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September 17, 2005
embodied faith: worship and prayer
i'm thinking again about how the spiritual world is really not so far away, rather, it is in our existence. our souls are our beings...
when the prophets demanded right worship, it had nothing to do with the religious rituals they were performing; those were essentially the same at anytime that they were doing them regularly. instead the prophets were angry because lives were out of sync with what they were professing in the temple. "ah, you that turn justice to wormwood and bring righteousness to the ground... i hate, i despise your festivals, and i take no delight in your solemn assemblies. even though you offer your burnt offerings and grain offerings, i will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals i will not look upon." (amos 5.7,21,22)
right worship is right living! justice is the actions that maintain the shalom community, where we all realize we are vulnerable people, responsible to one another. righteousness maintains right relationships between ourselves, God, and our neighbors.
worship is to live pursuing God's model of self-giving love. and when God's community comes together to worship, our songs, liturgy, charisma, or whatever happens is only a reflection of our daily worship.
prayer too should be embodied. Jesus says that the point of prayer is not to make a statement of sincerity through our fancy language or long-winded prayers. (matt 6.5-8) God can tell a person's sincerity by the way we are living.
prayer is not only time alone with God. it is also living as advocates for the people we are concerned. what is a prayer without the walk of faith to follow it out? we must step forward to do what we can if we really care.
at the same time, we are finite in what we can do: others also have their own responsibility and decisions that we can't make for them. the well-being of others is not all contingent on what we do or do not do. we trust God to intervene and also work in ways that humans cannot.
and, we don't have it all together either. we need "prayer," this spiritual companionship just as well. our prayer is to walk together in love.
"go and learn what this means, 'i desire mercy, not sacrifice.' for i have not come to call the righteous but sinners." (matt 9:13)
Posted by Derrick at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)