Spirituality is...a Bended Knee

Baines:  Have you even bent your knees, Malcolm?.
Malcolm X:  Yes, when I was picking a lock to rob someone’s house
Baines:  Tell Allah that.  (Malcolm tries to kneel but can’t bring himself to do it.) You can grovel and crawl for sin but not to save your soul. Pick the lock, Malcolm. Pick it!
Malcolm X: I want to. God knows I want to.
         “Malcolm X” directed by Spike Lee.

In many of the world's religious practices, the bended knee holds a special place and spiritual value. Whether it is kneeling in prayer, the lotus position, sitting with someone and holding hands or bowing in faith -- there is something powerful about bending your knees. Most people talk about kneeling before God as an act of submission to God, and the physical acknowledgment of who God is in relation to who we are.  But, kneeling or bending the knee has a lot more advantages and purposes than reinforcing the fact that God is bigger than us. Bending your knees offers a host of spiritual lessons.

Flexibility 

I don't know about you - but I don't have a problem kneeling down on the floor. The problem I have is getting back up! I am always grateful I don't go to a church that practices kneeling in prayer during its Sunday worship because the moaning and groaning it takes to put me back in standing position would ensure me a seat in the narthex or our choir would begin to repeatedly sing "dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones!"  I am simply not flexible.
   "You should try yoga," some helpful person will say.
   "I love yoga," I respond. "Except for all the falling down and screaming."
   "That has never been a part of my yoga class," they say.
   "Then you've clearly never been there with me."
 Flexibility isn't just something good for the body. It's good for the soul too.

Inflexibility is one of the things Jesus strongly opposed when he talked about the Pharisees dedicating themselves to the "letter of the law, but not the spirit."  Too often people have confused worshiping the "One God" with enforcing the "one way" - one way to think, one way to be, one way to know.  Yet the bible describes itself as the "living word" and what do we know about living things? The more flexible they are - the more suited to both surviving and thriving.

Cats:  Our flexible overlords

That is not to say the Bible can "mean anything" - but it does mean that the more we are open to history, learning, listening and growing in biblical understanding the stronger we become in faith and in life. 

Function

 One of the many things I've discovered since I started gardening is the simple fact that if you want to get your hands in the dirt - you've got to put your knees on the ground. I saw plenty of tools at Home Depot designed to let people stand up while working on the garden, but none of them seemed as efficient or as functional as just getting on ground level and getting things done.

Spiritually bending allows us to be closer - closer to people, closer to the problems, closer to the joy, closer to the work.  That proximity gives us the heart and ability to reach out with God's love and God's empowerment and make things happen in the world. Spiritual bending may mean we have to go places unfamiliar to us, or hear things that challenge us. It may mean we have to refresh our minds and hearts in God more frequently to be clear on what God is calling us to do. Almost always - spiritual bending, like physical bending, will develop our muscles and led to a strengthen of our heart and spirit.  My favorite quote on spiritual bending comes from Rabbi Israel Ben Eliezer (of the Talmud):

"If you want to pull a friend out of the mud, don't hesitate to get a little dirty."

Focus

One of the first things we teach youth workers or people who work with small children is that the best way to instruct them or have a conversation with them is to sit down in a chair or on your knees to be at their eye level. It is much nicer for them to see the adults who are speaking to them than to be talked at from above.However, the benefit is not just for the child - but for the adult too.

Once you get down to that level - you instantly get a sense of how big the world is and how overwhelming it can be. You realize that to spend most of your time looking up at things, not being able to reach things without help, and experiencing most people as a talking set of calves is to be at mercy to the forces around you.  Spiritually bending the knee has the same benefit. You aren't just showing submission to God, but you are reminding your spirit how very big the world is, and how very much we need and long for someone who can reach all the counters, and guide us safely through the things that crowd around us.

There are many postures in faith that give us spiritual abundance. When there is turmoil God wants us to stretch out and rest. When there is injustice, God wants us to stand up and fight. Yet in the day to day relationship we have with God, there is always a time to bend.