Word

I don’t like it when preachers quote Greek or Hebrew in their preaching—it’s usually pointless. But it’s good to know that the Hebrew word for “word” means much more than some letters strung together and bearing a single meaning. Word also means gift or event or even occasion.

Is the word read and heard in worship an event? Is it a gift? Does it make any difference?

We come to that moment in worship when the assembly sits, the reader stands and the book is opened. It happens every Sunday, and is a moment of delight for us.

Wherever we come from, whatever the troubles, whatever the aches and pains, whatever the worries, whatever the delights, whatever the preoccupations, somehow they all get caught up into the troubles, aches and pains, delights and preoccupations of this assembly. Beside and behind and around and in us, the assembly is filled with such things. We come here as hungry, needy people and the words of this book are our food and our drink.