Feb 2nd: Thy Kingdom Come, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
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Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Thy Kingdom Come with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: The Jesus Prayer: 7 Spiritual Practices for the New Year A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Micah 4.3-4;Luke 10.31-35.
Curious about faith, justice, and the kind of love that shakes things up? Join Rev. Dr. Steven Koski this Sunday—online or in person—as he explores what it really means to pray, “Thy Kingdom come.” What if God’s dream is about transforming life here and now? Join us and be part of the conversation.
Transcript:
Steven: Today, we’re continuing our series on the prayer that Jesus taught, called the Lord’s Prayer, and we come today to the phrase Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now most people place a comma where there isn’t one. Thy kingdom come. Comma, thy will be done, comma, on earth as it is in heaven. Notice the difference, if you don’t pause, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come on earth. Now that’s the heart of the prayer that Jesus is teaching us, not that we might punch a ticket to heaven, but that we might bring something of heaven here on earth. Now, praying Thy kingdom come is a pretty radical prayer. What is God’s kingdom? Now it’s important to realize the kingdom of God. In the first century, when Jesus taught this prayer was a political metaphor as well as a religious metaphor. In the world of Jesus, there were actual, real kingdoms. Now for the audience of Jesus, who were mostly poor and oppressed, they knew what it felt like to have the kingdom of Rome’s foot on their throats, and they were being taught to pray for the kingdom of Rome to be replaced by the kingdom of God. Now the kingdom of God is what the world would look like if God was in charge. It is God’s dream for life here on earth, the Jewish audience listening to Jesus were familiar with this dream because images of God’s dream were found throughout the Jewish Bible, and one of the best expressions of this dream is in the fourth chapter of the prophet Micah, they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. The dream of God is for peace, where weapons are transformed into gardening tools. Now, Micah further paints a picture of God’s dream, and every family shall sit under their own vine or fig tree. Now that’s actually an image of every family having their own piece of land, not just to get by, not just to barely survive, but it’s a dream of every family with its own vine and fig tree. It’s a dream of economic justice, a dream where everyone has shelter, a dream where there’s enough for everyone. That’s what God’s Kingdom looks like. And this passage in Micah ends, and no one shall make them afraid. Can you imagine? Can you imagine a world where no one has to live in fear? That’s God’s dream, and we are God’s dream builders. Now I’m a little anxious about today’s sermon. I’m afraid I may upset some of you, and that’s not my intention. I don’t want to upset some of you. I want to upset all of you. I grew up in northern Minnesota, where mosquitos are the state bird. They’re pesky, annoying, mosquitoes of the spirit. On the other hand, mosquitoes of the Spirit are necessary for the soul. Mosquitoes of the Spirit penetrate your conscience in the form of disturbance. I mean, hoping to disturb you enough to turn your attention to injustice, to turn your attention to the suffering of others, and they just keep bothering you until you need to do something. Mosquitoes of the Spirit are a holy disturbance. Think about the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus told in in Luke chapter 10 about a Samaritan who who stops. Right and cares for someone raw, beaten, left to die on the side of the road. Now, a good Samaritan is a feel good term that we use today to describe, you know, someone who’s kind. What’s lost for us is actually how shocking, radical, disturbing the story would have been for those listening to Jesus. Jesus was not telling a feel good story. He was telling a story that he hoped would actually shake things up, that he hoped would really disturb people, as the saying goes, Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Now, we like the comfort part, [Rev. Dr. Steven Koski]: but afflict the comfortable. Well, not so much. I’m guessing you prefer a nice sermon, right? Instead of sermons that kind of make you squirm a little bit. Steven: Did you know that after the very first sermon Jesus preached in the temple in Luke four, they wanted to throw Him off a cliff? Don’t get any ideas. Now, this story that Jesus told about the Good Samaritan story actually would have really upset his listeners, because in the time of Jesus, there was no such thing as a good Samaritan. Samaritans were the hated, despised other. They were the enemy, and the story says a priest and a Levite. They saw the man bleeding and wounded on the side of the road, and they passed by on the other side.
[Rev. Dr. Steven Koski]: Now the priest and Levi get kind of a bad rap. And, you know, they’re seen as not very caring. What if we gave them the benefit of the doubt? I mean, they might have had their own worries being on that dangerous Jericho Road. I mean, maybe they were trying to get to the temple for worship before dark, Steven: maybe seeing the wounded and bleeding man on the side of the road, maybe that broke their hearts, but to touch this wounded man would have actually made them unclean, and if they were unclean, they wouldn’t have been able To perform their sacred duties at the temple, and those listening to this story would have understood why they kept a distance. They might have actually even approved their decision. And then Jesus disturbs the status quo as he describes how a Samaritan risks his own life on that dangerous road, stops, rolls up his sleeves, inconveniences himself, and works For the healing and the restoration of this powerless, voiceless, vulnerable victim, doing it in very tangible, costly ways. Now, the Samaritan in the story didn’t just pray for God to have mercy on the man. He became the very presence of mercy. And then Jesus asks, Which do you think was neighbor to the wounded man? And a lawyer responds, the one who showed mercy. And Jesus said, Go and do likewise. Go and be like the Samaritan. Can you imagine how his listeners would have responded to that? Go and be like your enemy when we think this story is simply a nice feel good story about caring and extending kindness, we actually miss the invitation into an entirely new way of being in the world. We miss the invitation into holy disturbance, a holy disturbance that expands our understanding of what it means to love in the way of Jesus, the poet Rumi wrote, love wants to hold you upside down and shake all the fear and the judgment and nonsense out of you. One of my favorite stories in the Gospels is about the woman COVID. Adultery, whose punishment was was to be stoned to death by by a group of self righteous men who are simply doing what the law of Moses instructed them to do. Now I’m guessing, I’m guessing there are people watching this take place, who felt it was wrong, who knew it was wrong, but no one was willing to take the risk to stand up and be counted. Jesus stepped forward, and Jesus stood in that gap between the woman and the men with the stones. Jesus stood in the gap. For this woman, the Samaritan, stood in the gap on that dangerous road. For that wounded man, risking his own life for the sake of the man’s healing. Who are you willing to stand in the gap for? I mean, where do you feel the spirit disturbing you, calling you to stand in the gap? And the book of Ezekiel, God says to Ezekiel, I searched. I searched for one person, one person among you who would rebuild the wall and who would be willing to stand in the gap. God’s still asking, God, still calling, God, still searching, who’s willing to stand in the gap, who’s willing to stand in the gap for others, who’s willing to show up to be the voice for those who have no voice, to be the presence of mercy for those wounded left for dead on the side of the road. I read an article recently about a Presbyterian Church, actually, several churches who were on the wrong side of history and love during the time of slavery and the Civil War. And according to historical records, these Presbyterian Churches refused to host abolitionist speakers in their churches because they believed the speakers would be controversial and that the speakers would actually disturb the congregation, and they thought their revivals were more important, and they didn’t want to be distracted from their revivals. Now we can look back on our own history and see this is the way good Christians behaved on a on an issue so central to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. They were on the wrong side of history. They were on the wrong side of love. They were more concerned with getting people to heaven than they were about bringing a bit of heaven to earth. Now I don’t I don’t have any grandchildren yet, but if I do, one day, I wonder if they’ll ask me 25 years from now, Grandpa, what risk did you take? You know, what risk did you take, grandpa, to stand in the gap when the immigrant community and the LGBTQ plus community were so scared, Grandpa, grandpa, when there are so many school shootings, did you offer more than your thoughts and prayers? Did you stand in the grab gap? Grandpa, for those students, Grandpa, grandpa, when the world was literally on fire, how did you stand in the gap for God’s sacred earth? What risk did you take, grandpa, to bring something of heaven to earth so that me and children all across the world might have a chance to flourish? You know, it says in the Talmud, do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy. Now, walk humbly. Now. You are not obligated. To complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. You know, during the New Year, I encourage you to ask a question every morning, what does love want me to do today? No, I I still fervently believe that love wins, but right now she’s pretty bruised with a black eye and a bloody lip. Love needs us to be in her corner. Now more than ever, I’m actually really hoping this wasn’t a nice sermon. I’m hoping it disturbed you. Just a little disturbance is good for the soul. Disturbance is a God thing. It’s when we allow ourselves to be disturbed that we that we notice those wounded on the side of the road, hoping that we will be the ones who will risk showing up for them. When we allow ourselves to be disturbed, that’s when we hear God calling us from the sidelines to step forward and stand in the gap for others, it’s when we allow ourselves to be disturbed that love has a chance to hold us upside down and shake the fear right out of us. So friends, may God bless you with some holy disturbance so that God’s will be done and God’s dream be fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven, may it be so. I.
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