Wednesday night Bible study always gets me thinking.
I'm in a group in which we are "studying" Hebrews. I say "studying" because we're really "progressing through blocks outlined by NIV Study Bible section headings" -- and we're expected to do so on a schedule, apparently.
I don't object, actually, to keeping a particular pace in a study, but discouraging conversation and discussion on a topic of interest to the class seems detrimental to the assumed aim -- which, I thought, was to study the word of God and apply it to our lives.
I don't know. It just bothers me that a discussion is truncated because the topic has veered from the inner titling of the NIV text.
However, we did get off into another realm, so to speak. We began discussing communion and the question of singing during communion came up. (I guess I should note that I am the youngest in the class by about 25 - 30 years. I guess I should note it, at least; everyone else seems to. Often. I should also note that I love these people.)
Singing during communion.
The leader of the Bible study said it takes the mind off of Christ and his sacrifice. This confuses me since the songs we sing tend to be about Christ and his sacrifice. And how we come to the throne of God in grace and humility. I pointed out that singing and communion are both acts of worship -- and acts of worship are, by nature, to be focused on God. He called this "multi-tasking."
Is it multi-tasking? I mentioned that I pray during communion, too, which is also an act of worship and wondered how that differed. He corrected me: "We pray before the Lord's supper."
We pray corporately before the Lord's supper. I continue to pray throughout. Am I multi-tasking? If singing bothers him, he shouldn't sing. If it, like praying, helps one to focus, shouldn't that one sing? Singing is not, last I checked, compulsory in most services -- a sacrifice rendered to God out of the overflow of oru hearts, sure, but not something to be checked off a list -- or marked off completely.
This is a rant and a ramble and insomnia-induced, no less. Therefore it has no flow and, likely, no point as well. I hope to clean it up at some point, but chances are I won't.
But I DID put something here!
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2 comments:
You are a troublemaker!
I visited a church for the first time this morning where singing takes place throughout communion ... and though I had to drop out of the singing for a moment, I fell right back in after swallowing. It was a new experience. I liked it.
I can imagine what the reaction to it would be at my home church. Yet I will be there next week, Lord willing, celebrating His death and resurrection in the way to which I have become far too accustomed.
No point here either ... except that I hear you.
Q,
I once had a "discussion" with my dad about this very subject. He was a very regimented kind of guy who had trouble with mixing acts of worship together. He didn't think you were supposed to sing during communion, either. It was okay to do everything separately, but not together. Every act of worship needed to be distinct.
So I listened as long as I could and then said, "You never did like cassaroles, either!" : )
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