Dear Grace Community,

In worship on Sunday, September 8, I shared some about the Narrative Lectionary that is guiding our worship and study this year.  Below is an excerpt of what I shared.

“In worship this school year – September through May – we’re covering the Bible from Genesis to the letters, from Old to New Testaments. Our Sunday School classes for adults, youth, and older children will study these texts too.

We’re joining hundreds of other churches around the country in something called the Narrative Lectionary.  A group of Bible scholars at Luther Seminary in Minnesota created a four-year cycle of scripture that takes congregations from Old to New Testament each year.  We are jumping in on year two.

This means we’ll read and study a smattering of scripture that paints the big picture arc from Old to New Testament, but we’ll leave out a lot.  If we do this for four years, we’ll fill in more of the stories but still not the entire Bible.  So far we’re only committed to one year.

In addition to the stories we read and hear in worship, you’re encouraged to read stories that fall between Sundays.  You’ll see them listed in Grace This Week, and they’ll be posted on the Grace Facebook each Sunday afternoon.  We’re exploring an opt-in weekly email.  Next Sunday we read about Abraham and Sarah, and a lot happens between creation and their story.

As we go through this year, some of you will hear and read stories for the first time.  Others of you have some familiarity with the stories, and some of you will know these stories well.  Trust that God can, and will, use these stories to speak to you wherever you are in your Biblical knowledge and understanding.

Our theme for these nine months is ‘God’s Story, Our Story, My Story.’

When we start digging and looking at academic work, we see that the Bible isn’t all one story written by one person.  It was written by many people over many years.  It’s many stories, and yet, if we step back, we can see it as one story, God’s story, from creation – to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection – to the formation of the church.

It’s God’s story, and it’s our story.  It’s our story as Christ’s people, the church.  It forms us, re-forms us, and orders our shared life.

Then after seeing it as God’s story, and our story, I can see it as my story, and you can see it as yours.  I want you to claim this story and these stories as your own, and first you need to see them as God’s and as God’s people’s.”

I look forward to reading scripture with you.

In Christ,
Catherine