CHAPTER 1

How to Use this Book

Thoughtful understanding of the Bible as it is read to us in church can be farfrom easy. Strong words of prophetic judgment may be followed by Paul'sexploration of the power of sin and God's mercy, and then the surprising twistof one of Jesus' parables. Even the most biblically informed of us may find itdifficult to take it all in without any kind of preparation.

There are no magic formulas which will change this situation. Listeningcarefully to the Bible requires study and reflection, along with a personalreadiness to involve the will and imagination. Brief introductions like the onesin this book will not make up for a lack of instruction, discussion, andinterpretive preaching. Yet there are ways to help, and this book is written inthe conviction that many individuals want to pay closer attention to readingsfrom the Bible.

The introductions we offer here are meant to sharpen hearing. They are, for themost part, summaries of the readings that draw out major themes. While someinterpretation is inevitable, and we have supplied a few words of additionalinformation and commentary, their main purpose is to prepare you for what youare about to read and hear. Even for those trained in the study of the Bible, itcan be challenging to find yourself suddenly in the midst of a passage fromDeuteronomy, a prophetic oracle, or a passage from the Letter to the Hebrews.Told ahead of time that you are about to hear the account of a vision in whichthe prophet foresees the Lord bringing the people of God home from exile,however, you may well be able to enter into the experience.

Our goal in writing these introductions is to enhance the hearing of thecongregation and the skills of those reading to them, but not to provide mini-homilies or a heavy dose of interpretation. We often found it helpful to consultcommentaries, especially for views on difficult passages or where there werevariant translations. In some cases we would go to our Greek or Hebrew Bibles topursue the meaning of words and phrases in context. Our purpose was to try todiscover what the particular reading was intended to mean for the originalaudience before reflecting on any of its implications for contemporaryChristians. We then attempted to state the essential themes or events of thelesson beginning with a comprehensive sentence. Frequently it seemed helpful toadd a word or phrase with reference to material that was not actually found inthe reading but that set it in its immediate context—in a propheticoracle, epistle, or gospel, for example—or perhaps in the wider context ofPaul's ministry or Jesus' teaching. Indeed, sometimes the reading could bemisleading if this were not done. Often it seemed unnecessary to add furtherguidance, but with some lessons a few brief hints or suggestions at ways ofinterpretation and involving oneself in the readings seemed to be called for. Wehope this has not been done in such a way as to dictate the understanding of thepassage, but rather to provide illumination for the reader and listener.

This approach is not without its dangers! Passages can be difficult to summarizein a few sentences, and we had to be careful to avoid unwarrantedgeneralizations in our summaries of the lessons. Furthermore, we have tried toavoid omitting or juxtaposing ideas in such a way as to make the lesson seem tosay something other than it does. One of the hardest problems we faced wasdealing with passages containing verses that have been interpreted and sometimestranslated in strikingly different ways. In some instances we have been able toindicate this challenge. At other times a decision had to be made about themeaning, although, wherever possible, we wrote with the intention of leaving thepassage open to different understandings.

We regularly kept the season of the church year in mind and tried to be aware ofthe interrelationships among the readings for a given day. At the same time, wewanted the individual passages to be heard for themselves, and thought itunnecessary to stress the obvious. We also reminded ourselves that all threelessons, together with the Psalm, would not be used in every service or on everyoccasion, and that the introductions should not, therefore, be composed in sucha way as to require one another for their understanding.

We have designed this book to be useful not only for congregational listeningand understanding and for those who read the Sunday lessons aloud, but as aresource for Bible study, Christian formation, and preaching. For these purposescongregations may wish to place the introductions to the upcoming Sundayreadings on their parish website. The following section suggests some of theadditional ways Introducing the Lessons of the Church Year may be usedin congregational life.

For Lay Readers and All Who Read in Public

One way of employing these introductions to the readings is to place them in theSunday bulletins—perhaps as an introduction to the service or just beforethe scripture readings they introduce. The opening sentence (which is printed inbold type) could be used by itself, or the longer introduction could beincluded. Alternatively, the lay reader may begin by reading the introductionaloud in either its shorter or longer version: "In this lesson Paul givescounsel to the Corinthians who are unsure whether it is permissible to eat themeat of animals that have been sacrificed in pagan temples. A reading fromPaul's First Letter to the Corinthians." Or the other way around: "A readingfrom Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians" followed by the introduction andscripture reading. Some congregations assist their readers further by having theintroduction, the citation of the book of scripture, and the reading from theBible all printed out on a separate sheet of paper for each reader.

By reading over these introductions ahead of time, those who are to read aloudin church services will quickly get an overall sense of the lessons and gaininsights into them. They can gain a quick picture of the other lessons andsomething of the relationships between the readings for the day. This, ofcourse, is not a substitute for carefully preparing the actual passage they areto read, but it may well be an aid to that preparation.

All of us need to remember that whenever we read the Bible to others we are insome measure...