SL 39 (2009) 185-201 Scripture and Liturgy: Offering Christ by E. Byron Anderson* What do we think we are saying and doing when we as a worshiping community hear the words "This is the gospel of Christ" and respond "Praise to Christ our Lord" or "Praise to you, a Christ"; or when we hear "The Word of God for the people of God" and respond "Thanks be to God"? And, what is it we are saying and doing with our "Amen" after hearing "The body of Christ, broken for you; the blood of Christ shed for you" as we receive the bread and cup? While there are a number of possible answers to these questions, I want to explore one primary idea: that in the liturgical proclamation of scripture and in the sharing of the eucharistic bread and cup Christ is being offered to us. Our response, however we ritualize it, is an acceptance of that offer. Three concerns that Michael Vasey raised in his short essay "Worship and the Bible" have guided my reflections: first, the church's tendencies to separate the cerebral and symbolic, word and sacrament; second, current Protestant tendencies to see scripture and sacrament as "intrusions into 'real worship' " or as simply some kind of adjunct or aid to preaching; and third, Vasey's proposal that "liturgy is the incorporation into the life, memory and celebration of the community of the 'word of Christ.' "1 In brief, then, my thesis is this: scripture and sacrament have their home in Christian liturgy, where, as comparable means of grace, they make present to us the incarnate Word of God, and through which God offers Godself to us for the sake of our salvation. I. Scripture and Sacrament at Home in the Liturgy There are several ways for us to think about the problems of separating scripture and sacrament. In a Protestant-Catholic divide that has long suggested we must choose between scripture or sacrament, few contemporary Protestants seem aware of how much scripture Catholics hear each Sunday, and few Catholics seem aware *The Rev. Dr.E. Byron (Ron) Anderson is StybergAssociate Professor of Worship at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, lllinois, USA, and may be contacted at ron.anderson@garrett.edu. This essay was originally presented as the 2009 Michael Vasey Lecture in Durham, England. 1 Michael Vasey, "Worship and the Bible," Evangel: The British Evangelical Review 16 (Spring 1998) 20-21, 23. 185