When suspicious, we use them to keep someone at bay, or perhaps point an accusing finger in their direction.П€part 3 Where is Jesus in the book of Zechariah?įrom the first rock Simon and to us today, we are Peter, and Jesus bless us with Matthew 16:17-19, Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. When hospitable, we use them to warmly receive those in our presence. When confused, we extend them in bewilderment, as if asking for advice and direction. When desperate or frustrated, we throw them wildly in the air, perhaps also in resignation or dismay.
When afraid, we use them to cover our face or hold tightly to someone for protection. When uneasy, we sit on them to obscure our inner selves. When guilty, we hide our hands or hold incriminating evidence from view. When angry, we clench our fists, threatening harm to others. Either from embarrassment or fear, they would keep them stuffed in their pockets, hidden from sight behind their backs, or nervously twiddle them in a variety of annoying ways. When I taught homiletics (how to preach), one of the most difficult tasks was getting young preachers to use their hands properly. The human hand gives visible expression to so many of our beliefs, feelings and intentions. If we are commanded to dance, kneel, sing and speak when we worship, what possible reason could there be for not engaging our hands as well? 4.
We will have glorified bodies forever in which to honor and adore our great God. But we are not, for that reason, any less physical beings.
We must think rightly of God and love him with our heart and soul and mind (see Matt. Paul couldn’t have been more to the point when he exhorted us to present our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” which is our “spiritual worship” ( Romans 12:1).īy all means, we must worship with understanding. We are embodied souls, and are to worship God with our whole being. I will with my body, declare your worth.”īiblical Christianity celebrates God’s creation of physical reality (after all, he did pronounce it “good” in Genesis 1). In one particular wedding ceremony I performed, the woman was from England and asked that I include in the vows one particular part that goes as follows: The body, they say, is little more than a temporary prison for the soul that longs to escape into a pure, ethereal, altogether spiritual mode of being. The body must be controlled and suppressed and kept in check lest it defile the pure praise of one’s spirit. Gnostics focus almost exclusively on the non-material or “spiritual” dimensions of human existence and experience. Among other things, it endorses a hyper-spirituality that minimizes the goodness of physical reality. When I’m asked why I believe in the lifting of hands in worship, I will often say: “Because I’m not a Gnostic!” Gnosticism, both in its ancient and modern forms, disparages the body. I also have a question: Why do you assume that the appropriate place for your hands is at your side and you need an explicit biblical warrant for raising them? Wouldn’t it be just as reasonable to assume that the appropriate place for one’s hands is the lifting of hands toward heaven, calling for an explicit biblical warrant (other than gravity or physical exhaustion) to keep them low? 3.
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