The wonder of the Gospel is that it makes you truly human. Because of the fall, man is rendered dead. The Gospel doesn’t liberate your soul from the prison of the body. Rather, the Gospel brings you truly to life. The Word we preach is life to the body, health to the soul, vitality to the spirit.
This is why we shouldn’t think of our worship as an attempt to escape the body. Rather, we bring our whole self––body, soul, and spirit––risen by Christ’s grace, to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.
And so we adopt various postures throughout our service. We stand at attention to hear God call us to worship. Our voices resound in songs & prayers. We kneel in hope-filled contrition. We stand again to hear God’s Word. Our ears are opened by the Spirit to hear what He says to the church. We turn our eyes forward to see the bread broken. We open our mouths to feast and to drink. Our hands extend the bread and wine to our brothers and sisters. We lift our hands in holy praise. The minister lifts his hands to bless us in the Triune name, and we extend open hands to receive this gift.
These physical actions force us to be reminded that salvation isn’t found by melding your mind with the Universe’s “force of love.” Salvation is found because God, in Christ, took on a human body. He lived, died, and was raised to glory as a true human, in order that these bodies might be redeemed and made truly human. So bend your knee, lift up your hearts, hands, and voices, taste the bread & wine. In all this physical activity be reminded that you are not your own, your body has been redeemed by Christ.
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