1. we’re looking at the Lord’s Prayer these days. I want to begin with references to Mark Knopfler, Simone Weil & the Koran.
2. the Koran. The Lord’s Prayer begins with Our Father. The Koran (Muslim holy scriptures), on the other hand, has no name for God as Father. For a Muslin to associate God with human beings is to commit the sin of ‘shirk’ – of comparing God to what is not God. The Koran has many respectful terms to speak of God but Father is not one of them.
3. the Fatherhood of God is a central part of our theology & practice as Christians.
4. Simone Weil was a remarkable French woman who died in England in 1943 at the age of 33 – philosopher, mystic, social activist. She became a believer in Christ after memorizing the Lord’s Prayer in Greek and a poem by the metaphysical poet George Herbert. While repeating Herbert’s poem on the love of God, she had a profound experience of God’s presence which led her to Christ.
5. Simone Weil had a deep conviction about the Lord’s Prayer – she believed that if we were able to pray the prayer with complete attention, we would be transformed people. She prayed the Lord’s Prayer through once every morning with absolute attention. If during the recitation my attention wanders or goes to sleep, I begin again until I have once succeeded in going through it with absolutely pure attention. The effect of this practice is extraordinary and surprises me every time. No parroting the prayer for Simone Weil.
6. after her death the French government issued a postage stamp in her honor, bearing her face & inscribed with the words – attention is the only faculty of the soul which gives us access to God. Such was her influence upon post-World War II France.
7. Mark Knopfler. This week I’ve been listening to the work of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits on my iPod – his solo recording Sailing to Philadelphia. He references the Lord’s Prayer in a song called Baloney Again, the story of the discrimination suffered by a black Gospel group as they travelled about the south trying to spread the good word –
The lord is my shepherd
He leadeth me in pastures green
He gave us this day
Our daily bread and gasoline
8. it’s getting to the point around here where our daily bread just might include gasoline!
your kingdom come
1. 3 weeks ago Mike Higgs partially unpacked this phrase for us. Today I want to bounce off of what he shared & expand on it.
2. Jesus spoke more about the kingdom of God than any other thing in the gospels. 85xs not including overlaps from 1 gospel to the next.
3. Jesus began his ministry announcing the kingdom – the time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent & believe the good news (Mark 1:15). Jesus concluded his earthly ministry speaking about the kingdom – he appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). The kingdom of God was central to everything Jesus did & said.
4. in the book of Acts the last thing we find out about the Apostle Paul is this – he’s in Rome, in prison for his faith in Jesus, and boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 28:31).
5. we can’t understand God or Jesus or the gospel or the church unless we have a grip on the kingdom of God.
concert choir
1. yesterday Canby High School’s concert choir took 5th place in the state at George Fox University. 100 or so different individuals, different voices – male & female; bass & baritones; sopranos & altos. They all combined to produce such a beautiful, melodious sound. In fact on their last number – Elijah Rock – I had goose bumps rolling up & down my spine. I kid you not.
2. the CHS concert choir depends upon 2 vital ingredients – the music & the conductor. Tom Gingrich does a masterful job of directing the choir to sing the various musical nuances of each song. And the result is music that is worth driving to Newberg to hear.
3. disaster would strike if the choir members tried to get rid of Mr. Gingerich & do their own thing –
® who would choose the songs?
® who would start them?
® who would set the tempo?
® when would they know to come in?
® when would they know to stop?
4. this is exactly what has happened to our world.
5. God is both the composer & the conductor of this cosmic concert. He created everything that is. He gave us instructions about how we should then live – the songs to sing & how to sing them.
6. but guess what? We told him to take a hike. We chose rather sing our own songs & notes in our own key. And it’s a disaster. No beauty, no harmony, no goose bumps. Chaos.
7. God is seeking to rein us in. To stand us in our places. To put a new musical score in our hands. To warm up our voices. To restore the original harmony. To make something beautiful out of something painful to the ears.
8. He sends Jesus his Son. Jesus calls the choir back together. He places a new sheet of music in our hands. He works us & trains us in this music. And then he sets us free to sing like we’ve never sung before.
9. this is what the kingdom of God is like. Jesus came both bringing & personifying the kingdom of God. The reign of God in our world. The rule of God in our world. The way of God in our world. Jesus came to do away with the discord, the dissonance, the disharmony, the ear-drum splitting cacophony of you & I singing our own thing.
10. the reorganizing of the concert choir has started, is taking place even as I speak, but it is not yet finished. It’s a mixture of beauty & ugliness, harmony & disharmony, selfless & selfish singing. We hear echoes of beauty, wonder & harmony that cause us to want more more more.
Matthew 6:10
1. your kingdom come, your will be done. This is an example of Hebrew parallelism. This is how the Hebrew people thought & wrote – they often tied 2 lines together. The 2nd line complements or finishes the 1st line.
2. The kingdom coming IS God’s will being done. God’s will being done IS the kingdom coming to earth. Kingdom & will go together. 2 sides of the same coin.
3. the will of the Father is found in the conditions of the Kingdom. You want to be in God’s will? Live for the Kingdom of God – all that you are, all that you have.
4. the kingdom of God describes a set of conditions in which God’s rule is carried out among his people & within culture. The kingdom Jesus brought fulfilled the Old Testament expectations for society that God always intended for his people –
® justice + peace + love + righteousness + compassion
® end to oppression
® judgment on enemies
5. and what Jesus himself added in his person & ministry are –
® salvation + healing + deliverance + transformed lives
6. here’s what the kingdom of God sounds like in choir. When you hear these notes coming from people, coming from the church, you know that the kingdom of God is near – justice, peace, love, righteousness, compassion, salvation, healing, deliverance, changed lives. These describe the coming, advancing, penetrating Kingdom of God in our midst.
7. its none other than God’s rule, God’s reign in the heavens, in the cosmos, brought to earth, to our lives, our families, our churches & culture itself. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven coming to earth shows up as the kingdom of God.
Music i listened to while sermonizing – mark knopfler; david crowder band;
Books i read & studied while sermonizing – God’s big picture by vaughn roberts; a theology of the new testament by george eldon ladd; keys to the kingdom by scot mcknight; in constant prayer by robert benson; the road by cormac mccarthy; the attentive life by leighton ford;
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