Oasis Madrid

We’re now at the end of the first full week of Lent. Troy explained last week what Lent was, but just to recap, Lent is the 40 day period before Easter Sunday, where throughout the centuries Christians all over the world set aside this time to prepare for Easter–to really dig into the meaning of Christ’s death and His resurrection.

During Lent, we confess sin and we commit ourselves to renewal–to living more like Jesus. To being more like Jesus.

As part of being more like Jesus, we’re spending the services up until Easter Sunday looking at how Jesus prayed, specifically, at what has come to be known as “The Lord’s Prayer,” or if you come from a Catholic background, the “Our Father.” Because it’s Jesus’ prayer, Christians all over the world, and all throughout history, have said these words–so, with this prayer we are praying how Jesus taught us to, and we are connected with the whole church–something so much bigger than ourselves or our little community here.

Troy then went on to talk about the intimacy that Jesus shows, just in the first line of the prayer. Rather than some distant untouchable far off greeting, he simply says, “Father.” And then he goes on to say “in heaven,” not like the far away idea of Heaven, but “the heavens”–the atmosphere all round. It actually means in the space all around us. In the very first line of the prayer, Jesus says that God is our father and that he is right here with us.

Our Father, who art in heaven

And then Jesus goes on to pray these lines,

Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven

Hallowed be thy name. That sounds pretty, but who actually uses the word hallowed anymore? It makes me think of Halloween, or a description of some old church, where someone would say “these hallowed halls.” But to hallow something actually means to reverence it–to have awe in something–to regard something as holy. So what “Hallowed be thy name,” actually means, is “May your name be regarded as holy.”

May your name be regarded as holy. Ok, so what does that mean? I’m going to open this up to you guys for a minute and let you call out some suggestions, and I’ll write them up here on this paper. What does this mean? What are we asking for here when we say “May your name be regarded as holy?”
5 min. or so group discussion

Here are a couple things that came to my mind about this. Holy means “set apart,” or maybe even put more simply, “distinct” or “special.” God, being God, has qualities and characteristics that make him distinct from anything or anyone else that has ever existed. Saying that God is holy is a way of worshipping Him, because He is uniquely God. “May your name be regarded as holy.” I can see two parts to this: that we ourselves regard his name as holy, and that we ask for his name to be worshipped everywhere.

To say “may your name be regarded as holy” at the very beginning of the prayer starts things out with acknowledging that the first thing is not about us, but about God. About stopping to acknowledge who God is. I think we do it as we pray–we actually take the time to acknowledge God–and when we worship Him. I think it also happens in our lives, when we as Christians live lives that bring God honor.

That’s the first part: may your name be regarded as holy by me, in my words and in my life.

The second part is something like this: May your name be regarded as holy, not just by me, but in the whole world. May people see who you are and know that You are God. We’re asking that God will make himself known to everyone and that everyone, when they see who He really is, will respond with awe and worship.

May your name be regarded as holy. Hallowed be thy name.

How will God make himself known, so that his name will be honored or regarded as holy? I think what Jesus prays next fleshes this out a little bit. He says Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Your Kingdom come. Looking at the things that Jesus talked about most, it’s not too surprising that He mentions the Kingdom of God. He was all about the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist, as he was preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry, used this message: “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (NLT MT. 4:16-18) Jesus said the poor in spirit would inherit the kingdom of heaven. He said to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness. And over and over, he announced this: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It’s right here. When he sent his disciples out, he told them to say the same message, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In parables, Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a farmer, a mustard seed, a valuable pearl, a hidden treasure, a vineyard, a huge party, and many more things.

Here’s one example–I used this parable a couple weeks ago as well, and it’s still in my head for some reason: “31The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all the seeds, when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32) This is one of many descriptions Jesus gives of the God’s Kingdom.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple weeks trying to read everything I can about the Kingdom of God, and what Jesus means when he says “Your kingdom come.” There are some things that I’ve learned, but more than anything I’ve realized that there are lots of different thoughts on the subject, and there is a lot to learn. In some ways, to be honest, I was more confused after all the research than before!

So, before getting into my thoughts, I thought I might open up a can of worms here and get your thoughts–What actually is God’s kingdom? What is Jesus asking for when he says “Your kingdom come?”
About 5 min. group discussion

As you can see, it’s hard to articulate what our concept of the Kingdom of God is, or even if we have a clear concept at all! Now the Jewish people–the ones Jesus was teaching to pray here–had a specific concept in mind when they thought about the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven. It had been prophesied over and over in scripture that a king would come, a descendant of the king David. This king would be completely righteous. A perfect king who was just and right and honored God and put Israel right again. All things would be put back into the order that they were supposed to be in. The oppressed would be freed. Injustice wouldn’t exist. There would be peace. For a nation of people who had been oppressed and exiled for generations, who were under Roman rule even while they were in their own land, with a “king” (Herod) who was basically Caesar’s puppet, the Kingdom of God was something that they longed for.

So when Jesus came saying “The kingdom of God is at hand,” many people were probably expecting a political revolution. Rome would be thrown out, a real king would be put on the throne, and Israel would be set to right. But when Jesus talked about the Kingdom, he talked about something completely different than what they had in mind.

He said the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed–it starts small. No picture of power there. The Kingdom of God is like yeast working through the dough–spreading out and making a difference from the inside, not from outside force. It’s a hidden treasure–not something that we can necessarily see at first glance.

The poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom. The persecuted, the meek. The last will be first. This is a different kind of Kingdom.

What Jesus talks about is more than politics. It’s about God’s rule. His reign. When Jesus prays for God’s Kingdom to come, He’s praying for God’s rule to come over all the earth. For Him to come and set things right. And even as Jesus is praying for God’s Kingdom to come, he’s announcing that His kingdom is right here, and telling his disciples to do the same. It is at hand. He heals the sick, feeds the hungry, and doesn’t let injustice slide. He sets things right around him. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

So how does it work that Jesus teaches that the kingdom of heaven is here, and still prays for it to come? I think the parable of the mustard seed helps me understand this–it starts small, and then grows. Just because it’s not super visible in the beginning doesn’t mean it’s not real. Jesus was telling the truth when He said that the kingdom of God is at hand. He set things right around him. And through his death and resurrection he forgives us, so that we can be a part of God’s kingdom. The Kingdom of God is at hand. It has started. We can be a part of God’s kingdom now by putting our lives and our areas of influence under his rule.

But all we have to do is look around and see that all things are not right. In fact, lots of things in the world are still really screwed up! We can see spots here and there of where God is working, but then there are huge areas that need fixing! We ask God for His kingdom to expand, so that it grows and grows, like the seed, so it’s no longer bits and pieces of God’s rule being evident in the world, but that it will spread so much that the whole world is under his rule and set right. Your Kingdom come.

And that leads us into the next line of the prayer–”Your Kingdom Come” happens when God’s will is done on Earth. All things are set right. I think “Your will be done” is another way of saying the same thing–when God’s Kingdom comes, everything is under his reign, everything is done by his will, the way that it is in heaven. Now if this were anyone but God we were talking about, this would sound like a tyrant going for world domination. His will be done? His rule in everything? But God is perfect, and his will being done here means that things will be right. No more sickness, no more addiction, no more famine, no more sin, no more evil, no more injustice and oppression, no more war. Can you imagine, even just for a minute, what kind of world that would be like? We see glimpses of it here and there, but imagine, instead of glimpses, the whole world. Just think about it.

Because of the thought of this, it’s an exciting and hopeful thing to pray. We pray for God’s kingdom to come, for his will to be done, because we have the hope–the expectation–that this will happen. It has already begun with Jesus, and is being spread by the Holy Spirit through the church. The Kingdom of heaven is at hand. God does win over evil. There will be justice. There will be peace.

With these things in mind, this is a prayer that I really want to pray:May your name be regarded as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

But, as hopeful and as exciting as this is, there are a few common reactions to this prayer that are, in a word: FALSE. We need to watch out and not fall into these traps.

One extreme: The trap of thinking it’s all about me–I shouldn’t worry about the big picture. It’s all about God’s will for my life. Who should I marry, where I should live, whether I should stay in this job or look for another. When we ask for God’s will to be done we’re really meaning for Him to help us make decisions about our own lives, and how we can have the best life possible.

FALSE!

The Truth: There’s nothing wrong with giving these decisions to God. If we really are living in God’s Kingdom, under his rule, then it is right that we should want to do what He wants. But it is wrong to assume that this is all it is about. This isn’t just about God making our life better. It’s about Him accomplishing his purposes, so that His name is honored.

There’s another extreme–the trap of apathy or laziness: God is going to fix everything eventually, so why do anything now? Let’s just pray for God’s will to be done and sit back and wait for it to happen–I don’t figure into things at all. Why should I care about the world if Jesus is going to come back and fix it himself? I don’t need to take care of the environment, or work for peace, or do anything for the poor, or make anything around me better. I can just pray about it in some far off, vague sense and hope God does something.

FALSE!

The truth: -When we pray for God’s kingdom to come, and for his will to be done, the first place that we’re asking for that to happen is in our own lives. And as part of God’s Kingdom, we are advocates for His kingdom–meaning that God can use us to influence the world around us. God uses us to be part of the answer to this prayer by doing our part of His will.

Sometimes I think we ask for God’s will in a situation and then expect some big miracle to plop down from the sky. Granted, that could happen if God wanted it to, but I think that’s actually a very narrow view of God’s will. God’s will is when we do what we know He wants us to do. It may not look supernatural, and it’s a lot more difficult than just sitting back and “letting God work.” But the miracle is that God does work, and sometimes He uses us.

In the movie “Bruce Almighty,” Morgan Freeman, who plays the character of God, is explaining the nature of miracles to Bruce, and I think it explains this concept a little further. Here’s what he says about it:

Parting a soup is not a miracle, Bruce. It’s a magic trick. A single mom who’s working two jobs, and still finds time to take her son to
soccer practice, that’s a miracle. A teenager who says “no” to drugs
and “yes” to an education, that’s a miracle. People want me to do
everything for them. What they don’t realize is they have the power.
You want to see a miracle, son? Be the miracle.

As part of God’s Kingdom, we have been given power to affect the things around us for God. There’s a new movie out about the abolition of slavery in England. It would have taken a miracle for that trade to end because it was such a huge business, and many people prayed for that miracle to happen. God answered that prayer by using William Wilberforce and other people like him to fight until the trade was outlawed.

In India, with a caste system in which the untouchables are often denied basic rights, it would take a miracle for an untouchable with leprosy to die with dignity. Through Mother Teresa, and many other people not nearly as famous as her, that miracle happens.

When our lives are in his will, under his reign, then the areas that we touch are coming in contact with the reign / kingdom of God. When we are willing to do what he asks, then he is able to use us to do his will.

We play a part. I play a part. No, it’s not all about me. It’s about God. But He uses us, as part of His Kingdom, to do his will in the areas around us.

The Lord’s Prayer is something we learn as kids (if you’ve grown up in the church). Old ladies crochet it on pillows. People say it together and have done so for a couple thousand years. And because of that sometimes we forget all of the things that are packed into this prayer. But even though it is so easy to remember, and so common, this prayer is still a challenge to us.

Why this prayer is a challenge:
Placing our lives under God’s rule, in plain English, means that we mean to obey him. When we say “your will be done,” that means we intend to do what He wants us to do. It’s a nice thought on paper, but scary when you think about it. Even Jesus had a hard time with this one. It was God’s will that Jesus come to earth and die, so that we could be freed from our slavery to sin, so that we could be part of His Kingdom. But still, Jesus didn’t want to die. He had to surrender what He wanted and say, “Not my will, but yours.” Putting our lives under God’s rule means that, just like Jesus did, we obey God, even when we don’t want to. In other words, “Your will be done.”

I realize that I’ve talked quite a bit about our actions. In fact, you may be asking yourself, “Does this mean that the prayer is not important–that it’s just our actions that matter?” NO WAY!

Jesus didn’t say, if you pray. He said WHEN you pray. First and foremost,
we pray because Jesus told us to. It goes back to the whole “your will be
done” thing.

Second, we pray because our prayer does change things–God does act. Whether he uses us or other people or means that we can’t see–God answers our prayers.

In reality, the reason that I’ve talked so much about the things we do is that this prayer and action fit together perfectly. When we pray for God’s name to be glorified, for his Kingdom to come, and for his will, He opens our eyes to how that prayer needs to be answered in our own lives. The prayer moves us into action. And then our action prompts us to pray. When we are in God’s will, then we are more in tune with what God wants, and we are able to pray more specifically. We are able to pray for situations that we can see are not the way that God wants the world to be. And we can ask God to work in those situations.

So how do we actually pray for God’s kingdom to come? I think maybe praying with imagination helps. We’re going to spend some time doing this in just a minute, but I want to give you an example of how we might be able to practically pray for God’s kingdom to come, using the parable of the mustard seed again.

So here’s an example of a way that we could pray this prayer. If it helps you to visualize it, you can close your eyes.

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed:

-God plants—we start by honoring God.

God, you are holy. You are uniquely God. You are distinct from everyone and every thing that has ever existed. First and foremost, may your name be regarded as holy.

-It starts small–my own life. my actions, my thoughts, my heart.

God, your kingdom come in my life. Whatever I worship
instead of you, whatever keeps me from making you the one
who rules over my life, get rid of it. Help me obey you.
Your will be done in me.

-It grows roots–my family, the people I live with
God, your kingdom come in the place I live and the people I live with. Help us to set right the things that are wrong
between us. Help us to live with peace. If there are sick, or
poor, or needy, or fighting in these situations, set these right,
God. use me, as part of your kingdom, to set things right
where I can. Your will be done in my home.

-It starts to sprout–my job, my neighborhood
God, your kingdom come in my area of influence. Use me
to bring people into contact with your reign. As far as I have
influence, I give you control of that. If there are broken
relationships, sickness, loneliness, bitterness, jealousy, or
oppression, set these things right. use me, as part of your
kingdom, to set things right where I can. Your will be done in my neighborhood.

-It grows–my city
God, your kingdom come in my city. Where there is
oppression, bring justice. Where there is hunger, provision.
Where there is lust, purity. Where violence, peace. Where
loneliness, friendship. Where sadness, joy. Where
sickness, health. set things right in Madrid, God. use me, as part of your kingdom, to set things right around me. Your will be done in my city.

-It branches out–world
God, your kingdom come in this world. Bring peace to
conflict zones, food to famine zones, homes to those who have no homes. Bring all people under your good and perfect design. Use me, as part of your kingdom, to set things right where I can. May your kingdom come all over the world.

And here is the fun part. When this happens, in each stage, God is the one who is glorified. His name is regarded as holy. When things began to be put to right we can look at it and say “Look what God did!” And God’s name is honored.

This prayer is not about us–it’s really about God. His kingdom, His will. His glory. It begins and ends with that.
Hallowed be your name
your kingdom come
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Hallowed be your name.