09 June 2009
On the Lord's Prayer
One of the most comforting "a-has" from Kleinig's work was that the prayer "forgive us our trespasses" is our Lord's own prayer. He has become so one with us, that He owns our sins as His own and stands with us to plead forgiveness. It reminds me of the beautiful passage from Giertz in the Treasury today about the dying knight: "The God who had come down into all this, he was very near. It was good to have such a God." He similarly invites us then to own each other's sins, and to pray for their forgiveness as for our own for it is the same. I am reminded that in the original form of the Jesus prayer, there is the definite article: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, THE sinner." As it is true that "In Adam we have all been one, one huge rebellious man" so it is true that "Thy strong love it sought us still and sent Thine only Son, that we might hear His shepherd's voice, and hearing Him, be one."
I found today's writing in the Treasury to be less theological and more reflective. The servant is very theological from an Islamic perspective. I was expecting the knight to tell the servant all about the saving work of Jesus, instead we read the author's reflections. There may be a disconnect here, as I am not familiar with Bo Giertz. Can you give me a sentence or two on who he is?
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for the post. It caused me to go back and re-read today's writing!
speaking of prayers and forgiveness, consider Kleinig's "Prayer: God Speaks to Us" in CPH's Lutheran Spirituality Series. I just taught the first class this morning and he opened up Matthew 7:12 (Do unto others...) in a whole different way than I had ever seen it before - all through the little word "So" ("oun" in Greek), which takes you back not only to verses 7-11, but also 1-6. Pray God to deal mercifully with other peoples' sins as you would have them pray God to do with yours.
ReplyDeleteand I really liked the Giertz selection, reminding us that not only our Christ has before been where we are now, but is with us where we are now. Though I was a little confused because I had the same expectation as Aaron.
Bo Giertz was the Bishop of Gothenburg in Sweden. In our circles he's best known as the author of Hammer of God. CPH recently published a daily devotional from his writings.
ReplyDeleteHe goes into the same *Grace Upon Grace* - I loved that section!
ReplyDelete