Faith Fact- Hearing Scripture through Worship



Previously, I mentioned that through the Daily Office Lectionary, any of the Daily Office services, such as Morning or Evening Prayer, can be used as a tool for us to hear the Word of God in Scripture. I've also discussed the importance of the Lectionary in our Sunday services in the past.

There are many times that I hear members in the Episcopal Church say they don't know Scripture well, but did you know that we actually hear Scripture quite a lot in our services, aside from even our reading of it? In fact, we sometimes hear it without even knowing it.

In Morning and Evening Prayer, we hear Scripture in the opening and closing sentences. We also hear it in the Canticles, the songs we say or sing between readings. These could also be used as sequence hymns during Holy Eucharist.

The Rite I service for Holy Eucharist gives us many places to hear Scripture. We hear it in the Two Great Commandments towards the start of the service. We also hear Scripture in the Comfortable Words just before the Peace.

In all Eucharistic services, the offertory sentence is the key place you will hear Scripture without possibly realizing it.

Of course, the words of Jesus during the Eucharistic Prayer come straight from Scripture: "Take, eat, this is my body..." and "This is my blood of the new covenant...". Those words, or versions of them pop up in Mathew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25Luke 22:19-20, and 1 Corinthians 11:24-25.

The Lord's Prayer even comes from Scripture, specifically Matthew 6:9-15 and Luke 11:2-5.

You may not always be able to cite the exact chapter and verse, and that's okay, but if you've worshiped in the Episcopal Church for some time, you probably know Scripture a lot better than you may think.