“Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees
sweet freedom’s song;
let mortal tongues awake;
let all that breathe partake;
let rocks their silence break,
the sound prolong.”

Thank you for addressing our idolatry, Father Stephen, and for pointing us to its remedy. Lord, have mercy on us!

We don’t think about it because it has been theologically minimized in most Christian accounts of God. Rather than understanding the importance of koinonia, it’s as if theology created a “Newtonian” version of the spiritual universe. It would have its accurate points but fail to properly describe reality. Many theologians have treated prayer as something apart from serious theological concerns such as major doctrines, etc. But since prayer is properly something we should do “without ceasing” it is obviously of deepest importance. The ascetical theology of the Orthodox faith (which is not really separable from the rest of Orthodox theology) speaks in a very integrated manner in which prayer would be as theologically significant as, say, the doctrine of salvation, and for the same reasons.

The failure of most theological “systems” to give an account of prayer (intercessory or otherwise) should be an indication of their bankruptcy.

Some thoughts.

Odd to me, of course, because I know so little. You may have already done a blog on it, or you can direct me somewhere, but I would like to read some more commentary on the big picture of intercession. Why has God set it up this way? What is it about intercession that he finds so important, cool, vital, etc.? I so easily forget that Christ himself is constantly interceding even as we speak.