James 24:7

I came across this wonderful statement by theologian Walter Wink not long ago.  It's from his book, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. 

The statement is worth pondering again and again.   On the heels of Enlightenment and modernist thinking many people questioned the value of intercession.  All petitionary prayer was seen as a throw back to a more primitive way of thinking. 

For them, the true aim of prayer- if there was any point at all- was to come into communion with God or to simply remind oneself of what one should be doing.   Prayer became a form of mood music for the divine encounter or simply a mental Post-It Note to go do some good for someone.  For many, prayer became so much superstition.

Walter Wink reminds us that intercession matters.  As disciples of Jesus, we are called to envision God's future, receive it,  pray for it and live into it today.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Our intercessory prayers are, as the late Stanley Grenz has written, a "cry for the kingdom."  We live the not (completely) yet, in the already and pray for the coming fullness that God has promised.