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Inverted Theology
two long sections on the greatness of God and the goodness of God, he writes: INVERTED THEOLOGY If we have fully understood who and what God is, we will see him as the supreme being. We will make him the Lord, the one who is to be pleased and whose will is to be done. This reminder is needed in our day, for we have a tendency to slip from a theocentric to an anthropocentric ordering of our religious lives. This leads to what might be called "inverted theology." Instead of regarding God as our Lord, whose glory is the supreme value and whose will is to be done, we regard him as our servant. He is expected to meet all of our perceived needs and to answer to our standards of what is right and wrong. We need to learn from Samuel, whose response when the Lord called him was, "Speak, for your servant is listening" (I Samuel 3:10). He did not see this as an opportunity to pour out his concerns to the Lord saying, "Listen, Lord, for your servant speaks." When we adopt the latter stance, we in effect make ourselves God. We presume to know what is right and what is best. In so doing, we take upon ourselves a great responsibility: to guide our own lives. But it is God who knows what is best in the long run. He is the almighty and loving Lord. He has created us, not we him, and we exist for his glory, not he for ours. We will stand before him in the last judgement, not he before us. If we have truly understood God's nature, then with Jesus our first concern in prayer will not be for the granting of our desires. It will rather be, "Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." - Millard J. Erickson in CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, Second edition, Chapter 14, "The Goodness of God," Baker Books, 1998, p. 326. [I never dreamed that I would be turning to a thick volume of systematic theology for inspiration and direction about worship, but it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Because to worship God, we must first know about God.] Have a great week, Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky |