kneel in wonder at heaven touching earth

Your kingdom come

When Jesus told us to pray, “your kingdom come”, he was speaking about his future messianic reign on the earth. Throughout Scripture, the story of the Bible looks forward to the return of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who will rule in righteousness when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Revelation 11:15).

This concern for God’s rule on the earth is basic to our view of history. The German theologian, Joseph Wittig said that a person’s biography should begin with their death, rather than their birth. His argument was that we measure the contribution of life by its end, not its beginning. And that is how we should think about history.

We sometimes wonder if history is going anywhere. Is it simply a set of repeated events going around in cycles; heading towards nothing but oblivion? Many famous people have dismissed history over the years — one memorable one being Henry Ford’s summing up of history as “bunk”.

But history is heading somewhere in the Bible — the return of Jesus Christ. That light shines before us, and the darker the age, the brighter seems the glow.

When we pray, “your kingdom come”, we’re looking forward to that time when God’s messianic kingdom will be established by Jesus’ return to earth, as prophesied throughout the Old Testament. We direct our gaze, as we pray, to the day when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.

When we pray, “your kingdom come”, we’re also saying something else. We’re saying that we shall submit our will to God’s will. It follows that we want God to work his will out in our lives now, if we want him to rule over all people in the future.

When we pray, “your kingdom come”, we’re acknowledging God’s right to rule all people — including us. If we desire it for others, we must desire it for ourselves too. We shouldn’t pray for God’s rule over others, unless we honestly desire his rule over ourselves.

When we pray, “your kingdom come”, we’re praying for the second coming of Christ now, not at some convenient point in the future. Nothing in our lives should take precedence over his coming. That’s what we mean when we pray, “your kingdom come”.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

This is the fourth post in a series offering a reflection based on each of the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer

“The kingdom of heaven is like . . .”

The following is the text of the sermon I preached at the 8.00am Holy Communion service on Sunday, 27 July; at Church — St Mary the Virgin, Godmanchester.

“The kingdom of heaven is like . . .”
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

May I speak in the name of the living God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Longing for change
“The kingdom of heaven is like . . . ” — I wonder what Jesus’s disciples would’ve thought when they first heard him say those words? I wonder what they would’ve hoped to hear? They were probably longing for a change in the political scene of their country, and most likely hoping that Jesus, who they thought of as the promised Messiah, was going to instigate such a change.

Their nation had been oppressed for hundreds of years; occupied by Persians, Greeks, and now Romans. They’re desperate for political and radical change, to bring them freedom from that oppression. And they long for the kingdom of heaven.

“The kingdom of heaven is like . . .” — We’re fortunate to be living in a country that has a good government. Yes, I know there are many that would want to question that statement. But in comparison to many places around the world, we are living under a good government. There are places where the people are longing for freedom from government oppression, and the hope of a better life, just as those disciples did two thousand years ago. Think, for instance, of recent events in Zimbabwe, or of the protests in Tibet, or of those in the camps of Darfur, longing for a new regime that will give them protection and a livelihood.

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