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The Bishop's Journal
April 2000
YOUR KINGDOM COME
One of the stories from the Gospel that, for me, is most descriptive
of the church's current situation is the story of the walk to Emmaus as recorded in Luke 24:13-49. What that story
suggests most powerfully to me, is the fact that the gift of Christ's presence is often most accessible to those
whose hearts have been broken open by intense longing and disillusionment. The two followers of Jesus in this story
had their hopes lifted to the very heights of heaven and then suddenly dashed to the very depths of hell. But it
was these two aching souls that Jesus sought out with words that burned; with the bread of life. And in their neediness
they recognized him. In the midst of their confusion, faith was awakened and the risen Christ was revealed.
It seems to me, as I recall the Biblical stories of God's dealings with people, the faith stories of friends and
fellow believers, that this has always been true. Those who no longer live in illusion about their strength, competence,
or the control they have of their lives, are the chosen ones to whom God has reached out through the ages. Perhaps
the same is also true of churches!
I don't think I'm telling any secrets when I suggest that times are far from easy for the church today; not just
the Lutheran church but the whole church. Increasingly we're being called to tread waters that are strange or
new to us. The circumstances in which we try to minister seem to be changing at a pace that we can't seem to catch
up with. Commitment is far from what we'd like it to be. You know the litany of woe as well as I do.
It's not an easy road to walk and sometimes we can become disillusioned. We get angry and want to lay blame, righteously
certain that if it weren't for this or that supposed evil that everything would be just as it was in the so-called
good old days!
It strikes me that the Scriptures call us to take a much different approach. When the prophet Jonah was experiencing
a time of particular frustration and disillusionment he responded with the following words:
"When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came
to thee. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!"
Deliverance belongs to the Lord. It's not our job to bring in the kingdom so much as it is to recognize the kingdom
that is being born and to co-operate and support its coming. As Luther says,
"The
kingdom of God comes indeed of itself, without our prayers, but we pray in this petition that it may also come
to us." God's mission will be accomplished; that
is not in question. The question is, can we discern what that work is, can we
catch
up with God's mission so that it might also come unto us.
Your kingdom come.
In this petition, we recognize God as the one who will bring in the kingdom! It's a truth that we all too easily
forget. And that's why we need to pray this petition as fervently as we can. Your kingdom come! A prayer to help
us remember whose kingdom, whose mission it is that we are about. A prayer that reminds us that God has not abandoned
us on the road; that God does indeed bring light out of darkness, victory out of defeat and resurrection out of
death. A prayer that liberates us to creatively inhabit the world and the time that we are called to minister within.
Perhaps God is closer to us in our disillusionment, when our hearts are fainting, than we ever dared imagine? Perhaps
the burn within our hearts is a righteous burn which signals for us, as it did on the Emmaus road, the presence
of the Risen Lord!
The Rev. Michael J. Pryse, Bishop
