scripture is God’s own uttered truth’. And if such confidence in the sheer act of proclaiming the Scriptures leaves you feeling unsure, Hooker goes on to give Biblical examples, notably King Josiah, who responded dramatically to the reading of Scripture, instigating a new reign of peace and justice in Judah (2 Kings 22-23:30).
With this in mind, we can see that our practice of according a significant amount of time to the sheer, unadorned reading of Holy Scripture in our acts of gathered worship reveals two very important theological points: firstly, that the Bible is the Word of God; accordingly, and this is the second point, when we hear it read, we encounter God, an encounter animated by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This isn’t to say, of course, that sermons aren’t of use or importance. They are both. But Hooker was arguing that sermons are of secondary importance. It is the Bible itself, when proclaimed, that matters more than anything. As Cranmer before him, and then in his own time, Hooker, and up to the present day with the work of the likes of Radner, within our tradition it’s been the position of churches such as ours that the reading of the Bible—all of it—in our acts of worship matters more than the sermon. For it is in that activity, as Hooker put it, that the church “preaches” first and foremost.
All of which is to say that we should have some confidence in how we do things. The way our acts of worship are structured reveal that we are indeed churches that take the Bible very seriously. And the reason is not because we believe in the Bible as an end in itself but because, before and beyond that, we believe first and foremost in the Word of God, whom we encounter in the Scriptures, Our Lord and Savour, Jesus Christ.
Prepare to receive
With all this in mind, what practical steps can we as parishioners take in order that when we come to church, we are ready to hear the Word of God proclaimed in the readings from Holy Scripture? Here are three suggestions.
Firstly, it’s a good idea to pray for those reading the Bible, specifically that their preparation may go well, any jitters that come with public speaking may be swiftly allayed, and that they may be easy to hear.
Secondly, if we can, it helps to take a moment in advance of the service to look through the readings from Scripture that have been assigned. In the parish bulletin, we list what the next week’s readings will be. The idea behind this being that when we have a quiet moment during the week, we can have a look at these readings so that we’re not coming to them cold when we hear them on the Sunday.
Thirdly, when we do take a look at the readings, it may be that we’re unfamiliar with one or more of them. In which case, we can take advantage of the many resources that are available, including those online. For example, thebibleproject.com website offers a host of succinct, stylishly animated videos (usually no longer than ten minutes) that give a concise summary of what either a whole book of the Bible or just a particular part of it is about. I highly recommend them. They’re free, easily accessible on YouTube, and have an appeal that spans the generations.
So, for example, in this month of May, at each Sunday Eucharist, the New Testament reading will be from the Book of Revelation. That may not be a book we’re overly familiar or comfortable with. In which case, we can take a look at the two videos produced by thebibleproject.com about Revelation. They’re very good, offering a balanced commentary and are rightly gaining plaudits from all quarters.
The observations by Ephraim Radner are taken from Time and the Word (pp. 222-223), published by Eerdmans.