One of my children’s most frequent requests is “tell me a story.” They seem to especially enjoy stories of things that happened when they were younger or before they were born. Recently, I was in the car with our 2-year-old, Caleb, in the midst of a busy day, and I tried to distract his repeated requests for a story by playing a story on CD.
“No,” he said, “tell me a story with your mouth.”
There is something about a story spoken by people we know and love that connects with us. The stories of Scripture were passed down from one generation to the next, often told by parents to their children, and later recorded by scribes and recounted by religious teachers. These stories communicate the deep values of our faith, tenets around which we build our lives. In the midst of these busy lives we have built, we can sometimes become disconnected from Scripture. We may even wonder what these ancient stories have to do with our own lives.
This Fall (from September 1 through November 24, with a couple of breaks for special events) we will be using a worship resource called the Narrative Lectionary, which is a series of Scripture readings organized to tell the story of the Bible. For the first three weeks of this journey, we will be exploring texts from the book of Genesis.
Sep 1 ∙ Garden of Eden ∙ Genesis 2:4b-25
Sep 8 ∙ Isaac Born to Sarah ∙ Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7
Sep 15 ∙ Jacob Wrestles God ∙ Genesis 32:9-13, 22-30
As we work our way through the story of Scripture, may we hear and tell these stories in fresh ways, traveling a narrative journey through Scripture, and gaining an understanding of how these stories fit together to tell a larger story, one in which we are invited to play a part. Join us in worship this September (Sundays at 10:45 am) to hear and reflect on these great stories of our faith.
— Pastor Jennifer Rygg, 8/18/19