In chapters 5 and 6 from A Body of Praise, Taylor begins to explore commonly taught practices, thoughts, and beliefs about worship. He begins chapter 5 by bringing us to maybe one of the most famous passages about worship, John 4. This is where Jesus meets the Samaritan women and tells her that there will be a day where we won’t have to go to a specific place to worship. That when the Messiah comes, he will be looking for the ones who worship “in spirit and in truth.” But what does that mean? What has it meant?
Taylor describes that there have generally been two ways that this passage, or this idea, has been interpreted. The first, which he said is often more common, is that worshiping in spirit and in truth means that God really only cares about our inward act of worship. That worship, or at least meaningful and authentic worship, is accomplished within your heart and mind, and that is it. It is the eyes closed, heart posture of worship. While he doesn’t want to negate this emphasis on heart posture, he believes that there is more to worshiping in spirit and in truth than that. He argues, rather, that worshiping in spirit and in truth is really a reflection of Trinitarian worship. That when we worship in Spirit and in Truth we not only engage the Trinitarian nature of God but we reflect it. This means that worshiping in Spirit and in Truth has to be more than just singing songs with eyes closed, occasional hand raised, and tuning into your heart. Worship has to be more active because God is active, and wholistic like the Trinity is wholistic.
In chapter 6 he approaches another misconception found in Scripture, this time more about our bodies than about worship, but really how the two overlap. He addressed how Paul describes our bodies, or our flesh, in Scripture. He has a lot to say and our Evangelical American church culture has had a lot to say in response to what Paul wrote. Often, within the church, when we hear about our flesh we often think it to be evil, sinful, and wrong, because that is what we believe Paul believes. That is what we are taught. However, Taylor argues that this is not what Paul was trying to say. In fact, if Paul were to see how absent we are from the flesh we worship, he would probably question why we do this. As a church, we have seen how the flesh brings many temptations and limitations, so we culturally decided to just step away entirely, don’t even get close to the stumbling block. But really, Paul is just asking the church to honor our bodies and we engage with them in our lives and in worship. That is what he means when he tells us to be living sacrifices, when he says our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit, he wants our bodies to be renewed like Christ’s. And our world can so easily twist them, in his culture and in our own, but the answer is not dissociate with our bodies completely. We can’t claim to love the LORD our God unless we love him and others with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, aka our bodies!
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