What do we do with the Bible?

Some rambling thoughts...

In my first church, in the quaint fishing village of Little Dounreay, every Sunday,  the congregation would stand and someone woud carry in the large church bible.  This would be placed in the pulpit, then the minister would proceed in afterwards. I only ever went to the 11am service so I'm not sure if someone quietly removed it after the 9.30 when everyone was having a brew between services and repeated the ceremony for 11.  I certainly don't recall any ceremony to remove the bible after the minister left.

Now this wasn't the only bible in the church.  There was a bible at the lectern, and another on the communion table, not to mention the one everybody was handed as you went in the door.  There's about 100 copies of the same book already in the room when the big version comes in.  And then the minister rarely if ever used it.  It was somewhere to rest his notes.

Having now seen many churches in action, some never bring a special bible in, as there's always one in the church.  Some go the whole hog and parade it in, and others bring it in, but with no acknowledgement from the congregation. 


I had a bible study group with a guy from India.  He was a recent convert to Christianity, so he was great company to be with, asking lots of questions and making us consider our faith and what we believed.  Now bible study night involved us spreading out on sofas, chairs and the floor, with tea and cakes and reading bibles of various translations.  Bibles were getting passed round and because some of us were on the floor, the floor was being used as a reading surface.  Our Indian friend was a bit concerned that we let the bibles touch the floor, as in his culture, the floor was considered to be a dirty place (even when spotlessly clean) and nothing you respected would touch the ground.  We explained that to us, it was the Word and the message that was important, and not the object we had decided to write them down in.  Nonetheless, after that night, the bibles were always kept clear of the ground, out of respect for our friend.

Looking at this from a historical perspective, a book was an exceptionally valuable object, and the book in question contains the Word of God, so I can understand a bit of veneration.  I believe there's a fine line between respecting the Word and worshiping the book containing the words.  The later seems to be a bit idolatrous.  Should we stand and show a bit of respect for the Word coming in or is that just not the reformed thing to do?


At the last conference I was at, when our little discussion group was asked to look something up in the bible, about three quarters of us pulled out our phones.  Is it the same bible when it's an app?

So have we lost something by making the bible so readily available?  OK, we have translated it a few times along the way, but should we be more keen to remember that it's God at the heart of that book, and pay a bit more attention when the bible enters our church?  Or should we have a copy of the bible permanently present at the front of the church, as a clear indicator that it's the Word that is at the centre of worship?