The Lord's Prayer - Part II - Kingdom

THE LORD'S PRAYER ~ PART II ~ KINGDOM

TEXTS: MATTHEW 6:7-17

Today I'm preaching the second part of my sermon on the Lord's prayer. Two weeks ago, I talked about the middle of it and today we'll be looking at the framework, the beginning and the end. Here's the prayer Jesus gives to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew:

MATTHEW 6:5-13 ~ THE ORIGINAL

9 "Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

We don't say it quite that way. The one that has entered into the liturgy of our church is from the King James translation. Its language is antiquated; using "thine" instead of "your." It also has an addition that isn't in the scripture but was added by the early church. "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever." This is called a "doxology." A prayer of praise and adoration addressed to God. An interesting sideline to using the King James is that we think of it as formal - thees and thous being courtly, elevated language. In fact, those pronouns were not formal at all but intimate terms used by close friends and lovers.

"OUR FATHER" ~ PATRIARCHAL OR INTIMATE?

"Our Father ... " To some, that patriarchal language is problematic. Tonight we're going to have a discussion of The Shack. The main character in the novel has an encounter with God who appears to him as an African American woman who, nevertheless is called "Papa." It's the author, Paul Young's way of making it clear that God is beyond gender. One thing that Young emphasizes in his book is that God is very near and personal; he presents his readers with the figure of God the father as a large, effusively loving, hugging woman who delights in feeding her children.

This has shocked many people but an analysis of the language used by Jesus in the Lord's prayer supports part of Young's thesis. The word Jesus uses for father is the Aramaic, Abba. Because of the limits of translation, we don't get the significance of this. A better English equivalent would be "Papa" or "Daddy."

So when we begin this prayer, it is almost as though we are climbing into the lap of a loving parent and whispering an endearing, "Daddy." Many people use this phrase to justify the maleness of God, but a far more significant ramification of this address is God's intimacy and personal relationship to us.

WHAT KIND OF "KINGDOM?"

So we start or prayer with a loving, caring, compassionate, parental God, and next, we ask that God to be king over us and all the world. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." If a God with those qualities of love, compassion and intimacy were ruler of the world, what kind of kingdom would that be? I, for one, rarely reflect on what I actually mean when I say it but it is extremely radical and taking it seriously got the early Christians thrown to the lions. Jesus lived out God's "kingdom come" and look what happened to him.

NOT THE ROMAN EMPIRE

How could Jesus, this itinerant peasant preacher have been a threat to Rome? What was the problem with Christianity that made this relatively minor sect a target for persecution? Well, the last sentence of the Lord's prayer says it all. "Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever." This is treason. The kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to Caesar. The cry in the streets, the loyalty oaths, the very foundation of Roman society is "Hail, Caesar." Caesar is God, Emperor, and final arbiter of the social and political realm. How dare Jesus and his followers claim otherwise. How dare they behave in a way that questioned the authority of Caesar-and question it they did. Not just theologically but politically.

The state benefited from a highly stratified society with a small ruling class and a huge, repressed, labor force living at subsistence levels. The empire expanded and created its amazing infrastructure as far reaching as Africa, Europe, and Great Britain. It did so by keeping people under control by threat of violence. You stayed under the radar by being obedient. If you obeyed, you got enough bread to keep you strong enough to work and you got the occasional circus to divert your mind from wanting more.

Jesus' message was about dignity, health, peace. Not living under constant threat and scratching out an existence from meager resources but, here's his word - abundance! The meek were to be the inheritors of God's world, not the powerful. Jesus claimed that God loved them, forgave them, and longed to give them daily bread and fullness of life. Jesus claimed that they were worth it-every single person! The poor were no less blessed than the rich. The lowest peasant as deserving as the general in the Roman army.

And after his death when people began gathering around Jesus' teachings, they lived out that message. When you joined the church, you joined a family. They cared for you when you were sick; they collected money and food so the poor would be fed and clothed. In other words, they lived as though the kingdom of God had already come to earth. For his followers, the cry in the streets was "Jesus is Lord!"

Their radically egalitarian communities stood out. They refused to claim Caesar as their God and chose not to live by the rules of the realm that he created by violence. And by violence Caesar tried to suppress them.

AND WHAT IS THE KINGDOM LIKE NOW?

That was then. What about now? What if we prayed, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth .. " and actually expected it to happen? Actually tried to make it happen?

It could take the radical form of pacifism as it does among our Mennonite and Quaker sisters and brothers. They step outside of the realm of Caesar by asserting that all violence is wrong. Their peacemaking has often come with a cost.

THE STORY OF THE BLACKSMITH AND THE KINGDOM

It could also take the form of daily decisions. There is the story of the Irish blacksmith who one day had a vision of an angel.

"The Lord has sent me," said the angel, "it's time for you to take up your abode in the kingdom of God."

"Oh dear, I'm not quite ready. The season for sowing crops is upon us. Plows need sharpening, horses need shoes.

I don't want to appear ungrateful, but could I put off taking up my abode in the kingdom of God until I've finished?"

And the angel vanished.

A while later, the angel returned in another vision. The blacksmith pled again for more time. His friend was ill and he was helping to bring in his crops. No telling what would happen to the family if he were not here to help. And again the angel vanished.

There were other visits from the angel of God and each time, the blacksmith asked to be excused from taking his place in the kingdom of God-"I'm helping rebuild a school destroyed by a flood. I am needed to comfort a friend in grief."

His life wore on and finally he grew tired. "Lord, if you would like to send your angel again ... " and the angel materialized.

"Perhaps I'm ready now. If you like, I will go with you to take up my abode in the kingdom of God."

"Friend," the angel said, "Where do you think you've been all these years. The kingdom of God is where you are."

PILGRIM CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM

These are the small things that make for the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is the place you call when you break your foot and you need people to make meals for you.

It's where there are folks to pray for you and boost your ego when you've lost your job.

It's the place that they count on when a hate group is coming to town and they need to muster people who will respond with love.

It's the folks who gather round you and do what they can when you've lost everything in a fire.

It's a green and lovely place where people live modestly and share what they have.

It's where people are humble enough to admit they need to be forgiven and gracious enough to forgive.

The kingdom of God doesn't stop at these walls but reaches out to world trouble spots through One Great Hour of Sharing, provides medical care and friendship in Honduras, moves beyond its own comfort.

The kingdom of God is where we pray the Lord's prayer every week and try to mean it.

I discovered this hymn too late to include in the bulletin but it is a wonderful kingdom of heaven" hymn by John Bell: "Heaven Shall Not Wait"

1. Heaven shall not wait for the poor to lose their patience,

the scorned to smile, the despised to find a friend:

Jesus is Lord;

he has championed the unwanted; in him injustice confronts its timely end.

2. Heaven shall not wait for the rich to share their fortunes,

the proud to fall, the elite to tend the least:

Jesus is Lord;

he has shown the masters' privilege - to kneel and wash servants' feet before they feast.

3. Heaven shall not wait for the dawn of great ideas,

thoughts of compassion divorced from cries of pain:

Jesus is Lord;

he has married word and action; his cross and company make his purpose plain.

4. Heaven shall not wait for triumphant Hallelujahs,

when earth has passed and we reach another shore;

Jesus is Lord

in our present imperfection; his power and love are for now; and then for ever more.

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