Exhortation, Fourth Advent

God created our bodies; He will redeem our bodies and raise them from the dead; and in between He calls us to ?present the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness?Eand to ?offer your bodies as living sacrifices.?EOur bodies are gifts from God, and we should offer them for His glory.

Our bodily postures in worship are important. Worship is in part training in the proper approach to God. Worship not only teaches how to ?present the members of our bodies?Ebut trains us to do so. Worship is spiritual calisthenics, and not just for the soul.

In fact, our whole worship can be seen as a series of changes in posture. As we come into the presence of the Holy God, we humble ourselves by kneeling for confession. When God pronounces His forgiveness, we rise to rejoice and raise our hands in praise. As He speaks to us, we sit as disciples or rise up to hear the good news. God invites us to sit at His table for a feast, and then we stand in readiness to receive His blessing and to be sent into the world.

Let me mention one particular posture change in our new liturgy. In the past, we stood for all Scripture readings, but now we sit for the OT and epistle readings and stand only for the gospel. Does this imply that the Gospel deserves our respect in a way that the rest of Scripture does not? Is standing for the Gospel, as Chris Schlect put it, the liturgical equivalent of a Red Letter Bible?

Standing to hear God?s word is certainly appropriate, but sitting is also a posture of discipleship and learning. Mary, for instance, sat at Jesus?Efeet to listen to His words (Lk 10:39). So there is no disrespect in sitting to hear the OT and epistle readings. Moreover, the Gospels do have a certain primacy in Scripture. All Scripture is God?s Word, but the events recorded in the Gospels are at the center of our redemption, recording the acts of the incarnate Son. Everything in the OT points to Jesus, and the epistles of the NT all explain the meaning and effect of Jesus?Elife, death, and resurrection. Standing for the gospel is a way of acknowledging the centrality of Jesus for our faith.

Finally, standing to hear the Gospel symbolized our joy and reception of the good news of Jesus?Ecoming. When a dignitary enters a room, everyone stands; the gospel announces that the Lord has come, and we stand to acknowledge that we believe He has indeed come among us. Standing to hear the Gospel reading hints that each worship service is a celebration of Advent, a fresh acknowledgement that the Lord has come.