LITMIR.BIZ

Close our eyes and most of us can recite the Lord's Prayer by heart. It is as familiar as childhood memories. In some church traditions, we say the prayer together nearly every week, as a community standing before God. We call on those so familiar words and the comfort and direction they offer. The comfort that God is holy, that his kingdom is coming, that he provides just enough, and that he can protect us from ourselves and from evil. The direction that we are to worship him, that we are part of this kingdom-coming work, that we have the discipline of forgiveness as almost a daily task, and that we are vulnerable to temptation, so being on guard is a fine idea.
The Wycliffe College faculty featured in this book take the Lord's Prayer line by line and excavate it for its forgotten meaning and its neglected treasure. Each brief essay, pondering each line of this foundational prayer, guides us more deeply into the very things the Lord's Prayer requests: a sense of God's holiness, a sense of our own truest selves–broken and redeemed–and a glimpse of his kingdom, coming.

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An idol is a good thing. It is good because God created it. Nothing exists that God did not create and God created all things good. So sex can be an idol, but before it was an idol it was a good creation of God. Materialism is an idol, but to have a material world was God's idea in the first place. Workaholism is an idol, but work is itself a good gift of God. What turns these good gifts of God into idols is what we have done with them. So we have common forms of idolatry expressed in consumerism, individualism, narcissism, careerism, and hedonism; while there are less familiar expressions found in omnism, fatalism, Gnosticism, relativism, positivism, and reductionism. We have put these and other things on a pedestal and made them into mini-gods. In the end they fail to deliver what they promise. These twelve mediations on a scriptural passage by faculty members of Wycliffe College, Toronto, emphasize that the good news is that God can redeem idols. Each one can be restored to its proper place in God's created order and placed under God's authority.

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How can we live in the world without falling either to the dangerous pitfalls of Christian legalism or the lure of unbridled hedonism, especially in a generation that rejects most formal expressions of Christianity? Saint Paul suggests that there is only one way–to walk in step with the Spirit, while bearing the fruit of the Spirit in our daily lives. Because this is a daily process, one fraught with success and failure, the following volume of essays seek to articulate how the Christian can prepare themselves for life in the Spirit, following Paul's admonition to «keep in step with the Spirit» (Gal 5:25) as we move closer and closer to meeting our Lord. The Visible Shape of Christ Life in Us: Meditations on the Fruit of the Spirit is a collection of essays originally preached in the Founders Chapel of Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, in the fall semester of 2018. Originally intended for a diverse audience of students, faculty, and professional clergy, these essays represent the best of Anglican theological insight in the context of the greater Christian community. They are intended for personal reflection, and daily devotion–a welcoming, accessible addition to any theological collection.

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This book contains twelve meditations on the New Testament book of Revelation, written by theologians, biblical scholars, historians, and clergy. In short, easy-to-read selections that are profound and relevant to life, the meditations–along with three or four accompanying questions–help the reader engage more deeply with the Scripture passage. Given the potential challenges of this final book of the Christian canon, these meditations help the reader find a way to enter in and experience more fully what John, the author of the Apocalypse, wanted us to hear and see.

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Beginning with the desires of our hearts and ending with the priesthood of all believers, this series of meditations traces a path through some central concerns of the Reformation. Along this path, the authors, all faculty at Wycliffe College, engage with biblical passages which were important at that time and remain just as vital today in working out what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be the people of God. It seems appropriate, given the central place Scripture had for the reformers, that we should follow their lead in looking to the Bible in the context of the life of the church. While some church communities enthusiastically proclaim their Reformation roots, others look askance at particular reformers and seek to distance themselves from the whole of the Reformation. Yet the Reformation is not an era we in the West can simply ignore; it is bred in our bones, runs through our veins, and shapes our life together in myriad ways. These meditations are not simply historical explorations or an exercise in documenting past events. Rather, the authors grapple with questions which we continue to struggle with today–questions of faith and grace, sin and salvation, work and worship. These meditations will provoke discussion and broaden our theological understanding while guiding us into a deeper understanding of the faith.

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Redemption and Relationship is an edited collection of essays written by Wycliffe College faculty, originating as homilies within the morning prayer chapel service. Each meditation follows the narrative in the book of Exodus, centering on two principal aspects of Israel's experience with Yhwh during this significant period in its national life: their redemption from Egypt and their discovery of Yhwh's identity through their relationship with him. At the end of each meditation the reader will find several questions which help facilitate further reflections for one's devotional life or a small group setting.

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The Word of God as it has been received by the church has embedded in it dozens of songs. Each of these songs has a story to tell us about God and God's people. In brief meditations, twelve faculty at Wycliffe College explore Songs of Scripture in this volume to answer the questions «Why do Scriptures tell us to sing? What are we to sing? What does singing make of us?» Each of these meditations will give you a new appreciation for God's gift of songs. By singing the words of Scripture, we tune our hearts to God's song.

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