buckeyematt2 wrote:
I don't think "lifting holy hands" to pray is analogous to the passage in 1 Cor. 11 about the veiling. If I may suggest, the proper analogy you're looking for comes right after the passage about the veiling, for Paul is talking to them about the traditions or ordinances that he has taught them. If the veiling is not necessarily for today, then logically, it would seem, neither is Communion. Maybe we should stop observing that, and be like the Quakers. (Or not).
(I don't want this to be read as if I'm speaking with an angry tone).
I tentatively agree with silentreader's and John MacArthur's interpretation of "lifting up holy hands", and with Josh's comment about it - that it is never laid down as a specific tradition or ordinance. But I also think there might be another of the traditional Anabaptist "7 ordinances" that's more analogous to the brief instruction of "lifting up holy hands", one that could be interpreted in the same basic way. That would open another discussion though.
After I shut down last night, I thought of this other "sort of command", and I suspect that it is the same one Matt is talking about here. But I'll go ahead & open the can of worms, because it is commonly taught as an ordinance (at least in our congregation), and as a command of Scripture - "the holy kiss". The context of this "command" seems to be of a similar type as the "command" to "lift holy hands in prayer".
But on to my main thought last night. We as humans are made up of a single being. Regardless of whether one takes a dichotomist or trichotomist view of human make up (or a singularity view as I do), I think we can agree that there is a very close tie between the body and the 'soul', or 'spirit'. So the postures of prayer do something in our innermost being, there is some sort of communication going on, and so kneeling or prostrating oneself (or raising the hands) produces a corollary response on the spiritual level. But there are as many injunctions to kneel or 'fall on your face' as there are to lift hands, so the thing that bugs me about those who try to get the congregation to do the latter is that they never ask the people to kneel. (Falling on your face would not work in the public setting, but I think that all of these are proper expressions in private prayer, including, dare I say, dancing.)
[Edited to add: I am not a woman, but I would suspect that wearing a veiling of sufficient size that one would be aware of it being there would also produce this same type of corollary response in the spiritual plane.]
Congregation: Gospel Haven Mennonite Fellowship, Benton, Ohio (Holmes Co.) a split from Beachy-Amish Mennonite.
Personal heritage & general theological viewpoint: conservative Mennonite Brethren.