For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt (ICEWS, eb 08)
‘Father almight, maker of heaven and earth:
“Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breathe of the living God:
Renew me and all the world” (1)
The concept of Trinity was not new to me – actually is not new to anyone. That is the problem with our familiarity with the Gospel and with our Christian Faith: it looses impact.
When I read Tom Wright’s – the author of the prayer above – it gains another perspective. Trinity is not just a nice way of explaining God but it is the whole true about who He is. My eyes were opened to recognize it through all the Scripture and how it interacts with Israel history and with our history.
Earth was created to relate and to interact with heaven. That is the way God created the Universe and that is why sin – our declaration of independence – blocked true meaning to everything. But the God who is love sent Jesus to show us what means to be human and what means to live heaven in earth. He pays the price to reconnect us. The Holy Spirit comes to recreate us, to give us new life and to live within us as a guarantee of heaven here and now.
God as a We is a new old idea for me. Yes, I knew it. But it never made so much sense as now.
He is a We because there are Three Persons in His community. But he is a We also because I was invited to be part of His community. He is a We because He included me in His community in earth and with others we are dancing His dance.
That is why I was baptized in the Name – singular – of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I was included in His world and He was in mine. He – they – came to live inside of me and I was invited to live His life.
We Word of God’s mouth came to flesh in Jesus and now the Word inhabits in me through the Holy Spirit.
I worship God because Jesus opened the way, but it is the Holy Spirit who leads me.
Jesus showed me the way to live and to serve. He gave me the example. He make the way to God. The brought the Kingdom of God to earth. But without the Holy Spirit I have nothing to say and I have nothing to give.
‘Father almight, maker of heaven and earth:
“Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breathe of the living God:
Renew me and all the world”
(1) Tom, Wright, The Prayer Of The Trinity: New Tasks For A Renewed Church (Lond: Hodder, 1992)
