Poetry, story, and guidance: if we listen, we will hear God speaking to us through the scriptures. This is a matter of careful discernment. Sometimes the Christian scriptures are used like weapons, to control or bully others. We are wary of taking our Bible literally as though each verse was written specifically for our place, time and culture. Instead, we pay attention to each author’s circumstance and cultural setting. We remember that, although the Bible is divinely inspired, it is the work of human authors with inevitable flaws and biases.
When we speak of the Word of God, we are referring to the God’s communication of love to the world. This Word was made known to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We understand the Bible is the word (lowercase ‘w’) that points to the Word (uppercase ‘W’).
At Wollaston Congregational Church we follow the Revised Common Lectionary, a sequence of scripture readings assigned to each week of a three year cycle. Generally we will read from the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament), the Psalms (ancient songs or poems), the Epistles (letters written to the early Christian community), and the Gospel (stories and teachings from the life of Jesus).