Ultimate Allegiance
The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer
By Robert D. Cornwall
Energion Publications P. O. Box 841
Gonzalez, FL 32560
www.energionpubs.com
2010
Copyright © 2010, Robert D. Cornwall
Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U. S. A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2010, Robert D. Cornwall
EPub Edition
Print edition ISBNs:
ISBN10: 1-893729-84-2 ISBN13: 978-1-893729-84-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010942570
“Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
From the Editors
The Areopagus is a hill in Athens that was once the meeting place of a Greek council. Paul preached on that hill while visiting Athens, presenting the gospel to the Athenian council and converting one of them (Acts 17). It thus provides an excellent name for this series of booklets that examines important issues in understanding Christian beliefs and developing sound Christian practice. Each booklet is intentionally short – less than 80 pages in length – and provides an academically sound and biblically rooted examination of a particular question about doctrine or practice or an area of basic Christian belief.
The Areopagus series is orthodox in doctrine but not bound to the doctrinal statements of any denomination. It is both firm in conviction and irenic in tone. Authors have been chosen for their ability to understand a topic in depth and present it clearly.
Each book is rigorous in scholarship because we believe the church deserves no less. Yet the volumes are accessible in style as we also believe that there are many pastors and laypersons in the church who desire to think deeply and critically about the issues that confront the church today in its life and mission in the world.
In keeping with these convictions, the authors in this series are either professors who are also actively involved in ministry, pastors who have not only thought through the issues but whose ministry has been guided by their convictions, or laypersons whose faith and commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ and his church have contributed to the Great Commission Jesus gave to all of his followers (Matt. 28:18-20).
The Areopagus Critical Christian Issues series is not only meant to help the church think differently. We hope that those who read its volumes will be different, for the gospel is about the transformation of the whole person – mind, heart, and soul.
We take the words of the apostle Paul seriously when he says to the Athenians that God “has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).
Allan R. Bevere
David Alan Black
Editors
Acknowledgments
Every book is the product of a team of individuals. They may not have written the words or even be responsible for the content or production of the book, but each in his or her own way has influenced and helped craft the finished product.
In the case of this book, I must first thank the editors for this series, Allan R. Bevere and David Alan Black, for their willingness to welcome this contribution to a series that wrestles with critical theological issues. I’m especially appreciative that they have been willing to expand the notion of orthodoxy to include the musings of one whose theology is perhaps to the left of theirs. I’d also like to thank my publisher, Henry Neufeld, for his work on this project and for seeing that publishing can be a ministry as well as a business. Henry’s ministry is to publish books that cross the broad middle of the Christian faith so as to broaden the conversation. Being that I come out of an ecumenical tradition, and have traveled a rather intricate pathway in my own spiritual journey, it is good to find a publishing home in that vast middle of the Christian faith. And as with my editors, I appreciate his willingness to include my perspective in this series of books. Finally, I offer a word of gratitude to Jerry Gladson, who carefully read through the text and provided needed and helpful guidance.
Because these reflections on the subversive nature of the Lord’s Prayer began as a set of six sermons, I must extend a word of gratitude to the congregation who received these words and who have encouraged my ministry of writing. So, to the people of Central Woodward Christian Church, who graciously attended to the sermons, allowing me the freedom to develop my understanding of prayer, and this prayer in particular, even if they didn’t agree at every point with my take on the subject, I extend this word of appreciation. I must add a word of thanks to the congregation for their willingness break with tradition, and instead of reciting the prayer, we sang it.
A final word goes to my wife Cheryl, whose love and encouragement has enabled me to pursue a ministry of writing over the length of our marriage.
Pentecost 2010
Preface
Prayer stands at the center of the Christian experience. At its simplest, prayer is a conversation between a human being and God, but surely it is more than this. Prayer, after all, takes a wide variety of forms, both simple and elaborate. While prayer has a vertical dimension, uniting human beings with the divine, it also has a horizontal dimension. As with the two great commandments, our prayers link us to God and to neighbor. If taken seriously, prayer is more than simply telling God what we humans want to have done on our behalf (or on the behalf of a friend or relative). It is a statement of trust and commitment, by which we declare our ultimate allegiance to the God who receives our prayers. There is something subversive about such a prayer, for it puts us in a position to engage the world in which we live in freedom from the ordinary constraints of culture. That kind of prayer can be empowering and world-changing, for it allows us to see things from a different perspective – a divine perspective.
Prayer that is subversive is prayer that engages “the powers that be.” As Walter Wink puts it:
Those who pray do so not merely because they believe certain intellectual propositions about prayer’s value, but because the struggle to be human in the face of suprahuman Powers requires it. The act of praying is itself one of the indispensable means by which we engage the Powers. It is, in fact, that engagement at its most fundamental level, where their secret spell over us is broken and we are reestablished in a bit more of the freedom that is our birthright and potential (Wink, The Powers that Be, p. 181).
Prayer is a foundational practice of the Christian faith, one that connects human beings to the one who holds our ultimate allegiance. Prayer allows us to respond to the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, who has invited us into a covenant relationship that transforms lives and worlds. As we do so, we join with Peter, who declared to the religious leaders of his day: “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29). When we acknowledge our allegiance to God, we will find the source of our identity and the freedom to live lives that reflect that identity.
There is, for Christians, no clearer expression of this allegiance than the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. It is a prayer that has been passed down from one generation to the next. For some it has provided a model prayer, and for others