Lord's Prayer 2 - Your Kingdom Come

During lent we are talking about the Lord's prayer – the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

Lent is the period leading up to Easter when Christians rethink themselves, re prioritize, give up bad habits take up new ones and remember how God rebirths us.

This lent we are re-examining our prayer lives.

In the early church Lent was the time when new Christians were prepared for Baptism.

In preparation for baptism they would have to memorise three things:
The Apostle's Creed – what we believe,
the Ten Commandments – how we behave,
and the Lord's Prayer – how we relate to God.

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Last week we looked at the beginning of the Lord's prayer:

"Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honoured;"

I spoke of how this part of the prayer defines our relationship to the One with whom we are speaking and speaks a bit about who he is.

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Father – a relationship of parent and child.  In heaven – reminds us who we are speaking to – the one who is enthroned above all things, God, all powerful.  Our – when we relate to God our relationships to each other are transformed, we become brothers and sisters.

I touched on: "May your holy name be honoured" because that also speaks a bit about who we are speaking to.

Today we look at this part of the Lord's prayer:

"May your holy name be honoured; may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…"

- Matthew 6:9b-10

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Now that we have addressed God as Father we begin to ask God to do things:

1 – May your name be honoured
2 – May your Kingdom Come
3 – May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Often our prayers are about asking for things – the stuff we want, yet when Jesus teaches us to pray he asks us to pray rather for what God wants…

Your name, your Kingdom, your will…

Often we pray (or think) in terms of my… My name, my Kingdom, my will…

And sometimes we trick ourselves; quite cleverly, into believing that what we want for ourselves is what God wants for us. 

That is where it becomes necessary for us to be a part of a community of different people, a community that keeps us accountable – that helps us to discern; that admonishes us – challenging us to grow out of our selfish comfort zones.  Maybe that's part of the reason the prayer begins with 'Our' and not 'my'.

*  *  *

As God's children, in this part of the prayer we are surrendering ourselves to God's will.

It also speaks a little about what God's will is, in lines that pick out and echo themes woven into the Biblical story.

Your Kingdom Come

If you've heard me preach quite often you'll find that I tend to end sermons with the phrase, or something like it:

"And then I believe we will begin to see God's kingdom in this place."

I do this because I believe Jesus wants me to preach about the Kingdom of God.  I believe that because it is what Jesus most often speaks about – the Kingdom of God.

I do this because it is my job to announce the gospel, and in scripture gospel is the good news of the coming reign of a new king.  I say this often.  In Jesus time and evangelist was a messenger who went to the cities and towns and announced the news that a new King was in power.

That news was good for some… slaves might be freed, debts might be forgiven, and bad for others – a new King, a good King would hear the case of the abused and judge the abusers for their wrong doing.

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Jesus and the news he proclaims are met with positive and negative reactions.  Some welcome the coming of Jesus and his teaching with open arms…  Others recognise him as dangerous to their schemes and plot to kill him –

As they do so the disciples will be praying – as Jesus has taught them – your Kingdom come.

Those in power will kill Jesus,

It will seem that the disciples' prayer has not been answered – all hope of the coming Kingdom is lost.

But as Jesus rises again, ascends to heaven – and takes up his place in heaven as Paul writes in Ephesians 1:21-22:

"Christ rules (there) above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; he has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and the next.  God put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to the church as supreme Lord over all things."

The disciples will know that Jesus' reign is inevitable.  Whether it is in our death – or Jesus return to earth, all of us will ultimately end up as subjects of the Kingdom of God.

*  *  *

"Your Kingdom come…"

Can we pray that with sincerity?

In Thessalonians Paul paints a picture of Jesus' coming as King. 

When a King went to visit a town their arrival was announced with trumpets.  The people excited would go out on the country road to welcome the King.  Palm branches – hosanna to the King – a celebration. 

Only in 1 Thessalonians because this King is coming down from heaven and not along a country road; Paul speaks of us being taken up to meet him in the clouds – not on our way up – as some modern (the last 200 years) commentators have begun to teach – but on his way down.

I imagine that in that picture there are some who shout Hallelujah – the King is coming and run out to greet him.

And others who shout "Ooo hell" and try to make their way quickly out the back gate or over the wall of the town.

*  *  *

When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray for the Kingdom he expects his disciples to want the Kingdom.

Desiring the Kingdom has implications for the way we live.  Desiring the Kingdom means that we as Christians need to start preparing ourselves and the world we live in for its coming.

Your will be done

And that brings us to doing God's will. 

"Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…" 

One thing that irks me about the way we have made this prayer suit ourselves – adapted it to our own needs is we have made this a passive statement.

A word of surrender to fate, rather than surrender to and worship of the living God.

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When things go badly we say "your will and not mine o Lord…" and pat ourselves on our back for being spiritual – for surrendering.

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I believe that Jesus wants our 'active surrender' not a 'passive surrender'.  When we say 'your will be done' we are saying here I am use me for your purposes.

God created us as stewards of creation, a little lower than the angels – people who can make a difference in the world if only we would be obedient to God's commands.

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When Jesus is on his way to the cross – in response to God's call – not because fate demanded it but because he was obedient; Jesus surrenders in Mark 14:36:

"Take this cup of suffering away from me.  Yet not what I want, but what you want."

- Mark 14:36

Jesus does not go to the cross because it is inevitable – but because he obediently does what God has called him to do.  To die, making known to the world His, God's love for all people – and who he is.

Your name be honoured

And so we return to the second line of Jesus' prayer – "May your name be honoured".

As we pray this prayer we want the world to know who this is we are worshipping, praying to and hoping for.

God made known to us in Christ on the cross.  The Crucified God.

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In John 12:27-28 as Jesus prepares for his death he says, in a prayer parallel to that in Mark's gospel of which we just spoke:

"Shall I say, 'Father do not let this hour come upon me'?  But that is why I came – so that I might go through this hour of suffering.  Father, bring glory to your name!"

Then a voice spoke from heaven, "I have brought glory to it, and I will do so again."

- John 12:27-28

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In dying Jesus brings glory to God's name – he lets people know – in no uncertain terms – that his father, the Lord, YHWH – loves so much that he would pour himself out for his people on the cross.

*  *  *

Name – is not just a set of letters – to reduce God's name to a set of letters is a kind of idolatry.  Name is about who God is.  When God's identity is made known in Jesus Christ, it is glorified, revealed and we are able to bow down in prayer and worship and say:

Yes God you are worthy to be worshipped, honoured and adored.

*  *  *

The challenge remains for us…

We, the church, are Jesus body in the world – and I believe that we have often brought dishonour to God's name.  We have often not been very Christ like in our behaviour… 

Probably because in some ways we don't really mean it when we say: Your name be honoured, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And so, as we pray – let us ask that God's will would be done not just in the world around us, but in our hearts and minds too.  His name would be honoured, and his Kingdom would come.

Amen.