Bible Sunday went great yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 30).

For those who are wondering "Bible Sunday?"; yesterday Salem Lutheran Church presented Bibles to two 3rd graders.  Along with that presentation, pew Bibles were presented, dedicated and used for the first time at Salem.  It was a Sunday I was looking forward to for the last couple years.  I get excited about young people getting a new Bible (and for some their first).  These 3rd graders, for the past few weeks, had been bugging me and asking me when they were getting their Bibles.  One could tell they were excited and this made me even more happy and excited.  When the moment came to give the parents the Bibles to present to their children, my heart was racing.  It was a powerful moment for me (and hopefully for the families and children involved).  And for one family, especially, I knew this was very important.  The dad had a chance to go to the Vikings/Packers game to watch history in the making (Brett Favre breaking the touchdown record), but instead decided that her daughter receiving her Bible was more important.  Way to go dad!

Following the presentation I asked the parents to sit down but I kept my two 3rd graders up front with me.  Now was the time to reverse roles.  Salem Lutheran Church presented Bibles to these two 3rd graders now in turn these 3rd graders unveiled and handed out the new pew Bibles to the congregation.  Some knew what was coming, but others were totally surprised and seemed pleased (judging from their reaction).  As the kids handed out the Bibles I explained how worship would work now with these Bibles but people were more interested in checking them out.  Which was fine.

After the Bibles were handed out I told the congregation to make sure everyone was touching a Bible so we could offer up a prayer and dedicate these Bibles to the glory of God to be used in worship.  After the prayer we continued with the worship service by reading reading of scripture.  Even though we had forgotten to include page numbers in the bulletin most people still used the new Bibles for the scripture reading (we had included the "Celebrate" inserts in the bulletin).

Following the service I got a few comments from people indicating that they thought this was a great idea.  Over all people seemed very pleased with our new Bibles.

My hope and prayer now is that people will get more excited about scripture.  Maybe people, when they come to worship early, will spend time finding the texts for the day and start reading the text around it.  Maybe, just maybe, they will see, hear and experience something they hadn’t before.  Maybe, just maybe, they will go home and get their Bibles out and finishing reading the chapter/book we started in worship.  Maybe, just maybe this will be a spring board for families to engage in family devotions (each week we will be including the daily lectionary readings in the bulletin leading up to next Sunday’s texts).

Over all, Bible Sunday was a good day for me and hopefully for everyone else.  Of course time will tell what the reaction will be but when scripture is involved, how can it be anything but positive.  After all, we are reading the greatest love letter of all time. 

Let’s make every day "Bible Sunday". 
-edh-