1.
Grace, mercy,
and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen. “The
Lord’s Prayer: A Prayer for All Seasons.” No matter in what season of life
you find yourself. How are you doing? Has it become a daily discipline to pray
this prayer? If so, do you find yourself inserting certain petitions with
personal needs or thoughts or fears? Lord,
our country seems to be ignoring everything you command! We can’t even remember
some of the basics anymore—like what makes a marriage and what a blessing
precious babies are. Lord, please take control of those who are in control. “Thy kingdom come.” “The Lord’s Prayer: A Prayer for All Seasons”
is for just such times as these. The Lord’s Prayer Is for Our Seasons of
Wondering Who’s in Control.
2.
Last week at
worship, under the banner of the First Petition, I said, “To hallow the name of the Lord is to confess that the Lord is Lord of
all that is and will be, that the Lord is in absolute control of all of life and eternity.” And I added, “We are not in ultimate control of our lives
or livelihoods—God is! We are not in control of our church, our community, our
world—God is! We are not in control of our eternal destinies—God is! That’s
good stuff!”
3.
But, that’s much
easier said than believed sometimes. Bad stuff happens, and when it does, you
can’t help but wonder if the Devil is having a field day, worming his way into
people’s hearts and bringing them down with doubts about the power of God in
this world, wondering who’s in control.
4.
So, who was in
control when Jesus stood before Pilate? Pontius Pilate claimed that for himself.
When Jesus remained silent before him, Pilate demanded in John 19:10, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know
that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” (Jn
19:10). Why the early Christians who formulated the creed chose to use the name
Pontius Pilate instead of Caiaphas I don’t know; I know only that the blood of
Jesus was squarely on the hands of both. Weren’t they in control?
5.
Last week I also
noted that Jesus, already as he was teaching his disciples this Lord’s Prayer
in the Sermon on the Mount, was looking ahead to the cross, to his sole mission
on this earth to save a world from sin. What was his “crime” that brought him to the courtroom and the cross? The only
charge that would stick was that he was “King
of the Jews.” And the soldiers would take that and mock his kingship with a
crown of thorns and a purple robe. That would also be the sign above his head
while hanging on the cross: “Jesus of
Nazareth, King of the Jews.” “Kingship”
conjures up mental images of greatness, grandeur, glory; instead, we see pain
and suffering and scorn and death. Back on that hillside, when Jesus said, “Pray then like this: . . . thy kingdom come,”
did he look ahead to when he would say before Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world”? Nathanael, one of the Twelve
disciples, had signed on in the beginning, saying, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (Jn 1:49).
But could he and Peter and the rest believe that now? It didn’t look as if
Jesus was a king in control of any kingdom.
That kingdom would have to wait, wait until the act of salvation was
complete.
6.
So, who was in
control when Jesus stood before Pilate? “Wait
a minute! Wait just a minute,” says Jesus. “I’m submitting to you, dear
governor, because this is the will of the Father. You are but one more
character in the whole act of salvation for the world which is unfolding before
your very eyes, though you are light-years from seeing that.”
7.
The exposition of
our catechism speaks of this petition in three ways: (1) the kingdom of power,
which states with clarity and conviction that God does rule this world and all
that is in it, and because I know that our God’s power is infinitely beyond any
mere mortal, I will not give up hope that our nation will reverse its course on
same-sex marriage and abortion; (2) the kingdom of glory, God’s rule and reign
over the eternal heaven into which have already entered those loved ones who
have fallen asleep in Jesus and which shall come into full sight for the rest
of us when the Lord returns on the Last Day; and (3) the kingdom of grace. That’s
where we are now in the Christian Church on earth, the Church militant. Our
great God is in control of our lives, make no mistake about it. We are without
a shadow of a doubt under the full weight of God’s authority. We may have to
answer to certain individuals in our lives, but ultimately and indeed every day
of our lives we are accountable to the Lord.
8.
Which makes
living in grace so wonderful and so essential. For if our Lord Jesus didn’t
forgive our many sins, we would be doomed. If Jesus exacted punishment every
time we crossed the line from right to wrong, we would be despairing. If our
Lord were a merciless tyrant whose patience would easily wear out and whose
leash was short, we would be condemned.
9.
But, then how
wondrous it is that we do live in God’s kingdom of grace. The Father
loves us; the Father embraces us in mercy and compassion; the Father forgives
our sin, each one, every one. The Father thus calls us his children.
10.
And that kingdom
of grace is no more powerfully portrayed for us than envisioning and
vicariously experiencing still again all of that which led up to the cross and
beyond. And so it was, on that gentle
hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee, that Jesus of Nazareth taught his
people to pray, “Our Father who art in
heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come . . . ! Amen.
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