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Our Father in Heaven
Wright, Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey in London. Like many volumes written by scholar/preachers, this book began its life as a series of sermons—and here, a series on the prayer that our Lord left for us. OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN If we are serious at all about our Christian commitment, we will want to learn and grow in prayer. When we kneel down or settle in the quiet chair that serves as our personal place of prayer; when we’re walking along, or riding in the train to work; whenever we pray, this is what we are coming to do: to pursue the mystery, to listen and respond to the voice we thought we just heard, to follow the light which beckons round the next corner, to lay hold of the love of God which has somehow already laid hold of us. We want all this, at our best, not because we selfishly want, as it were, to maximize our own spiritual potential. To think that way would be to import into our Christianity a very modern, materialist, self-centered ideology. No. We want it because we know, in our heart of hearts, that we want the living God. We want to know him; we want to love him. We want to be able truly to call him Father. — N. T. Wright, THE LORD AND HIS PRAYER. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996, p. 11. ISBN 0-8028-4320-4 [This is not to say that we are not often drawn to our knees when we are in desperate physical, emotional or spiritual need; but rather to suggest that at the heart of prayer is communion with God (as a needy and adoring child with a loving father). The ultimate goal is not to have more stuff, or even to feel better about ourselves; but to long for His will to be done in our lives, to find our satisfaction entirely in Him.] Have a great week, Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.carlstam.org www.sbts.edu |