The Body and Worship

“Does everyone in this congregation know that if he or she is not here for worship the body suffers?” (p. 175)

I began to think about this rhetorical question and decided to ask a non-rhetorical question .  Is this true?!  The whole congregation needs to be there for the body to worship?  If you think about the ‘body’ it does suffer if it is missing it’s arm, leg or eye.  And following this passage the writer talks about a persons spiritual gifts and how if the person is not contributing them the body suffers.  However, I don’t think a body should be affected that much when it comes to worshiping and whether or not everyone is using their spiritual gifts in worship with the congregation.  A physical person missing an eye, leg, or arm can still worship!  Sometimes even more than people who have there eye, arm and leg.  This is because of the lack of.  

I’m not saying that we should not use all the spiritual gifts in a congregation when we’re worshiping, but I am saying that I think we should not let our worship be greatly effected or even dependent on these things when we’re in lack of.  I guess I see it as a person who has every part of there body and they don’t think anything of it.  It’s not until they are missing their thumb do they realize how much they needed it, but they still don’t stop going on with life.  They adjust to the thing that is lacking.  

It is important for there to be a body for the body to worship.  However, I don’t think it is critical for a body to have all it’s parts to continue to worship at a certain level.  Does worship even have a level?  If we sit and confine worship to a certain level than worship becomes something that we’ve boxed up.  And I don’t see why God would want to accept something that is boxed up.  I think of giving someone flowers.  When you hand flowers to someone there is an immediate reaction to the flowers for what they are.  However, if you hand someone a box with flowers in it then the person is surprised to have a box and then they have to open it to see what it is that the person is actually giving.  Worship shouldn’t be something that we hand to God and Him have to open up, it should just be there opened and uncovered!

The Need for the New

“…God cannot be contained in what we already know.  There is always a need for…new expressions of the infinitely incomprehensible God” (p. 16, par. 4).

This quote stimulated several thoughts for me.  The first was an ashamed recognition of the truth of the first part.  Ashamed because until now I had not really thought about how limited even the sum of knowledge from the ancients until now really is.  Ashamed because I was shown to still be placing too much confidence in man’s understanding.

The second was excitement about the potential for new expressions to enrich, teach, and admonish each other without ever saying “the last word” about God.  King Ahasuerus had wise men who “understood the times” (Esther 1:13).  In a way, it is based on our “understanding of the times” that we can communicate what we understand of God to other people in a relevant way.  The times are constantly changing, and so there is always a need for people to express the same truths in different ways.  And since God is infinite, we will never with our finite contributions fill up all there is to say about him.  This excites me!

Does this excite anyone else (please tell why or how)?

the desires of your heart

In the first reading, “a royal waste of time”, I found some disturbing feelings welling up.  Have I been indoctrinated into believing that music really is a waste of time, icing on the cake, enjoyable but not necessary?  I am trusting you, my beloved class, to not take offense, but to hear my struggle within myself.  I have been afraid to be a music major because it seems self-indulgent.  I have many things that I really, really enjoy, including teaching and counseling.  To me, those seem so much more important to the kingdom than my love of singing.  (again – these are tapes playing in my head – not what is true).  So, how do I reconcile the truth that what I want is for music-time to take priority over all the other choices?  That I am never more at peace with the world than when I am singing or playing?  I know I don’t put in the time needed to really improve my skills, I make a hundred excuses for “more important” things.  There seem to be recordings in my head always telling me to stop drawing attention to myself, stop being happy about frivolous things, and most damaging – don’t really try, because if you fail, it will be a true failure of who you are.  Dang, doesn’t this get better in your forties?

Two sentences in this article have given me some relief.  “We waste our time so that others in the Christian community can be more profoundly immersed in the Word, can become more deeply formed, can more thoroughly join us in praise.  Others in our churches might not be ready to waste their time, that is why you musicians have to be here – to help them give up control and become immersed in Christ.” (p16)

If God gives us the desires of our hearts, could that mean that what makes us happy is because He decided it should make us happy?  Instead of the desires of our hearts being “God answered my request for what I wanted”  perhaps it means “God put this love of singing into me, and it isn’t selfish or meaningless, because God put it there”.  When I get excited about a new style of music, or a fresh word presented in song, I can and should see if it is something I can bring to the congregation.  I can and should stretch them and help them find joy in worship. I need to be okay with this, because I need to be okay with who God made me to be.  So you can pray for me as I try to let down some walls.  Thanks for listening.

Have you struggled with music being “a waste of time”.  How has God spoken to you?