Thank you for your insights here. I had a similar 3 word summation of Root based on my reading of him, but mine is a slightly different "worship, pray, wait." Certainly some similarities to your "wait, witness, and wonder." https://lorenrichmondjr.substack.com/p/the-church-is-trying-too-hardheres
Good that you included prayer here, and notice that in the Lord’s Prayer we are are taught by our our Lord Jesus as His disciples and sisters and borthers to pray to our Father in Heaven regarding our worship that is included in our waiting: “Our Father who is in Heaven, hallowed be your name!” So long as we understand “wait” in the sense of a “waiter” or “server.” The worship and prayer and waiting that God commands are an active and urgent “waiting,” as of children going to their Father: we don’t try to play God and even thus so God has feed us, as the Father of us as God’s children, for our own humanly limited, “children’s” work in God’s world with our gracious God according to God’s gracious covenant command to us as God’s human beings, His commanding Word as the Living God who calls us into life with Him. Christian life itself is active service to God in His gracious command to us, opportunity, not hesitation, though it may seem so to the world in the petition “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Christian life is the beginning of our obedient working according to the command of God, as a waiting upon the Lord, as an active calling on the God who calls on us: a Christian can’t rightly ask thank, praise and petition God to act without our also committing ourselves toward that for which we ask God Himself.
Yes, I appreciate your point about active waiting. Having read Root's series out of order, I amended my phrasing after reading Root's Faith Formation book to be "worship, pray, (actively minister while we) wait." Good stuff for sure.
“Wonder” is not such a bad word, but “thanksgiving” would be a better one. Barth’s The Christian Life, was, under the rubric of our calling upon God who calls upon us in Jesus Christ, organized along the lines of an exposition of Baptism, The Lord’s Prayer, and The Eucharistic Meal. The Eucharist Meal is a refreshing renewal. God so well supports us in Jesus Christ such that we can humanly support our fellow human beings. (Eberhard Busch, Drawn to Freedom)
What about the ministry of our Crucified and Living and Coming Lord Jesus Christ Himself? John the Baptist pointed to Jesus Christ and His ministry. The church of Jesus Christ can show the world how to slow down a bit, by no longer baptizing infants who do not yet confess any faith in God, a church no longer acting according to a proposed schedule of human rites of passage, but, rather, a church baptizing fellow confessing believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, as He Himself was baptized, according to the obedient hearing and proclamation of God’s Word, notably, by John the Baptist, as he was sent by God to God’s people, Israel, “to prepare the way of the Lord.” “That Word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abides.” (A Mighty Fortress is our God, Martin Luther) No accident that Luther’s time was also the beginning of the European “age of discovery.” (Barth indicated this is the ongoing challenge of our age, but also an opportunity for the church to re-examine what it is to be about as the Church of Jesus Christ in and with and for the whole world) The secular world seems to care less and less what the church has to say, or have time for the church, sometimes even opposing it. Christian theology is one form of Christian ministry as witness to the Word of God for all God’s human beings in Jesus Christ our Lord, by Whom we are His Christian church in and with and for the whole world. We may note the distinction made here in our article between divine providence and the divine self-revelation of God to His Church and to His Christian, in Jesus Christ our Lord, as the God who is providentially “present” to His creaturely world, both Heaven and earth. God’s Holy angels, for example, are not wasting their time. We are assured by our Lord Jesus Christ that our prayers to our Father in Heaven are not a waste of time. Thank you. “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) We may begin again here: Our humanly praying to God, as God Himself graciously commands us to do, in our following Jesus Christ, His Only Son, and our Human Brother and Lord, is most certainly not a waste of time. “Watch and pray so that you may not fall into temptation.” (Matthew 26:41) “Pray without ceasing!” (I Thessalonians 5:16) Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches us to call upon God our Father in Heaven, to pray as He prays, as first of all to begin to pray to God’s for God’s own completely unambiguous self-revelation as God our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord : “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name!” Time first to gather in thanksgiving, praise and prayer to God. We here speak of God’s self-revelation, Jesus Christ, the world, the church, and our Creator God’s providential presence or direct accompaniment with His creatures in time and space. God’s Covenant? Sabbath? “Creation and Covenant” Barth, Paragraph 41, CD, Chapter 9, “The Work of Creation.” Chapter 12, “The Command of God the Creator,”, paragraph 53, “Freedom Before God,” section 1,2,3, “The Holy Day,” “Confession,” “Prayer.” This article seeks to be historical but is strangely non-historical regarding “The Work of Creation” (Barth CD III 9) What about a “well lived life” being for the church the Christian life? The Self-Revealing God as God (notably here, God’s Constancy and Omnipresence) and God the Creator and Reconciler and Redeemer and God’s reconciling grace in Jesus Christ toward God’s creaturely human beings and thus the relationship between Jesus Christ and His church, in the promise of the Holy Spirit. Something of Easter and Pentecost are missing here, even also of Christmas: “the Word became flesh.” . Notably all reference to the divine and human ministry to us of our Lord Christ Himself is absent here, and thus too the continuing ministry of the Son of God ! So very little here about the true humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself here, the Son of God and the Son of Humanity, the New Human Being in the promise of the Holy Spirit, for all of as His human sisters and brothers, the Crucified and Living and Coming Head of His church. Consider some sections of Barth CDIII 2: “Jesus, Man for God”, “Jesus, Man for other Men,” “Jesus, Whole Man,” “ Jesus, Lord of Time.” And in IV 1,2,3,4: “The Justification of Man,” “The Sanctification of Man,” “The Vocation of Man,” “The Christian Life.” Barth wrote in TCL tnat the Christian Life is essentially a life of calling upon God, who calls upon us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thank you for your insights here. I had a similar 3 word summation of Root based on my reading of him, but mine is a slightly different "worship, pray, wait." Certainly some similarities to your "wait, witness, and wonder." https://lorenrichmondjr.substack.com/p/the-church-is-trying-too-hardheres
Good that you included prayer here, and notice that in the Lord’s Prayer we are are taught by our our Lord Jesus as His disciples and sisters and borthers to pray to our Father in Heaven regarding our worship that is included in our waiting: “Our Father who is in Heaven, hallowed be your name!” So long as we understand “wait” in the sense of a “waiter” or “server.” The worship and prayer and waiting that God commands are an active and urgent “waiting,” as of children going to their Father: we don’t try to play God and even thus so God has feed us, as the Father of us as God’s children, for our own humanly limited, “children’s” work in God’s world with our gracious God according to God’s gracious covenant command to us as God’s human beings, His commanding Word as the Living God who calls us into life with Him. Christian life itself is active service to God in His gracious command to us, opportunity, not hesitation, though it may seem so to the world in the petition “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Christian life is the beginning of our obedient working according to the command of God, as a waiting upon the Lord, as an active calling on the God who calls on us: a Christian can’t rightly ask thank, praise and petition God to act without our also committing ourselves toward that for which we ask God Himself.
Yes, I appreciate your point about active waiting. Having read Root's series out of order, I amended my phrasing after reading Root's Faith Formation book to be "worship, pray, (actively minister while we) wait." Good stuff for sure.
“Wonder” is not such a bad word, but “thanksgiving” would be a better one. Barth’s The Christian Life, was, under the rubric of our calling upon God who calls upon us in Jesus Christ, organized along the lines of an exposition of Baptism, The Lord’s Prayer, and The Eucharistic Meal. The Eucharist Meal is a refreshing renewal. God so well supports us in Jesus Christ such that we can humanly support our fellow human beings. (Eberhard Busch, Drawn to Freedom)
Thank you, and may I ask you what Root says about baptism in the Holy Spirit and baptism in water?
What about the ministry of our Crucified and Living and Coming Lord Jesus Christ Himself? John the Baptist pointed to Jesus Christ and His ministry. The church of Jesus Christ can show the world how to slow down a bit, by no longer baptizing infants who do not yet confess any faith in God, a church no longer acting according to a proposed schedule of human rites of passage, but, rather, a church baptizing fellow confessing believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, as He Himself was baptized, according to the obedient hearing and proclamation of God’s Word, notably, by John the Baptist, as he was sent by God to God’s people, Israel, “to prepare the way of the Lord.” “That Word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abides.” (A Mighty Fortress is our God, Martin Luther) No accident that Luther’s time was also the beginning of the European “age of discovery.” (Barth indicated this is the ongoing challenge of our age, but also an opportunity for the church to re-examine what it is to be about as the Church of Jesus Christ in and with and for the whole world) The secular world seems to care less and less what the church has to say, or have time for the church, sometimes even opposing it. Christian theology is one form of Christian ministry as witness to the Word of God for all God’s human beings in Jesus Christ our Lord, by Whom we are His Christian church in and with and for the whole world. We may note the distinction made here in our article between divine providence and the divine self-revelation of God to His Church and to His Christian, in Jesus Christ our Lord, as the God who is providentially “present” to His creaturely world, both Heaven and earth. God’s Holy angels, for example, are not wasting their time. We are assured by our Lord Jesus Christ that our prayers to our Father in Heaven are not a waste of time. Thank you. “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) We may begin again here: Our humanly praying to God, as God Himself graciously commands us to do, in our following Jesus Christ, His Only Son, and our Human Brother and Lord, is most certainly not a waste of time. “Watch and pray so that you may not fall into temptation.” (Matthew 26:41) “Pray without ceasing!” (I Thessalonians 5:16) Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches us to call upon God our Father in Heaven, to pray as He prays, as first of all to begin to pray to God’s for God’s own completely unambiguous self-revelation as God our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord : “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name!” Time first to gather in thanksgiving, praise and prayer to God. We here speak of God’s self-revelation, Jesus Christ, the world, the church, and our Creator God’s providential presence or direct accompaniment with His creatures in time and space. God’s Covenant? Sabbath? “Creation and Covenant” Barth, Paragraph 41, CD, Chapter 9, “The Work of Creation.” Chapter 12, “The Command of God the Creator,”, paragraph 53, “Freedom Before God,” section 1,2,3, “The Holy Day,” “Confession,” “Prayer.” This article seeks to be historical but is strangely non-historical regarding “The Work of Creation” (Barth CD III 9) What about a “well lived life” being for the church the Christian life? The Self-Revealing God as God (notably here, God’s Constancy and Omnipresence) and God the Creator and Reconciler and Redeemer and God’s reconciling grace in Jesus Christ toward God’s creaturely human beings and thus the relationship between Jesus Christ and His church, in the promise of the Holy Spirit. Something of Easter and Pentecost are missing here, even also of Christmas: “the Word became flesh.” . Notably all reference to the divine and human ministry to us of our Lord Christ Himself is absent here, and thus too the continuing ministry of the Son of God ! So very little here about the true humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself here, the Son of God and the Son of Humanity, the New Human Being in the promise of the Holy Spirit, for all of as His human sisters and brothers, the Crucified and Living and Coming Head of His church. Consider some sections of Barth CDIII 2: “Jesus, Man for God”, “Jesus, Man for other Men,” “Jesus, Whole Man,” “ Jesus, Lord of Time.” And in IV 1,2,3,4: “The Justification of Man,” “The Sanctification of Man,” “The Vocation of Man,” “The Christian Life.” Barth wrote in TCL tnat the Christian Life is essentially a life of calling upon God, who calls upon us in Jesus Christ our Lord.