We Didn’t Come Just to Read the Map

“We’ve come to church to hear the Bible read and explained.”

That’s true — but not enough. It’s like saying, “We’ve come to study the map,” yet never stepping into the adventure it describes. The Scriptures are not simply information about God; they are the means by which God speaks. When the Bible is read and preached, the living Christ addresses his people.

Karl Barth once said, “We do not speak about God; we speak to God, and God speaks to us.” That captures the essence of what is meant to happen when the church gathers. Church is not primarily our initiative — us coming together to talk about God — but God’s initiative, gathering us to himself so that he might speak, act, and renew. In Christ, we are “seated with him in the heavenly places,” participating in a reality that precedes and surrounds us.

Hebrews expresses this dynamic beautifully: “Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings” (Hebrews 10:19,22). Because God has drawn near to us in Christ, we now draw near to him. The whole rhythm of gathered worship — Word, prayer, song, and sacrament — is a response to divine initiative.

The Puritan John Owen described this as communion with God: “Communion with God consists in his communication of himself unto us, with our return unto him of that which he requireth and accepteth, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him.” Our union with Christ is fixed and unchanging; our communion with him, however, deepens as we listen, trust, and respond to his living Word.

So, in one sense, church is not just where we read the map; it’s where we walk the road — where heaven and earth overlap, and the living Christ meets his people.

But all metaphors break down, including this one. As Calvin reminds us, “Christ is not offered to us naked, but clothed in his gospel.” The Reformers called the Scriptures a means of grace — one of the ways God reveals Christ and imparts his benefits to us.

So perhaps we might think instead of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They walked beside the risen Christ without recognising him, until he “explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Encounter alone was not enough; the Word made the encounter intelligible.

The Scriptures describe the Christ we meet so that we might recognise him for who he truly is. The Bible is both the map and the means — the means by which we encounter Christ, who still comes to meet us, clothed in his Word.

So perhaps next Sunday we might say it differently: We have come together to open the Scriptures, that the living Word might open us — to meet Christ and have his will written on our hearts by his Spirit.