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“Even
worse than that she’s a Samaritan.” (Alice couldn’t
see this was a problem, as she remembered reading somewhere that
Samaritans were good.)
Soon
they could hear what Jesus was saying...
As
Alice and the disciples arrived the woman left. Meanwhile the disciples
tried to get Jesus to eat some of the food they had brought, but
he said to them: “I have food to eat which you do not know
about.”
“Has
anyone brought him any food?”
“My
food is to do the will of him who sent me.”
Just
then some other Samaritans came out of the city, wanting to see
Jesus, because of what the woman had told them about him. After
meeting him they said to her: “It is no longer because of what
you said about Jesus that we believe, now we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this man is the Saviour of the world.”
Alice
was beginning to feel the same. She had heard stories about Jesus
at Sunday School and heard sermons about him in church: they were
sometimes interesting and sometimes helped her, but now having met
him in person, she was sure that they were all true and that he
really was the Son of God
...She
began to walk away through the crowd and once again found herself
sat in a different church, by a window entitled: “The woman
at the well.”
...The
congregation were singing a carol. Then a man got up:
“...they knelt down and worshipped him. Then they offered him
their gifts...”
Alice
wondered if she would be able to take Jesus a gift too if she could
get to Bethlehem, so she searched through her pockets to see what
she could find. There was only a hankie with a picture of a white
rabbit on it (which coincidentally she had had for last Christmas)
and some money, but as it didn’t have Caesar’s likeness
on it, she thought it wouldn’t be of much use. Then she remembered
her local supermarket had something which she knew he would find
useful later in life, green plastic buckets...
THE
BIBLICAL BASIS
FOR MOVEMENT IN
WORSHIP
an article by Frances Pavey |
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One
of the neglected areas of Christian teaching is the understanding
that human beings are a single entity and not a composite of
two or three parts, either of body and soul, or of body, mind
and spirit. This is seen in the resistance there is in the majority
of churches to the use of the physical body in expressing a
relationship with God and therefore in the isolation that Christian
dancers feel within the Church. |
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A
reason for this is the belief that the rational, thinking
part of a person is the most important part, but this is not
a biblical point of view. The words used in both the Old and
New Testament for
body, soul and spirit, show they are referring to different
aspects of a single concept. Basar (Hebrew for flesh) implies
weakness and transience. It occurs in a variety of concepts
including covering for the bones in Ezekiel 37:6, becoming
one flesh in marriage: Genesis 2:24, and simply a relation,
our own flesh and blood: Genesis 37:27.
If
the Old Testament writers wanted to convey the idea of a complete
person - not just the physical part - nephesh (soul) was used.
This conveys a whole range of meaning. It is the word used
to indicate life: Leviticus 17:14, or a human who is responsible
to God, seeks after and yearns for God: Leviticus 5:17, Genesis
27:25, Psalm 42. These are all aspects of a person that Christians
often talk of as being the human spirit, but in the Bible
use of the word spirit is always to do with divine energy
- describing human activity and not human nature. In the Old
Testament ruach is used and this is also the word for breath
or wind, the Spirit of God: Genesis 1:2, the wind giving breath:
Ezekiel 37, and God’s Spirit which brings a new heart
to the people of Israel: Ezekiel 36:26-27. There is no specific
Hebrew word for body, or mind. Old Testament writers used
the words for soul, spirit or heart with no clear distinction
made between the words. It was Greek philosophers like Plato
who set up the mind as the centre of a human being and this
was also the view of Descartes: “I think, therefore I
am.”
In
the New Testament because there is a word in Greek for the
physical body, soma the word for flesh, sarx is used to suggest
sin and weakness. Therefore body is used to suggest the whole
person, who can be presented to God: Romans 12:1, and in which
the Spirit dwells: 1 Corinthians 6:19. Psyche (Greek for soul)
means the whole of an individual and is regarded by Jesus
as more important than food or clothing: Matthew 5:25. It
includes emotion: Mark 14:34, Matthew 12:18. As in the Old
Testament the word spirit, pneuma is used for God: John 4:24,
for Jesus: 1 Corinthians 15:45, and the activity of God in
our lives to bring spiritual life: John 3:5. Nous (mind) does
not signify a separate part of a person which is superior
to the rest of that person, but it includes their emotional
aspect. Biblical evidence is to regard a human being as a
single entity. They do not have a soul, they are a soul. The
Hebrew undestanding of humanity wasn’t that they had
a body, but that they were a body. It is with this understanding
of body-soul that Paul writes of the body as being a temple
for the Holy Spirit: 1 Corinthians 6:19.
Dance/movement
is the way to experience a re-integration of body and soul
and so is a means of bringing wholeness and healing to broken
lives. This has long been recognised in secular therapy, but
the Church has so much more to offer when movement is used
as a way to open up lives to the healing power of God.
The Psalms often refer to the whole body as being an expression
of the individual to God: Psalm 35:10, 38:3. Many of the Psalms
also include movement verbs but it has become second nature
to intellectualise these and the intended meaning is weakened.
In a lot of modern churches kneeling to pray and other movements
have been abandoned for sitting. Psalm 30 will communicate
so much more to you if you physically perform the movements
mentioned. Physical movement is an outer expression of an
inner reality and demonstrates the God given unity of body
and soul. It is a way in which we can experience a closer
relationship with God for ourselves; through which we can
intercede for others; an expression of praise and worship.
Within the Christian Church there is one thing that is common
to all people: everyone possesses a body. God created us to
be physical, moving human beings and it should be natural
for each of us to be at home in our body and comfortable using
it as an expression of our relationship with God. To ignore
our physical nature is to ignore part of God’s creation.
“Therefore I urge you...offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual worship”.
(Romans 12:1).
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