Today we’re ending a sermon series
called “Pray This Way”, looking at the Lord’s Prayer. And I think it’s
appropriate that we end that sermon series on Easter, because the last sentence
of the Lord’s Prayer says, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and glory
forever”.
Now, if you remember back when we
read the versions of the Lord’s Prayer that appear in the Bible, you may have
noticed that this line does not appear there. It’s not in Matthew’s
version, and it’s not in Luke’s version. We think this line was added to
the prayer later on, simply because the prayer the way Jesus said it felt
unfinished. It was common, in the early days of Christianity, to say a
line like this at the end of a prayer. And so, the line got added to the
Lord’s Prayer and tradition has kept it there.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with
it. We do believe, as Christians, that the kingdom belongs to God.
We do believe that all power and all glory belong to God. So, it’s
perfectly all right to end the Lord’s Prayer this way, talking about God’s
kingdom.
You know, while Jesus walked on the
earth, he talked a lot about the kingdom of God. He compared it to all
sorts of things. He said the kingdom of God was like a man sowing seed on
the ground--some of it would take root and produce and some of it would not.
Jesus said the kingdom of God was like a mustard seed--something really
small that would grow into something really big. Jesus said the kingdom
of God is like yeast--just a little of it can work through a whole lot of
people.
But Jesus said other things about
the kingdom of God. And this is why I think it’s appropriate that we talk
about this on Easter Sunday. Jesus said, “The
coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will
people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in
your midst.”
The kingdom of God is in your midst. Think
about that. Jesus was telling them that the kingdom of God was right
there. It was right in front of them. It was not something that
they had to go running around and look for. It was not something that
they had to wait for. It was right there, right now, in the form of
Jesus.
They could
not see it. Why not? Well, they looked around and saw things that
were not the way they thought they should be. In particular, they saw
that the nation of Israel had been taken over by the Roman Empire.
Remember, they were supposed to be God’s chosen people. God had
promised to give them this land forever. And now, they’d been taken over
by someone else. That was not right. How could the kingdom of God
be in their midst when things were not the way they were supposed to be and
there was no sign that anything was changing?
And
probably, if someone was to come to us now and say that the kingdom of God is
in our midst, we’d react pretty much the same way. We’d look at all the
things that we think are not the way they should be. We’d look at war.
We’d look at poverty. We’d look at crime. We’d look at
illness. We’d look at broken relationships. We’d look at the number
of children who don’t have God in their lives. And we’d think, “How can
the kingdom of God be in our midst when things are not the way they’re supposed
to be and there’s no sign that anything’s changing?”
That’s why
Jesus told us all those things about what the kingdom of God is. The
kingdom of God is not something that happens BOOM, all at once. It
something that takes time.
When you go out to plant, as some of you will be
doing pretty soon, you don’t expect the crop to come up the next day. It
takes time. A mustard seed grows into a large plant--but not all at once.
It takes time. Yeast will work its way through a whole batch of
dough--but not instantly. It takes time.
The kingdom of God is here. We don’t have
to go running around looking for it. We don’t have to wait for it.
The kingdom of God is right here, right now. It came in the form of
Jesus. But it’s not fully developed yet. It takes time.
How much time? I don’t know. More
time than I’d like, quite frankly. Jesus came two thousand years ago.
To me, that seems like an awfully long time to wait. That’s a lot
of people who’ve been died, who’ve lived in poverty, who’ve suffered from loneliness
or broken relationships or all kinds of things. I would not have chosen
to make it take this long. I don’t like it that it’s taking this long.
I’d like all those things to be over with. I’d like the kingdom of
God to be fully developed now, this morning.
But that’s not the way it is. So, we have
to trust that God has plans that are better than ours. And, when the
kingdom of God is not developed in the time we’d like it to be, we have to
trust that there’s are good reasons why not, even if it we don’t understand
what those reasons could, and even if we cannot understand how there could
possibly good reasons for it.
Or, we don’t. We don’t have to trust God.
We don’t have to trust God’s timing. We can choose to think this is
all nonsense. We can choose to think there’s no “kingdom of God” at all,
or that if there is it’s still a long way off. We don’t have to believe
or trust any of it.
That’s why we read the story of Jesus’
resurrection from the gospel of Mark. What we read today is the end of
the gospel of Mark. The gospel of Mark ends with the women at the tomb
being told that Jesus has risen, and with those women running away from the
tomb, scared and confused, not knowing what to make of it, having more
questions than answers.
Now, if you look in your Bible, you may see some
more verses after that. Those verses were added years later, because
people were uncomfortable with this ending to the gospel of Mark. But
personally, I love it.
I love it because that’s how life is. Life
is not something that’s all nice and neat. Life is not something that
always makes sense to us. Life is not something that always leads to a
completely logical and satisfactory conclusion. Life is something that
leaves us with a lot of loose ends and a lot of unfinished stories. Life
is something that sometimes confuses us and sometimes confounds us and
sometimes even scares us.
I also love it because if we really think about
the kingdom of God, our reaction is likely to be exactly like the reaction of
those women. We don’t know what to make of it. We have more
questions than answers.
Jesus told us that the kingdom of God had come.
It started coming when Jesus came to the earth. It came some more
when Jesus rose on that first Easter morning and appeared to the women.
It came some more when he appeared to the disciples, and they believed.
It came some more when those disciples shared the story of Jesus with
others. And it has kept coming in the two thousand years since. Every
time someone makes a decision for Jesus, the kingdom of God comes a little
more.
But, again, it’s hard to see it. It seems
like it should not be taking this long. And so, it’s hard for us to
believe it’s still coming. It’s easy for us to start to wonder.
It’s easy for us to doubt. It’s easy for us to think the kingdom of
God is not truly here, because we cannot see it coming.
But here’s the thing. The fact that we
cannot see things happening does not mean that nothing is happening. It
just means we cannot see them yet. God works in all kinds of ways, large
and small. God works in all kinds of people, too. God is touching
hearts, and touching lives, every single day, in all kinds of ways. The
fact that we don’t see God at work does not mean God is not working. It
just means we cannot see it right now.
That’s one more thing about those examples Jesus
gave us. Think about planting seeds again. When we plant seeds, at
first we don’t see anything, do we? We hope something is happening, we
think something is happening, but we cannot see it. It’s only when the
plant breaks through the surface of the ground that we know for sure that
something was happening. Until then, we have to trust. We have to
have faith. We have to believe. Or, again, we don’t. It’s up
to us.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is in your
midst.” It’s right here, right now. God has planted seeds.
And God continues to plant seeds. And those seeds are growing.
We cannot see them yet. But they’re growing. They’re growing
in Gettysburg/Agar/Onida. And someday, those seeds are going to
grow into large plants. It may take a long time. Or, it may not.
But it is going to happen. It will happen at a time of God’s
choosing and in a way of God’s choosing. But it is going to happen.
Jesus brought the kingdom of God to us. And
because Jesus rose from the dead, we know the kingdom of God will never leave.
It will continue to grow until it is fully developed and Jesus comes
again. And then, the kingdom and the power and the glory truly will be
his, now and forever.
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