Lord's Prayer: For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory

Since the beginning of June, we’ve been ‘unpacking’ each line of the Lord’s Prayer. We have explored heaven (June 18) and asked for our daily bread (July 16). We’ve looked at how to ‘hallow’ God’s name (June 25) and offered ourselves to bring God’s will to earth (July 9). We’ve seen that God’s Kingdom (July 2) comes partly through our ability to forgive and receive forgiveness (July 23, 30). The past couple of weeks have been devoted to praying for protection from temptation and evil.

Today we consider the final phrase of the prayer “For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever”. It is a summary of all the rest of the lines of the Lord’s Prayer. As some commentators note, it is a doxology of praise. In this last section, we return to praising God, as at the start. We acknowledge that God alone has the Power and Glory. Only God can accomplish all that we have asked. It is interesting to note that in the Luke version of the prayer (Luke 11:2-4) this phrase is absent. In some translations of the Matthew citation (Matthew 6:9-13) it is also absent with the note that this doxology was added early on by the church. Likely the early church fathers thought that the prayer should have some nice and tidy way to end.

Enter the Presence: This ending Doxology is a good reminder that to God do belong the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory. Saint Irenaeus, a second century bishop, wrote: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

We are reminded in the Old Testament that “the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.” (Exodus 24:17) The New Testament encourages us to participate in that glory. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul says “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) The Philippians are urged to have “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:11) Our every action is to be a doxology of its own-a hymn of praise in action to God.

Of course, as Paul tells the Roman community “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Still, the Colossians are encouraged because we are those “to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) Because Christ is in each of us, we can in fact be human beings, fully alive.

Stand In Awe: How awesome to think that we are, as Saint Irenaeus said, “the glory of God”, and we are to live and confess God in that Glory. Take a moment to think about what it means to have the glory of God in you. Look around you, sit in your garden and listen, smell, hear, see all around the glory of God in birds, grass, flowers, sky, sound. Everything proclaims the glory of God, if we pause to see it.

Barbara Brown Taylor talks about this in her book An Altar in the World. She notes, “the last place most people look [for God] is right under their feet, in the everyday activities, accidents, and encounters of their lives.” She suggests letting yourself get lost and get out of the daily routines of the same routes. When you do, you “agree to become aware of each step you take, tuning all of your senses to exactly where you are and exactly what you are doing.”

Involve your Heart: “Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory” says the Lord’s Prayer doxology. Take some time to be really aware of God all around you. Get off the normal, beaten path, and try a new route, or a new prayer routine, or a new version of the Bible.

Write the word ‘Glory’ or ‘Power’ or ‘Kingdom’ in the center of a paper. Add words or images that come to mind when you think of that word.

Color the tree of life image from Pinterest in this blog, or find your own image, and think about what being the Glory of God means to you.

This week focus on “Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever”. Next week, we will take a quick look at ‘Amen’.

Our Father: Thy Kingdom Come

Last week we looked at the “Hallowed be thy Name” phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. Our adventure this summer is delving deeply into each phrase in this very familiar prayer. Today, we move on to “Thy Kingdom come”.

I think it can be difficult to understand the concept of Kingdom in 21^st Century America. We are very far removed from the hope of 1^st Century Judea where the long-desired King would be like David or Solomon-the Messiah who would deliver the people from the oppression of Rome. Our images of kingdoms are most likely colored by fairy tales with princesses, castles, and dragons. King and Kingdom may conjure up the idea of an absolute ruler, or even a despot. 

How is the Kingdom of God different than these interpretations? I think it has to do with the difference in defining Kingdom in everyday vs. faith language.

As we study the Lord’s Prayer, we are speaking the language of faith, which is often at odds with the everyday language, even when the words are the same. On the June 21 Episcopal Café, Speaking to the Soul post, the author, Leslie Scoopmire, notes that at Pentecost “these disciples, many of them simple country folk, have just learned to speak other people’s language. I think that’s an important point for us too in the Church today: we are called to speak to people in their own languages first, rather than expect them to immediately understand the language of Christianity.”

Leslie goes on to say, “the disciples’ first new language came as a challenge even earlier, for them as well as us. As soon as those early disciples answered Jesus’s call to follow him, they had to learn the language of Jesus—a strange language, then and now, awash in a grammar of grace rather than a grammar of vengeance. We are still learning Jesus’s language of reconciliation today. It is the language of salvation, but not salvation for selfish ends. Rather, this language calls all disciples, them as well as us, to find the vocabulary for helping to repair the world and our relationships within it, with each other and ultimately, with God. This idea of responsibility of faithful people to repair the world is what our Jewish brothers and sisters call tikkun olam—the repair of the world...[And] that’s exactly what we are called to do as the Church.” 

Enter the Presence: The Kingdom we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer is one that will, according to Leslie Scoopmire, ‘repair the world and our relationships within it, with each other and ultimately, with God’.

Take some time to think about your definition of the word ‘Kingdom’. What alternative word might you use to better express the Kingdom of God to someone who might not necessarily be speaking the ‘language’ of faith or grace?

Stand In Awe: Paul reminds the Corinthians, “When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (I Corinthians 2:1-5)

It is ultimately the Spirit of God that opens the ears of the hearers to our proclamation. Like the disciples, speaking in the languages of the people in Jerusalem at Pentecost, we are able to speak to our friends and neighbors of the Kingdom in ways that they will understand when we put God first.

One way to start the transformation of ourselves and of the world is prayer. In the days leading up to Pentecost, the Archbishop of Canterbury invited people around the world to intentional prayer for Thy Kingdom Come. The website says, “Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray for more people to come to know Jesus. What started in 2016 as an invitation from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer.” 

Involve your Heart: Leslie Scoopmire says, “We are called to speak to the soul of each precious person we encounter, and hear the echoed whisper of that goodness and love vibrating from them—especially when it’s hard for us to do so, when we allow our differences, our fears, or our suspicions to divide us rather than strengthen us. Words do matter when we are speaking to the soul, and the word is God and the Word is with God and with all of us.”

Use the ‘Pray for 5 Friends’ resource from “Thy Kingdom Come” to pray for 5 people who you may find different or difficult.   

Ask God to be King over the whole world by taking a map and physically placing a sticky note with local and world-wide prayer concerns on the map, or simply pray around the world with intention for places in the news.*

Continue your ZenTangle or Praying in Color activity that you may have started.

This week focus on Thy Kingdom Come.

Next week we will consider “They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

*From Thy Kingdom Come 

Advent 2-Saturday-Joy

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

In Revelation we hear that we are “a kingdom, priests to His God and Father-- to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." (Rev. 1:6-8) 

When we repent as urged by John and other prophets, we are able to ‘greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ’. We are as I Peter states, “living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. 2:5).

Because we are already members of this kingdom and of this priesthood, we truly can be joyful in the coming of Jesus, both at Christmas and at the end of time.

Do you ever feel incapable of being a member of the kingdom or being a priest of that kingdom?

Thine is the Kingdom

As we come to the end of the prayer we return full circle to the beginning by recognizing that God is where the Kingdom, Power and Glory reside, or as the Aramaic translation says, “From you arises every Vision, Power, and Song”.

Our loving Father wants us to find, and live into, our fullest vision. God wants us to have the dream God planted in our hearts at birth. When we offer this prayer, recognizing that God is the Source of the Kingdom and the Vision of our life, we can be free to allow our souls to awake and dream and live.

Discovering that dream may be easy for some. Many of us have known what we ‘want to be when we grow up’ all our lives and have followed that path. Others have listened more the voices of caution and ‘what you ought to do’ than to that Voice. It may take some prayer and meditation to rediscover that real Dream.

The photo from HandsFreeMama.com is what God asks us each day. “What is your dream, my Precious Child?” Take some time to think about what your real dream is. It’s never too late, so don’t say “I’m too old”. God will give you the time for your dream and God’s vision for you is perfect.

As God told Jeremiah: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

Part 1

Manipulate play dough as you ask God to help you live in to and even to discover God’s dream for your life. You’ll find it amazingly freeing.

Part 2

In thinking about God as the Provider of “every Vision, Power, and Song”, you might do prayer yoga or sing or listen to a favorite hymn. Perhaps you feel moved to do liturgical dance to welcome God’s vision into your life. The little card reminds us “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain!”

 

Next week we’ll finish our meditations on the Lord’s Prayer as we come to the very end and offer it all to God.

Thy Kingdom

We have already looked at the first 2 phrases of the Lord’s Prayer. I hope you have found some new insights into this familiar prayer, as we consider ways to prayer using the right side of our brain.

After addressing God as Father and remembering God’s holiness, we ask God to enter our lives. “Thy Kingdom come” we pray.

‘Kingdom’ might conjure up images of knights and ladies and castles, or perhaps all of Creation as the Kingdom of God. Take time to think about what ‘kingdom’ means to you.

Part 1

Offer your prayer about what Kingdom means to you in drawing. This is similar to the Zentangles from Sept. 7, but also very different. Rather than repeating one design over and over, you allow your hand to just draw designs. Some might call it doodling, but you will discover that you have experienced prayer as you draw.

If you want you can write your prayer intention and then draw around it, or you can simply let your hand do the praying as you make patterns. There are many suggestions, indeed books, about this type of prayer but really it’s all about letting your right brain take over the prayer. The website for Sybil MacBeth author of Praying in Color says, “When the page was covered with designs and names, Sybil realized she had prayed. The action of drawing was a wordless offering of friends and family into the care of God.” (http://prayingincolor.com/)

 

Envision Your “I Can” now is the adjacent phrase from the Aramaic translation. Asking God to ‘envision I can’ in my life and your life can be a powerful offering of self.

Part 2

One way to incorporate this is to braid a bookmark from 3 strands of ribbon or yarn. One strand is for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit. As you braid offer a pray for guidance on how God’s “I Can” will be in your life. 

You can of course decorate the ends of your bookmark with trinkets or bows or other embellishments that have meaning.

Another way to use this prayer form is to prayerfully and with intention pray for a situation or an illness or discernment.

Next week we will seek God’s Will in our lives and prayers.