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August
24, 2003 (Jimmie Johnson)
Matthew 6:9-14
Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this
day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
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I don’t get too nervous praying the Lord’s Prayer as
it begins: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name,” so far so good. But then comes for me the dreaded “thy
kingdom come.” I say “dreaded” because I believe
as a nation we are engaged in fighting WWIII. As WWII was against
Nazi Germany and Japan and their desire to take over the world and
as the Cold War was waged against Communist Totalitarianism and
its desire to take over the world, now we are engaged in a world
war against religious fanatics seeking to construct a kingdom and
so filled with hatred that if they cannot control the world, they
are happy to destroy it.
“Thy kingdom come” said by wrong lips, informed by hateful
thoughts and hopeless hearts, could be the sickest phrase any religious
leader or person could utter. Why? Because “thy kingdom come”
so easily means “my kingdom come” or “our kingdom
come.” The greatest risk to the world right now in my eyes
is religion, specifically fanatical religion. This is religion driven
by the cult of personality and the worship of a sacred text assumed
to be correctly interpreted only by a select elite of fanatics who
have no sense of connection with the rest of the world and who view
the rest of the world with a paranoid suspicion. A faith whether
it is Christian, Jewish, Islam, Hindu, or any other that is fear
and hate-shaped is evil in the flesh in its ability to wreck havoc
in creation. God save us from the faithful fanatic! For the moment
the line is crossed where religious faith attempts to create a kingdom
by legitimating violence with the blessing of a fanatical, authoritarian
belief system—a great wickedness is loosed in the world.
What does Jesus mean when he teaches his followers to pray “thy
kingdom come”? When Jesus prays for God’s kingdom to
come, he is summing up the Lord’s Prayer and the entire Sermon
on the Mount. But what does he mean?
Let’s use the words “God’s new order” as
a way to think ourselves into the word kingdom. God’s new
order implies a socio-political realism in which God is ruler and
humanity its citizens. However, I don’t believe for a moment
it is a form of state-endorsed religion or a theocracy. The phrase
“Christian nation” disturbs me as much as the phrase
“Islamic state.” God’s kingdom or new order must
mean more than an inward religious attitude or feeling. Otherwise,
the spiritualizing of the kingdom of God lends itself to an interpretation
the old southern expression of the Presbyterian church was familiar
with: you can love Jesus in your heart and refuse people of other
races membership or even a seat in your church.
The coming of the “Kingdom of God” or “God’s
new order” has to have a socio-political dimension to it.
I believe Jesus in his prayer is longing for wrong things to be
made right, injustice to be made just, inequalities to be made equal,
and the hard facts of hurt, hopelessness and dying to be replaced
by God’s shalom (God’s peace and wholeness).
Jesus knew the prophets of Jewish scripture imaged God’s kingdom
with descriptive artistic mural drawings in word pictures. Isaiah
dreamed of a day when weapons of war would be hammered into John
Deere tractors, and, of all things, lions would bed down for a nap
with lambs. Zechariah imagined Jerusalem would be filled with old
folks sunning themselves in city parks while kids on skateboards
whizzed around filling the air with laughter. These are the kinds
of multiplying words and images with which every age of faith has
to paint the mural of God’s kingdom. The poor will inherit
the cosmos, the hungry will party hearty, and the weepers will giggle
with delight.
Now listen carefully here: yes, it’s true if we pray as Jesus
teaches us to pray for God’s kingdom, God’s new order,
then the kingdom is a socio-political metaphor so it cannot be reduced
to inward piety or individual faith. But, here’s the rub:
don’t let the preachers, representing any religious tribe,
determine the political agenda. And never trust any religious leader
who endorses violence as the way to create the kingdom of God on
earth. Prayers by people who pray for the death of Supreme Court
justices so that their particular values will become law of the
land are scary.
Look, preachers have the duty to call for justice and righteousness
to flow down like mighty waters, but you, the citizens, have to
determine the irrigation system. Can preachers preach their hearts
out and tell you what they believe based on Bible study, prayer,
and theological reflection concerning any social issue? Absolutely,
they should. However, what they can’t do is say that their
perspective is the definitive Christian perspective or their interpretation
is the only position true to the kingdom of God. No, we can only
stand in the pulpit and say: This is what I believe as a Christian.
Please take note, the kingdom of God is not a utopian human achievement.
No wonder we pray, “You God, you make your kingdom come.”
But if we pray the prayer with our hearts as well as our lips, then
we are offering our energies to God, not with any pride of accomplishment
but in modest obedience. “Left to ourselves we know we’d
build a bedlam every time, with our blueprints skewed, our contracting
corrupt, and our craftsmanship shoddy at best.”* God alone
can bring the kingdom among us with improvising grace.
All I can tell you with any sense of authority is that when you
go into the voting booth or when you work in your respective political
party, make sure the moral north star is the just treatment of the
poor. The followers of Jesus have a ton of leeway when it comes
to moral decision making, but can anyone take Jesus’ track
record in the gospels and not see the commitment of Jesus to the
least of the least, to the hungry, to the sick, to the very young
and the very old?
Jesus’ life is the shape of God’s new order. Jesus’
life is the outline of God’s kingdom.
“Thy Kingdom come” is a prayer of heart and mind to
God that God’s improvisational grace bring about God’s
peaceable kingdom where all God’s children will be safe from
religious fanatics and greed. The answer is not to abandon religion.
It is to abandon ignorance and fear in one’s religion.
*David Buttrick, Preaching Jesus
(This sermon is indebted to Preaching Jesus by David Buttrick)
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