At a recent worship meeting in my parish, we talked about scripture readings during worship, and whether or not the lector and/or pastor should conclude with something (like "the word of God for the people of God") or not and whether the congregation should respond together with something (like "thanks be to God") or not. Right now, this is not done consistently in our congregation.
Do you use responses to scripture in your congregation?
If so, what do you use?
Either way, do you have some theological/liturgical grounding for your decision?
11 comments:
I'm not a pastor, so this answer is coming from the congregational side of the question. Our pastor uses the exact phrase you mention. Rarely does it fail to remind me that I am thankful to have this written link to God. I cannot attest to the theological basis of the words, but the gratitude they repeatedly resurrect in my heart is worship.
We use "The Word of the Lord ". Why, because the rubrics in the Prayer Book say to do so.
At another church that I used to attend, the Scripture reading would conclude with the pastor raising the Bible over his head and saying, "The Word of God...., etc."
At the risk of idolatry, it was a very reverent element of liturgy. The Word of God is above us and the pastor's physical actions mirrored that spiritual reality.
As you know, I, like kim, am a layman. I know why it is done, and I have usually heard the exact same phrase used.
However, I have always thought it a little "cornball". It does remind me and the congregation that it is the Word of God, but if you are a person (maybe not even a Christian) who has made it to a Christian Church, shouldn't you be smart enough to know that the reading of the Holy Bible is the world of God?
It doesn't bother me, but I've always, since I was a teen and they first started doing it in my local church, thought it was kinda strange. Maybe I'm old school.
At the church I currently serve, there isn't a call/reponse after the scripture reading, but when I or the senior minister read scripture, we normally end with a short prayer:
May God bless to our understanding these words from scripture (or we name the book, letter, Gospel).
In the Episcopal tradition the lector begins with "A reading from the Book of...", and ends with "The Word of the Lord." The response from the congregation is "Thanks be to God."
The Gospel reading, read by a clergy person begins with "The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to..." and the response is "Glory to you, Lord Christ." The Gospel ends with "The Gospel of the Lord" with the book raised over the head; and the response is "Praise to you, Lord Christ."
We read our Gospel from the pews.
And we do all this as to follow the rubrics of our Book of Common Prayer.
Other churches I've served end readings with "Here ends the reading (or lesson)..."; or with "Hear how the Spirit speaks to God's people," which is less hierarchical language.
We say, "This is A word of God" instead of "This is THE word of God." This avoids the perception that the little snippet of Bible that we just read says it all.
The congregation responds, "Thanks be to God."
The Liturgist says, "This is the word of the Lord" and the congregation responds, "Thanks be to God." Sometimes they remember to do this, sometimes they don't. I agree with Kim who reminds us that we should be grateful to the reminder that God is active in our lives - even when we are reading a seemingly outdated text.
We use "The Word of the Lord for the people of God."
"Thanks be to God."
When I got here, they were not using anything.
We do something very similar to what Jim said. The two non-Gospel readings are read, then the people stand before the Gospel reading and sing, 'Glory be to thee, o Lord.' Then after the reading they sing, 'Praise be to thee, O Christ.' It's all out of our old Evangelical & Reformed Hymnal (I'm UCC). And we do it because the pastor before me made it that way and I haven't changed it. It drives me nuts sometimes because I'd rather read from the text I'm actually preaching on, but the way this is set up the Gospel reading is always read by the pastor.
So maybe it'll change someday. I'm not much for 'high church' worship anyway.
we do not usually finish the scripture reading with anything said... though occasionally people will use the Anglican This is the word of the lord
Response thanks be to God- but I love those words, it says this is for you... makes it personal.
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