Putting God back in the church

In modernity speech about God was a poor amalgam of the secular and the biblical, with the secular eventually crowding out the biblical. In postmodernity talk about God will be impossible without talk about the people of God.

God will no longer be a foundation for morality or existence to shore up our shaky lives but will be experienced as in the days gone by - as his creative, judging, forgiving, loving Word in the midst of the congregation. To hear this Word is to be saved from the powers of death around us and set free from the idolatry so natural to our hearts.

A theology centered around the Word of God rather than the being of God requires subtle changes in our understanding of the key occupation of Christian prayer. Prayer is certainly a conversation of sorts.

Paul told us we should “pray without ceasing”. Surely he did not mean we constantly press our concerns upon God, but that we unceasingly listen for His Word.

A medieval painting of Mary shows her being impregnated by the Word through her ear. This is an image of prayer. Prayer consists in us listening to the Word. It is not something we do occasionally but is a medium in which “we live and move and have our being”.

The seed crystal around which all Christian prayer grows is to be found in the opening of the liturgy: “The Lord be with you.” This desire, particularly expressed in the Gospel of John as God dwelling with His people, is the primary desire of all Christians and the focus of all prayer.

This hope is fulfilled in our listening to the Word, and also in intercessory prayer as hope for the “other”. Thus prayer is a different kind of conversation with an “other”, and different from private thought, which is insulated within the self. It is the opening of the self to the depths of the Word.

The modern paradigm never had room for biblical theology, and the Church’s task now is to throw it off to reclaim faithful speech about God.

This will take great educative effort directed to both the churched and unchurched such is the tenacious hold of modernity on our minds.