The Body of Christ, Part Four

Prayer

            Peterson in his article about "prayer" published in the DTIB says that "prayer is language used in relation to God."[1] This is a little simplistic even for a dictionary of Theology. This puts the focus of prayer between man and God, mano y mano. He does not even address the function of the corporate prayer. Buxton, on the other hand, points to the prayer of Christians as not part of the old "hierarchical two-cause "[2] which leads us to keep God too much in an unapproachable light, but something we can be a part of as a community. 

Wolfhart Pannenberg

         Pannenberg offers something else that is helpful to our understanding of how prayer works in corporate body of Christ. In his Systematic Theology, Vol. II, Pannenberg traces the beginnings of the theory of  'force fields' back to the Stoics of ancient Greece. He then leaps over the works of Newtonian physics to the more modern "field" theories of today's quantum physics. The idea of 'fields of forces' he folds into the workings of the Spirit. This theory can certainly be seen in Paul's discussion of the Spirit and how it searches all things even the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). Pannenberg writes, "But insofar as the field concept corresponds to the older doctrine (meaning the Stoics) it is not a mistake, but does justice to the history and concept of Spirit, if we relate the field theory of modern physics to the Christian doctrine of the dynamic work of the divine Spirit in creation."[3]  Even though Pannenberg continues on to develop a more naturalistic application of this field theory it is quite applicable to the description of how the Spirit can make search of all things and at once be in touch with all things else. It can become the 'nervous system' by which each can feel and sense the needs, joys and burdens of one another.

       Whether or not the 'field theory' holds water or is simply modified does not change the fact that prayer is a corporate reality. It is how we support one another in the body of Christ in simple prayer. The scriptures tell us that often we do not even know how or what to pray for but that the Spirit makes intercession for us in words that are too deep to speak (Romans 8:26). So it makes perfect sense that the mind of Christ is working through the Spirit in a joining of our hearts before the throne of the Father.

Corporate Prayer

            The triune workings with a synergetic dynamic that connects all parts of the 'interconnected' members allows the pastor and body to be one in their focus and force as they pray as the Spirit leads. This takes the burden and some times false responsibility off the pastor or the one leading intercession to produce the "prayer list". Certainly there can be a prayer list but it can be compiled with much less pressure and more trust in the workings of the Spirit. It can be less mechanical and more organic, less organizational and more like an organism. An organism has organization. The more developed an organism is, the more organization it will exhibit. That is not to say that it is an organization. The true organism is first an organism and secondly organized. Life came before organization. An organization and therefore communication is controlled by some part that is the "authority".

Authority

         Historically authority has been very structured, whether it is in government or in the church. But its purpose was usually driven by the desire to create unity. Early in Christianity the Roman Emperor Constantine declared Christianity legal, but some credit this ploy as a political move toward unity.[4]  Close to this same time the church took a step toward centralizing authority by making bishops the center point of the "church".[5] Neither of these steps follows the scriptures. They caused more confusion than unity. If we read again the scripture in Ephesians it clearly points to the maturity, unity of the body as the final point for needing the administration of gifts and for the authority of the apostles. These are given "until" we reach the unity and the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-14).

         Searching several theological dictionaries it is surprising how "authority" is left to the scriptures alone. Only the Catholic Bible Dictionary addresses the placement of authority in humans. It does not deny the authority of the scriptures but not sola scriptura.[6]  The main path to maturity is not from a hierarchal administration. The path is through these places of meeting of the saints. It is where they connect and the manifestation of God is revealed. We change and grow through the revelation of God to our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6). The fullness of Christ is "grown" in the body from the joints of the members. It is more a 'grass roots' movement than a 'top down' administration. According to Banks, Paul uses the word for authority e∆xousi√an less than a dozen times in his writings.[7] So then how does Paul see the manifestation of He who has "all authority" happening? He sees it happening through the community of believers, the church. The importance of the 'social spaces", the movement of the dance, rather than the dancers themselves cannot be over emphasized. It is God that we are coming to know and be at the intersections of our perichoretic involvement. The maturity or perfection of the body has to take place for Christ to return for his bride. The eschatological nature of this is profound. It is through his church that God is going to manifest to principalities and power His awesomeness.

         Historically the authority of Christ has been mildly ineffective and the church has been a source of embarrassment. The reason that the church has been so ineffective against sin in and out of her doors is her misunderstanding about the church and its authoritative role. The history of authority has shown that there needed to be "the one" in charge. It could be the one God, one judge, one pope, the one pastor, one apostle. Today we still look to leaders for the answer and for our walk with God. The idea that authority is manifested through the many-member body, has not been adequately researched. Paul explains it rather well when he discussed the gifts that Christ left the church. J. R. Stevens stressed the idea that every member of the church should be gifted and that this is related to the overall authority of the body. "Every member of the Body of Christ should have a definite and distinct ministry. To fulfill this ministry (they) must have imparted to (them) the authority, the anointing, the enablement by the Spirit to complete the task.(Lordship of Jesus Christ)"[8]. The authority and the enabling come through the interrelatedness of the body members with one another. Where this interrelatedness happens the interpenetration of the body with the triune God, authority of God is manifested. This is why Paul says in Ephesians 3:10 that unto principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God will be shown through the Church (italics mine).

Andrei Rublev

           Through this ministry God has taken and committed himself to today's church. Pannenberg believes that God has opened himself up to commit himself to the human race by sending His son as savior.[9] This requires that we respond with a commitment to where he is and what he is doing. In the days when Christ walked in the flesh our commitment was to God in that flesh. After the work was accomplished then our commitment has now changed to be committed to where we find Christ. And that is in his corporate body. It his here where we participate with him in what He is creating now in the earth. Oden has pointed to Christ as the center of our ministry but beyond that the center of Christ’s ministry is his corporate body. It goes beyond what Oden says "Christ's own ministry for and through us, embodied in distortable ways through our language, through the work of our hands and quietly through our bodily presence." [10]  It goes into the presence of Christ in his many-member body. Stevens takes it further with not only applying the triune nature to the body but emphasizing the God head as the authority over and in the body of Christ. "That oneness will be manifested in Christ coming forth in all of them as one Body. Just as the Father came forth in Christ, so the Father and the Son will now come forth in us. If you believe that the fullness of the Father dwells in Christ, you must believe what He has said—that the fullness of God will dwell in us. There is no distinction in it."^[11]  We must realize that all we study in God is related to this idea of the three in one nature of our eternal God. He lives this life of community. We will find in this paper that we are relating all acts of ministry to this point of the Trinity. It is simply that all our ministry is done effectively only in love. We see that love has to have an object or it has to be expressed otherwise it is not real active love. This love was shown and expressed in God's missional act of expressing his love toward the earth by sending his son. As Buxton writes "...the Trinity, which is the prototype of life of the church on earth".[12] This thought is hugely organizational and more importantly it is functionality of our action together in God.

"The Spirit who is glorified 'together with' the Father and the Son is also the wellspring of the energy which draws people to one another, so that they come together, rejoice in one another and praise the God who is himself a God in community . . ."[13]  This closeness, the love and rejoicing Moltmann is talking about is an outward example of the connectiveness that is taking place between members. It is this ecstatic release from the Body of Christ that the world will see and believe that we are Christians. It will be a witness to the world. It is the best evangelical tool we have. Christ's prayer in John was that we would all be one so that world would see and believe. This oneness of interrelatedness is not a luxury but a necessity.  It is not only an eschatological viewpoint but it is a missional gateway.

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     [1]  Vanhoozer, Peterson 616.

     [2]  Ibid., 182.

     [3]  Wolfhart Pannenberg, Geoffrey W. Bromiley,  Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994) 82.

[4] Fiddes, 62-63.

[5] Ibid., 77.

[6] Searches was made in Theological Dictionaries such as Dyrness-Karkkainen, Elwell, and Vanhoozer.

[7] Banks, 174.

[8] J.R. Stevens, The Lordship of Jesus Christ (North Hollywood, The Living Word Publication, 1968.) 29.

[9] Buxton, 117.

[10] Thomas C. Oden, Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry, (San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1983) 3, in Graham Buxton, The Trinity, Creation and Pastoral Ministry, 55.

      ³⁶ J. R. Stevens, Beyond Passover North Hollywood, Calif.: Living Word Publications, 1977) 144. 

    [12] Buxton, 168

    [13] Jurgen, Moltmann, The Spirit of Life (New York, Fortress Press, 2001) 309.