When we hear a familiar text being read in worship, we may recite it along with the reader or we may tune out because we’ve heard it so many times. By utilizing two readers for this most familiar passage and adding reflections by the second reader, you’ll catch the attention of the congregation and help everyone listen with new ears.
I’d suggest having only one person stand up to read the Scripture. The second reader should have access to a microphone and be out of sight. He or she may even move around during the reading and say the last line while standing by reader one.
The words of Scripture are said by reader one and are in italics.
A Litany expanding on 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
One-If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Two-There are days when i am so busy with all that must be done that I spend too much time making noise and not enough time loving others.
One-And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
Two-There are days when I know all the answers and am too busy knowing everything to love anyone.
One-If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Two-There are days when I share from what I have with others only to get rid of my abundance and not because I love anyone.
One-Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Two-And then there are days like today where I hear these words and I remember.
One-Love never ends.
Two-Love never ends.
One-But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Two-Love never ends.
One-And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Two-Love never ends.
The pictures are the hard work of the youth and the adults who love them of St. Giles Presbyterian Church at their Spring Beach Retreat from May 2014. Although their sand art was soon erased by the waves, always remember that you are loved.
