Adoring the Enfleshed Logos
Theology belongs to the church, and theology leads to worship. And this means that worship includes prayer because it adores and shows reliance on God. Prayer is, therefore, theology put to work. As an example of theology put to work, here is a prayer to God that serves as a form of public worship. Here is an adoration of the Eternal Word made flesh for us and for our salvation.
Eternal Word, when the Arche spoke, you acted. Light came from darkness. Continents formed. Mountains burst from the ground. Great bodies of water appeared. Four-footed creatures crawled across the face of the land. The great sea creatures opened their eyes.
Life began because you are the creative Word of he who is the Source of all.
Word of life, Word of creation, nothing came into being but through you. Nothing possesses its own being except your Father who granted being to all. Even you, Word, eternally receive life from the Father so that you are what you are. And you are what you are.
"I am," you said to Moses. Word, I cannot say what you are. It is beyond me. You are what you are, and I can say nothing more. No one can say your true name except you.
But you are. And you reward those who seek you.
And you, Eternal Logos, descended from heaven to our lowly sphere, enfleshing yourself in a womb wider than the heavens. She bore you by the Spirit so that God might dwell among men on the day of Israel's visitation.
Your own did not receive you. Yet Eternal Word with the Father, you became flesh. You, the only begotten made the unbegotten known.
You, who by nature are invisible became visible. The eternal assumed temporality, the creator creaturehood, the immortal mortality, the spirit flesh, the incorruptible corruption, and through what you assumed, you healed us completely.
In a mystery known from ages ago only by you, the Word came to die. God died.
The creator died.
And yet, did he?
How can the immortal die or the incorrupt go down to corruption?
In some greater mystery, you have always been the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. You are Wisdom and have always been. You are the Wisdom of the Father, who knew from eternity all whom your blood would be shed to save. And so you are Righteousness, Redemption, and Sanctification.
Logos, true reason behind all shadows, how can you be who you have always been? How can you be forever and always Redeemer before those lived whom you redeemed? It is because you are not like us. There is no one like you. Outside of all, and of the One.
In the Father, you were Wisdom and knew by Providence your elect. Father, you chose by Wisdom. And your Spirit bonded them to Wisdom, and through Wisdom to you.
So we must confess that by the blood of God we are justified and yet must also confess that the only immortal God can never die.
According to your humanity, you died. But according to your divinity, you burst forth from the chains of death, rising and rising from the pit. With you, you brought the righteous saints who waited in sheol for divine victory.
You vindicated all who trusted in you.
In you, their flesh will never see corruption.
Surrounding your divine glory, the saints made perfect by your harrowing of Hades will never again fear death. For you are life.
And if you could free those held below, why should I fear anything?
Who cares about the one who can destroy my body? I fear the one who can cast my soul into Hades so that I can never escape from the fiery furnace.
It is appointed for a man to die once. Then comes judgment.
Let me die your death so that I can live your resurrection.
Yet I am dead. Because my life is hidden in you.
I no longer live but Christ in me.
You are the Resurrection and the Life. You are Wisdom, Redemption, and Sanctification.
And you are mine, and I am yours.
When I saw the tree, larger than his brethren, I thought him a king. He ruled his little forest, and all the creatures lived under him.
But you are the tree of life that gives life to all. You rise above all, rule all, and your kingdom has no end from age to age.
Let your kingdom come.
Your will be done.
Give your daily bread.
And let me forgive like you do.
Let me do like you do.
Let me be like you are.
Your Spirit makes me one with you and the Father.
Share with me all of who you are Eternal Word by which all came into being. Heal me of what you became, so that I might become what you are as far as I am able.
And let me speak words of the Word. May my life decrease and your Life increase. May I be small, and you be great.