Start your day off with prayer. A devotion will be posted six days a week. On Sunday, there is no devotion posted since we gather all together at 10:00am on that day. Please hit share to offer these devotions to your friends.
Morning Prayer – Psalm 93
Phil,
This is not in response to anything particular about this psalm but in general about your series. I’ve been wanting to ask this for a while but I’ve forgotten. So, here it is: Why do you conduct your morning prayer in a seated position? Do you not think that this could be interpreted as a bad example? I can understand that sitting for you is done for filming purposes, but as I hope that your series is meant to encourage people to pray in their home lives and daily, people will often mimic what you are doing. So, if you are seated, is it unreasonable to assume that they are also seated?
Prayer should never be done in a seated position (unless, of course, one is simply unable to stand); one should always be standing with fear before God. I’ve never liked it when people of my own parish actually sit during the litanies. How dare you sit, comfortably, and beg God for mercy! OUr posture of prayer is every bit as important as the prayer itself. We should be free from distraction. Standing increases our “response” time and frees us from whether we are comfortable or not.
Chris,
Honest question: do you think that standing is even the best posture? Wouldn’t our “fear” and “awe” and “worship” be better suited by being on our knees or being prostrate? I understand posture setting a tone and being important…but at the end of the day do you think God is overly concerned, with how one went and prayed to Him or delights in the fact that one has come to engage in the relationship that He longs for us to have with Him? I am not trying to be rude or arrogant, but simply ask genuine questions.
Tom,
The posture of prayer in both the Jewish and Christian traditions has always been to stand. Prostration and kneeling are a part of that, but the most consistent posture is that of standing. Is God overly concerned with these things? I’m not God so I won’t speak for Him, but I will say that the Lord Jesus said to worship God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength. That is more than simply a mental activity. All of your very self is to be involved in the action of prayer. To take the body out of prayer is nothing short of having a very gnostic approach to the spiritual life, where the body is removed in favor of the mental/spiritual. Now, of course, for those who are weak or infirm and cannot stand, they should not. But for those who are able, I honestly believe that most of them do not simply because they are lazy and are more interested in comfort.
Chris, the scriptures speak of people praying in all sorts of postures. Standing, kneeling, sitting, laying prostrate, and laying down in bed. You are worried about many things. But only one thing is needful.
Phil,
Forget the Scriptures for a second and look to the tradition of worship/prayer in both Judaism and orthodox (notice, small “o”) Christianity. Prayer has always been conducted in the standing position with space given for kneeling and prostration. Sitting in the presence of God was not allowed (Exceptions of course for the infirm or weak) hence why no seats were ever in the churches, East or West, prior to the Reformation which turned church time into lecture time.
Your response, Phil, also betrays what I think is very dangerous about modern day Christianity especially in the reformed and evangelical camps: you think that concern for things like rubrics or postures or dress or any outward expression of piety should be tabled in favor of more “spiritual” concerns and that, as I responded to Tom, is to bring in a dualistic or gnostic mindset into the mix. If you relegate what the body does in prayer to an unimportant status, then it begs the question of why did Christ assume a body for Himself? How we conduct ourselves in the body is important.
And don’t give me this crap about only one thing being needful. That is a pars pro toto approach. There is no holistic sense. Shouldn’t prayer be rooted in that? I’m trying to argue for the complete picture and you’re bent on just one thing.
Chris,
Did you really just say, “forget Scripture for a second”? If scripture gives us multiple ways of how prayer was done and our tradition only allows one or two ways….that what needs to be adjusted? People sat all the time in the presence of Jesus while listening to him. Jesus sat himself. The gathered church met in homes originally and we know that part of what they did as they gathered was share a meal…which probably meant that for part of the gathered church’s time of worship they sat and reclined and offered thanks.
I feel strongly that the body is important. From how we can incorporate it into prayer, to the types of food we consume that affect our body, to the exercise that we give to our body. Our body is very, very important. And hopefully how you eat and how you exercise reflects the holistic approach to the body that you claim is important.
I don’t think Phil has ever communicated that matter is evil and the body is a prison to escape from…he is arguing using Scripture as his primary way of understanding postures of prayer and you are, seemingly, placing tradition a little higher. Tradition gives us a great history, insight, etc. into how things were done or seen by a long swath of believers down through history…but tradition can lead us in wrong (or incomplete) directions if we are not careful.
Tom,
First of all there is no difference between tradition and Scripture. Full disclosure: I’m Greek Orthodox. For us, there is no Scritpure AND tradition, but tradition of which Scripture is a major component. We speak of tradition in Scripture and/or Scripture in the tradition, but we do not divorce the two.
With regards to the Scriptures where people pray in various positions, that is, frankly irrelevant. The posture of prayer has always been one of standing in the worship of the temple and the church (And since I’ve said this a number of times already, this will be the last. Please don’t argue against it. That IS FACT).
your assumption of what occurred in the house churches does not stand up to historical scrutiny either. You’re far too rooted in the reformed tradition that rather than have the historical (i.e. traditional) evidence convince you, you try to invent your own history.
One last thing, I noticed that Phil has not responded to my last comment about my (correct) charge that many Lutherans (maybe most) and other Protestants and especially evangelicals frame the faith almost exclusively in “mental” or “spiritual” terms which leaves the body wanting. Prayer should incorporate the whole material and mental self, not one or the other, but both. Siting during prayer is more mentally convenient. If the purpose of prayer is communion with God and a transformation of the self, that transformation should be for the whole of what we are–body and soul.
And I wonder, Phil, for how much of the church service is the congregation seated? Why not just have them sit for the entire thing if it really doesn’t matter?
Okay Chris, I will not argue against you or your fact(s)…i will stop inventing my own history…and i am not sure why Phil hasn’t responded to your absolutely correct charge.
And yes, there is sarcasm in that statement. Simply because you declare something to be right or true (even from your own studies or the traditions passed down to you) doesn’t make it so….we all know very well instances where the church has been wrong regarding a tradition, a thought, a position passed down.
I understand from previous posts (and this one) that you minister in a Greek Orthodox setting…that is cool, it really is. However, your words drip with vitriol, arrogance, unkindness and self-righteousness a lot. I think you like knowing that your are the smartest guy in the room…for what it is worth, you are probably 10x smarter than me. You are. I wish I had the knowledge that you have. But with all that intellect you are not interested in dialogue but a monologue. You are a smart guy, but you seemingly lack humility.
I don’t say these things because I am at a loss to defend my positions against your charges(i may be right on some things, i certainly will be wrong on a number of things; however, the older I get the less things I am sure about and the less I am willing to “go to the mat over”) But you have already made up your mind that the only opinion worth considering is your own and the only voice that has any ounce of measurable truth belongs to you and you alone. You seem to have little room for discussion and if you do want dialogue you certainly have an odd way of expressing that desire.
I wish you would be interested in more honest dialogue because, like I said above, you seem to be one smart dude that could offer a lot…but your tone and manner seem to get in the way of a nice give and take, back and forth conversation.