Approaching the Presence
In 1977, while on a European academic exchange program, I found myself in line to view the preserved body of Vladimir Lenin, brought out from his mausoleum in his glass coffin and on special, open display in Red Square. As we approached, I noticed the heavily armed honor guards demand absolute silence and forcefully pull anyone’s hands out of their pockets. Reverence would be shown.
If early rulers and dignitaries command reverential comportment—even in death—how much more in our churches ought we to show by our comportment respect, honor, and adoration for the Son of God—risen from the dead, ascended into heaven, reigning at the right hand of the Father—who in His Sacrament comes in the very substance of His life-giving Body and Blood to mortal men to forgive sin, strengthen faith, enliven hope, enflame love, and deliver salvation. Hands in pockets, chattering mouths, minds on mundane matters are out of place . . . and can harm the soul.
Physical comportment in the presence of the Flesh and Blood of God is part of the whole-person expression of the essential spiritual worship of faith in Jesus. Faith fears God, loves God, trusts God, honors God, worships God, adores God, especially before the presence of Christ in His Body and Blood.
It is in this vein that Dr. Martin Luther exhorts Christians to adore Christ in his 1523 Adoration of the Sacrament (AE 36: 292-293):
[Worship] is not a function of the mouth but of the whole body. It is to bow the head, bend the body, fall on the knees, prostrate one’s self, and so forth, and to do such things as a sign and acknowledgment of an authority and power; just as people bow in silence before secular princes and lords, and just as popes, bishops, abbots, and people generally, have themselves honored and adored [ehrbieten] by bowing and kneeling, and so forth. Such outward adoration [ehrbietunge] is what the Scriptures really mean by worship [anbeten]. . . . We read in the Scriptures that worship [anbeten] or adoration [ehrbieten] is rendered outwardly both to God and to kings without distinction, just as bowing and kneeling are still rendered outwardly both to God and to men.
From this understanding of outward worship you will also understand what Christ meant by true spiritual worship. It is the adoration or bowing of the heart, so that from the bottom of your heart you thereby show and confess yourself to be his subordinate creature. For from this you see that true worship can be nothing else than faith; it is faith’s sublimest activity with respect to God. For no one is capable of such heartfelt confession, adoration, bending, and bowing (or whatever you want to call it) before God in his heart, unless he unwaveringly holds God to be his Lord and Father, from whom he receives and will receive all good things, and through whom, without any merit on his part, he is redeemed and preserved from all sins and evil.