  Foundations of the Faith
Foundations
of the Faith explores
and explains
Volume 33, Number 3, Posted May 22, 2000 |
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This simple observation leads us to the heart of several Christian truths – our salvation, the Trinity, Christian unity and the nature of prayer – all of which are implicit in the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer. Children of God By his sinless life, atoning death and resurrection to the right hand of God, Jesus has made it possible for sinful human beings to be reconciled to God and to call him “Our Father.” Paul describes this reconciliation as adoption. Before the creation of the world, Paul writes, God chose us “to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Eph. 1:4-6). This theme is also sounded at the opening of John’s gospel, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, [Jesus] gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). Those who have been chosen by God and have believed in Jesus’ name for their salvation now possess the otherwise unimaginable privilege of addressing the creator of the universe as “Our Father.” A model relationship To be sure, the nature of Jesus’ sonship differs from ours. We have been adopted into the family while Jesus, God’s only-begotten Son (John 3:16), is by nature fully God. The inner life of the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is one of eternal relationship. It is that intimate family relationship that, by grace through faith, Jesus’ followers are now invited to share with (Rom. 8:15-17) and model to the world (John 17:13-23). The phrase “Our Father” is not a human invention intended to articulate our experience of the divine. Rather, it is the way we have been taught by Jesus himself to describe a familial relationship that is part of God’s own life, a life in which all Christians now share (Col 3:3). The communion of saints Because God is “Our Father,” all Christians are family. To pray the Lord’s Prayer is thus to realize that I am not God’s only child, a realization that has at least two important implications. First, to pray the Lord’s Prayer is to transcend racial, national, social and economic distinctions, not to mention denominational differences. As Spiros Zodhiates notes, “We stand as one family to say ‘Our Father.’ He who stands by himself, not entering into the communion of the saints, not realizing that he is a member of the body of Christ, is not standing in the position the Master would have him occupy.” To pray the Lord’s Prayer is to realize that I have obligations to the household of God. It should be impossible to pray this prayer and not respect the rest of God’s family, or to pray it while bearing a grudge toward another family member (Matt. 5:21-24). After all, I do not pray for “my” daily bread or forgiveness of “my” debts but for “our” provision and forgiveness.
Knowing that my prayers are not the only ones heard by God helps me see that my seemingly unanswered prayers may be the answered prayers of others. Perhaps the rain that did not fall on my crops spared those far downstream a devastating flood. As I pray “Our Father,” I recognize that God’s involvement with the other members of his family goes far beyond my own immediate wants and needs. I do not pray to my own private God but to the God who is the God of “us.” Indeed, the breadth of God’s concern for his whole human creation, not merely the Church, is conveyed by the opening words of this prayer. As John Calvin notes, all Christian prayer should conform to the Lord’s Prayer so that the Christian may “embrace all who are his brothers in Christ, not only those whom he at present sees and recognizes as such but all men who dwell on earth. For what God has determined concerning them is beyond our knowing except that it is no less godly than humane to wish and hope the best for them” (Institutes 3.20.38). Patterns of prayer Calvin’s commendation of the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for Christian prayer raises oft-debated questions about “free” vs. “formulaic” prayers. The Protestant tradition has tended to emphasize free prayer, that is, prayers that are spontaneously composed as they are being offered to God. The Anglo-Catholic tradition makes much greater use of formulaic prayers, prayers from Scripture and the Christian tradition that have often been compiled into prayer books. Both practices have benefits and drawbacks. At its best, free prayer grows out of an intimate relationship with God and a keen awareness of the current situation. But it is equally true a prayer from the Christian tradition may speak with singular eloquence to a specific event and be prayed from the heart. As for the drawbacks, A.J. Cardinal Simonis, archbishop of Utrecht, notes that “The recitation of formulaic prayers also entails certain risks. Prayer may deteriorate into mumbling, automatic repetition, and I sometimes catch myself repeating the words of the prayer without consicously reflecting on them.” (For a review of Simonis' book, click here.) Of course, honest Protestants will acknowledge that the same can be true of the supposedly “free” prayers that they, or their ministers, assemble from a stockpile of evangelical cliches. Simonis also makes the helpful observation that “The most important thing, from a Protestant perspective, is ‘my’ personal relationship with God. Catholics tend to see the Church far more from a ‘we’ perspective.” He further notes that formulaic prayers “form a kind of protection [from] slipping into excessive subjectivity. … So many people have prayed before me, people in whom God’s Spirit has prayed. It is good for the soul to follow in their footsteps.” It is, of course, Jesus’ footsteps that we follow when we pray “Our Father.” Our Father The 17th-century Puritan Thomas Watson succinctly observes, “Father denotes reverence: Our Father denotes faith.” When we pray “Our Father” we testify to our participation with Jesus in the very life of God. We acknowledge that while we are all children of God, no Christian is God’s only child. By faith we confess that we belong to a body of believers that extends into the past and the future as well as being more extensive than we can see at present. On Easter Sunday morning Jesus told an astonished Mary Magdalene, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17). It is by the power of the risen Jesus, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, that we join with Christians throughout space and time to pray “Our Father ….” |
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