Monday, September 17, 2007

Brains and bodies

As reported by Justin Taylor, a number of modern thinkers in the Reformed movement are discussing Federal Vision over at Daryl Hart's blog.

This particular quote by Doug Wilson made me smile: "There is a marked tendency in the modern Reformed world to think that God gave us bodies so that we would have something to walk our brains to church in." I had a vision of a headless man walking to a white-washed country church holding a bit of twine with his head tethered to it like a helium balloon.

More seriously, the quote brings to mind Ephesians 4:1 where the apostle Paul urges the church to "live a life worthy of the calling you have received." As Christians, we are called both to know our calling and to live our calling, to both mentally assent to truth and to incarnate truth with our bodies. How satisfying that we can honor the Lord with all we are.

2 comments:

Simple Joys said...

This weekend we went to a "Black" church. Adriel, who invited us, had assured us that we would not be the only whites there. Out of 2200 souls in attendance we thought there might have been a dozen white people! :-) It was a cross cultural experience on many fronts, but there was one uniqueness that I am thinking of because of your post. In the church service this congregation "embodies" their beliefs. They started the service with a great processional of red clad individuals heading to the choir. The theme was the Blood of Christ. During the sermon people around the congregation would say amen when they agreed. Then they would lift their hands. And then some would stand to their feet - making a physical statement of their agreement with an aspect of the sermon. They would stand a while, and then sit as the preacher moved to another point. At the end of the sermon circles of people - mostly ladies - were gathering around another lady. I could not understand what was going on - Adriel explained that they were "acting out" the sermon. And of course there was a huge amount of swaying, alot of dancing, some running a circle around the inside of the church building and an altar call (for application of the sermon) that a quarter of the congregation responded to. And then there was the salvation altar call and the church membership altar call. These people do not just sit in the pews - they use their bodies for more than just to hold their brains.

Heather@Cultivated Lives said...

What an awesome thought - loving God with EVERY part of who we are...