We’re in our next book for Theology of Worship, A Body of Praise by David O. Taylor. In the first two chapters he gives the premise of what the book is about and why it is necessary. At first, it seems strange to have a whole 12 chapter book about why we need to use our bodies in worship, but as Taylor was explaining it, I found myself saying, “No one talks about this!” The need comes from the passive formation we have been absorbing from our worship services rather than the intentional, purposeful teaching we should be getting from our churches.
When I consider how I have engaged my body in worship, I consider the different ways Taylor describes how we interact with our physical bodies. I think I respond in a physical way of lifting hands, clapping, kneeling, doing the physical things the psalmists talk about over and over again. So, I know how I interact in my biological body, as Taylor would put it. I think the ways he talked about cultural body and social body was interesting. That there is value in the various was we interact and whole people, and that being a whole person is not just realizing your more than a walking brain, but you’re a person in relation to other people.
I have been blessed with a church culture that celebrates people, and a church culture that is welcoming of emotion. These things feel like counter-cultural elements of church. I grew up in a church that celebrates each other, and emphasizes rejoicing when other rejoice and mourn and others mourn. And, the church I have been going to for the past few years welcomes emotions in a unique way. It is almost cultural for them to emote in some sort of way, which has pros and cons like anything. But, for me, that has been a freeing experience and an encouragement as being a part of the body. In terms of social body, I realize that I do carry that into worship subconsciously, and often not deliberately. I am just formed socially and how I am formed gets transferred into worship as well. I think of it in moments like how I worship differently when I’m standing next to my parents vs my girlfriend. Or how I worship when I just had conflict with a friend, or just resolved conflict. All of those things are things I actually do carry physically or in my body. This was eye-opening for me because someone gave language to the ways I interact subconsciously to the Body of believers, to my body, and to Christ.
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