"Unfortunately for
us, we are stuck with the irony that this is a prayer where we are asking God
for change.
After beginning with acknowledging God as the source of all goodness we move on to, “Your Kingdom come.” May the day come when you, loving God, reign over everything and everybody and every place in justice and love and peace. Rather than a specific request, this is an expression of a general longing; a longing for the new and for change. When faced with all that is corrupt and brutalized about the world, we long for the tide of God's goodness to wash over the earth and renew it all. When faced with the atrocities of Bosnia, the hypocrisies of the response to East Timor, the tragedies of abused kids selling their bodies on the streets, the obscenities of injustice, hatred and the abuse of political power, we don't know where to start in our prayers so with deep sighs of longing we capture it all up in our plea for God to come and renew the face of the whole earth. Your kingdom come.
If you like we are putting ourselves on God's side and at God's disposal. We are aligning ourselves with God's purposes in the world. We are adding ourselves to God's movement for change. And it is in the context of that renewed orientation that we bring the specific requests. These could be summed up as “God give us the sustenance to help us through the change” and “God help us to change and to forgive others.”
That then is Jesus' basic lesson in prayer. Acknowledge the goodness of the God to whom you pray, then be prepared for God to use you as an agent for change and to be changed yourself."
After beginning with acknowledging God as the source of all goodness we move on to, “Your Kingdom come.” May the day come when you, loving God, reign over everything and everybody and every place in justice and love and peace. Rather than a specific request, this is an expression of a general longing; a longing for the new and for change. When faced with all that is corrupt and brutalized about the world, we long for the tide of God's goodness to wash over the earth and renew it all. When faced with the atrocities of Bosnia, the hypocrisies of the response to East Timor, the tragedies of abused kids selling their bodies on the streets, the obscenities of injustice, hatred and the abuse of political power, we don't know where to start in our prayers so with deep sighs of longing we capture it all up in our plea for God to come and renew the face of the whole earth. Your kingdom come.
If you like we are putting ourselves on God's side and at God's disposal. We are aligning ourselves with God's purposes in the world. We are adding ourselves to God's movement for change. And it is in the context of that renewed orientation that we bring the specific requests. These could be summed up as “God give us the sustenance to help us through the change” and “God help us to change and to forgive others.”
That then is Jesus' basic lesson in prayer. Acknowledge the goodness of the God to whom you pray, then be prepared for God to use you as an agent for change and to be changed yourself."
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