Christianity is not just an “in your head” kind of thing. What we think and what we decide to do are both important, but there is much more going on than simply what is happening in our minds. We are called to follow Jesus, and in so doing, we use our whole body. We offer each other a handshake or a hug at the Peace. We sing our praises to God. We come forward to the altar. We pray while standing, sitting, singing, or kneeling. Sometimes we just breathe a silent prayer. Some of us raise our hands to God when we pray or offer praise. We eat of his body and drink of his blood. Perhaps we genuflect at certain times, or dip our fingers into the baptismal font and cross ourselves. We eat meals together – plenty of them! We serve others with our hands and our hearts. Touching and listening figure prominently in the way we bless and honor each other. Whether we find ourselves at a baptism or a wedding or a funeral or a confirmation or an ordination or a healing service, it is not uncommon for all five of our senses to be involved.

This all fits, because Christianity is an incarnational faith. God took on human flesh. God became one of us. And in the process, the physical became hallowed. Ours is not a faith that sees the physical body as a bad thing. Our bodies are not prisons from which we are trying to escape. No. Your body… my body… any person’s body is designed to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. (“Or 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)

All this makes me think of what we have learned about how people learn. I remember hearing once some statistics that went something like this: people remember 10% of what they hear, 50% of what they say themselves, and 90% of what they do. (The fact that I remember this must mean that it was in the 10% of what I remember that particular person saying that day!) I haven’t retained most of what I have heard from all the lectures that I have heard during my lifetime. But I have a pretty good memory when it comes to family camping trips while growing up, or what it feels like to throw a baseball with my dad or my son, or who I was with and particular things that happened the first time I climbed Longs Peak.

One of the things I have been appreciating in the 3-1/2 years that I have been learning and “playing” with Gay and Katie Hendricks is that they both teach in a way that honors this full-body approach to life and learning. They will teach a concept and then, almost immediately, you are moving around the room and involved in some kind of playful activity that helps you integrate what you are learning. This style of learning is not boring. It’s fun when you and I allow our defenses to drop, forget about ourselves for a while, and simply enter into the activity. This is how children play. They lose themselves in whatever they are doing.

If you are participating in the Parish Retreat this weekend, you will undoubtedly experience some of this kind of learning and playing, because all of the leaders have learned from Gay and Katie Hendricks. Think of what is often now referred to as “muscle memory.” If you tell me to get up on a bike and ride it, that is no problem, because I have had that muscle memory since I was 5. If I get in a car and it has a manual transmission, that’s not an issue, because I’ve been operating a clutch and shifting gears since I was 15. If you hand me a baseball and say, “Fire one across the plate, Pete,” I will probably throw a pretty decent pitch, because throwing a baseball is in my muscle memory. And if I am attending worship in the largest cathedral in Europe, and it comes time for communion, I won’t act confused. I will walk up to the front, just as you would, and drop to my knees and hold out my hands, one on top of the other, and I don’t even have to think about it. Because that little bit of religious practice is deeply embedded in my bones and in my muscles. Not only that, but these things that we do with our bodies help us connect with the God who knows what it is to have a human body.

When we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves, this is what it tends to look like. Love is a full-body practice. (Love that never gets out of the head probably never gets experienced by the other as love, I’m guessing, but rather as more words – and mere words.)

This weekend, we will be learning more about what we can learn from our bodies. We will be reminded of what full-body learning feels like. It will be very incarnational, just as our faith is, for we will be “in our bodies”, and not just “in our heads”. May all of us be open to whatever the Lord wants to teach us, and may our bodies be an ally as we learn, and not a hindrance.

May we know the grace and power of God, as we continue to learn together.

Peter Munson+