More from "Sacred Wounds" in Let the Bones Dance by Marcia W. Mount Shoop.
As we deepen our embodied understanding, we ask questions with a more finely tuned ear for the sacred and the profane. How does the church embody it sacred character? Are we fulfilling a sacred purpose in what happens in church? What is sacred about our spaces, practices, and expressions of church? Opening ourselves up to new practices, new music, and new movement can feel like a desecration, an abomination of what is sacred. I have heard in numerous churches the sentiment that the sanctuary is "desecrated" when people clap or when we use a different kind of music in worship. Our attempts to recognize the sacred in our midst and in our modes of church is dangerous work in a disembodied faith.
The new or the 'out of the ordinary' has a way of stopping folks in their tracks. It is as though we cannot go there because that is not how it has been among us up until now. And yet, as we begin to see how wonderful we can be as a diverse people within one body, we will see how important it is to hear and see and take part in praise and thanksgiving that may be outside of our usual practice. No doubt, some will not go along with these kinds of 'changes' to the pattern we know. Then again, some will find themselves blessed in seeing and hearing the Good News wrapped up in the midst of a new texture of an experience. Connection: What seems to be most wonderful about experiencing something new in worship is the simple fact that we begin to see beyond ourselves and how this love of God grabs hold of others and the response to that love differs - and yet it is all focused on God's action. Here we see ourselves in you, O God of New Life. Even when we enter into strange environments you are available and pull us more closely to one another. Amen. |
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