Quite a number of years ago while reading through the Scriptures, I began to notice that God – through His representatives/leaders – constantly called His People to “listen” or “hear” His Words (Nehemiah 8.2; Deuteronomy 31.9-13; 2 Chronicles 15.2; John 10.27; Acts 13.44; Hebrews 3.7) and it was rare to find an exhortation to read the Word. Now, of course, we live in a privileged age where Christ has poured out His grace in a waterfall by giving us His Word printed out to read in wide abundance and accessibility, especially in the West. This fact is a beautiful one, and one in which we’ve been given much more than previous generations and thus will no doubt be held to a higher standard of accountability before Him. A daunting reality, but glorious nonetheless.
So, when it comes to understanding the “hearing” passages of Scripture we are in a slightly different situation than ancient Israel was because unlike a Hebrew in ancient Israel, I can’t swing a cat by its tail and not have it hit...
...a Bible in my house.
This of course, wasn’t the case in ancient Israel, where the written Word was rare and held primarily by the priests, kings, and scribes and not by the common Hebrew. It then would have been the norm for the majority of people to “listen” and not read God’s Word, and so most of us quite naturally conclude that those passages that exhort us to “listen” or “hear” God don’t apply to us anymore since we have it in print everywhere we go. But I don’t believe our increased access to the written pages of God fundamentally changes God’s call to actually hear the Scriptures with our actual, physical ears. In other words, this doesn’t mean we now interpret those passages to mean we need only to figuratively “hear” with our heart via reading; and I think this understanding is most crucial when, in worship on the Lordsday, we submit to hearing from God through His Scriptures being read by His ordained teacher(s).
On this point I got some traction on my theory years ago when Peter Liethart wrote a little article he entitled “Close that Bible” in Credenda Agenda, volume 14 issue 3. In that he makes the case that during worship we should close our Bibles and listen to God’s Word and not feverishly try to follow along in a translation that is all together different than the one that is being read by the pastor, elder or reader (more on that a bit later). Because, he says, hearing or listening is an act of submission to the one talking. You are giving deference and authority to the speaker by listening and being silent. This is giving honor and respect as opposed to using one’s eyes which, in God’s view (i.e. the Bible), is closely associated with judging or having a position of rule. We don’t want to be over God or His Word, rather we want to be shape by Him and His Word. As James Jordan writes, “If all we do is study the Bible, without hearing it, we have dominion over it. The goal, of course, is for it to have dominion over us.” (Open Book Newsletter, no.32)
I want to springboard off this idea though and assert that while I believe listening is highly important, we still should open our Bibles during our times of gathering on the Lordsday rather than close them. Because, for starters, if we say we should close our Bibles this logically leads us to conclude that they, in their written form, are superfluous and are best left at home. I maintain rather that bringing our Bibles warm and heavy in our hand before our Lord is a liturgical act. That is, it has a Biblical and historical precedence, and too is an orderly and public act of discipleship and devotion.
I believe we should bring our Bibles to worship and when the pastor or leader reads from a passage of Scripture we should open them up, but open them up to listen though, and not to read along. We should open up the Scriptures and see in the moment the pages open before us with our eyes, and at that same time we should feel God’s Word weighed in our hands, and finally we should sit in quiet submission hearing the Logos flow through the gate of our ears.
This brings us to a few of the primary problems with “following along” with the reading of Scripture during the worship service. One is well known and notorious in evangelical circles, and that is when the passage that will be read aloud is announced by the leader/reader we are typically given about 1.5 seconds to find it, and if you’re not there, well…too bad, it’s gettin’ read anyway sucka. Right out of the gate then the congregation isn’t focusing on the Word, rather everyone is just trying to find the blasted passage! (and forget about your children finding it in time, you’ll just be fortunate if you do.) So, ironically, while proclaiming a high view of Scripture, we in practice have a very low view indeed.
The next problem is quite obvious, and it is that the leader/reader will likely be reading aloud from a translation that you as the congregant most assuredly do not have. This creates a problem instantly when trying to follow along with the words (that is, if you’ve actually found the passage in time, you might still be flipping pages) because as the leader begins to read, your mind automatically goes into mental gymnastics doing everything it can to harmonize what you’re hearing with what you’re reading on your differently translated passage. So you end up being distracted from receiving the full import of the Word because your mind has been calculating and searching while it should be passively listening.
As you can see, this is an area in our worship of Father, Christ, and Spirit that I believe needs a bit of reforming, semper reformanda, "always reforming" as the Reformers were accustomed to saying. I believe this seemingly innocuous issue is important because it deals on a very earthy, pragmatic level with our perception of God's Word and how it is received by His Household, and too because it has the power to elevate the Scriptures in multiple ways: symbolically, authoritatively and existentially.
It is crucial as well that we get back to obeying the passages of Scripture that call us to “listen” to God, and be willing to learn from Him through that dynamic rather than always reading with our eyes because there is something vital in the process of hearing and it’s not God just been arbitrary.
We can begin to do this during the worship service by opening our Bibles and actively listening in submission with our ears. We should deliberately engage our bodies in worship as much as possible and we can do that by feeling the leather and paper in our hands as we listen. We can also enjoy the rich symbolism of seeing with our eyes the pages of the Logos open before us.
All this, I believe, more accurately takes into account our place in history, honors the Word when He calls for us to “listen”, and doesn’t disregard our bodies as useless shelters but rather as good and spiritual. And too, as an added bonus, we will also be able to avoid the whole translation debacle and the frantic get-to-the-verse-as-fast-as-you-possibly-can nonsense because, as I’m sure you deduced by now, that’s by far my favorite part of the service!
My family and I have been practicing this for quite a number of years now with savory results (yea, that's right, savory...). So, give it a try. Just sit back and enjoy God's Word pressed down, shaken together, and running over on the Lordsday all by merely listening to a good Book.
Revelation 1:3 (ESV) — 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
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