Review: The Lord and His Prayer

N.T. Wright, in a series that was originally a set of sermons preached at Lichfield Cathedral in 1995, reflects on the Lord's Prayer. More specifically he exegetes each phrase from the prayer and its implication for Jesus people. This short work serves as a introduction to Wright's larger framework emphasizing the Gospel of the Kingdom and Jesus as the victorious King. At only 89 pages it tips the scales as one of Wright's shorter works and is very accessible. Any parishioner would be able to read and greatly benefit from this work. Although it may not seem like it on…

January 06, 2006  |  Permalink   |  TrackBack (0)

The Jesus Train

N.T. Wright uniquely handles eschatology in what I understand to be a much more Pauline sense of the word. In one particular handling of the eschatological story we find ourselves in, N.T. Wright explains how Paul sees the world around us. Paul understood in a radical way on the road to Damascus that God had brought the eschatological future into the present with Jesus. Wright uses the analogy of the train. The Jews, and hence Paul, living in the first century are on a train headed for an ultimate destination in time but suddenly they are met by another train…

January 03, 2006  |  Permalink   |  TrackBack (0)

Fighting with Locked Suitcases

In The Last Word, N.T. Wright discusses how in many circles and particularly in Christian circles we use shorthand phrases to convey a larger truth. As an example he gives shows us how we use the phrase "the atonement." He says: This phrase (the atonement) is rare in the Bible itself; instead, we find things like "the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures"; "God so loved the world that he gave his only son," and so on. But if we are to discuss the atonement, it is easier to do so with a single phrase, assumed to…

December 30, 2005  |  Permalink   |  TrackBack (0)

The Body, Christ's Body

"From the first generation of the Church, eating together was a sign of the breaking down of boundaries between Christians of different groups: Jew and Greek (Galatians 2), rich and poor (1 Corinthians 11), and so on. This was a sign of God's saving justice going out into all the world. When this caused difficulties, Paul was adamant, in the name of Jesus who had included everyone at his table, that unity there was not negitiable. 'We, who are many, are one bread, one body - for we all partake of the one bread' (1 Corinthians 10:17). Sharing Communion together…

December 17, 2005  |  Permalink   |  TrackBack (0)

The Blessing

"The second of the actions is the blessing. Some worry about whether we can or should 'bless' material objects. Isn't that a form of magic? Emphatically not. If Jesus blessed the bread, so can we. To bless it is to pray that it may become, within the rhythm and drama of the whole event, the vessel and vehicle of God's Jesus-shaped love for each recipient and so for the world. God's good creation, longing for its own redemption, is taken up into the saving purposes of God, with past and future rushing together into the present moment." - The Meal…

December 17, 2005  |  Permalink   |  TrackBack (0)

The Meal

"Then comes the first of the four actions: taking the bread. This can be done very simply; or it can be dramatic, with members of the congregation bringing the bread and wine (sometimes called the 'elements', the basic parts of the drama) to the front. Unlike some pagan worship, the symbols of the Jesus-meal are not grain and grapes, but bread and wine: fruit of the earth, fruit of the vine, and the work of human hands. We did not initiate this action; God did. But now, in grateful obedience, we bring these tokens of our own life and work…

December 17, 2005  |  Permalink   |  TrackBack (0)