Stand or Kneel: Does it Matter?

From: Randy Daugherty Stephenville, Texas

I noticed an example of this at a singing recently.  The chorus of a particular song says, “And I stand, I stand in awe of you.”  When we got to the “stand” part…you guessed it…we stood.  I have been in many congregational, group and retreat settings in which people traditionally stand when we get to that part of the song.  Do we stand “in awe” at that point or do we stand because the song says “I stand”?  That’s the $64,000 question, isn’t it?  But, something happened later that sets this in bold relief.  We sang a song that had the words, “I bend my knees in praise…” and “I raise my hands to you”.  The second song called for bodily expression – just like standing in the song a few minutes earlier – but…we sat still.  There was no “bending of knees” and no “raising of hands.”  Our comfort zone (familiarity zone, conditioning, practice) has allowed for – even encouraged – standing as THE appropriate expression.

Bending and raising are just as plain linguistically, but our social norms have conditioned us to put a premium on standing.   Why do we defer to one action and exclude the others?  Plainly, we are more comfortable with the one action than we are with the other two.  I suppose at stake here is what we are actually doing in song.  Are we singing out of nostalgia and a herd mentality or have we truly chosen to give physical expression to what is in our hearts?  Bending and raising can be dismissed as strange and perhaps “showy.”  Of greater concern here is how traditionalism has affected how we think about what we are “actually” doing when we are singing.  And…that’s just one example.

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What Christmas is all about: Featuring Linus Van Pelt

Luke 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14″Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Merry Christmas To All

Green Beans

Several years ago, my Aunt Claudia sent me a short note written on the back of a label from a can of green beans. Along with some brief newsy comments about health and family were these words, “The beans will be the closest you can get to my mother – add ham or salt pork – cook about 2 hours – until all the liquid has boiled out.”

They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” (The same thing must be true of a bean can label.) No one has the time or patience to listen to me tell all about my grandmother, but let me share one picture and a few words with you.

In our collection of snapshots is one of Grandmother Bullard and two year old Marty at the “duck pond” at Spring Lake Park in Texarkana. Picture in your mind a small, gentle woman, her back bent with age and from years of tugging and lifting a crippled giant of a husband, bending even lower to help a small child feed the ducks. Every time I see that picture it seems to me like I’m looking right into heaven.

Consider Jesus’ words in Luke 13:34: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” The image is unmistakable.

God left us a picture too. In John 14:9 Jesus said, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…

Like my grandmother, Paul was a living picture. In Galatians 2:20 he said, ” I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We see the Father through the Son. There are many out there in the world that do not know God because they have never seen the picture.

Do you know anyone who has never seen that picture? Are you showing it to them?

 

 

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