Kneeling has been generally seen as a posture for prayer.  A photo on my Facebook page features Jordy Nelson of the Green Packers kneeling on one knee in the end zone after making a touchdown pass.  It was his first touchdown in over a year, He was injured all last season.  The same weekend other players knelt on one knee during the national anthem as a protest.  Kneeling puts one in a vulnerable position.

When we see a number of men kneeling on both knees and bowing to the ground we immediately think of Muslims.  Yet, we often read of just such a practice in the Bible.  In Mark 5, first a ruler of a synagogue falls at Jesus feet and then a woman does the same.  Paul writes in Philippians 2, that the time will come when every knee in the universe will bow down at the name of Jesus.

Once, I filled in at a church where some of the congregation kneeled for communion and others remained standing.  There was a time when Lutherans thought kneeling to be too Catholic.  Perhaps, there had been a division in the church over the posture for taking communion and someone suggested, “What does it matter?”

We do well to first learn the story behind a particular body posture.

From a sermon by Martin Luther, 1523.  It may or may not be relevant.

“God has made provision that we should become holy…in order to make manifest that there is no holiness that which God works in us…You must be holy and yet you must not bear yourself as though you were holy of yourself or by your own merit, but through Christ you have become holy.”

I think Luther is saying, in part, don’t take a posture in life where in you put yourself above someone else, but remember who we are and what we are, is only through the holiness of Christ.