Hello.
The other day I was listening to a great sermon, so powerful and insightful. At one point the preacher said, “let’s lift our holy hands up to heaven”…
Is it really up? Isn’t it a mistake to look up? Our round rock of a planet is constantly spinning and flying around the Sun and the Sun is flying around the centre of the Milky Way galaxy and so on.
Should we not look into our hearts? Isn’t it where the depths of God are hidden?
Otherwise, “up” is a grave misconception and dangerous error? As there’s no such thing as “up”, it’s nothing but a flat-earth optical illusion…
It's equally as problematic to look inside ourselves as it is to think God exists "somewhere up in the sky". The reality is God is everywhere at all times, He is everywhere and fills all things. But the ancient idea of "the heavens" as the domain of the divine is extremely old, and the Bible frequently employs this language. It's why we read of Jesus ascending into the heavens, or speak of Christ being seated in heaven, etc.
So that language of "heavens" as corresponding to the divine is pretty strong in human imagination and thinking in many diverse cultures. As long as we don't confuse this with God literally being somewhere in outer space, this is fine.
As far as the lifting up of holy hands, that refers to a very ancient and very common posture of prayer in the ancient world. Both Jews and Pagans used it, and so Christians also prayed this way. Hence why St. Paul mentions it when he instructs men to "lift up holy hands in prayer" (1 Timothy 2:8). The proper term for this prayer-posture is known as the
orans, from the Latin word for "prayer".
The most common time the traditional orans is seen is in traditional churches (e.g. Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran). Though it has also become very popular among modern Pentecostal and Charismatic groups as well in the last several decades.
The point of prayer posture (of any kind) is to exercise the body in prayer; hence why traditional Christian worship often includes kneeling, prostrating, and other bodily activity. The body is part of the liturgy. We look with our eyes, we smelll the scents of the incense, we sing and pray with our voices, we kneel, we prostrate, we stand, we hear the sounds. Traditional Christian worship is about engaging all of ourselves, as we come together for the public activity (the meaning of the word "liturgy" is "public work" or "activity of the people") of worship. We gather around Word and Sacrament, every article of liturgical dress, such as the vestments of the pastor/priest, the liturgical colors adorning the altar. Icons or maybe stained glass, or other iconic depictions of Christ, scenes from the Bible, or the saints.
All of this stuff isn't there just to make things look "churchy". Everything has meaning and function. Everything to help facilitate drawing the attention of the assembled Faithful toward God's Word, to Christ Himself who gives Himself in His Word, in the Sacraments. We pray together, we meet one another in peace, we come to the Table of Christ together, we hear the word of God together. And so together we are built up, united in faith, in hope, in love, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
-CryptoLutheran
