Thy Kingdom Come
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Savoir Jesus Christ.
Today we are continuing our series on the Lord's Prayer with the second petition Thy Kingdom Come.
When we pray this petition thy kingdom come, what do most people think of? I suspect many would picture the end of days when Jesus returns. That thinking may be more pronounced in our day than it was in the past. After all we have the Left Behind series along with other books concerning prophesy floating about not to mention prominent nondenominational church leaders emphasizing that the day of reckoning is just around the corner. They could be right about the timing but that is really not the focus of this petition.
In the Small Catechism Luther wrote:
Thy kingdom come.
What does this mean?
The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.
How does God's kingdom come?
God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.
I want to tell you a story about a rebellion. Not a war as much as an upheaval of the established ideology in the land. Of course, the establishment saw it as rebellion but it really was a new ideology. The new thinking was even based on the same foundation as the establishment. It all started when a person with "radical ideas" gained a following. As tensions between the radical and the establishment heightened the leaders of the establishment conspired to separate the radical leader from his followers. Well it escalated to violence, the radical leader was killed. The new following scattered. A small remnant stayed together though. They held onto this new teaching but hid for fear of more violence. Then a new leader came to them and suddenly the movement was alive again and rapidly grew ever stronger.
You may recognize the parallel to Jesus and the Holy Spirit in that little story. The kingdom came to the disciples and they helped carry the kingdom to others.
If we think about how God interacted with people throughout the Old Testament we would realize that God never imposed His will directly on the people. He surely disciplined them but never took away their free will to decide whether to obey or turn away. God always picked a spokesperson or prophet that He interacted with directly then expected that person to carry His message to the people. Its clear God wanted the people and us to grasp an understanding of Him in human terms.
To reach people in a broken world God used broken servants. No one doubts that this is definitely a broken world; there is war, disease, famine, crime, and worst of all we turn away from God.
In the beginning the world was a perfect place until Adam and Eve disobeyed. Their disobedience opened the door to sin. Sin and death entered the world with all of the devices necessary to insure creation would be in agony until the body was destroyed.
However God unveiled a plan to counter sin. God has reclaimed His people through the saving grace of Jesus Christ. And He has sent a counselor so that we can believe in Jesus and salvation through Him. The Holy Spirit also has made us one of the broken servants to reach the people.
In our reading Jesus spent time with sinners at least according to the establishment. The tax collectors often cheated the subjects by collecting more than was required by the Romans.
The Jewish leaders failed to see they were also sinners in there own ways. They became entrenched in a system of laws to make themselves righteous. The laws failed to take into account the examples of grace and mercy in scripture.
In some ways we do the same thing today. I can think of many times I've taken the self-righteous way of thinking. As an example I used to get upset when people at work would have a baby shower for an unwed mother-to-be. After all she shouldn't be pregnant in the first place. As if I was someone to judge her or her situation. I failed to take into account that Jesus loved her just the same as everyone else. As a broken servant I should have been there to make sure she knew Jesus loved her. I failed to be the servant I'm expected to be.
So when does the Kingdom come?
The kingdom is present in each of us as baptized children of God. The Holy Spirit dwells in us.
The kingdom comes every time we reach out and let another person know we are concerned about them. The kingdom comes when we do acts of kindness for others. The kingdom comes when we reach out into the community to help the less fortunate and the hurting.
And most certainly the kingdom comes when we are witnesses of the one true faith.
I'm certain that each of us knows someone that could use a little help. I'm also certain that if we invite the community here for events we will touch hearts and learn of needs.
Let's take a look back at Pentecost. A hundred plus followers huddled together the remnant of a large following where the flame was rekindled through the Holy Spirit.
Are we that remnant willing to take the flame to others or just waiting for the last of the candle to burnout?
In the name our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
