Your Kingdom Come

        What’s the point of having video technology at church if we never show a clip from the greatest movie ever made?  I’m speaking, of course, of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

       Clip from Monty Python – king of the Britons

       Sometimes we are like Dennis.  We think that here at church we are part of an autonomous collective.  So we are very surprised when someone shows up and announces that He is and intends to act like our king.  No, I’m not talking about some authoritarian pastor with an over-inflated ego.  I’m talking about God.

     Mark 1:14-15 tells us, "After John the Baptist was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'"

        The Kingdom of God is the core of Jesus’ message. So it is not surprising to find it given a prominent place in the Lord's Prayer. "Our Father, who is in heaven, may Your Name be made holy. Your Kingdom come."

       If I had written the Lord's Prayer -- if churches all over the world repeated "Dave’s prayer" every Sunday, I probably would not have started that way. If I were to put the most urgent thing on my heart first, it probably would not be "Your Kingdom Come." I would probably go right to the prayer for forgiveness of my sins, or for daily bread, or for protection.

       And the Lord's Prayer is very practical. Jesus tells us to pray for our earthly needs. But, despite what we sometimes think, our earthly needs are not our greatest needs. So before we pray for forgiveness, or food, or protection, or even for the ability to forgive others, Jesus tells us to pray that something else will happen -- that God's Kingdom will come.

       And that's what we do -- whenever we pray the prayer Jesus taught us. But do we know what we are saying? Do we know what we are asking for? Do we know what we are committing ourselves to be part of?

       Well if we don't, we're not alone. Even in the time of Jesus His closest followers had a hard time grasping the Kingdom of God. To them it was the restoration of the nation of Israel as a great power -- the great power--among the nations of the earth. The idea of a physical kingdom was so strong that Acts 1:6 tells us that even after the resurrection the disciples asked Jesus, "Lord, is it at this time that you are going to restore the Kingdom to Israel." It wasn't until the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that the disciples understood what Jesus had meant when He said, "My Kingdom is not of this world."

      Luke 17:20-21 tells us that some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God was coming. Jesus answered, "the Kingdom of God does not come is such a way that you are able to see it. You can't say: 'look, there it is!' or 'there it is!' For the Kingdom of God is among you."

       What does Jesus mean by this answer?

       He means, first of all, that the Kingdom of God is not a physical place like the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan where some of us will be next week.  It’s not a place that pretends to be a kingdom but is actually a democracy that puts on a show of royalty like Britain.  The Kingdom of God is, instead, a state or a condition of being. In fact the very name, "the Kingdom of God, basalai to Theo, could be equally well translated "kingship of God"--not what is ruled over but the very act of ruling.

       So when we pray "your Kingdom come," we are praying that God will be in charge--that, in fact, His will will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. When Jesus says in Mark 1, "the kingship of God is at hand," he is saying that God is on the point of beginning His reign. For the royal power of God entered the world in the person of Jesus Christ. When Jesus said to the Pharisees, "the kingship of God is among you," He is talking about Himself.

       Max Lucado writes on this petition in the Lord’s Prayer: "We enter the presence of God with a satchel full of requests -- promotions desired, transmission repairs needed, and tuitions due. We'd typically say our prayers as casually as we'd order a burger at the drive-through: "I'll have one solved problem and two blessings, cut the hassles, please."

       “But such complacency seems inappropriate in the Lord’s Prayer. Here we are before the King of kings. We've just covered our mouths out of reverence for His holiness, -- "hallowed be Your Name." Now do we open them with the topic of transmissions? Not that our needs don't matter to Him. It's just that what seemed so urgent outside the presence of God seems less significant in here. The pay raise is still needed and the promotion is still desired, but is that where we start?

      Jesus tells how to begin. "When you pray, pray like this. "Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Your kingdom come.'"

       Lucado continues: "When you say, "Thy kingdom come," you are inviting the Messiah himself to walk into your world -- you can’t have the kingdom without the king. We are saying, "Jesus, come, my King! Take your throne in our land. Be present in my heart. Be present in my office. Come into my marriage. Be Lord of my family, my fears, my doubts." This is not a feeble request. It is a bold appeal for God to occupy every corner of your life."

       When we pray "Your Kingdom come" and mean it, we are saying that we want God to be in charge. We are saying that we are willing to bend our knees before Him. Now the question is, "Do we mean it?" Or are we only willing for God to be God if he also allows us to be God -- each of us in our own proper God place. We'll let God be King of the spiritual stuff as long as it doesn't cramp our style in the real world.

       The instinctive human relationship to life is to make it all about us – to make our own wishes, will, and desires the dominating force — to pray "your kingdom come" but to want "my kingdom come."  This instinctive desire is why the Kingship of God and repentance go hand in hand.

       So in Mark, Jesus calls people to repent because God was about to being His reign.

       Repentance, metanoia in Greek, is literally a change of mind. Conversion is literally a turning around and facing in the opposite direction. Confession is simply agreeing that what God says is wrong is wrong -- even if we don't sense the wrongness.

       So when a woman enters the Kingdom, she has a change of mind, which makes her stop obeying her own will and start accepting God's will. It makes a man stop looking at himself and start looking at God. The entry into the Kingdom begins for us when, like Paul on the Damascus road, our one question is, "What shall I do Lord?"

       "What shall I do Lord?" Sooner or later we will all ask that question. For God’s Kingdom is coming.

       We don’t vote for a king.  Jesus is Lord whether people desire that or not. We didn’t elect Jesus Lord. We don’t make him Lord by our faith. Jesus is Lord because that is who He is. The question is, "will we be His friends?" Will we be the companions of the King?

       Do you really desire God’s Kingdom? Do you desire it enough to give of your time, and of your labor, and of your money? Can a political party, a social club, a country club, a civic club, a woman's club, a sports team or a kids sports team count on you, whereas the Church cannot count on your regularity, your devotion, your love, your sacrifice? If so, it’s time to either readjust your life or start mumbling through this part of the prayer.   But if you seek to be in tune to God’s kingdom with your bothers and sisters in faith in this congregation one thing you can do  is  come place your pledge card on he able after we share in the Lord’s Supper – the symbol  your sacrifice on the symbol of His sacrifice.  It’s not the only expression of our priorities but it’s a good one.

       In one of His parables of the Kingdom, Jesus describes the Kingdom of God as a man giving a feast. Jesus offers us a feast today as we gather at this, His table. His is a feast of His own self. For Jesus gave Himself for us so that we might sit with Him here today and, eventually, rejoice with Him for eternity.

      You see, Jesus presents us with an invitation. He comes into this place this morning as he came into Galilee and says, "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; turn around, believe in the good news, and come to my table." Our proper response is: "Your Kingdom come — in me!"

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