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Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

The coming kingdom?

When we pray ‘Your kingdom come’ are we seeking to pull God’s ideal future into our present?

Context/Ideas for sermons

Prayer is very important in the Gospel of Luke. Many important events take place while Jesus is praying – including of course, his teaching of his disciples this particular prayer, which has ever since been a marker of the followers of Jesus. On the one hand, the prayer does not overtly say very much about Jesus himself – but in actuality it says a great deal, for it makes clear that his ministry is founded on his deep trust in God as ‘Father’, and in his commitment to bring in his father’s ‘kingdom’ into a world in which the notions of kingship often approached despotic tyranny. 

I am fascinated by the way that, in the Gospel of Luke, once Jesus has taught his disciples this prayer, it is ‘echoed’ in his later ministry and in his own passion. For example, the parable of the forgiving father (Luke 15.1-32), and the parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16.19-3) – both echoing ‘give us this day our daily bread’; the command to forgive your fellow disciples (Luke 17.1-4), and ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23.34) – ‘forgive us…as we forgive’. Jesus is offering us the supreme example of how ‘Prayer can be valid’ – validating itself in his own life and actions.

I am also interested in how the political context in which Jesus exercised his ministry – especially as reflected in the Gospel of Luke – offers us important pointers for our own understanding of the relationship between faith and politics. I have just returned from leading a group of young people on a visit to the Holy Land, and a ‘theme’ that ran through our visit was the way in which Jesus (and his contemporaries) were regularly confronted by how they should ‘react to the Romans’. Should he/they collude with the Roman authorities (as did many of the religious authorities)? Should they struggle against them (as did the Zealots)? Or should they seek to turn their backs on the political arena altogether and retreat to a form of quietism (as did the Essenes/Qumran community)? My argument is that Jesus refused either to completely adopt one of these positions – and also refused to deny their possible validity. And it was actually the ‘holding together’ in his own person of these competing options that led to his crucifixion.

I think that has implications for us today when we pray ‘your kingdom come’. We are somehow seeking to hold in a creative tension the positive realities of the world in which we live with our acknowledgement that what we have at the moment is not perfect and is not ultimately how God wants our world to be. We are committed to making a change – even while we acknowledge that such change cannot be the final word. There is a wonderful prayer ‘We are prophets of a future not our own’ (ascribed to Oscar Romero, though unlikely to be by him) that picks this up.

I find myself resonating this against what is happening in the UK political arena at the moment – dominated by the Conservative leadership election. To pray ‘your kingdom come’ is both an acknowledgement that politics and politicians will never be perfect, but that we are also justified in seeking leaders who will live out a vision of integrity and justice. It also has possible implications for the well-being of our earth – something important to remember in this week that has seen the highest temperatures ever recorded in the UK. I know full well that even though we as individuals are unlikely ever to be able to ‘do enough’ in the area of combating climate change, we are all called not to despair but to working with others for incremental change.

 

Questions for discussion

• What do you think about the following comments, one offered by a modern Christian – the other centuries old?
  • The ‘Our Father’ compels us to recognise that we have a role in the world. To ask that his kingdom may come while doing nothing to further the rule of love in the world is to mock God. (René Coste)
  • When we pray, ‘Your will be done on earth as in heaven’ we are not praying that God may accomplish what he wills. But that we may be able to do what God wills. (St Cyprian of Carthage)

• Do we need to adapt language about God’s ‘kingdom’ to respond to the political realities of our time? Are expressions like ‘God’s realm’ appropriate alternatives to use these days? What might we gain – or lose – by such alternatives?
• Reflect on contemporary situations in which, as Christians, we may find ourselves called to show our allegiance to the Kingdom of God and the principles of this realm in ways that challenge the norms of much of contemporary society and of the state in which we live.

Dr Clare Amos is a biblical scholar and interreligious specialist who, now officially retired, acts in a voluntary capacity as Director of Lay Discipleship and Director of the Ministry Experience Scheme in the Diocese in Europe.

 

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Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

This week we have experienced the highest temperatures on record here in the UK as scenes on the news have replicated those things we were warned would happen, and the effects of global warming became more acutely experienced. Perhaps we’ve seen those around us realise for the first time the need to take these warnings seriously, and take action on climate change, knowing that we have a part to play in this.

When Jesus taught us to pray ‘your kingdom come,’ he was teaching something of what it is to play our part in bringing in God’s change. God can change the world in unimaginable, supernatural, miraculous ways, and yet he chooses to work with us, inviting us to change the world together with him.

When we pray ‘your kingdom come,’  we ask God to bring about his transformation, and in turn, he invites us to participate. It’s a prayer that comes with a challenge; will we have the courage to say ‘Amen’ to that, and be ready to take the actions that are needed?

Becky May is founder of The Resources Cupboard

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