Prayer and the Divine Community
Thursday, 25 February 2016
| Scott L. Buchanan
Over the weekend, I traveled to a small, isolated cottage near Mansfield, Victoria. The rustic charm and secluded setting made thinking – so often a harried and interrupted process – quite a joy. Rarely does one get the chance to think and reflect in such a relaxed way, without feeling the need to attend to more “practical” matters. Such contemplative times are to be prized, all the more so because they often bear fruit that does not grow in less fertile surroundings.
As I was reading a spiritual classic (by A.W. Tozer. If you haven’t read anything by him, please rectify the situation now), I began to reflect upon certain aspects of my spiritual life. Following Tozer’s words, I wondered whether my conceptualization of various areas of Christian discipleship has been inadequate. More than once, I have been struck by the deep and abiding intimacy he enjoyed with God. Inhabiting Tozer’s world has, I believe, taught me to think afresh various dimensions and spiritual disciplines pertaining to the Christian faith.
Prayer is one such dimension. My thinking regarding prayer instinctively (or unconsciously) assumed some kind of separation between the believing individual and the God to whom he was coming. Not that that separation was judicial or legal, mind you. I am talking about a Christian – someone who had already been justified before God, based upon his faithful reception of the atoning work of Jesus. But I still thought of prayer in terms of coming to God, as if there was some distance one had to travel in order to reach that point. It was as if God was “over there” or “out there”, and it was up to the Christian to make the trek across time, space and the cacophony of everyday life to reach Him who had already welcomed him.
I don’t know exactly when the thought came to me (it’s often like that – a thought can bubble away in the subterranean reservoirs of a person’s unconscious before welling up to the surface, almost fully-formed). Regardless of its origin or length of genesis, the thought was clear: prayer constitutes one’s participation in the divine community that has eternally existed.
I want to unpack this, just in case I haven’t made myself very clear (entirely likely, given my propensity to use several words where one will do). This insight regarding prayer rests upon an acknowledgement of the personhood of God as a divine community and a divine communion. More specifically, what I am referring to here is the Trinitarian community of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Although God is one, it is part of Christian dogma to say that he is not austerely alone. Rather, there exist within the godhead three persons – hence, the notion of the Trinity. We can speak of “they” because of the three-fold distinction. But we can also speak of “Him”, for the three persons are eternally and ontologically one. Whilst there is distinction in activity, it would seem correct to say that there is none when it comes to essence, will or accord.
That deep and mysterious unity is something that is incomparably unique. It is, one might say, uniquely unique, and can be only faintly approximated in God’s church here on earth. Inadequate language and analogies notwithstanding, it is enough for us to say that the Triune God is composed of a communion of divine persons. It is a deep communion that links and envelops each of the three persons of the godhead, and has done so before the creation of time itself. There was never a time when the three persons were separate (Christ’s representative death being an exception, but even there we face the paradox of God and Christ working with one, mutually glorifying accord to achieve the ends for which the cross was set). Moreover, the unique nature of the union within the godhead means that it is a perfect community and communion – one of unparalleled depth, complete harmony, pure love and eternal endurance.
It is in this Trinitarian relationship that a Christian is immersed. Let’s not neglect the fundamental fact of the Christian having been saved into God’s kingdom, reconciled and united to him through the Chief Mediator, Jesus, and the life-giving Spirit that he has sent. Thus, even the foundational act of initial justification involves all three persons of the Triune God. Further – and this is crucial – it can be said that salvation involves one’s entry into the divine community of love that has existed eternally. We are brought into that fellowship by an act of sheer, unmerited grace. John 14:15-20 speaks eloquently about the mutual inhabitation, and mutual participation, that takes place when one receives the life of God. Not only does that person receive the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit; he is drawn into the mutual indwelling of Father and Son (v.20). The depth and breadth of intimacy is something that unfolds over time, to be sure. Nevertheless, it is the kind of intimacy that God has had within himself eternally; a pure, unfettered knowledge that this divine community possesses, and into which one enters upon reception of the Gospel.
What does all this have to do with prayer? As I said, I seemed to have thought – almost instinctively – that the act of prayer meant “coming” to God in a way that assumed some prior separation. And, to be sure, there is an element of “approach” involved in prayer (that, however, seems to be related more to the manner or attitude one adopts when in a prayerful posture). But if it is true that a person saved is a person inhabiting the fellowship that exists within the godhead, then it should impel us to recognize that there is no separation to overcome or traverse when one strives to pray. A person saved already lives within that divine community, walking and living as part of that intimate fellowship. John 14:23 speaks of Father and Son making their dwelling in the believing individual. Already, the evangelist has spoken of Jesus being the new temple of God; here, he seems to be making the startling suggestion that the one who participates in Christ is, by extension, the dwelling place for the Triune God. Thus, not only does a Christian inhabit God; God, in all of his Trinitarian glory, inhabits the Christian (and the church, by the way). Prayer is simply the natural outworking of one’s principled participation within that eternal body. Through prayer, a Christian takes part in a divine conversation that is self-existent and timeless. It does not require him to make a trip in order to find it; he is alreadywithin that revelatory fellowship of love, whether he recognizes it or not.
Prayer is certainly communication with God. But it is communication that is grounded in one’s gracious entry into an already-extant communion that is incomparably rich in wisdom, knowledge and love. A person who has declared Jesus to be his Lord and Savior does not have to move to approach God; he is already, by virtue of that epochal act of divine mercy, a member of this fellowship. Prayer rests upon this truth, and declares its reality.
God does not need a person’s fellowship or his prayers. He is self-existent and self-sufficient. The fellowship he enjoys within himself cannot be added to by the participation of his image-bearing creatures. Nor can they help along his redemptive project. But through his grace, God has elected to draw these vessels of broken clay into his loving embrace, and has granted them a place at the table of divine communion. And, more than that, he has graciously allowed those he has welcomed into his presence the opportunity to take part in his project to redeem his creation. Here prayer takes on an intercessory character, but one should never think that Godneeds it. Both communion within the fellowship of the godhead and intercession for this world are privileges that a person simply receives – the contents of which have already been determined by the One who initiated that process of reconciliation. Consequently, just as the Christian does not have to anxiously strive to enter into fellowship with God in order to pray – precisely because he has it all the wrong way around – so he does not have to strive to think of the will of God and pray it. Being a member of this divine community allows one to receive the knowledge of the Creator-Redeemer, and pray according to a will already established. God’s gracious efforts to restore his creation will be consummated one way or another. It is a mark of loving-kindness that he allows people to take part in driving that vision forward. Prayer is one (very vital) element in that. Just take a look at Paul’s words in Romans 8. There, he not only talks about coming into fellowship with and by the three persons of the godhead; he also speaks of “groaning” in the Spirit, as the sons of God yearn for the liberation that is coming, and has come, through the “firstborn” Son.
For those of us who already follow Christ, the practical implications are numerous. No longer do we need to struggle to enter into God’s presence in order to pray, for we are already enveloped – saturated – within the folds of the divine communion. We wrestle, of course. Sometimes the sin and frustrations of this world do make it difficult. But our wrestling should nevertheless be grounded in and founded upon the prior knowledge that we already exist within the heavenly fellowship. That mutually inhabiting fellowship of Father, Son and Spirit is the one community that is complete in itself, to be sure. But God’s grace in allowing us to enter into it should induce us to joyfully admit the privilege of prayer, rather than railing against the time it requires to engage in it. We do not have to overcome any kind of separation between ourselves and our Redeemer, and any entry into God’s sanctuary is simply a matter of acknowledging a reality that is rooted in the Gospel and began when we gave ourselves to God. Moreover, the fact that we are already members of the Trinitarian community means that the prayerful life is not just a fantasy, or a special honor reserved for a few. It is instead a living reality that we need simply enjoy and declare. It is something we can experience at all times, for the mutual inhabitation of which we are a part exists for as long as we follow Jesus, who represents in himself the union between God and man. Prayer builds upon, and represents in declarative form, the intimacy that we already possess. As we give ourselves to God, his Spirit comes around us, and wells up within us, so that we are fit and able to participate in the eternal and unfathomable depths of the divine conversation. This is why the otherwise strange image of God’s Spirit praying to the Father through us makes sense. It’s also why praying the will of God, by the Spirit, to the omniscient Father, also makes sense. We are drawn into the deep and abiding union of the Triune God, the likes of which is gloriously complete; we participate in a project to redeem God’s world, not because we are worthy, but because he is gracious. And we exercise the reality of our position in relation to these two truths through the gift of (Spirit-impelled) prayer.
Scott Buchanan is currently studying theology at Ridley College, Melbourne. He is also employed as a social worker in community mental health.
Originally published at https://scottlbuchanan.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/random-thoughts-1672012/. Republished with permission from the author.