Spiritual expression
I was born and raised in the charismatic, non-denominational section of the church. We believed in freedom to be moved during worship, freedom to express yourself in worship etc. For the last two years or so I have been in the Anglican church and learned a great deal. I have not abandon my charismatic roots, but I have added much of value and grown in understanding.
For the last month or so I have been attending a charismatic non-denominational church and enjoying it very much. This last sunday as we received communion I wanted to make the sign of the cross before recieving the elements. I found that I was hesitant to do so for fear of what others there might think of me. I have experienced some prejudices among protestants towards such things percieved as too Catholic, or superstitious etc. The end result was that I did make the sign of the cross quickly and furtively hoping that no one would see. (in all likelyhood most wouldn't care even if they did see, but thats how our minds work :) ) .
I was thinking about all this today. So I wanted to comment on it here. In some churches raising your hands in praise is not allowed, or discouraged, in others making the sign of the cross is viewed as too Catholic or as superstitious and so on. In my thoughts on this I must refer back to my previous post on "real spirituality".
In my last post I spoke a little about how true spirituality is not the seperation of the physical from the spiritual, but rather when the spiritual is manifested in our physical lives. We are both physical and spiritual beings. I spoke of this as related to the fruit of the spirit being made evident in our daily lives, which is the most important aspect of it. However, our physical expression of the spiritual also includes things like raising your hands in worship, and making the sign of the cross.
It is a fact of human nature readily evident to all that physical expression (meaning body language and body motion) are part of how we communicate and react. When you experience great victory, and jubilation the most natural and common response among people is to lift their hands in the air, and to jump, or stand if they are sitting. When we ask people for something in earnest, our natural posture is to hold our hands open in front of us, as if ready to receive.
Is it not interesting then that so often people see it as strange or odd that people use these same expressions when they worship God? Would it not actually be more strange for people to have great victory, or jubilation, and not show any physical expression? It tends to make me think that the real issue is people find not the physical expression odd, but rather they find the emotional response to God, to be odd.
We should make physical expression of the spirit within us. In the case of crossing yourself, it is a sign of reverence and a sign of blessing. Just as raising your hands is a sign of victory and jubilation, and holding your hands open in front of you is a sign of suplication and desire to recieve. We should learn to be free in these expressions, because it brings worship to our full being. We should worship God, with body, soul, and spirit.
For the last month or so I have been attending a charismatic non-denominational church and enjoying it very much. This last sunday as we received communion I wanted to make the sign of the cross before recieving the elements. I found that I was hesitant to do so for fear of what others there might think of me. I have experienced some prejudices among protestants towards such things percieved as too Catholic, or superstitious etc. The end result was that I did make the sign of the cross quickly and furtively hoping that no one would see. (in all likelyhood most wouldn't care even if they did see, but thats how our minds work :) ) .
I was thinking about all this today. So I wanted to comment on it here. In some churches raising your hands in praise is not allowed, or discouraged, in others making the sign of the cross is viewed as too Catholic or as superstitious and so on. In my thoughts on this I must refer back to my previous post on "real spirituality".
In my last post I spoke a little about how true spirituality is not the seperation of the physical from the spiritual, but rather when the spiritual is manifested in our physical lives. We are both physical and spiritual beings. I spoke of this as related to the fruit of the spirit being made evident in our daily lives, which is the most important aspect of it. However, our physical expression of the spiritual also includes things like raising your hands in worship, and making the sign of the cross.
It is a fact of human nature readily evident to all that physical expression (meaning body language and body motion) are part of how we communicate and react. When you experience great victory, and jubilation the most natural and common response among people is to lift their hands in the air, and to jump, or stand if they are sitting. When we ask people for something in earnest, our natural posture is to hold our hands open in front of us, as if ready to receive.
Is it not interesting then that so often people see it as strange or odd that people use these same expressions when they worship God? Would it not actually be more strange for people to have great victory, or jubilation, and not show any physical expression? It tends to make me think that the real issue is people find not the physical expression odd, but rather they find the emotional response to God, to be odd.
We should make physical expression of the spirit within us. In the case of crossing yourself, it is a sign of reverence and a sign of blessing. Just as raising your hands is a sign of victory and jubilation, and holding your hands open in front of you is a sign of suplication and desire to recieve. We should learn to be free in these expressions, because it brings worship to our full being. We should worship God, with body, soul, and spirit.
posted by Simon Templar | 4:20 PM
4 Comments:
Good point, Simon. However, I feel that there are some cautions in allowing yourself physical expression in worship. First, you have to be careful that you aren't trying to draw attention to yourself. Remember that the Father appreciates religious expression in secret more than show-off religion. Second, often times emotional/physical response to heavy-beat Christian music is mistaken for worship. There is a time to get excited and let your heart thump from the God-glorifying words you are hearing, but this doesn't mean that the teen-age girls in the church should jump up front and twirl and let their bodies go wild. Third, a lot of times we get caught up in the "I have the liberty to do this" thing and wind up not worshipping God through our expressions, but looking down our noses at brothers who may not feel comfortable expressing themselves. So those are the cautions, but I do feel that you are right in that we need to express how God is working emotionally in our lives. Another good way to express this is through conversation. A lot of times after church, vesitbule talk doesn't turn to the sermon, but to the guy's paintball game, Friday night movies etc.
All very good points Jonathan. My biggest complaint with the charismatic/pentecostal movement in general is that we, all too often, mistake emotionalism for spiritual worship.
I have spent alot of time in churches that focus entirely on having the gifts of the spirit in action. The problem with this is, just as you say, these outward things are easy to fake, they are easy to do in order to appear spiritual, they are easy to get drawn into performance for people or self.
Often times wild uncontroled displays in worship are a sign of immaturity. After all the fruit of the spirit is self control.
much of my own spiritual journey over the last couple years has been spurred by the realization that the worship, the religion that I knew was incomplete. It dealt only with the emotional portion of my being. Christianity is a complete religion, and true worship is complete worship. It requires us to respond to God emotionally, intellectually, and most importantly spiritually. The last is the most difficult because its the hardest to seperate from the others.
I must add a comment to my comment :)
I ended the previous comment saying that true worship is complete worship and it requires us to respond emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.
I must add this clarification. Often times people get into trouble because they attempt to get to spirituality through emotion, or through intellect. Spirit must come first. I've been a christian for years, I've been intellectual for years, and I've been involved in emotional worship for years. Yet it is only in the last two years as God has lead me into the life of the spirit, that I have found the true balance of those things. Interestingly, I had to come to a place where I stopped being emotional, and stopped being intellectual in order to find true spiritual life. Yet once I began to live in spirit, I found the other things came naturally.
I don't mean to sound as though I have "arrived". I have far to go yet, and much to learn. Yet God has begun to show me life, and life more abundantly.
hopefully that made some sense
Jonathan,
Another comment to my comment to my comment :)
I wanted to say that I think you are absolutely right about conversation as well. Its good to have normal, every day social fellowship with christian brothers, but we need more than that too. So often I find myself lacking any real fellowship dealing with the things of God. I sit in church and hear a sermon which is good, but then no one ever wants to really talk about those kinds of topics.
I find myself often having to turn to the internet in order to find any fellowship of that sort.
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