One of the links that appears each week in the new E-News is to the Sunday readings. Those of you who have visited this link in the old format will remember it took you to the rather uninspiring Lectionary Page. Now when you visit this link it will take you to a new site prepared by Church Publishing titled Preparing for Sunday This is a wonderful new resource for us. It not only automatically updates week by week without our having to reload new material to the web page, it presents an attractive presentation of the readings, each preceded by a short commentary which sets the reading in a broader historical-religious context.

I wanted to mention this new resource because at St Martin’s, taking the Bible more seriously is the first of our three strategic objectives. We need to do so because as a communion Episcopalians have been guilty of allowing the Bible to become colonized by fundamentalist interpreters. The Bible is a complex and highly nuanced chronicle of the human encounter with God compiled over many centuries, through differing historical and religious contexts. It defies literalist interpretation. The words on the page never submit to a plain meaning reading. Biblical texts demand our curiosity and courage, always keeping in mind the question of what is it God wants us to pay attention to? Paying attention to Biblical texts means paying attention to the original context in which the text was written and how the Tradition has understood the text over time. Most importantly, how do we hear it now through 21 ^st century ears?

Each Sunday we listen to three portions of Scripture as we worship God. In our tradition, the preacher does not choose the readings although sometimes I might wish otherwise, they are dictated by a three-year rolling program called the Lectionary. Week by week, we welcome the challenge posed by the conversation God wants to have with us rather than the circular conversations we might otherwise choose to have with ourselves. The sermon is the community’s response. Although articulated by one individual -the parson – an old English word that means the representative person embodies a response to Scripture from a spiritual leader whose feet are firmly planted in the daily experience of a community’s life.

I hope many of you will find Preparing for Sunday a helpful resource that supports a more fulfilling preparation for worship.

We are now into October; can you believe it? October is a special month... continue reading here 

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