tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4000642393175378494.post3473670956459914077..comments2023-09-15T04:44:05.493-07:00Comments on Crumbs at the Feast: Why I Go to WorshipNeil Ellis Ortshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12055904122133673244noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4000642393175378494.post-45586181392746738692009-06-19T11:21:05.769-07:002009-06-19T11:21:05.769-07:00Thanks for this, Neil. I found your comments very...Thanks for this, Neil. I found your comments very interesting, in part because I do not find it difficult to stay away from Sunday morning services, and DO find it difficult to get at what is meant by "worship" and how the latter has anything to do with Christianity. What I am hearing is that community may be the most compelling reason for being there, but that what makes this community gathering different from others also has something to do with the power of "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." The reason I find this interesting is that it begins to get at why regular "gathering" might be such an important part of the Christian tradition, and it does so in a way that separates that question a bit from the question of "going to church," which for the life of me I can't manage to connect with the gospel.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00062229629532985594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4000642393175378494.post-49758657529353255032009-06-13T21:44:23.879-07:002009-06-13T21:44:23.879-07:00I think the "needing you to sing sometimes&qu...I think the "needing you to sing sometimes" is part of what I was getting at when I said we sing to each other with some hymns, but you say it more directly. <br /><br />There is a song by the group Over the Rhine that has a line (and I don't remember the song title just now, only that it's on one of their earliest albums) that says, "you are a singer, too. Carry me like a tune." I always found that almost unbearably beautiful, to be carried like a tune. I suppose there are days when congregational singing carries me. Hymnody as buoy.Neil Ellis Ortshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12055904122133673244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4000642393175378494.post-77073104612949401622009-06-13T10:09:07.063-07:002009-06-13T10:09:07.063-07:00I like the relationship and community aspects of y...I like the relationship and community aspects of your "where else would I sing" comments, Neil. There is also something in the relationship of MY needing YOU to sing sometimes. I think the corporate-ness of needing others around us -- singing and praying and present -- is a piece of the relationship.<br /><br />I am always struck by the frequent first comment about worship being the size of the assembly -- "lots of people today" or "attendance was down today." Interestingly, I hear the same comments often about an Astros game. It speaks of a need for community, I think, as well as a little bit of feeling good about being where others are and "where the action is" and hearing the crowd.<br /><br />We do NOT need that for worship, of course. "Where two or three are gathered..." is not a crowd. But people's experience often seems to be enriched when they/we are surrounded by others and feel the energy of "the crowd." I can't ever remember someone saying that they didn't like a full house.<br /><br />I guess it is always good to know one is not alone.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02571218431542013820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4000642393175378494.post-12965322869890784562009-06-13T06:38:44.005-07:002009-06-13T06:38:44.005-07:00Bridget, in seminary, our homiletics and liturgy p...Bridget, in seminary, our homiletics and liturgy professor bemoaned the fact that "erotic" has come to mean only that which stimulates the lower regions of our abdomen. He, too, spoke of the erotic as being broader, referring to a wider set of sensual experiences. Hence, walking through a rose garden or by honeysuckle might be spoken of as an erotic experience, assuming the scent of rose or honeysuckle is something that causes you to stop, breathe deeply, and gives you that overwhelming sensual response. Of course, food can do the same. I wonder if you don't experience something that might be called "erotic" when you run. <br /><br />So, it might be a topic. The sacraments are an obvious connection to the erotic. It's why some of us react so well to incense in worship. (We'll never have it at Salem, though. Too many people cry allergies at the mention of it.)<br /><br />We'll see what I do in coming weeks . . .Neil Ellis Ortshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12055904122133673244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4000642393175378494.post-64054516230209558482009-06-12T09:42:53.164-07:002009-06-12T09:42:53.164-07:00Neil,
Your post seems to tie in with a discussion ...Neil,<br />Your post seems to tie in with a discussion that our book study at Grace was having yesterday, at least in my mind. Mind you, this is a book study at Grace, so not what you'd be reading at most other Lutheran churches. We had read and were discussing an entry in an anthology of writings of bisexual people of faith. Though I understood the writer's intention to say that there is an intertwining of passions, intellectual, spiritual, and sensual, including sexual, I was having a diffucult time with her use of the term erotic. Ok, you're wondering where I'm going with this, but I'm getting there. I finally got it that she was using the term 'radical erotic' to encompass the wide range of arousals that we experience. She also referred to a description of eroticism from Marian Valverde in Sex, Power, and Pleasure as mutual empowerment. That is what I see you describing in your worship experience, singing together. <br />The writer also described her attachment to worship, particularly the liturgy and sacrament,as both utterly sensual and completely spiritual, tying into her previous discourse on the erotic. So, I almost want to dare you to take up this idea of eroticism in your writing about your experience of the sacraments in worship.bridge2peacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07156843433442269430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4000642393175378494.post-39638449131842101472009-06-12T06:26:03.657-07:002009-06-12T06:26:03.657-07:00thanks, Neil! i think you've articulated very...thanks, Neil! i think you've articulated very well a lot of our need for corporate worship and how we benefit from it. it's also a testimony against the rampant individualism of our culture. 'we are His Body, the chosen of the Lord!'beckyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05694631529963454519noreply@blogger.com