The Head and the Body
When the body of the Son prays, it does not separate its Head from itself, and it is the one Savior of his body, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who prays for us, and prays in us, and is prayer to by us. He prays FOR us as our priest, he prays IN us as our head, he is prayed to BY us as our God. Let us therefore recognize our words in him and his words in us."St. Augustine, 5th century AD
Implications:
- Corporate worship and prayer is not merely OUR words, but we are the vocal cord of Christ
- We have always believed this in the case of preaching, and the same sensibility should also apply to praying and praising too
- We put words on the lips of the people of God, and at the same time on the lips of Christ as we pray. So, how should we then pray and praise?
- Worship is Christ giving glory to God through us. So, what is the proper expectation to public worship? The baseline is: it is not about us. It doesn't matter whether we feel good or not.
