Ack! Raising our hands in worship!
Posted on July 15, 2009 by dsnoke |3 CommentsEvery now and then I encourage people to raise their hands in worship. Generally it hasn’t “taken”. Typically at City Reformed you will see just elders raising their hands during worship, not many other people. Why not?
I have heard various things from various people. One line is to say that people are reacting against the over-emotionalism of other churches. Raising hands seems “fake” to them.
Ok, sure, there are churches that go overboard. But should we reject biblical practices just because others use them in the context of other things we don’t like? Raising hands is entirely scriptural: see Psalms 63:4, 119:48, 134:2, 141:2, 143:6, Lamentations 2:19, 3:41, Isaiah 1:15, and 1 Tim 2:8. The general symbolism is one of humility and prayer, of being “empty handed” before the Lord and “beseeching” him. It is an “open” body position that makes us feel vulnerable.
We also stand in worship, and bow our heads when we pray. If other churches also do those things in an overly pretentious manner, should we avoid them? Should we not sing, because other churches go overboard with singing?
In fact, I think some people do hold back from singing, for maybe the same reason that others don’t ever lift up their hands. It is not so much from not wanting to be fake, but from feeling “that is not me.” And I think that is really more what is going on with people not raising hands. We have a very “western, academic” culture in our church. It doesn’t feel “natural” to us. In other churches around the world, we would nearly be mocked as the “frozen chosen.” (It is hard to imagine us ever becoming a truly multicultural church if people from other cultures coming to our church feel they are standing with a bunch of static fenceposts!)
I don’t want to force anyone to do something they aren’t comfortable with. But I do want to encourage people to stretch themselves a little. We were given bodies and we are told to worship God with our full selves– mind, body, and spirit. Using our bodies just a little, to stand, and raise our hands, can help us feel more like our whole person is worshipping God.
This brings me to another line of objection I have heard. Isn’t there a slippery slope? If we say we should use our bodies in worship, where do we draw the line? Should we run around, bark like dogs, etc?
A great presbyterian principle is “decently and in order”. We encourage people to do things together in worship, in unity as the leadership directs, not randomly and in response to whatever feeling we have.
A good principle is this: we should use our bodies, but our minds should direct them, not be led by them. Some churches seem to interpret any feeling from their bodies as “the leading of the spirit” and end up nearly running amock. We need to decide what is honoring to God with our minds, and then do it, whether it feels “natural” or not. That is a key point: to refrain from lifting hands because it doesn’t “feel” natural, is to be controlled by your body and not your mind, no different from the person who acts on every impulse to jump and shout.
A better reason not not lift your hands would be if you decided that it really isn’t what God wants you to do. But I hope you will look at the Scriptures above, and consider that this fairly worldwide and historical practice is indeed a way to honor God , even if it stretches you out of your western academic mold a bit.