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We live in a ?Home Depot? world. ?Do-it-yourselfers? love Home Depot because Home Depot has all that you need to do it yourself. From installing a new floor to replacing the faucets to fixing the broken screen door to replacing your roof, you can do it yourself, and Home Depot is there to help you. Now, for some of us who are not so much ?do-it-yourselfers? as we are ?do-it-to-yourselfers,? we sometimes feel as if we?re misfits in a ?Home Depot world.? Occasionally, we let it slip, that we?ve got this project that needs doing at the house and sure enough, a secret agent for Home Depot, (they?re all over the place), says, ?no sweat! You can do that yourself.? And so we give it the old college try. We go to Home Depot and buy what we need. And then we confess our foolish pride, repent, return to Home Depot and ask for forgiveness, and then turn to the one who can do it for us.
If ever there was an area of the life of faith that we believed we can do ourselves, it would be prayer. We may not believe that we can save ourselves, but very few doubt that they can pray themselves. This is surely what the disciple of Jesus had in mind when he said, ?Lord, teach us to pray?? ?Show me how to do it so that I can ?do-it-myself.? What the disciple of Jesus expected from was a lesson on the method of prayer and the content of prayer. ?How do I do it,? and ?what do I say.?
What a surprise it must have been then, when Jesus replied, not by telling him how to ?do-it-yourself,? but by giving him a prayer, in fact, his own prayer, the ?Lord?s Prayer.? ?When you pray, say?? He responds to the request for teaching on prayer by inviting them to join with Him in His prayer to God the Father.
Prayer is not a ?do-it-yourself? project. In fact, Jesus said, ?apart from me, you can do nothing.? (John 15:5). Jesus said, ?No one comes to the Father except through Me?? (John 14:6). St. Paul picks up on that and says, ?Through him we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand?? (Rom. 5:2).
So, Jesus gives His disciples, and through them His whole Church on earth, His prayer. The Lord?s Prayer is the prayer that Jesus Himself prays for all believers and for the whole world. By giving us His prayer to pray, Jesus does three things for us. 1. First, He tells us to consider ourselves to have same relationship with God the Father as He Himself has. ?When you pray, say ?Father' As C.S. Lewis says in his ?Mere Christianity,? here Jesus is inviting us to dress up like Him and pretend to be a son or daughter of God. I might go a little further than Lewis and suggest that this is not really pretending at all. For in our baptism, Jesus has reconciled the Father to us and made us sons and daughters of God. So when we pray to God and call Him ?Father,? we are doing so in faith, not pretending, but believing a new reality that we cannot yet see with our eyes, trusting that God?s own word that declares us righteous and holy in His sight is true.
Second, Jesus tells us to identify with Him, that His will might be our will. In the first two petitions of this prayer, He tells us to pray that the whole world would come to faith and be saved. ?When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be they name and thy kingdom come.? This is the will of the Father, that all would be saved and none should perish.
And third, Jesus tells us that He identifies with us and our daily, earthly needs. ?Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses, lead us not into temptation??
This morning, I would like to have us consider what Jesus is directing us to ask for when He says, ?When you pray say, Father? Thy kingdom come.? Next Sunday, I?d like to come back to the Lord?s Prayer again and have us consider what Jesus is directing us to ask for when He says, ?When you pray, say, Father? Give us this day our daily bread.? Today, we consider how Jesus would direct our hearts, minds and lips to high and lofty things. Next week, we consider how Jesus would direct us to pray for very lowly and ordinary things of our daily life.
Thy Kingdom Come ?Thy Kingdom come.? In his small catechism, Luther asks, "What does this mean?" The explanation is, ?To be sure, the kingdom of God comes of itself, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us. He then asks, "How is this done?" The explanation is, ?When the heavenly Father gives His Holy Spirit so that by his grace we may believe his holy Word and live a godly life, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.
In the 17th chapter of St. Luke's gospel we read that several Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. Jesus makes it clear how totally misinformed they were about this Kingdom. It is not a question of timing at all. ?The Kingdom of God does not come with careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is' or 'There it is' because the Kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21).
Much later Jesus is questioned again about the Kingdom. This time it is Pontius Pilate who asks, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Pilate is feeling very defensive and wants to know where any possible threats to his authority and rule might come from. Jesus replies, ?My kingdom is not of this world… (John 18:36-37.)
So, what kind of kingdom is this then that we cannot see with our eyes and yet certainly needs to be seen? What kind of kingdom is it that is ruled by a king who is not of this world, yet who is present and standing right in front of Pontius Pilate.
Luther in his Large Catechism says that the Kingdom of God, "Is what we learned in the Apostles Creed. Namely that God sent His Son, Christ our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the power of the devil and to bring us to himself and rule us as a king of righteousness, life and salvation against sin, death and an evil conscience." (LC 426:51).
The king of the Kingdom of God is Jesus Christ. He is King in the truest sense of the word. He has full and final authority over all the affairs that take place in His kingdom. His kingdom has no borders or boundaries. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Mat.28:18).
The scriptures confirm His claim saying, "And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything…" (Eph.1:22). Further on we read, "In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him." (Heb.2:8).
There is no territory, no person, no possession, no power, which is exempt from the domain of the authority of the King Jesus. And all of this is true right now, whether we believe it not, whether we recognize it or not, whether we honor it or not. All this is true, even without our prayer.
And so, we must still push further to determine just what kind of Kingdom this is that we pray would come? If Jesus' authority as King has already been given and is as all inclusive as it is, what is yet to come?
Well now, let's think about that for a minute. If a King is going to be a real king, He needs loyal subject to rule over. And so, we pray in this petition that the Kingdom of God may come to us. That is to say, we are asking God to make us loyal subjects of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.
To someone like Pontius Pilate or King Herod, this is a threatening thought. But anyone who believes that Jesus is who he says He is, should be anxious to be counted a citizen of His Kingdom. Because this king wants to rule over his kingdom with love and not authoritarian power. This king rules with an unconditional love in which he leads His subjects – not like earthly kings rule over their citizens, by law that is enforced with a heavy threat of punishment for breaking it. This king rules His subjects with mercy and grace. He rules as a shepherd rule over His sheep. He leads them with His rod and staff. With the rod, He defends them against predators. With the staff, He gently guides and directs them to still waters and green pastures. He knows each one of His sheep by name. And ultimately, this king lays down His life for His sheep.
So, when we pray, "Thy Kingdom Come," we are asking that God would make us a part of the Good Shepherd's flock. We pray that we may be lead by Him and that we obediently live under Him in His kingdom and gladly serve and obey Him.
And so this Kingdom is not one that can be seen with the human eye. It consists entirely of those who live by faith in Jesus. Which make this a strange kingdom indeed for this means that it must consist entirely of little children.
When the disciples rebuked the little children for bothering Jesus, Jesus was quick to correct them saying, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14)
Do you see what this means? This means then that when we pray, "Thy kingdom come," we big men and women with all of our pride and ?do-it-ourself? independence, are asking God to make us like little children who are totally dependent and completely trusting of the King who promises to take care of us.
So then, we would like to know just how does this Kingdom of God comes to us? Are their taxes or fees that must be paid? Or, does He Jesus take us by force and conquer us with His vast army of angels?
And the answer to both of these questions is, ?yes.? There is a heavy tax and fee that must be paid to become a citizen of this Kingdom. But Jesus, our King pays for it all Himself with His own precious blood. And yes, He does conquer us with His great power. But it is a power that is disguised in the lowly and humble weapons of the Spirit. He conquers our hearts and minds and makes us His subjects with His Word and Sacraments. They are the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.
So, now we see that when Jesus directs us to pray, "thy kingdom come," He directs us to His cross and to His Word and to His Sacraments, because by these and these alone, He makes us citizens of his kingdom and rules over our hearts and minds.
So maybe now, we may answer the Pharisee's question about "when" the Kingdom of God comes. This mysterious, hidden kingdom in which Christ rules is here right now. And to Pilate?s question about ?where? this Kingdom is to be found, we may answer, ?right here.? Here is Jesus with all of His wounds. Here is His Word being preached and here is His Supper being administered according to His command.
By these, as by means of grace, King Jesus rules His kingdom until the day comes when it is no longer hidden ? but revealed to all, believers and unbelievers alike, and every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
In the meantime we are blessed and greatly privileged to pray with Jesus, ?Father, Thy kingdom come.?