Happy Thursday! Have you washed your ashes off? I did as soon as I got home. Not sure what this says about me. I already know I am vain.
The Ash Wednesday service I went to yesterday was at 10:30 am. I had another worthy activity (watching my nephew play baseball- baseball fields are my family’s other church) in the evening during the time of my church’s service, but I really wanted Ash Wednesday worship. In serendipitous fashion, my son texted me about an early service that happened to be 6 minutes away from where I was at the time (according to Google maps) at a local (gorgeous) Episcopal church, so I headed that way.
Of course I was late because - parking. But I made it, and a kind lady showed me the way into the sanctuary, where an usher in a suit (I love a man in a suit) handed me a bulletin and sent me on my way. I found a pew and sat back to worship.
The service was beautiful, OF COURSE, because Episcopalians know how to bring the Word with some old world music and their gorgeous liturgy. Methodists are no strangers to liturgy, but we are more hit-and-miss1, whereas the Episcopal church, I think, uses the liturgy in basically the same way every service. The choir was an ensemble from the school attached to the church, and let me tell you, children’s voices will lift you up right quick, and also calm you down, at 10:30 in the morning. As I told my husband, this was no “Jesus Loves Me” by the cherub choir. This was legit Mozart and Handel in Latin, my friends. I love that this kind of music is being kept alive and to hear it from the mouths of babes added an extra dimension to worship for me.
ANYWAY, in this service that was a little different from what I am used to, I especially loved the kneeling part. This is where I am going with all this. (I know you were wondering). I don’t think Christians kneel enough. Other denominations joke about all the “stand, sit, kneel” Episcopalians do, but I think there is something to it.
As you may know, Episcopal churches have kneelers attached to their pews. Kneeling isn’t just something you do after you take Communion at the front of the church if you feel moved. It is an important part of the worship service, enough so that a mechanism is built into the furniture for this purpose. It seems from my limited knowledge that you kneel whether you want to or not. (Kind of like in a contemporary service you stand for THREE SONGS IN A ROW whether you want to or not).
I mean, I knelt and I had just had a knee injection (I did back off a little because I don’t think God wants us to be stupid). And it felt good inside. It felt good to assume a posture of what I believe is repentance and also humility. To take a beat and acknowledge God’s superior wisdom and understanding by “bending the knee”2 and to let God be in charge for awhile.
Here is my takeaway. I don’t think kneeling in prayer is done for God. God doesn’t need for us to kneel. WE need it. WE need to assume a physical position that acknowledges God is bigger than we are, literally and figuratively. Sometimes I fear we think God is angrily waiting for us to kneel, or stand for three songs, or attend the correct church at the correct time and say the correct words. But I don’t think so.
I think the various rituals and patterns in every denomination and expression of Christianity- or really any spiritual tradition- help us, the worshippers. God is glad of our worship of course, but God doesn’t hold it above our heads to do things a certain way. The ways we worship give meaning to US. And I think kneeling may be one of the best and most overlooked ways of acknowledging that God is able to do more than we ask or imagine.
All of this may seem obvious to y’all, friends, but in participating in yesterday’s service and writing about it just now, it is an “aha” moment for me.
See you tomorrow with a Friday recommendation!
Methodists love us some leeway. But that’s another article for another audience.
Can’t resist a Game of Thrones reference.