Corporate worship is an embodied activity. Our body isn’t a flatbed-trailer whose only purpose is to move our brain around from place to place.
This is why we stand, and sit, and kneel throughout various portions of our service. It’s why we apply actual water to actual bodies in baptism; and why we eat real bread & wine with real mouths in the Supper. We sing with actual voice boxes. We raise our hands in the Doxology, and extend them to give & receive the Benediction. We shout our assent in our Amens. We pass the bread & wine to each other. These are various elements that should put us in mind that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Standing and sitting at various parts of our service is part of the choreography, not just indifferent actions. If done well, this choreography adds to the luster of the glory of our worship. Partaking together. Loud joint Amens. The rustle of jointly rising or kneeling. We are one body, with many members, acting as one to offer the praise our Lord is worthy of.
Think of a massive flock of birds, and how as they fly together, their murmuration makes mesmerizing shapes, swirls, and patterns. Thousands of individual birds swaying & flowing & spinning as one. They do so out of creaturely obedience. As saints in the image of God, our worship together should be choreographed with regenerate grace & glory. Your singing, standing, kneeling, amen-ing, eating, drinking, and hand-lifting is both individual & corporate, single & concerted, personal & collaborative.
Know your dance steps. Know your part of this enacted drama that is our service of worship to the King of glory. And offer it all in evangelical faith, with a heart made new, with renewed minds, and with redeemed bodies which are the dwelling place of God Almighty.
The Word chastens us for failing to prize the Lord above all things. Our idolatry knows no bounds, and we find ourselves worshipping and serving all manner of cheap gods. We put little thought to the dance steps of our corporate worship of the Living God; while throwing ourselves helter-skelter into the chaotic dance of self-absorption, self-expression, and selfish gratification. May we never offer strange fire of self-centered worship. By the Spirit, may we be strengthened in the work of worshipping God according to His Word from hearts which sprang to life in the first place from the implanted Word. Our worship is too often anemic because it is drawn from the poisoned well of vain imagination. Our prayer should be that the Lord would make our worship potent as we offer it in accordance with Scripture and in sincere faith, with joy in Christ alongside our fellow saints from every nation, tribe, and tongue.
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