The Challenges to Embodiment

I'm sitting in the Salt Lake City International airport, on my way home from joining the good people of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah for their 2024 discipleship conference: Rooted in Jesus, Vital in Worship.  My husband Donnel I were invited to participate as leaders in this event, sharing paperless music practices on behalf of Music that Makes Community in hopes of empowering communities to tap more deeply into the well of vitality already present whenever God's people gather to worship. 

In our Saturday afternoon workshop, we invited participants to share what they were noticing and wondering, after spending the morning experiencing the practice of singing together "MMC style."   Some themes that emerged from the participants' observations included:

• Accessibility--Many participants noticed the relative ease with which many people were able to enter into participation in each new song. One participant with a background in education observed with appreciation how the practices welcome the participation of folks with a wide variety of learning styles. At the same time, participants observed how the limitations of our physical environment and our own individual bodies sometimes constrained mobility in ways that limited accessibility. 
• Heart Engagement--One participant described how the repetitive nature of many of the songs enabled her to experience a sense of spiritual/emotional freedom as feelings that had been "stuck" began to move more freely within her. "I've cried more in the past 3 hours than I've cried in I don't know how long!"
• Trust and Patience--Participants sensed how essential both trust and patience are when inviting individuals and communities to share in what might feel, to some, like a "new" way of singing together. (I put "new" in quotation marks, because while the practice or sharing songs via oral tradition might feel "new" to some individuals and communities,  this kind of song-sharing is in fact one of the very most ancient, foundational practices underlying human communication and human community.) 
• Where do we start? --Many participants were inspired by the experience of singing together in this "new" way, but had lots of practical questions about where to start. What could be an effective point of entry into this experience for my particular community? 
• ANXIETY--Many participants recognized ANXIETY as a primary challenge to embracing this style of leading/sharing/learning/singing songs together in community. Folks wondered things like:  How can I overcome my own INSECURITY or EMBARRASSMENT as a leader?  Why does the invitation to participate in this experience make me so ANXIOUS? Why are we all so AFRAID to use our voices? So AFRAID to move our bodies? The various anxieties participants expressed, seem to be rooted in the existential challenge of EMBODIMENT. 

Why is it SO HARD for us to inhabit our BODIES (in worship, in leadership, in life) in ways that feel authentic, and strong, and safe, and free, and faithful, and true?

This is a REALLY Important question, especially for those of us whose faith is rooted in the saving mystery of the Incarnation: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us... (John 1:14)

I didn't have time during our workshop to adequately address this question. If I'd had more time, I would have liked to say to those gathered, especially those who expressed a simultaneous longing for and fear of/resistance towards more freely embodying their worship: "Don't blame yourself! It's not your fault!"  

Both religious and secular forces have been at work throughout your entire lifetime--and for centuries and millenia before that--to distort your self-perception and constrain your freedom as a human being, created in God's own image, redeemed by Christ's own body and blood, sanctified by God's own Holy Spirit.   

Empire and Church, alike, have colluded in this destructive deception. From early childhood we are bombarded by messages that tacitly and explicitly tell us that our bodies exist to consume, produce, and perform; to please or disappoint or dominate others.  We are so hyper-aware of our bodies as objects of other people's gaze (and judgement) that we lose our sense of our bodies as a primary locus of God's self-revelation--the primary vessels by which we can receive, experience, and share God's love, liberation, and life.

Do you not know that your body is a temple* of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Even when we know and believe, intellectually, that our bodies are temples of God's Holy Spirit, it can take a while for that knowing to sink into our hearts and transform our habits.  If you long to embody your prayer and worship more whole heartedly, unselfconsciously, and unapologetically, but you find it a challenge, that's not because there's something wrong with you!  That's because you are only human.  You are holy and beloved and capable, but you are NOT more powerful than capitalism, or patriarchy, or religion, or empire!  

But do not despair!  Because  capitalism, and patriarchy, and religion, and empire, and fear, and shame, and anxiety may be more powerful than you are, but they are NOT more powerful than Jesus Christ, the Living Body in whom we all live and move and have our being (Act 17:28)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)

So take heart.

Step up.  Step out. Sing out. 

Lift up your hearts. Lift up your hands. 

Trust. Try. Be Patient.

​And remember, friends:

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

With love,
Sylvia+