"Thy Kingdom Come"
Sermon
PRAY LIKE THIS ...
Sermons On The Lord's Prayer
Many of us are familiar with Stephen Covey's 1989 bestseller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey begins his book with a personal illustration. He writes:
I remember a mini--paradigm shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly - some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene.
A man and his children entered the car. The children were soon yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the father sitting next to me did nothing.
It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild ... It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience ... I asked, "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?"
The man lifted his gaze as if coming to ... consciousness ... and said softly, "Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago ... I guess they don't know how to handle it either."
Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? Suddenly I saw things differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished ... My heart was filled with the man's pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely. "Your wife just died? Oh, I'm so sorry! Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?"1
Stephen Covey saw things differently, felt differently, and behaved differently because of a changed perspective. The children weren't acting out because they were wild. They were acting out their grief. The father wasn't overly lenient. He was overwhelmed by loss. A psychologist might say Stephen Covey "re--framed" the situation. Covey calls it a "paradigm shift."
We'll get back to Stephen Covey and paradigm shifts in a moment. But first let's think a bit about the Kingdom of God. We hear of it in our hymns: "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord." We pray for it in our prayers: "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We know the Kingdom of God was central to Jesus' preaching.
But honestly - on a day--to--day level - what does the Kingdom of God have to do with us? Americans haven't had a king since 1776. The Australians just voted to keep their Queen. But I don't think Americans would vote to rejoin the British Empire, do you? That would somehow seem like moving backwards. Kings and kingdoms are foreign to most of us. The king I encounter most is Burger King! Or maybe Larry King on television.
"The Kingdom of God"? It may sound a bit archaic, or maybe make believe, or maybe otherworldly, or maybe far distant. Perhaps we need one of Stephen Covey's paradigm shifts: a new perspective, a different way of thinking about the Kingdom of God.
What did Jesus mean when he taught us to pray for the Kingdom? One thing he meant was to open ourselves up to radical, personal change. For if God is our King (or Ruler, if you will), then you and I can no longer be the center of our own little universe. We'll have to climb down off our self--made throne.
Of course, most of us aren't as blatantly self--centered as Muhammad Ali was during his "I am the greatest" period. A colleague, irritated by Ali's perpetual boasting, once asked the boxer how good he was at golf. "I am the greatest at golf," announced Ali. "I just haven't tried it yet."
Another time he got on a plane and refused to buckle his seatbelt. "Superman don't need no seatbelt," Ali told the flight attendant. She responded, "Superman don't need no airplane, either." Ali buckled his belt.
Maybe we're not as self--absorbed as that. Maybe our self--centeredness is a little more subtle, like the novelist who said to a friend, "We've talked about me long enough. Now let's talk about you. Tell me, what do you think of my latest book?"
Still, many of us - if we were honest - would have to admit that it is tempting, much of the time, to put ourselves first. It's often our needs, our desires, our perspective, and our opinions that count most.
Much of our life is like a series of concentric circles. Too often we put ourselves at the center. The needs of our family and friends come next. Next come the needs of our community and the concerns of our country. And the Kingdom of God - if it's anywhere - is somewhere out on the edge.
But to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" - and really mean it - is to reverse our focus. It's to put God's will first, the needs of others second, and our needs last.
A famous rabbi once surprised some scholars who were staying with him by asking them the question. "Where does God live?" The learned scholars laughed. "Obviously," they said, "God doesn't live in any one specific place. God is everywhere. The whole world is full of God's glory."
But the rabbi offered them a different perspective. He said, "God lives in the hearts of men and women who let God in." God lives in the hearts of men and women who let God in.
God is only King (Ruler) of our lives if we let God in. You and I are the only ones who can give God that central place. To pray "Thy Kingdom come" is not to pray for some indefinite spiritual state that will come in the far--distant future. Nor is it to pray for a political system that disappeared in the nineteenth century.
No, it means to pray for a change of perspective now. It's saying, "God, I invite you into my life. I put you in the center. I'll try my best to be your obedient subject. Please, you be the King."
That means King over everything, including our money. Luther said the last thing baptized in many of us is our wallet! Yet the love of money or an obsessive concern about money can come between us and God's rule. Sometimes an excessive anxiety over even a little bit of money can blind us totally to the beauty and goodness of God's world.
Try an experiment. After church, take a drive over to the overlook at Corporation Beach by the snack bar. It's beautiful there, isn't it? You get a 200--degree panoramic view of Cape Cod Bay. Take a moment to admire the mile--long stretch of white beach. Drink in the clouds above you and the waves below you. Then take two dimes and put them in front of your eyes! Two thin dimes can block out the sand, the sea, and the sky. I'm told a hundred--dollar bill works even better!
To pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," is to put God first in all things, including how we manage our money. That can seem kind of scary. Yet what God wants for each of us - symbolized by the Kingdom of God - is really what's best for us. For we are most truly ourselves the more we give of ourselves to God. As Augustine put it, "Our hearts will be restless until they find their rest in Thee." Abundant life comes from putting God first in all things, including money.
To me, Frances Havergal, author of the hymn, "Take My Life And Let It Be," is an excellent example. She was born into a wealthy, cultured, and distinguished British family. Her father was a prominent Anglican clergyman. Frances herself was brilliant.
By age four she was reading - and memorizing - the Bible. She eventually learned the entire New Testament - and much of the Old - by heart. Frances was an avid student, writer, and composer. She was a concert pianist much in demand. She mastered six languages. She was one of Stephen Covey's "Highly Effective People."
Frances Havergal had a distinguished background, a brilliant mind, and an engaging personality. Frances could have done almost anything. But in early adolescence she gave her life to God. She wrote, "I committed my soul to the Savior - and earth and heaven seemed brighter from that moment." You see, she had a paradigm shift. She devoted her considerable talents to doing God's work.
She wrote hymns. She taught Sunday school to servants. She tended to the poor personally. She even gave away her wealth. There's a line in "Take My Life and Let It Be" that's missing in our hymnal. It goes: "Take my silver and my gold, not a mite will I withhold."
Frances Havergal lived that line. She sold all her jewelry - described as "fit for a countess" - to support Christian missions. She wrote, "I don't think I ever packed a box with such pleasure," as she sent off her jewels.
Unfortunately, her health was poor. She died at 42. Her favorite Bible verse was at the foot of her bed where she could see it when she died.
How would you measure the life of Frances Havergal? Some might say, "She never married. She died young; what a waste. She should have looked out more for herself, maybe held onto and enjoyed her possessions."
Others might say, "What a highly effective life. She put God first and did a lot of good. Her hymn moves us even 150 years after she wrote it."
I guess it depends on your perspective. At every instant we're offered a choice: the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of this world. But sometimes we need a paradigm shift to see what is really important.
"When you pray," said Jesus, "pray like this: thy Kingdom come." Invite God into your life. Say, with Frances Havergal, "Take my life and let it be, Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days. Let them flow in ceaseless praise."
She gave her life to God. And God gave it back to her in greater joy and abundance. You might be surprised what God can do in and through you and me, if we live in the Kingdom of God.
____________
1. Reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Copyright (c) 1989 by Stephen R. Covey.
I remember a mini--paradigm shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly - some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene.
A man and his children entered the car. The children were soon yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the father sitting next to me did nothing.
It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild ... It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience ... I asked, "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?"
The man lifted his gaze as if coming to ... consciousness ... and said softly, "Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago ... I guess they don't know how to handle it either."
Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? Suddenly I saw things differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished ... My heart was filled with the man's pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely. "Your wife just died? Oh, I'm so sorry! Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?"1
Stephen Covey saw things differently, felt differently, and behaved differently because of a changed perspective. The children weren't acting out because they were wild. They were acting out their grief. The father wasn't overly lenient. He was overwhelmed by loss. A psychologist might say Stephen Covey "re--framed" the situation. Covey calls it a "paradigm shift."
We'll get back to Stephen Covey and paradigm shifts in a moment. But first let's think a bit about the Kingdom of God. We hear of it in our hymns: "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord." We pray for it in our prayers: "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We know the Kingdom of God was central to Jesus' preaching.
But honestly - on a day--to--day level - what does the Kingdom of God have to do with us? Americans haven't had a king since 1776. The Australians just voted to keep their Queen. But I don't think Americans would vote to rejoin the British Empire, do you? That would somehow seem like moving backwards. Kings and kingdoms are foreign to most of us. The king I encounter most is Burger King! Or maybe Larry King on television.
"The Kingdom of God"? It may sound a bit archaic, or maybe make believe, or maybe otherworldly, or maybe far distant. Perhaps we need one of Stephen Covey's paradigm shifts: a new perspective, a different way of thinking about the Kingdom of God.
What did Jesus mean when he taught us to pray for the Kingdom? One thing he meant was to open ourselves up to radical, personal change. For if God is our King (or Ruler, if you will), then you and I can no longer be the center of our own little universe. We'll have to climb down off our self--made throne.
Of course, most of us aren't as blatantly self--centered as Muhammad Ali was during his "I am the greatest" period. A colleague, irritated by Ali's perpetual boasting, once asked the boxer how good he was at golf. "I am the greatest at golf," announced Ali. "I just haven't tried it yet."
Another time he got on a plane and refused to buckle his seatbelt. "Superman don't need no seatbelt," Ali told the flight attendant. She responded, "Superman don't need no airplane, either." Ali buckled his belt.
Maybe we're not as self--absorbed as that. Maybe our self--centeredness is a little more subtle, like the novelist who said to a friend, "We've talked about me long enough. Now let's talk about you. Tell me, what do you think of my latest book?"
Still, many of us - if we were honest - would have to admit that it is tempting, much of the time, to put ourselves first. It's often our needs, our desires, our perspective, and our opinions that count most.
Much of our life is like a series of concentric circles. Too often we put ourselves at the center. The needs of our family and friends come next. Next come the needs of our community and the concerns of our country. And the Kingdom of God - if it's anywhere - is somewhere out on the edge.
But to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" - and really mean it - is to reverse our focus. It's to put God's will first, the needs of others second, and our needs last.
A famous rabbi once surprised some scholars who were staying with him by asking them the question. "Where does God live?" The learned scholars laughed. "Obviously," they said, "God doesn't live in any one specific place. God is everywhere. The whole world is full of God's glory."
But the rabbi offered them a different perspective. He said, "God lives in the hearts of men and women who let God in." God lives in the hearts of men and women who let God in.
God is only King (Ruler) of our lives if we let God in. You and I are the only ones who can give God that central place. To pray "Thy Kingdom come" is not to pray for some indefinite spiritual state that will come in the far--distant future. Nor is it to pray for a political system that disappeared in the nineteenth century.
No, it means to pray for a change of perspective now. It's saying, "God, I invite you into my life. I put you in the center. I'll try my best to be your obedient subject. Please, you be the King."
That means King over everything, including our money. Luther said the last thing baptized in many of us is our wallet! Yet the love of money or an obsessive concern about money can come between us and God's rule. Sometimes an excessive anxiety over even a little bit of money can blind us totally to the beauty and goodness of God's world.
Try an experiment. After church, take a drive over to the overlook at Corporation Beach by the snack bar. It's beautiful there, isn't it? You get a 200--degree panoramic view of Cape Cod Bay. Take a moment to admire the mile--long stretch of white beach. Drink in the clouds above you and the waves below you. Then take two dimes and put them in front of your eyes! Two thin dimes can block out the sand, the sea, and the sky. I'm told a hundred--dollar bill works even better!
To pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," is to put God first in all things, including how we manage our money. That can seem kind of scary. Yet what God wants for each of us - symbolized by the Kingdom of God - is really what's best for us. For we are most truly ourselves the more we give of ourselves to God. As Augustine put it, "Our hearts will be restless until they find their rest in Thee." Abundant life comes from putting God first in all things, including money.
To me, Frances Havergal, author of the hymn, "Take My Life And Let It Be," is an excellent example. She was born into a wealthy, cultured, and distinguished British family. Her father was a prominent Anglican clergyman. Frances herself was brilliant.
By age four she was reading - and memorizing - the Bible. She eventually learned the entire New Testament - and much of the Old - by heart. Frances was an avid student, writer, and composer. She was a concert pianist much in demand. She mastered six languages. She was one of Stephen Covey's "Highly Effective People."
Frances Havergal had a distinguished background, a brilliant mind, and an engaging personality. Frances could have done almost anything. But in early adolescence she gave her life to God. She wrote, "I committed my soul to the Savior - and earth and heaven seemed brighter from that moment." You see, she had a paradigm shift. She devoted her considerable talents to doing God's work.
She wrote hymns. She taught Sunday school to servants. She tended to the poor personally. She even gave away her wealth. There's a line in "Take My Life and Let It Be" that's missing in our hymnal. It goes: "Take my silver and my gold, not a mite will I withhold."
Frances Havergal lived that line. She sold all her jewelry - described as "fit for a countess" - to support Christian missions. She wrote, "I don't think I ever packed a box with such pleasure," as she sent off her jewels.
Unfortunately, her health was poor. She died at 42. Her favorite Bible verse was at the foot of her bed where she could see it when she died.
How would you measure the life of Frances Havergal? Some might say, "She never married. She died young; what a waste. She should have looked out more for herself, maybe held onto and enjoyed her possessions."
Others might say, "What a highly effective life. She put God first and did a lot of good. Her hymn moves us even 150 years after she wrote it."
I guess it depends on your perspective. At every instant we're offered a choice: the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of this world. But sometimes we need a paradigm shift to see what is really important.
"When you pray," said Jesus, "pray like this: thy Kingdom come." Invite God into your life. Say, with Frances Havergal, "Take my life and let it be, Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days. Let them flow in ceaseless praise."
She gave her life to God. And God gave it back to her in greater joy and abundance. You might be surprised what God can do in and through you and me, if we live in the Kingdom of God.
____________
1. Reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Copyright (c) 1989 by Stephen R. Covey.
