The following is a list of Choral Readings available on this site.
A downloadable version of each reading is also available in .pdf format.
A downloadable version of each reading is also available in .pdf format.
- The Lord God Will Always Shepherd Me
The 23rd Psalm is probably the best known and best loved of all the Psalms. The image of the shepherd and his sheep is also one of the most common images found through both the Old and the New Testaments. This reading plays as a kind of riff on the 23rd Psalm, with resonant verses from other books of the Bible. It includes an intro and an extro to set it for use as a call to worship.
• 3 voices - Approaching the Altar of My God
This reading is intended to begin the worship service and serve as a transition zone from our workaday world to a time of worship before our God. Using text taken from Psalm 42/43, it gives voice to the uncertainties we feel, to our doubts and confusions. But it also reminds us of our longing and need for God.
• 3 voices - New Creation: All This Comes From God
Second Corinthians 5.17-6.2 is one of the great declarations of the new life given in Christ. In this passage, Paul calls believers to accept and embrace the new identity given them in Christ. New creatures participating in God's new order.
• 3 voices - Near To You
How does the Word of God enter our lives? How does it make its home in our minds, in our hearts? And how do we make it stick? Even as we strain and struggle to obtain and retain God's Word, the truth of the matter is that this Word is already so near you it is within you — in your mouth and in your heart. It is gift.
• 3 voices - Beloved Sons
During the Second Temple period the figure of Isaac was portrayed as taking an active role in the event known as the ‘Akedah’ or ‘The Binding of Isaac’, a role critical as that of Abraham. Isaac was seen as a fully obedient son, a willing sacrifice compliant to God’s will. ‘The Binding’ was as much a test of the faith of Isaac as it was a test of his father. There are many indications that Jesus was understood as a ‘New Isaac.’ This reading highlights these points of comparison which are most evident in Matthew’s Gospel.
• 3 voices - Mary's Song: The Magnificat
The song Mary sings after receiving the message from the angel Gabriel was formed from words already given shape by many of God's before her, including Hannah the mother of Samuel, Eliphaz the friend of Job, Leah the wife of Jacob, the Psalmist and Isaiah. Based on Luke 1.46-55 and its Old Testament sources.
• 3 voices - Born In Humility, Raised in Glory
The authors of Book of Isaiah and the Letter to the Hebrews both address a people living through a time of extreme danger that threatens to destroy their trust in God. Both respond with dire warnings but also with words of deep-felt encouragement. And both speak boldly of the Messiah as bringing about God’s saving purposes.
This reading is especially appropriate for the Advent season.
• 3 voices - The Fire, The Wind, The Water
This reading relates the events of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, within the context of the Jewish festival of Shavuot [Pentecost], and highlighting the precedence of Old Testament imagery used to express this special manifestation of God’s presence among his people.
• 3 voices - Jesus Enters Jerusalem
A reading that unfolds the events early in the week of Christ's Passion — the entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the confrontation in the Temple, and the sessions of Jesus teaching and healing in the Temple — all in the context of the Feast of the Passover.
• 3 voices