{"id":617,"date":"2020-02-14T15:27:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T15:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/chaplaincy\/?p=617"},"modified":"2020-02-14T15:27:15","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T15:27:15","slug":"the-body-language-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/2020\/02\/14\/the-body-language-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The body language of God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
by Paul Judson<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I came across a really interesting image recently. Mark Oakley calls Jesus \u2018the body language of God\u2019<\/strong>. I think that\u2019s a pretty good way of describing who Jesus is for us.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that body language is a very powerful communicator –\npeople will often pick up more from our body language than from our words. What\ndoes it mean for Jesus to be God\u2019s body language?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We might think about the way Jesus used his body – his gentle\ntouch, lifting a sick girl to her feet – his urgent action, turning over the\ntables of the money changers, his breaking of bread and sharing of the wine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are things we can imagine Jesus doing – and things we\ncould never imagine Jesus doing. That\u2019s a very important window into what God\nis like. Michael Ramsay said \u2018God is Christlike and in him is no\nunChristlikeness at all\u2019.  So if we can\u2019t\nimagine Jesus killing someone, that might make us question whether God would\never kill people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We might also think about the way Jesus experienced his body\n– enjoying good food, walking long footpaths, feeling thirsty and hungry,\nlaughing with friends, being exhausted and sleeping. His spiritual life was\nlived out through his physical life – although that isn\u2019t always what you see\nin religious art. We can make a false distinction between what is Godly and\nwhat is human. Did Jesus fart? I imagine that he ate his share of beans, so it\nseems pretty likely. And God wasn\u2019t less present in him then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other things which Jesus experienced in his body\nwhich tell us very important things about God – he felt longing, anguish,\ndespair, pain. His body was beaten, tortured, and eventually hung up to die.\nBodies are fragile, vulnerable – what does that tell us about God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this is true for Jesus, what about us? We are called to be\nthe body language of Jesus. You may know this prayer by Saint Teresa:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ has\nno body now on earth but yours,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

no hands\nbut yours, no feet but yours;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours are\nthe eyes through which to look out Christ\u2019s love to the world,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours are\nthe feet with which he is to go about doing good,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yours are the hands with which\nhe is to bless us now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our faith is not just a head thing or a heart thing – it is\nlived out through our bodies. That\u2019s true whether we like it or not We communicate\nthe life of God in us firstly through our bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how can we live that prayer? Maybe we could try loving our\nbodies more. They are an amazing gift – not just to us, but to God. That might\nmean taking care of them – but it won\u2019t mean punishing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And maybe we could try letting our bodies do more of the\ntalking. Not easy for some of us! I saw a wonderful video recently of a woman\nspending time with a person in the later stages of dementia. Most of the way\nthat she communicated love and care was through the patient, gentle use of her body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And perhaps we could begin by praying with our bodies – standing, sitting, kneeling, noticing how we feel, trusting that as we breathe in God, so we allow him to breathe his life out through us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at your hands\u2026 the strength,\nthe tenderness\u2026 How have your hands been a gift to you today? How does God use\nyour hands?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We give our hands to you, Lord\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel your feet on the floor\u2026 Where\nhave they taken you? Where might they? Can you offer them to be led by God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We give our feet to you, Lord\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you close your eyes, be aware of\nyour face. The way you communicate through it – the way God communicates\nthrough it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We give our face to you, Lord\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might like to explore focussing on other parts of your body in prayer, following the same pattern…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came across a really interesting image recently. Mark Oakley calls Jesus \u2018the body language of God\u2019. I think that\u2019s a pretty good way of describing who Jesus is for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}