And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all, they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Kos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Potara, And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we had come in the sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit, they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey. And they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship. and they returned home. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Our Lord in heaven, open our ears to hear the voice of your son, and open our hearts that we may follow him wherever he leads. We ask in his name. Amen. When the elders of Ephesus bade farewell to Paul, there was much weeping and embracing and kissing. And in this way we are reminded of our humanity and how our salvation does not consist in the Lord delivering us from our humanity, but in his taking our humanity to himself. It is the mystery of our faith. He was manifested in the flesh. The invisible became visible. The immutable became mutable. The eternal was born. Strength was made weak. God became man. He did not come to deliver us from the body, but to redeem it. In assuming our nature, he has sanctified it, body and soul. He has so united our humanity to himself that he will never part with it. The flesh he received from his mother in her womb, the body in which he was born of her, It is this same body in which he was baptized, in which he hungered, in which he suffered, in which he was crucified, in which he died and was buried and rose again. It is the same body in which he has ascended into heaven and in which he will come again. We cannot overemphasize the importance of the body. Without the body of Christ, our faith is in vain. What was it that the resurrected Christ showed his disciples before anything else? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. On the day of his resurrection, our Lord offered his body to the disciples. And though we do not now see him, he does the same for us. For still he is made known to us in the breaking of bread. And of that bread he says, this is my body. As we lay hold of the bread, we touch him and see. And taking the bread, we embrace him and he us. And putting it to our lips, we kiss him and he us. And every tear that we weep, he promises to wipe from our eyes. As we see the elders of Ephesus weeping and embracing Paul and kissing him, we now understand where this joining of bodies and this communion of love begins. It begins with our Lord. It begins with our partaking of the bread. As the Apostle Paul has written, the bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. our life together in the body. It is informed, it is shaped by our life in Christ. As we become one with him, we become one with each other. As we commune with him, we commune with each other. As we learn to weep in his presence, we learn to weep with those who weep. As we learn to embrace him and be embraced by him, we learn to embrace one another. As we come to know the kisses of his mouth, we learn the holy kiss. with which we are to kiss one another. As we see the elders of Ephesus weeping and embracing Paul and kissing him, we see in them the life-giving body of our Lord. Sustained by his body, they sustain one another. And so we see that the life of the church, it is shaped and formed by her worship. The church's liturgy shapes and forms not only how we love God, but also how we love one another. Our worship shapes and forms our life together. And if that life is anything, it is a life in the body. It is a life of presence, a life in which we are present to one another, in which we give ourselves to each other. We should never think of ourselves as disembodied souls. We should never think that the life of the mind is all that matters, as though our faith consists only in a set of doctrines to learn and believe. If we are tempted to despise the body or to diminish it, When at last we come together again and the bread is broken, our Lord once again shows us his hands and his feet. He shows us his hands that were stretched out upon the cross, drawing us to himself. And as we are conformed to his likeness, We stretch out our hands to him and to each other. In all of these ways, we see the importance of the body. It's importance to our faith. It's importance to our life. We see how our Lord took to himself our body. that he might make us a part of his body. And we see the importance of the body in yet another way. In Acts 20, verse 36, we read that when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And again, in Acts chapter 21, verse five, and kneeling down on the beach, we prayed. In both of these verses, we find not only that these disciples prayed before parting, but also that they knelt down to do so. They knelt down to pray. And so we ask, why did they kneel? And was it important? As we consider these things, we look to the Old Testament for help. In 2 Chronicles 6, we read of the completion of the temple We read of that day on which Solomon dedicated the temple to the Lord. And in Second Chronicles, chapter six, verse 13, we read that Solomon knelt down on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven and prayed. And in Psalm 95, verse six, we read a call to do the same. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. In both 2 Chronicles chapter 6 and in Psalm 95, we find the people of God drawing near to his house and kneeling before his presence. To kneel in prayer is to kneel before the Lord. To kneel in prayer is to humble oneself before the Lord. To kneel in prayer is to show him reverence. Now, we have said before that one of the purposes of the Book of Acts is to show how the church has now become the house of God, how the church has become the temple of the Lord, the place of his presence on earth. And now we find yet another way in which this is shown to us. As these disciples are gathered together with the apostle in their midst, together they kneel down to pray. And why? Because the Lord is in their midst. Because wherever they are gathered together, He is present. They kneel to acknowledge his presence. They kneel to humble themselves before him. They kneel to show him reverence. What are we to learn from this? What are we to learn from this? But that we should do the same. We said that the church's life together is shaped by her worship together. That the liturgy of the church shapes the life of the church. Why then do they all kneel to pray except that they have all learned to kneel in prayer? And it is not here alone that we see this. We see it in Acts chapter 9 with the apostle Peter when he prays to the Lord. And we see it in Luke chapter 22 when our Lord Jesus Christ prays to his father. They all kneel to pray because they had all learned to kneel in prayer. But must we? I will not say that we must. For one may kneel while his heart is proud. Another may stand while his heart is humble. But is it best to ask, must we? Should we not rather ask, why not? Why would we not? If it was the practice of the church, if it was the practice of the apostles, if it was the practice of our Lord, why would we refuse to kneel in prayer? We are embodied creatures. Christ came to redeem not only the soul, but the body as well. And we see the body redeemed. when it is given to a holy use. When in the body, we humble ourselves before the Lord. When in the body, we kneel before his presence. Let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord in heaven, we ask your blessing upon your word, that by it we may be washed and cleansed and conformed to your son, We ask in his name, amen.