To pray 'Your kingdom come' is to pray for the reign of God to come now and in the future. It helps us to pray when tongue-tied and overwhelmed by the size of problems. It gives us expectants eyes to look for signs of God-shaped freedom and forgiveness. And it nudges us to be open to God and his reign in our personal lives. 'Let's not wait till life calms down till we welcome the rule or reign of God in our lives.' Read more of Richard M's sermon, first delivered in St Denys as part of our Lord's Prayer series.

The Reign of God

Most of us know the Lord’s prayer so well, the various parts of it develop their own rhythm in our saying of them.  And the question as we go through each of these phrases in this series of Sundays at St Denys is what thoughts or images do they conjure in our minds and are there some other ideas or pictures that we could be aware of that can help us when we pray.

The first one I want to share with you is a thought about the word “Kingdom” that we use in the English translation of the Lord’s Prayer. It was written down by Luke and Matthew in their gospels in Greek but would have been said by Jesus in Aramaic or Hebrew. When we say the word “Kingdom” in the Lord’s prayer, the word that Jesus almost certainly used was “Malkut”, which really means the activity of the rule of a monarch or emperor - so God’s reign.  So, in the next few minutes (and I promise it will only be a few) I’m going to use the word reign more than I use the word Kingdom.

The second, kind of fundamental idea or framework for this talk, is the idea that you may have heard of that we are living in the “already and the not yet”.  This is the idea that, with Jesus’s birth and life, his death and resurrection, his ascension and the gift of the Spirit to those that put their trust in Jesus and pledge to follow him, that his followers (that’s us) are already living in a real way under the reign of God. His Kingdom is already here, but that the extent of this Kingdom is still limited for a time until Jesus comes again.  So when we pray this part of the Lord’s prayer there is both a future aspect and a now aspect.  There is also an “out there” - in the community and the world - and an “in me” aspect.  And in the next few minutes I want to touch on each of those.

The Future Reign of God

So starting with the future sense: we are praying for God’s the Father’s Kingdom to come in all its fullness and we believe this will happen with the return of Jesus. But is it obvious to pray for Jesus’s return - his second coming?  Is that really top of our minds when we sit down to pray? Do we think our prayers can speed things along?

Well, I think we pray for Jesus’s return when we pray “Your Kingdom come” because we want it to happen.  Because we long for it.  

We pray for it partly looking forward to all the wonderful things that are prophesied in the Bible and especially at the end of the book of Revelation - that these will come true with the return of Jesus the King.

But there’s more of course - we long for his return because Jesus is the head of the church, as the reading we just heard says, “in him all things hold together” and simply put, as Christians he is the goal of our lives.  (He is what makes sense of us.)

So when does it help to pray this prayer with this meaning.  Sometimes things feel almost too big to pray for, don’t they?  For example, when we think about climate change or the ongoing troubles in Sudan or the exploitation of vulnerable people almost anywhere in the world, words can fail us and it can be hard to imagine how our prayers can make something happen that make a difference.  Then we can just pray “Come, Lord Jesus” or “Your Kingdom Come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

The Now Reign of God

So that’s the future sense when we pray but there is also the prayer for the here and now.

The Jewish people of the day, and therefore the disciples, would have recognised praying for God’s Kingdom or reign to come in the future and for the Romans to be overthrown.  The difference with Jesus was that he announced that the Kingdom in him was already there.

Since his ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus’s body is the church - that’s us today in this building.  So God’s Kingdom is here with us and when we pray, “Your Kingdom come” we are praying for his reign to be experienced today in and through the church.

His reign out there (world and community)

So we pray for his reign out there and round about us.  In the world and in our community and especially in the Church.

What are the signs of his reign? We came up with lots of examples at the start of the service.

But isn’t it people being set free from what binds them, that the structures in this world that keep people apart are being brought down.  We see that and show this reign when people care for each other. When we see forgiveness and second chances. We show that when we stand together as one at the front when we take communion on a Sunday morning or when we get together to pray for each other.  So we need to keep praying for this community and this church here in St Denys and in the country and the wider world, “Your Kingdom come”.

His reign in me/you/personal

We’ve thought about the future sense and the out in the world sense. Lastly, we pray for the reign of God in our own lives today.  

I would hazard a guess that all of us here that want to follow Jesus also want to experience more of what it means to have God reign in our life.  And what sort of reign is that? Let’s quickly take a trinitarian look at that.

As Paul described last Sunday, God the Father reigns and has authority over us like a loving parent.  This should give us a feeling of security that his love is not unstable, like some human parents, but reliable, calm and, I think, that he is rejoicing in our victories.

But the Father reigns through his son, Jesus. We see what this reign is like when we see Jesus lifted up on a cross.  It is a self-giving love. So if we let him rule in our life then our life should start to look like his, so not so much making sure we always get the best for ourselves but more being humble and forgiving others.  But talking about forgiveness in the Lord’s prayer is looking ahead to the Sunday after next and I hate spoilers.  Sera is going to be talking about forgiveness and I am looking forward to it.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit is the person who brings that reign of God the Father through Jesus his son inside us, bringing comfort and inner conviction - being convinced of God’s love.  Paul the apostle tells us that it is the Spirit that enables us to cry out “Abba, Father”.

Playing our part

So what part can we play to experience more of his reign in our lives - to know the Spirit’s power making Jesus - in all his self-giving love and resurrection-life-giving presence - tangible in our every day messy lives.

Well, first - let’s pray the prayer.  It’s great if we can find a quiet space for this, but if not, how about somewhere that we are mostly undisturbed, like the queue for a bus or the checkout. It may be helpful to just repeat a line such as “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done”.

Another step is not to wait until life calms down to welcome God’s rule or reign in our lives. And not to try and present ourselves to God as we would like to be.  We should just be honest with our Father in heaven about what’s going on in our lives and welcome his reign again each day.

What about actions?  Well, turning up here - worshipping together, sharing communion - remind us that it is actually God’s action through Jesus which demonstrates his reign, not how spiritual we may be feeling.  God shows his power in those who come to him in humility accepting their need for him and his rule in their lives.  And then we see his reign break into this world through us.