Formative, shaping experience of prayer is not in competition with other forms of prayer, it’s in addition, prayer is a many facet jewel in possession of the community of Jesus and it can do many things. Formative prayer that’s meant to shape us through repetition over a long period of time, because when Jesus says, when you pray, pray this way, what he’s assuming is, you pray three times a day, so add this into your daily prayer liturgy, this is what Jesus means when he says when you pray, pray this way. Creating slogans for yourself and goals, repeating things to yourself, that will shape your view of everything, wake up every day and say, our father in heaven, may your name be recognized as holy, it will shape a human life in a very particular way. We’re all shaped by our desires, we’re all aiming at certain desires and this prayer is focusing and directing a person’s desire in a very particular way. Jesus gave his disciples a prayer to shape them and we should prioritize it, to let it shape our imagination.
Jesus composed this prayer, this is Jesus’ prayer, he gave us the prayer that he prayed, he called God father, so it’s not just like Jesus is being our teacher, he’s sharing with us his own heart, this as a way of participating in the experience of Jesus in prayer. In the garden of Gethsemane, the moment of crisis, what comes out is his own prayer that has shaped how he prays and so he submits his will to the father’s will, we participate in the very heart and mind of Jesus, when we walk through these words in this prayer. To get a prayer from the very heart and mind of Jesus, that he composed, that he prayed himself through the course of his adult life, that’s powerful. We know Jesus addressed God as my father, it’s significant that when he shares a prayer with his disciples, he takes his own prayer that he would have uttered to his father, but then he pluralizes it, he includes his disciples within the relationship of prayer that he has with God, my father becomes our father.
Jesus shows, the way he talks and acts, expresses the mindset of somebody who believes their identity is the unique seed of the women, the chosen son of Abraham, the chosen one of David and the son of man, the son of humanity from Daniel chapter 7. This is a unique part of the heritage of what Jesus gave to us in this prayer, is that the unique status that he believed he had as the chosen one, the son of the father is an identity into which he invites his followers, so that my father becomes our father. Our father, so even that little beginning makes a statement that shapes you, it’s a identity shaping prayer, the father of all creation, the source and ground of all that is, that’s the one that Jesus is addressing. The Hebrew Bible makes a claim, that this is a being who originated and sustains every moment and when you speak of God as in Heaven, it’s a way of referring to the Creator not being limited to any place within creation, but the one who’s outside of and above.
At the heart of the biblical portrait of this being named Elohim or God or Yahweh, is that it’s a being who simultaneously is the ground and cause of everything that is, at every moment, sustaining it, but also has allowed creation a certain degree of freedom and independence to run its course with the ideal that creation joins the Divine will in partnership in harmony, in oneness. This idea that there is a place where God is above all and in that high and Heavenly place, there’s this set of ideals where God’s purposes and his power and his will and his name, his reputation is all perfectly upheld in this beautiful ideal way, that is the transcendent space that is not in the system, it’s outside and above and beyond the system. God, who is overall and through all and in all, has created something that is genuinely other than God, namely creation and also as a part of creation a being, who is an image of this God, to whom God has given responsibility and a degree of freedom to carry out that responsibility and authority.
The ideal of what Eden is, is a place where Heaven and Earth are the same place, where the human images rule and live and work and steward creation in harmony and oneness with the Divine will. The exile of Adam and Eve from Eden, down the mountain into the low lands becomes this image of the human rulers charting an independent course, that they want to establish another type of Kingdom, but it’s contested space down here on the land, none of it would exist without God sustaining the whole thing by his Spirit. That’s the way that God is in all and through all, but at the same time he is also above all and that above place, he’s outside the system and there are a set of ideals that all creation will eventually participate in, God’s perfect will and reign is only realized in Heaven, not on the land.
That’s the story in which Jesus sees himself, that’s the only story that makes sense of this prayer, he sees himself within a story where life here on the land is contested space. Jesus sees himself within a story where God has a will and a purpose and ideal that is in the process of being realized on the land, but it’s a process that’s taking place through humans and particularly himself. Jesus claimed within the story around the sermon, that he was the human who was bringing, ushering in a new era of God’s Kingdom and will here on the land as it is in Heaven. This prayer is both naming what Jesus claims to be doing in the stories around the sermon and the prayer, but it’s also an invitation to Jesus’ followers to see themselves as participating in the arrival of God’s will and reign in a particular way.
There’s many ways Jesus could have opened a prayer, but this particular way of opening, situates you right in the thick of the plot conflict. God has appointed images-bearers to bear responsibility for the world to unite it to the Divine will and right now, the land does not harmonize with God’s will in heaven. Jesus is saying, good news, I’m here to lock heaven and earth together in a way they’ve never been before and Jesus want you to join him and we’re going to be part of this. Our father, pray with Jesus, Jesus invites us, our father in heaven.
Jesus composed this prayer, this is Jesus’ prayer, he gave us the prayer that he prayed, he called God father, so it’s not just like Jesus is being our teacher, he’s sharing with us his own heart, this as a way of participating in the experience of Jesus in prayer. In the garden of Gethsemane, the moment of crisis, what comes out is his own prayer that has shaped how he prays and so he submits his will to the father’s will, we participate in the very heart and mind of Jesus, when we walk through these words in this prayer. To get a prayer from the very heart and mind of Jesus, that he composed, that he prayed himself through the course of his adult life, that’s powerful. We know Jesus addressed God as my father, it’s significant that when he shares a prayer with his disciples, he takes his own prayer that he would have uttered to his father, but then he pluralizes it, he includes his disciples within the relationship of prayer that he has with God, my father becomes our father.
Jesus shows, the way he talks and acts, expresses the mindset of somebody who believes their identity is the unique seed of the women, the chosen son of Abraham, the chosen one of David and the son of man, the son of humanity from Daniel chapter 7. This is a unique part of the heritage of what Jesus gave to us in this prayer, is that the unique status that he believed he had as the chosen one, the son of the father is an identity into which he invites his followers, so that my father becomes our father. Our father, so even that little beginning makes a statement that shapes you, it’s a identity shaping prayer, the father of all creation, the source and ground of all that is, that’s the one that Jesus is addressing. The Hebrew Bible makes a claim, that this is a being who originated and sustains every moment and when you speak of God as in Heaven, it’s a way of referring to the Creator not being limited to any place within creation, but the one who’s outside of and above.
At the heart of the biblical portrait of this being named Elohim or God or Yahweh, is that it’s a being who simultaneously is the ground and cause of everything that is, at every moment, sustaining it, but also has allowed creation a certain degree of freedom and independence to run its course with the ideal that creation joins the Divine will in partnership in harmony, in oneness. This idea that there is a place where God is above all and in that high and Heavenly place, there’s this set of ideals where God’s purposes and his power and his will and his name, his reputation is all perfectly upheld in this beautiful ideal way, that is the transcendent space that is not in the system, it’s outside and above and beyond the system. God, who is overall and through all and in all, has created something that is genuinely other than God, namely creation and also as a part of creation a being, who is an image of this God, to whom God has given responsibility and a degree of freedom to carry out that responsibility and authority.
The ideal of what Eden is, is a place where Heaven and Earth are the same place, where the human images rule and live and work and steward creation in harmony and oneness with the Divine will. The exile of Adam and Eve from Eden, down the mountain into the low lands becomes this image of the human rulers charting an independent course, that they want to establish another type of Kingdom, but it’s contested space down here on the land, none of it would exist without God sustaining the whole thing by his Spirit. That’s the way that God is in all and through all, but at the same time he is also above all and that above place, he’s outside the system and there are a set of ideals that all creation will eventually participate in, God’s perfect will and reign is only realized in Heaven, not on the land.
That’s the story in which Jesus sees himself, that’s the only story that makes sense of this prayer, he sees himself within a story where life here on the land is contested space. Jesus sees himself within a story where God has a will and a purpose and ideal that is in the process of being realized on the land, but it’s a process that’s taking place through humans and particularly himself. Jesus claimed within the story around the sermon, that he was the human who was bringing, ushering in a new era of God’s Kingdom and will here on the land as it is in Heaven. This prayer is both naming what Jesus claims to be doing in the stories around the sermon and the prayer, but it’s also an invitation to Jesus’ followers to see themselves as participating in the arrival of God’s will and reign in a particular way.
There’s many ways Jesus could have opened a prayer, but this particular way of opening, situates you right in the thick of the plot conflict. God has appointed images-bearers to bear responsibility for the world to unite it to the Divine will and right now, the land does not harmonize with God’s will in heaven. Jesus is saying, good news, I’m here to lock heaven and earth together in a way they’ve never been before and Jesus want you to join him and we’re going to be part of this. Our father, pray with Jesus, Jesus invites us, our father in heaven.