My Dear Good Samaritans,

I hope you are having a Spirit-filled Lenten journey so far.

You may have noticed that after the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Epistle the lector’s response has changed. It used to be “The Word of the Lord.” As part of our Lenten practice to eliminate gendered language this piece has been changed to “Holy Word, Holy Wisdom.” This response comes to us from the Anglican Church of Canada who authorized it in 2019 as part of a larger project on creating seasonal Morning and Evening prayer offerings.

This change does a couple things for us. One, it removes the gendered connection between God and Lord. Lord is an inherently gendered term (the feminine being lady). When we proclaim scripture, we are asserting that we believe it to be the inspired Word of God. And our response, “Thanks be to God” is our sign of appreciation for the role that scripture brings in forming us and as an avenue for knowing more about our God seen through the eyes of other humans. As I have previously said, God is simultaneously without gender and also encompasses all genders. Using the term Lord essentially communicates “The Word of the Male God.” This new phrase bypasses the implied meaning, while at the same time acknowledging that what we are hearing is the Holy Word of God.

At the same time, pairing “Holy Word” with “Holy Wisdom” draws us into a more ancient and ecumenical tradition. The two most common communion liturgies in the Eastern Orthodox Church are the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great and the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. These services date to the fourth and fifth centuries, respectively. In them, when a scripture is read the deacon exclaims to the people: “Wisdom!” It’s their cue to pay attention because the scriptures contain wisdom for us.

This simple change expands our understanding of God’s Word as being inspired by a God that defies any attempts to limit God and at the same times reinforces our connection to our Orthodox siblings in Christ. It also offers us a bit of a challenge—can we find wisdom even in scripture passages that we don’t like or struggle with? And, that’s a practice that is perfect not only for Lent, but all through the year.

Peace,

Fr. Chris