Sermon 13th January 2008
Today, our Associate Vicar, John Itumu, preaches based on the reading from Matthew 6: 5-15
Jesus presumes that his followers will pray. He starts this teaching about prayer with the words ‘when you pray…’
I will assume that we are in the category of the people being addressed. But even if you are not and don’t pray, I hope that you will find encouragement to start, even in a small way.
You see God desires to have an enduring and growing love relationship with us. He grieves that we have forgotten him. He longs and mourns and desires that we draw near to him. And he invites us to come home to that for which we were created – home to peace, serenity, joy, friendship, acceptance and affirmation.
The key to this home, this heart of God, is prayer. A relationship of love expressed through prayer. And he invites us all – everyone; his love is so amazing that it demands a response. I believe most of us can testify about God’s amazing love in our lives. God invites us all to pray! Everyone.
This includes you who has already tasted God’s love in the past but now feel disillusioned, disappointed, even almost faithless. It does not matter – our Father’s heart is still wide open.
You may be feeling bruised and broken. May be others have said terrible/untrue things that won’t just go away – old painful memories that keep haunting you.
You feel scarred for life, defiled, unworthy – and you have avoided prayer in trying to get away from all that. I have good news! Our Father’s heart is open wide- and you are welcome.
You probably have prayed for many years – nothing seems to change the situation. God feels remote and increasingly inaccessible. Please hear this. He still loves you and holds his arms open wide – for you. We can trust his wisdom.
May be you can attest to the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness in answered prayer – and you long for more. Our Father welcomes you to delve in deeper.
If the key to this home is prayer, then Jesus Christ is the door. God has provided a means of entrance through Jesus, the perfect and righteous one, who died in our place and rose again and stands victorious over sin and powers of evil.
Jesus Christ who showed his disciples then, and us today, how to pray; how to unlock the riches that our Father in heaven has kept for us. No longer do we need to stand outside; there is a key, prayer, available and given to us all. The onus to accept this invitation is our business.
The way to unlock the riches that God, our Father, who is in heaven has kept for us, is by asking that his kingdom come among us – and that his will be done in us.
But, since Jesus taught this prayer to first century Jews –how would they have understood ‘God’s kingdom’ coming among them?
We read that since the last king in the old Israel monarchy, life had been very hard for this small nation. The kingdoms had divided (north and south) they had been exiled to Babylon, and now were under a brutal Roman rule. All these events created a strong longing for an end to political dominion. They needed their freedom again as a nation.
When Jesus therefore speaks of the ‘coming of kingdom of God’ this evokes an entire story line that everyone knows so well. Kingdom language was bound up with the expectation and hopes of Israel. When will this suffering come to an end? It had nothing to do with the understanding of kingdom of God as a place where souls go to live after death. It was the simple Jewish language of Israel’s god becoming king. When this god became king then everything would be put right. They had been waiting for this a long time.
But Jesus subverts this Jewish world view of the kingdom. Early in his ministry the disciples of John the Baptist ask him ‘Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else’?
Jesus replies; Go back and report what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleaned, deaf hear, dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed to the poor…
This is what characterizes the ministry of Jesus – he went about loving, affirming, accepting the marginalized, pointing people to his Father in heaven.
But even after the resurrection they had not still got it
Acts 1:6
Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
All this betrays a doctrinal confusion about the kingdom. You see, the kingdom of God is not a territorial, geographical concept – like the UK. The kingdom of God is his rule, set up in the lives of his people. At another instance puts this in the context of our lives/existence. He says I have come that you may have life to the full John 10:10. That is the kingdom of God. In other words, when life is lived in Christ that is a full life! It is the best there can be.
Part of his answer as to whether he (Jesus) was going to restore the kingdom to Israel was that the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon them and the same would energize them to spread God’s rule over all the earth.
This kingdom would have broad international membership – beyond Israel, to the ends of the earth. Race, nationality, rank, sex cannot are no barriers to membership. This is the kingdom Jesus launched and proclaimed.
And this is what he teaches his followers to pray for.
Praying that God’s rule is established in our lives is simply revolutionary. May your kingdom come, may your will be done….
Let me explain. When God sets his rule upon our hearts, it changes us. If you want and greatly desire a change in your life, dare to pray this sincerely. May your kingdom come, your will be done…
When God’s rule is established, he gives us new lenses to see:
our enemies,
our unpleasant colleagues at work,
our spouses,
our families,
other people,
our commitment to the church fellowship,
he redefines our relationship with our money/wealth
he shows us Godly ways to deal with our anger
When God’s rule is established he gives us new perspectives/understanding about our unanswered prayers. And Jesus himself is our perfect example. When he agonized in Gethsemane, he left the final decision to his Father in heaven. Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done. when we struggle with our unanswered prayers, it is helpful to remember God’s words in Isaiah 55:8-9: …his ways and plans are far beyond our thoughts
It is a very radical thing to ask for God’s kingdom and his perfect will. The good news is that this is possible if we desire and pray for it. We can start by reclaiming some of our day – waking hours (5 minutes for beginner?) to talk to our Father in heaven, who has instructed us to ask that his kingdom come among us, that his will be done. He wants us just as we are, to share simply and unpretentiously our joys, pains and concerns; to pray that his rule becomes the heartbeat of our lives.
But who does not know that our lives are very very busy – the kids, my job, the housework etc. Well, have you noticed that our busy schedules do not stop us from spending hours dining with friends, sleeping or taking a day off/holiday. Assuming we have nearly 1000 minutes in approx. 16 hr day, we can’t wait until some ten minutes appear from nowhere and then start to pray. We must create and reclaim these minutes from our day. It is our choice.
We can’t either wait until we feel right with God, become expert in praying to start praying. We can’t wait until all our motives are pure, eloquent like so and so, until we know the bible well enough to quote extensively in prayer.
Listen to the good news: God can handle our selfish/mixed motives, our lopsided views and hidden agenda in prayer. We will never be good enough or pure enough to pray rightly. We must simply just start praying. This has been sometimes described as simple prayer – the prayer of a child. We need not pretend to be more holy and saintly than we really are. And God meets us in that naivety, simplicity, innocence.
Is it not instructive that the teaching of Jesus in this passage concludes with ‘seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. This is God’s formula – if we really trust him, we shall start using it.
How exciting that we have a key available, to unlock God’s riches – forgiveness, tolerance, patience, self-control, generosity…name it. God can fix it –ask that his rule be established in your life!
This must be the single most important thing we can pray for – may your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Asking for heaven’s values, God’s principles to touch us, influence us, engulf all that we are and do is revolutionary. So God may your kingdom come and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Jesus presumes that his followers will pray. He starts this teaching about prayer with the words ‘when you pray…’
I will assume that we are in the category of the people being addressed. But even if you are not and don’t pray, I hope that you will find encouragement to start, even in a small way.
You see God desires to have an enduring and growing love relationship with us. He grieves that we have forgotten him. He longs and mourns and desires that we draw near to him. And he invites us to come home to that for which we were created – home to peace, serenity, joy, friendship, acceptance and affirmation.
The key to this home, this heart of God, is prayer. A relationship of love expressed through prayer. And he invites us all – everyone; his love is so amazing that it demands a response. I believe most of us can testify about God’s amazing love in our lives. God invites us all to pray! Everyone.
This includes you who has already tasted God’s love in the past but now feel disillusioned, disappointed, even almost faithless. It does not matter – our Father’s heart is still wide open.
You may be feeling bruised and broken. May be others have said terrible/untrue things that won’t just go away – old painful memories that keep haunting you.
You feel scarred for life, defiled, unworthy – and you have avoided prayer in trying to get away from all that. I have good news! Our Father’s heart is open wide- and you are welcome.
You probably have prayed for many years – nothing seems to change the situation. God feels remote and increasingly inaccessible. Please hear this. He still loves you and holds his arms open wide – for you. We can trust his wisdom.
May be you can attest to the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness in answered prayer – and you long for more. Our Father welcomes you to delve in deeper.
If the key to this home is prayer, then Jesus Christ is the door. God has provided a means of entrance through Jesus, the perfect and righteous one, who died in our place and rose again and stands victorious over sin and powers of evil.
Jesus Christ who showed his disciples then, and us today, how to pray; how to unlock the riches that our Father in heaven has kept for us. No longer do we need to stand outside; there is a key, prayer, available and given to us all. The onus to accept this invitation is our business.
The way to unlock the riches that God, our Father, who is in heaven has kept for us, is by asking that his kingdom come among us – and that his will be done in us.
But, since Jesus taught this prayer to first century Jews –how would they have understood ‘God’s kingdom’ coming among them?
We read that since the last king in the old Israel monarchy, life had been very hard for this small nation. The kingdoms had divided (north and south) they had been exiled to Babylon, and now were under a brutal Roman rule. All these events created a strong longing for an end to political dominion. They needed their freedom again as a nation.
When Jesus therefore speaks of the ‘coming of kingdom of God’ this evokes an entire story line that everyone knows so well. Kingdom language was bound up with the expectation and hopes of Israel. When will this suffering come to an end? It had nothing to do with the understanding of kingdom of God as a place where souls go to live after death. It was the simple Jewish language of Israel’s god becoming king. When this god became king then everything would be put right. They had been waiting for this a long time.
But Jesus subverts this Jewish world view of the kingdom. Early in his ministry the disciples of John the Baptist ask him ‘Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else’?
Jesus replies; Go back and report what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleaned, deaf hear, dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed to the poor…
This is what characterizes the ministry of Jesus – he went about loving, affirming, accepting the marginalized, pointing people to his Father in heaven.
But even after the resurrection they had not still got it
Acts 1:6
Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
All this betrays a doctrinal confusion about the kingdom. You see, the kingdom of God is not a territorial, geographical concept – like the UK. The kingdom of God is his rule, set up in the lives of his people. At another instance puts this in the context of our lives/existence. He says I have come that you may have life to the full John 10:10. That is the kingdom of God. In other words, when life is lived in Christ that is a full life! It is the best there can be.
Part of his answer as to whether he (Jesus) was going to restore the kingdom to Israel was that the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon them and the same would energize them to spread God’s rule over all the earth.
This kingdom would have broad international membership – beyond Israel, to the ends of the earth. Race, nationality, rank, sex cannot are no barriers to membership. This is the kingdom Jesus launched and proclaimed.
And this is what he teaches his followers to pray for.
Praying that God’s rule is established in our lives is simply revolutionary. May your kingdom come, may your will be done….
Let me explain. When God sets his rule upon our hearts, it changes us. If you want and greatly desire a change in your life, dare to pray this sincerely. May your kingdom come, your will be done…
When God’s rule is established, he gives us new lenses to see:
our enemies,
our unpleasant colleagues at work,
our spouses,
our families,
other people,
our commitment to the church fellowship,
he redefines our relationship with our money/wealth
he shows us Godly ways to deal with our anger
When God’s rule is established he gives us new perspectives/understanding about our unanswered prayers. And Jesus himself is our perfect example. When he agonized in Gethsemane, he left the final decision to his Father in heaven. Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done. when we struggle with our unanswered prayers, it is helpful to remember God’s words in Isaiah 55:8-9: …his ways and plans are far beyond our thoughts
It is a very radical thing to ask for God’s kingdom and his perfect will. The good news is that this is possible if we desire and pray for it. We can start by reclaiming some of our day – waking hours (5 minutes for beginner?) to talk to our Father in heaven, who has instructed us to ask that his kingdom come among us, that his will be done. He wants us just as we are, to share simply and unpretentiously our joys, pains and concerns; to pray that his rule becomes the heartbeat of our lives.
But who does not know that our lives are very very busy – the kids, my job, the housework etc. Well, have you noticed that our busy schedules do not stop us from spending hours dining with friends, sleeping or taking a day off/holiday. Assuming we have nearly 1000 minutes in approx. 16 hr day, we can’t wait until some ten minutes appear from nowhere and then start to pray. We must create and reclaim these minutes from our day. It is our choice.
We can’t either wait until we feel right with God, become expert in praying to start praying. We can’t wait until all our motives are pure, eloquent like so and so, until we know the bible well enough to quote extensively in prayer.
Listen to the good news: God can handle our selfish/mixed motives, our lopsided views and hidden agenda in prayer. We will never be good enough or pure enough to pray rightly. We must simply just start praying. This has been sometimes described as simple prayer – the prayer of a child. We need not pretend to be more holy and saintly than we really are. And God meets us in that naivety, simplicity, innocence.
Is it not instructive that the teaching of Jesus in this passage concludes with ‘seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. This is God’s formula – if we really trust him, we shall start using it.
How exciting that we have a key available, to unlock God’s riches – forgiveness, tolerance, patience, self-control, generosity…name it. God can fix it –ask that his rule be established in your life!
This must be the single most important thing we can pray for – may your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Asking for heaven’s values, God’s principles to touch us, influence us, engulf all that we are and do is revolutionary. So God may your kingdom come and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:23 pm
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