This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come…”
Matthew 6.9-10
The Kingdom of God
“The kingdom of God” is the foundational doctrine of Christ’s entire message. As a Jew preaching to predominately Jewish audiences, the concept of God’s kingdom—i.e., restoration of Israel through His Chosen One, the Messiah—held particular resonance and urgency. Their national history was stained with captivity, invasions, and subjugation by outside forces that honored neither their culture nor their faith. At the time of Jesus’s ministry, Rome bridled them with tight reins in the latest of what looked to be an endless series of indignities and abuses. They begged God for relief and raised dirges of despair to their temple rafters. “How long will the enemy mock you, O God?” they sang. “Will the foe revile your name forever?” (Psalm 74.10) So, when Christ preached the kingdom of God, His countrymen listened with great interest. What He said about it, though, offers terrific news for us all.
Seed Stories
Luke captures a pivotal moment in Jesus’s “kingdom” ministry. The Pharisees try to needle Him into predicting when God’s kingdom would come. They hope to lure Him into Messianic claims and then challenge His authority based on His failure to deliver Israel from Roman rule. The taunt is too bold and bald to fall for, however. In response, Jesus exposes their pettiness and conclusively redefines what “the kingdom of God” means. “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation,” He answers, “nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17.20-21)
The kingdom is in us—what can that mean? Now it gets exciting. Jesus typically discussed God’s kingdom in parables, sometimes spinning several versions of one story. In Mark 4, for instance, He tells three “seed” stories. A farmer scatters seeds in various places but only those planted in good ground produce. Another farmer sows seed in rich soil and it grows by itself. In the third story, a miniscule mustard seed flourishes into the tallest plant in the garden. God’s kingdom is the seed. We are the soil. We invite God into our lives, His kingdom takes root, and it thrives in us.
Being Green
When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” what we’re really saying is, “We’re yours.” We yield to His purpose, asking Him to use us as good ground for His kingdom. As its roots deepen and it matures, His kingdom begins bearing fruit. It enriches our hearts, strengthens our spirits, and replenishes our minds. When His kingdom comes, everything about us grows. Being green is what God’s kingdom is all about.
God plants His kingdom in us and we grow as it grows.
(Tomorrow: Your Will Be Done)
5 comments:
I deeply appreciate your comment about the phrase "Your kingdom come." Indeed, if we provide fertile ground for the seed of God's Word to grow within us, His kingdom will flourish and mark us with spiritual growth.
What is the means to creating fertile ground, then? I believe it is following Christ's most basic and yet most challenging injuction: Love one another. Those three words seem so simple, even naive, yet they are the most difficult three words for any human being to master.
Forgive. Reconcile. Good will toward all men. Love them for the sake of your Lord, not for who they are but for who He is within them.
Today, I will nurture the ground of my soul with greater attention and invite Him into my life.
Thank you, Tim.
I pray all is well at Felix's house and that his people are happy. :-)
This is so beautiful... and I love that image.
CM, you've added an essential dimension to the post. It is indeed up to us to preserve the integrity of our ground. We've got to keep it rich and fertile, and love is what maintains its productive capabilities. I can't resist citing another horticultural comment Jesus made (even if my writing instructors would have grabbed red Sharpies to scribble MIXED METAPHOR! in the margin). In Matthew 7, He said, "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit... Thus, by their fruit you will know them." It's all of piece: no love and reconciliation in the soil, none in the fruit.
Thanks for helping complete this thought! Also, I'm taking the liberty to link your blog here. You have a wonderful story to tell, one to move and inspire all of us--and each of us, I'm sure, will be honored to stand in solidarity with you. (It also shares many common threads with a second blog I plan to highlight, which Fran recommended.)
Fran, if your ears were burning today, I'm to blame. I went to Davenport IA with four terrific, longtime girlfriends to canvass and register prospective Obama voters. En route, of course, we commiserated about how difficult it was to believe that anyone could consider NOT voting for Barack, etc.
I immediately launched into glowing kudos for your blog, Missy's, Border Explorer's, and the Rev's as superb places where political outrage meets Christian conscience. (Two of the ladies are practicing Catholics, BTW.) All were eager to head your direction. Don't know if they'll jump right into the discussions, but look for them!
Peace and blessings to you both,
Tim
God bless you Tim - oh how the seed is sown!
And good on you my friend for going off to Iowa to do that!
I may post this link, but I have a blog that I would really like for you to see, not to over-blog you- this is an important post...
No More Martyrs by Counterlight
Fran, I owe you much for this link. In the crazy hubbub of the past week, the Matthew Shepard anniversary slipped by me. Counterlight's essay pulled me back to earth to remind me that what seems so important in our daily comings-and-goings is often not the least bit essential--just busy-ness. As the essay so brilliantly, movingly proves, Matthew was one of thousands and thousands of significant lives ripped away from us by the hands of hatred and fear.
Last week, I was watching the webcast of Cathedral of Hope, the Dallas UCC, predominately gay church. The pastor, Jo Hudson, said something that has stayed with me ever since: "The only way to defeat fundamental evil is with fundamental love." The hatred, fear, and excessive violence behind GLBT martyrdom are incontrovertibly driven by fundamental evil.
I think about Matthew's killers and all the other perpetrators of hate crimes and I wonder, who was responsible for loving them, nurturing them, and why did he/she/they fail to do it? We won't put an end to hate crimes by policing the fields, alleys, apartments, and automobiles where they happen. But I totally believe we can all but eradicate it from our future by reaching today's neglected, unloved children as much as possible. The best way to prevent the agonies of hatred is to do everything possible to create a fundamentally loving climate unsuitable for its growth.
Thanks again for the link...
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