Thy Kingdom Come

This is the message given at the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, August 16, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Genesis 2:4-15 and Revelation 21:1-7.

We start the Lord’s Prayer with, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”.  We recognize that we’re praying to the holy, perfect God, and that’s very important.  Then, we pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.’

            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, nothing about heaven.  Just “thy kingdom come.”  

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, heaven is already God’s kingdom.  There’d be no reason to pray for God’s kingdom to come to heaven.  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 really 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.  On average, I conduct about twenty funerals every year.  And of course there are many other funerals in the parish that I do not conduct.

Everyone has lost loved ones.  Everyone knows someone who’s dealing with a serious physical problem.  Maybe 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, maybe 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.  The United Methodist mission statement says that we are to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  In other words, 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.

That can be challenging in these times of social distancing.  We don’t just happen to see people the way we used to.  But it still can be done.  We may need to be a little more intentional about it.  We may have to make more of an effort to make those contacts, to be there for people, to show them we care.  But it can be done.  God will even help us with it, if we ask him.  We can do this, if we decide we’re going to.  

But that’s the thing—we need to decide that we’re going to.  We need to be intentional about it.  That means we need to pay 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, you and I 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.  It’s something I need to work at, and keep working at.  It’s something all of us need to work at and keep working 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.