Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
If these were the only words left of the Lord's prayer,
It would still be the most perfect and pleasing prayer one could offer to God.
Conversely, if all else remained and this phrase were taken from the prayer,
The heart of the prayer would be gone.

With these words, we are calling for a revolution,
Not a revolution of armed resistance to overthrow our government,
But a revolution of the heart, mind and spirit,
To overthrow the evil and sin that permeates our lives.
The overthrow of Satan himself,
So that all can live in peace and harmony
As God our creator intended before sin entered our world.
Shalom, as the Hebrew people called it.

Luther tells us in his explanation of the phrase "Thy Kingdom come"
That "God's kingdom comes of itself, without our prayer,
Yet we pray nevertheless that it may come to us,
That is, prevail among us and with us,
So that we may be a part of those among whom
His name is hallowed and His kingdom prospers."

For many centuries before Jesus was born,
The Jewish people prayed and looked for the coming of God's kingdom.
They believed his kingdom would be a place
Where God would reign and where therefore
All would be well.
The Hebrew prophets portrayed it as a world of peace and plenty.
A place where the streets would be safe
For both children and the elderly,
The two most defenseless elements of society.

Jesus made this kingdom the central part of his message.
Many of his parables described the kingdom,
Sometimes as a mustard seed,
That started very small, but grew into a bush so large
That birds could nest in it.
Or as a bit of leaven, that added to dough
Would make the lump transform in size and quality.
He compared its worth to that of a pearl
Of such great price, you would sell everything you had
To purchase it.
Jesus described this kingdom as something that
While appearing insignificant,
Had the power to transform all of life.

The coming of God's kingdom is what we are asking for
When we say "Christ has died, Christ is risen,
Christ will come again",
Knowing that when he does return,
God's kingdom will come fully,
Visibly, powerfully.
It will no longer be hidden in the hearts of men,
But will come to all people.

We pray in this petition
That the Holy Spirit may secure the kingdom in our hearts,
That we may be included in his kingdom
And may have peace and joy.
We are also praying that his church grow.

The kingdom of heaven is among us, though not fully visible.
We live in the already and the not yet,
The kingdom of God has been in our midst
Since Christ was raised from the dead.
We see evidence of that kingdom, all around us.
The kingdom exists each time love conquers hate,
Peace triumphs over conflict or fear
And selfishness have been vanquished.

The kingdom of God recognizes that the ultimate battlefield
Of our universe
Is not economics or politics or social structure.
Ultimately, the battlefield is the human heart.

And so, coupled with our prayer that God's kingdom come to us,
We further ask that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We bring in God's kingdom through the use
Of a variety of weapons,
Chief among them is prayer.
God has put this planet in our control.
God placed Adam in the garden and told him to
Tend and care for it.
We humans determine what will happen on earth.
God intervenes only at our invitation.
We are inviting God to intervene when we pray
For his will to be done on earth,
Just as his will is perfectly done in heaven.

One does not have to look very far or very hard
To see that there is opposition to God's will.
There is opposition to goodness and justice.
How often in our own lives do we say,
"I shouldn't have done that", or
"I wish I hadn't said that".
When we do, we are acknowledging that conflict exists,
In our lives, in our homes, in our dealings with others.
Much of Jesus' best advice has to do with
How we are to conduct our relationships with others.
"If you see that your brother has no coat, and you have two,
Give him one of yours."
"If someone compels you to walk with him one mile,
Walk with him two."
"Give to everyone who asks you,
And if anyone takes what belongs to you,
Do not demand it back."
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven,'

In the clause, "on earth as it is in heaven"
We find not only a pattern for our praying
But indeed a structure for our very theology of prayer.
When we pray,
Whether the Lord's prayer,
Or any other time that we speak with God,
Our goal should be to get ourselves in line with God,
To align our wills with what God wills to happen in this world.
There is no other part of the prayer that is so hard for us to say.
Somehow we find a quality of sadness, even of tragedy, in these words.
This negative response on our parts
Says something about our opinion of God.

It is as if this is a prayer one speaks
Only as an ultimate expression of resignation,
When there is nothing more we can do.
It is as if when we pray that God's will be done
We are saying "All right, you win, I give up.
Sadly, in many cases this is the truth.

Far too many people that I speak with
Tell me that they see prayer as a last resort,
Rather than as our first response.
I was called to the bedside of someone
Who had been critically injured in an accident,
And I asked the young man's mother if she would like me to pray with her,
Only to be told "I'm not that desperate yet."

This phrase, "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,"
Is the true disciple's prayer.
By a disciple, I mean any and every one of us
Who professes to be or hopes to be a disciple of Jesus.
These words can come only from a life of belief and commitment.
The truth is, Everyone prays.
Even the most irreligious.
As the old saying goes,
"There are no atheists in fox holes under fire."

Even those who doubt the existence of God
Pray when circumstances compel them to do so.
But few of the doubters ever come up with this petition on their own.
It takes true faith to pray that God's will be done,
Not our will, but God's.

Perhaps the most famous example of this petition
Is found later in Matthew, Matthew 26 to be exact,
The scene of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane,
Asking his father to "let this cup pass",
Meaning that God being God could surely come up with a different way
Of saving humankind from their sins.
Jesus prayed with such intensity that drops of sweat like blood,
Flowed off of him.
But he closed his prayer with a familiar sounding petition,
"Not my will, but thine, be done."
A prayer for the will of God is an appeal for what God desires.

When we speak this petition,
We are acknowledging that we don't know all that is.
Our God is a God who is infinitely bigger than we can even imagine,
Who knows the future as well as the past,
Who knows us so intimately?
For he knit us together in our mother's wombs,
I love that image, great big God, itty bitty knitting needles,
This God, who brings good out of even the worst situations,
This is the God in whom we trust
And with whom we want to align our wills and our lives.
When we say thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,
We are aligning ourselves with God against sin, sickness and death.
And against all the selfishness and hurt and misery
That contribute to sin and sickness and death.
We are praying to have a little more heaven on earth.

This is the petition, the prayer of the true Christian.
To be a Christian means, among other things,
To be dedicated to God's will,
To God's kingdom,
And be willing to help bring that kingdom to its fullness
Through our prayers and our actions.
When we pray for God's will to be done,
We intend for that prayer to be answered beyond just ourselves,
God's will is bigger than our lives,
Bigger than our deeds,
Bigger than our thoughts.
We are bringing ourselves into the battle of the ages
Between good and evil,
And we cast our strength on the side of good,
On the side of God.
So that we may pray without ceasing this prayer from Martin Luther:
Dear Father, Thy will be done,
Not the will of the devil and of our enemies,
Nor of anything that would persecute and suppress thy holy word
Or hinder thy kingdom, Amen.