Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done

I heard two movies reviewed this morning, one of which rekindled the youthful hearts of many middle-aged men, the other of which tickled the fancies of those with a light-hearted monarchist “bent”.

The desert dystopia of the Mad Max series is being revisited, as our broken hero challenges the emperor of the wastelands amidst apocalyptic car chases, sprinkled with minimal dialogue. A movie of action, violence, retribution and presumably, resolution in some justice motif.

A Royal Night Out embellishes the folklore that when victory in Europe was declared at the close of the Second World War, the two young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, had a night on the town. Removed from their cloistered privilege, they party till the sun comes up. Or something.

Empires of dystopia and privilege; embroidered beyond truth to a challenging, perhaps enticing, fantasy.

When Jesus’ potent prayer is offered to his disciples, the second stanza calls for the establishment of an empire which is not the oppression of Rome. As he has from the commencement of his ministry, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near…”, Jesus invites us to believe in, and live out, an alternative existence.

This radical call is our oath of allegiance. We name ourselves as citizens of this empire by choice and hope. Praying this prayer is not only comfort, not only healing, it is an affirmation that God is about transformation – of our lives and our world.

What are the hallmarks of this empire which Jesus anticipates in his prayer? This is not some expectation of life after death; this is expressed in the elevated sermon which has come before. Being savour and hope in our relationships – reconciliation before worship, life being more than law, loving enemies and noticing the least – all of these are stamps in our passports in the empire for which we pray.

The will of this empire is not expressed in the obscenity of the Colosseum, where a thumb tilted one way or another decides a person’s life. The will of this empire is that all be saved and experience signs of this saving immediately. The life we live as disciples echoes God’s empire.

On earth as in heaven. The hope we assert is that the forgiveness we offer and ask for, and the enemy we embrace defy the dystopia of unforgiveness and vengeance so prevalent in our world. The empire for which we pray claims that the poor and the meek and the merciful are the first to receive the wealth of God’s blessing.

Your kingdom come!