When we gather to worship God, we gather to hear the Word, sing the Word, eat the Word, and drink the Word. We are then given a benediction so that we might go out into the world and live the Word.
We are Christians, which means that we are people of the Word. The Word is the one through whom all things were made, and the Word is therefore that which gives all things their true meaning. Meaning goes not arise from our scattered words, meaning descends upon our words, gathering them together in the context of the great story that God is telling.
Our responsibility is to love Him, and read our lines correctly. We do not place our words in the script, and we do not understand the ultimate meaning of anything . . . until God shows us the movie. We are like bit actors brought onto a studio set, given our lines to say, and then dismissed. We frequently don’t know what that was about. But when we go to see the movie that we had a bit part in, the whole thing becomes clear.
Â
As the old song puts it, farther along, we’ll know all about it, farther along we’ll understand why. This is why the Bible says that the just shall live by faith. That is what faith is, and that is also why the mockers say that we are living for pie in the sky. That’s all right. We would rather have pie in the sky than gravel on the ground.