Lord and His Prayer

Rating:
Summary: Scholarship and Devotion Clasp Hands
Review: Elsewhere, Wright has provided the most exaustive and compelling historical treatment of the historical Jesus available. In this brief work, he shows what this historical understanding means for those who would pray this prayer.

I took this book as my lent book this year. I decided that I needed to improve my prayer life. I still do: I doubt I shall ever not need to pray, "Lord, teach me how to pray." Yet, this book achieved the invaluable service of bringing alive the prayer I have known by heart since before I can remember. Could one hope for more?

Rating:
Summary: UNDERSTANDING THE PRAYER IN ITS HISTORICAL SETTING
Review: If you come to this book expecting to find another brilliant historical theological treatment, as in NTPG & JVG, you may be somewhat disappointed, but you will find some very suggestive material and some of his unusually excellent analogies or twist of phrases. Though the book is a popular treatment, which began as a series of sermons, Wright does approach the prayer as understood in its historical context, and sees it as a lens through which to view Jesus himself and understand his vocation. He deals with six of the prayer's key phrases pertaining to: the Father, Kingdom, Daily Bread, Forgiveness, Deliverance, and Power & Glory.

He acknowledges that, in some sense, the use of the word "Abba" (Father) may indicate a boldness of addressing God as "Daddy" and a deep sense of personal intimacy with God [as Jeremias claims]. This, however, he argues, was not the most important thing about Jesus' use of the word. For Jesus, based on its O.T. background, it primarily was a word used in God's freeing Israel to be his sons and calling her to be his own people with a unique mission of salvation for the world. Thus, to pray to God as Father means to acknowledge our liberation and the boldness to carry on the Kingdom mission.

As in his other works, Wright stresses that prayer for the Kingdom to come is to acknowledge that it is a "this-worldly" ("on earth") reality, an event that happens within history, through Jesus. As his followers, who have been captivated by his music and cured by his medicine, we are to sing his song and apply his medicine to a world that is offbeat and sick.

The prayer for daily bread, he claims, must be understood in the context of the Messianic banquet and the festive meals Jesus shared as a deliberate sign of the Kingdom's presence. It is equivalent to saying: "Let the party begin" [or should we rather say, continue]. He also stresses, again, as in his other works, the "physical" reality of our existence, and that this prayer is a request to our Father to continue to provide us with daily sustanence for our lives in the Kingdom.

Prayer for forgiveness is not, he tells us, simply a request for forgiveness of trivial matters that daily occur, but rather, that we remain within the life of the new exodus--the liberation of the sons of God. And, as the second clause reminds us, we are only to expect forgiveness if we are ourselves forgiving others. The two are mutually dependent.

There are three levels of meaning to the request to be delivered from Evil: 1) escape from the great tribulation and dealing with Evil itself [this was a bit confusing; apparently Jesus has already deal with Evil itself, so we don't have to, at least not in the same way]; 2) it is a request not to face temptations we are unable to bear, and 3) it is a petition to pass safely through the testing of our faith.

In the final chapter, on the power and glory, Wright shows how Luke's Gospel contrasts two kingdoms throughout his work: that of Augustus, Roman Emperor, and the young Prince of Peace, born in an obscure province fifteen hundred miles away in a little town that just happened to be the one mentioned in prophecy about the coming of Messiah. The real power and glory rightly belong, not to the rule that had to establish itself by killing plenty of people and even more to maintain itself, but to the rule of the one who brought peace to all, without harm to anyone, through the cross. We are all left with the question to answer for ourselves: Which rule is the reality, and which the parody?