Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Kingdom, Power, Glory, Forever

by Dave Wilkinson

1 Chronicles 2:10-13, Matthew 6:9-13

October 1, 2000

If you , like me, grew up with the Saturday Evening Post around the house, you also grew up with the paintings of Norman Rockwell. Two summers ago when we were in New England, we stopped in Arlington, Vermont where Rockwell lived and painted for several years. Arlington has a small Rockwell museum which features, as hosts and hostesses, people who actually appeared in one or more of Rockwell's paintings. We met an older woman named Mary who had been captured on canvas twice -- once as a child being rescued from a flood by a Boy Scout and later as a young woman picking out an engagement ring. It was a neat, very un- Southern California kind of experience.

You may remember the Norman Rockwell painting that shows a young boy in the office of a country doctor. The kindly old doc is preparing to give the boy a shot. The boy has paused with his pants half way down to carefully read the medical school diploma on the doctor's wall.

Rockwell's simple painting illustrates very vividly the two ingredients that are essential for trust.

First of all, we need to know that the person intends our good. Now in the case of Rockwell's old doc, kindness oozes from every pore so there is no question about his goodness. We know just from looking at him: "This man would not intentionally inflict pain."

But goodness, by itself, is not enough for trust. The boy also needs to know that the doc has the ability to do the job he is being asked to do. That's the point of checking the diploma.

All of the kindness in the world does not make the doctor a good doctor--able to give a shot that will be effective with a minimum of pain to a small boy's rear end. And ability alone also does not make him a good doctor. I mean, he could be a well trained escapee from the Vermont home for crazed scientists. He could delight in inflicting pain with his evil needle. We need to know both for trust -- will and ability -- will to make something good happen and the ability, the power, to actually do the job.

This assurance is something we find in the Lord's Prayer. In this prayer we first see God's kindly face. He is our Father in heaven. And we also read the diploma on His wall. His is "the kingdom, the power, and

the glory forever."

You remember the Lord's Prayer: "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Now I want to lead you through a little detective work that, I think, will help you appreciate the kind of effort that has gone into making sure that the Bible we read is the Bible as it was originally written. This is important as you realize the kind of things that can creep in when something is copied over and over again by hand -- as the Bible was for hundreds of years until the invention of the printing press.

You may have noticed that the phrase "for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever" is put in brackets in the New American Standard Version in the seat backs. And if you have a Revised Standard Version, you will notice that the prayer ends after the word evil. Then there is a footnote that reads: "other authorities, some ancient, add, in some form, "for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen."

The reason the RSV has placed that final phrase in the footnotes is because they followed a rule that for a verse to be included in the main body of the text, it had to appear in the great majority of manuscripts. We now have 4,000 major Greek manuscripts of the New Testament--some from as early as the first century, and that phrase does not appear in the great majority or the oldest manuscripts.

So, how did this final phrase come to be attached to the Lord's Prayer as we pray it? One speculation we can make is that we know that very early in the life of the church, maybe in the first-century, the Lord's Prayer was used in worship. Christians began to use the prayer as a part of worship. And as they completed the part Jesus taught, they reached into the Bible and found texts with which they could then close the prayer. They probably reached into the prayer of David in 1 Chronicles 29 for the appropriate words.

Then later, in the second or third century when a scribe was copying manuscripts, he probably flashed on the closing phrase from morning worship and automatically added it to the text. Then other scribes copied his mistake and so on. Scholars can trace entire families of manuscripts by the errors. You can see the kind of work that has gone into making sure that the Bible we use is accurate.

Now the question is -- if this was not part of the prayer as Jesus taught it -- is it appropriate for us to use it in our worship?

Yes, it is. For we have the testimony of all scripture that the kingdom, the power and the glory do belong to God. These ending words have found favor in our worship and in our lives because they meet our need. As we pray; as we speak to the Father in heaven, we need a reminder that our prayers are not spoken into a void and that we do not pray in vain for the coming of the kingdom of God, for daily bread, for deliverance from temptation, and for the forgiveness of our sins. And we have this ground to stand on. The reason why we can pray as we do is that the kingdom belongs to God and the power and glory too."

Do we really believe this--on this World Wide Communion Sunday as we look at conflicts for control all around the planet? Are we really sure that the kingship of both heaven and earth is vested in our Father? How about when our friends and loved ones are away? How about when the kids are sick and we are worried? How about when we experience loss? How about when the stock market is shaky or our company is going through "retrenching"? Are we truly confident that God lovingly controls the events and destiny of nations as well as our own lives?

A theologian named Jurgen Moltmann wrote before the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: "To whom does the world domination belong? This is the cardinal question in our international conflicts today. The nations are growing inexorably into a world wide community; but according to what pattern, and according to whose lordship, and according to which law? Two great concepts are wrestling with one another: western democracy, which the eastern countries also call capitalism; and the socialism of the eastern countries which the west also calls dictatorship. This is not a struggle for coexistence. It is a struggle for domination. Who is number one? Who is going to determine humanity's future? To whom is the kingdom of the earth going to belong?"

Well for the moment, since Moltmann wrote, capitalism seems to be very ahead. But the answer the Bible gives is still God. His is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Any other view of our Father in heaven is to see Him in a distorted manner. It is true, He is our Father; He is the loving one who draws us to Himself by His gracious spirit with tenderness and compassion. But He is also the supreme ruler of heaven and earth, before whom all one day stand to give account of themselves. He is the one who declares His Son to be King of kings and Lord of lords, before whom, one day, every human heart will bow in utter subjection.

God has all authority. He also has all power. Everything, and by that simple word everything is meant--all creation, be in heaven or in earth, exists by virtue of His power. He has the power to work His will, to forgive, to shield in temptation, to deliver from the evil one. The power of God is loving and patient. But it is the ultimate power and it will prevail.

God also has glory. And this also works to our good. As David says in the 23rd Psalm, God stakes his reputation as God--His glory--on leading us in the right paths. He leads us in paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.

Kingdom, power, glory. These are the things God has--and He has them forever. This means that the warranty on this prayer never expires. We have all we need for trust. We know that God desires our good and has the authority and the power to make it real. We know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. This conclusion to the prayer is the diploma on the wall that accompanies God's kind face. For His is the kingdom. The power, and the glory forever. Amen.