Our sermon series as we approach
Easter is called “Pray This Way”, looking at the Lord’s Prayer. Last
week, we looked at the first sentence of the prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name”, and we talked about how important it is that we
recognize that we’re praying to the holy, perfect God. This week, we’re
looking at the second sentence of the prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will
be done on earth, as it is in heaven.’
And just as with the first sentence
of the prayer, this second sentence follows Matthew’s version of the Lord’s
Prayer, not Luke’s version. Luke simply says, “Thy kingdom come”.
Nothing about God’s will, nothing about earth or heaven. I think
it’s all implied, though.
I mean, if it’s God’s kingdom, then God rules over it. That
means that in God’s kingdom, God’s will is always done. And when we say, “Thy
kingdom come,” that pretty much has to mean come to earth. After all,
there’d be no reason to pray for God’s kingdom to come to heaven. By
definition, heaven is already God’s kingdom. What we’re praying for is
God’s kingdom to come to earth. We’re praying for God’s will to be done
on earth, just like it already is in heaven.
You know, we pray that every week. How many of us have
actually thought about what that would be like? What would it look like,
what would it be like, if God’s kingdom came to earth?
That brings us to our Bible readings for today. Our reading
from Genesis tells us what the earth was like in the beginning, before sin
entered the world. The reading from Revelation describes the new heaven
and the new earth.
Listen to what it says in Revelation. “God’s dwelling place
is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his
people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe
every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or
crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was
seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’”
Think about that. No more tears. No crying. No
pain. No death. No mourning. There will be nothing but love
and peace and joy. We will always be in the presence of God.
That’s what we’re praying for when we pray for God’s kingdom to
come on earth. That’s what we’re praying for when we pray for God’s will
to be done on earth.
It’s a wonderful vision. It’s a wonderful dream. It’s
something we’d all like to see.
And it’s absolutely nothing like the world we live in now.
We live in a world where there are lots of tears. There’s lots of
crying. There’s lots of pain. And there’s lots of death and
mourning. In less than three years here I’ve conducted about fifty
funerals. And of course there have been many other funerals in the parish
that I have not conducted.
Everyone here has lost loved ones. Everyone here knows
someone who’s dealing with a serious physical problem. Sometimes it’s
you, yourself. Everyone here knows someone who’s in pain, whether it’s physical
pain, emotional pain, or some other kind of pain. And again, sometimes
it’s you, yourself.
When we think about the world we live in, and how far it is from
the kind of world we pray for, it makes our prayer seem kind of empty. I
mean, yes, of course, we’d love to live in that world we’re praying for.
We’d love to have God’s kingdom, the kingdom of eternal peace and joy,
come to the earth. But it seems there’s about as much chance of it
actually happening as there is of my flapping my arms and flying to the moon.
So, are these just empty words? Are we praying for something
that will never happen until that glorious day when Jesus comes back to earth?
Well, in one sense, yes. As long as humans are what we are,
this world will never be a perfect world. And even if there was a
fundamental change in human nature, there’d still be death and mourning.
Our physical bodies, as they’re constructed, will only last so long.
No matter how many medical advances we make, there will always come a
point at which our bodies wear out and we die.
At the same time, I don’t think Jesus would’ve told us to pray
empty words. There has to be a reason Jesus told us to pray this way.
In fact, I think there are at least a couple of reasons.
One of them is that we are praying for that day when Jesus comes
back to earth. Because that is the only way this is truly going to
happen. And while Jesus said no one but God the Father knows when that
day will come, there’s nothing wrong with praying for it. The next to
last verse in the Bible says, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I
am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” There’s absolutely
nothing wrong with praying for that promise to be fulfilled. There’s
nothing wrong with asking God to have Jesus come soon.
But there’s another aspect of it, too. I don’t think that,
as Christians, you and I are supposed to just sit back, accept things as they
are, and wait for Jesus to come again. I think you and I are supposed to
do what we can to make earth more like God’s kingdom. You and I are
supposed to do what we can to help God’s will be done on earth, as it is in
heaven.
We cannot stop death, of course. But we can, sometimes, stop
tears. We can sometimes, stop crying. We can, sometimes, stop pain.
And if we cannot stop it, we can at least lessen it, at least for a
while.
After all, you and I are made in the image of God. We claim
to be God’s children. We claim to worship God and to serve God.
That means that you and I are not here by accident or by chance. We
are not here to passively observe the world. We are here to change the
world. We are here to do our part to bring about God’s kingdom on earth.
What’s our part? It’s what Jesus told us to do. Love
our neighbor as ourselves.
Every time we act out of love, we bring God’s kingdom a little
closer to this earth. Every time we are there to wipe the tears from
someone’s eyes, we bring God’s kingdom a little closer to this earth.
Every time we ease someone’s pain, we bring God’s kingdom a little closer
to this earth.
There are so many ways we can do that. A lot of times, all
it takes is being there. A lot of times, all it takes is doing something
to show someone we care. A lot of times, all it takes is doing something
to show someone that they’re not alone, that they have someone who loves them.
But it takes one other thing, too. It takes God’s people
paying attention to the people around us.
I’ve had two professions in my life--lawyer and pastor. By
the nature of those professions, I’ve had the chance to learn things about
people that most people don’t know. And what I can tell you as a result
of that is that pretty much everyone you will encounter is hurting in some way.
It may not look like it. They may not be letting anyone but their
family and close friends know. In fact, sometimes we don’t even let our
families and close friends know. Sometimes, we suffer in silence.
We think there’s no one who’s interested, no one who cares, no one who
could do anything anyway.
As God’s people, we need to be interested. We need to care.
We need to realize that there is always something we can do. If the
church is not interested in people’s pain, who will be? If the church
does not care when people are hurting, who will? If the church does not
try to do something, who’s going to?
Am I perfect at this? No. I’m a long way from perfect
at it. I miss chances all the time to help hurting people. This is
something all of us need to work at.
And in working at it, we need to rely on God. Part of our
caring, part of our doing something, is praying for hurting people. We
should not just pray and do nothing else, but we also should not run around
doing things and not pray. It’s like the old saying. We should work
as if everything depends on us, and we should pray as if everything depends on
God. Because both of those things are true.
We pray to a holy, perfect God. We pray for that God’s
kingdom to come on earth. And then we work to bring God’s kingdom closer
to coming on earth. And then, we will be that much closer to the day when
there truly are no more tears and there truly is no more pain. We will be
that much closer to the day when there will be nothing but love and peace and
joy, and we will always be in the presence of God.
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