Random question perhaps but what's up with notion that you are reverencing God when you stand for the reading of His word? I mean a know it's a gesture and a symbol of respect, but symbols and gestures are supposed to reflect the actual condition of the heart towards a thing. So in this case, standing for the reading of the word and yet not obeying the word wouldn't exactly qualify as reverence. Better yet standing for the "reading" of the word, but never actually reading the word on your own is more like hypocrisy than it is reverence. Now I am not opposed to standing for the reading of the word of the Lord when I am asked, but that gesture is more like reverence to the request of the speaker. The truth is that standing when you read the word is a preference whether it's your own, or whether it's requested of you. Reverence is just too tall an order to be accomplished by something as inconsequential as standing. True reverence to the word of God can only be shown through our obedience to it. In John 14:15 Jesus says to his disciples, "If you love(or reverence) me you will obey what I command"...and the irony is that the disciples were probably sitting down.
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Thought provoking! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI agree to an extent. But I think part of it is conforming to conventional behavior. I remember growing up in the church and being made to stand when the word was read. As a child, I did not know why I had to stand, but as I grew up I attributed it to not only reverence but also to conforming to an accepted standard. For instance on any given Sunday, I witness people raise their index finger and bow their head when they walk across the front of the church. On one hand that can be attributed to reverencing God, yet on the other hand it is conforming to accepted behavior. It's possible that some people don't know why they stand for the reading of the Word, just like some people may not know that raising your index finger when you get up to walk around was required by slaves so that the slave owners knew that they were not trying to escape. I know I may have gone off tangent, but some of the things that worshippers do while in church can be construed as conventional behavior, rather than reverencing God.
ReplyDelete-Javius