Prayer as Obedience to Mission

ATHEOLOGIAN OF OUR TIME tells us that our dialogue with God is of a precarious nature; it is basically just compensating for our lack of deeper communication and concord with God. If we had never sinned, then loving God and responding to his words would be something natural for us. It is precisely after that first sin is committed that God asks the question, "Where are you? " (Gen 3: 9). Here begins the history of this dialogue we call prayer. In prayer, God makes it possible for us to draw close to him once again, for it is he who asks for us, it is he who calls out to us. We have seen in earlier reflections that this drawing close can happen only by way of the flesh: the good Samaritan "came near" the beaten man (Luke 10: 29-37), and the very Word of God drew close to us by "becoming flesh" (John 1: 14).

When the Word of God draws close to us, we see the essence of obedience: "Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross" (Phil 2: 6-8). The letter to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 to show how this same obedience applies also to the incarnation: "Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do your will, O God' (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)" (Heb 10: 7). This is the obedience of Abraham's "Here I am! " (Gen 22: 1-3), which reaches its culmination in the cry of Jesus in Gethsemane: "Yet, not what I want, but what you want" (Mark 14: 36). In each case, flesh is required, for only flesh can be divested and passed through the crucible of contempt, dislodgment, derision, and humiliation. "Adam, where are you? " asks God, and it is Adam's flesh that must obey the command uttered in that first dialogue with God: "By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread" (Gen 3: 19). The bread that Adam eats will be earned by the sweat of submitting his flesh to humiliation and deprivation. Flesh is required too in Abraham's "Here I am! " to which God replies, "Take your son-your only son, whom you love, Isaac" (Gen 22: 1-2). Even Jesus prays, "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want" (Mark 14: 36).