Today we presented each of our third graders a Bible. Why did we do it? Certainly their parents could afford to buy Bibles, and I imagine that in each of the homes from which these children come there are more than one Bible. It isn’t that we thought that if we didn’t get a Bible to them, they would not have access to the scripture.

So, why did we do it? We did it to make a statement - to say not only to these children, but to ourselves - all of us - that for the Christian in the church this is it. This is the most important resource in our life and in our congregation.

That’s why we did it. We wanted these children to know, and we wanted to remind ourselves that what we are about as Christians, and as a church is here, in this book. This is in John Wesley’s word: “The whole and sole rul…