Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done (10th November 2007)
by Andy
Part 1: Brief intro of the
Our father prayer ( Overview )
The Lord’s Prayer contains
the 7 petitions which is categorized in two series.
Petitions: A
solemn supplication or request to a superior authority..
So in this
prayer, we are actually asking the father, what we ask are these:
The first : Your name…
your kingdom… your will…
The second : give
us… forgive us… lead us not… deliver us…
The Lord’s did not just
teach us what to ask from the Father, but also the sequence which we
should ask.
The first series we ask
for His holy name, His Kingdom and His will be done, why? It could be
explain in this manner: This prayer is the summary of the Gospel (CCC2761)
we know that the Gospel is the Good News that will bring us our salvation,
and our salvation is to be with the father, close to His throne with
all His holiness, saints and angels( Revelation ).
So the first series we ask for whom we long for, we ask Him to bring
us closer to Him, we ask Him so that we may be with Him eternally.
From CCC
2804
The first series of petitions carries us toward him, for his own sake:
thy name, thy kingdom, thy
will! It is characteristic of love to think first of the one whom we
love. In none of the three petitions do we mention ourselves; the burning
desire, even anguish, of the beloved Son for his Father's glory seizes
us:64 "hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will
be done. . . . " These three supplications were already answered
in the saving sacrifice of Christ, but they are henceforth directed
in hope toward their final fulfillment, for God is not yet all in all.65
We can refer to Jesus in
His earthly life as man, these 3 petitions is what Jesus always long
for in His life, and it was answered by the death that He freely accepted.
After He was risen He returned to the Father, and through His life we
have the hope that by asking this petitions, it will be answered by
our union with the Father through His Son. Jesus taught us to ask this
because the 3 petitions has not been finally fulfilled, until God is
all in all.
For today we focus on the
second and the third petition: your Kingdom come and your will be done
on earth, as it is in Heaven.
Part 2: Thy Kingdom come
What is God’s Kingdom?
2816 In the New Testament, the word
basileia can be translated by "kingship" (abstract noun),
"kingdom" (concrete noun) or "reign" (action noun).
It may even be . . . that
the Kingdom of God means Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come,
and whose coming we wish to be manifested quickly to us. For as he is
our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood
as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign.86
The kingdom of God, is a kingdom/territory/state
where God is the King. A king rules over the kingdom, and the entire
kingdom obeys and honor Him.
When I learn about this
kingdom, it amazed me. First of all I didn’t know that this prayer
contains our petition. I didn’t realize when I pray this prayer, I
am actually asking the Father to grant my petition.
Then I asked my self, why
Jesus taught us this? Why He gave this prayer of petitions to us?
The answer is from CCC:
2765 The traditional expression "the
Lord's Prayer" - oratio Dominica - means that the prayer
to our Father is taught and given to us by the Lord Jesus. The prayer
that comes to us from Jesus is truly unique: it is "of the Lord."
On the one hand, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the
words the Father gave him:13 he is the master of our prayer.
On the other, as Word incarnate, he knows in his human heart the
needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is
the model of our prayer.
He knows everything about
His creation, and even He was Himself took the form of man. So He help
us to remember of what we actually need, by asking the Father to give
His Kingdom to us. In fact the 7 petitions are the foundation of other
desire in man’s life (CCC 2761).
For the kingdom of
God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit. (romans
14 :17)
This is the state or condition
when we are in the Kingdom of God, or when the Kingdom comes. I also
asked my self, do I want to be in this Kingdom? A definite answer come
YES! I want to be in the kingdom where there is righteousness,
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I said to myself then, no wander Jesus
taught us to ask for His Father kingdom.
How does the Kingdom of God come?
The Kingdom of God came
in Jesus life, His love to the Father made Him to put the Father as
the King upon His life. He gave everything to the Father,
He SURRENDED His life to Father. For me the key is Surrender, how do
I consistently surrender to the King. After knowing more about His Kingdom
through the preparation of this session, I started to pray about my
surrender to the King. In my morning prayer I am more aware to ask for
the coming of His Kingdom by surrendering my day to Him. I surrender
my day by putting my hope in Him.
Usually when I pray I will
thank Him and praise Him for the wonderful day and then I start to tell
Him what is my plan for the day. It seems funny because He knows everything
about me, but my purpose of telling Him is that I want to learn putting
my trust in Him and to remind me that I have surrender my day to Him.
It seems simple but it does help me a lot to surrender my day to Him.
So it may be different for
you, but the key is still the same, what do you do to learn to surrender
your life more to the King? Until He will reign totally in your life,
and you will be full of righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.
Part 3 : Your will be done
on earth, as it is in Heaven
What is the Father’s will?
My understanding
of this petition become a bit clearer when I reflect it, my current
understanding is this : I am asking the Father so that His will to be
done on earth ( by all and in all of His creation) as His will be done
in Heaven. So I also can say that Heaven is a place or a condition where
His will be done.
To answer this question
properly, I put this question in the context of my life. When it is
said His will be done on earth, it can be said that His will be done
in all His creation, so when His will be done in my life and in the
life of all His creation then this petition is answered. So the context
is my life, and your life.
So what is the Father’s
will? When I asked myself about this, my immediate responds is to open
the bible, where the Father reveals Himself to us and also His will.
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should
love one another. (Jn
13:34)
This is
what Jesus said this after Judas went out to the Jews on the last supper.
He said this as the final commandments from the teacher to the disciple.
Before He said this He also said Very truly, I tell you,
whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me
receives him who sent me.’ ( jn 13 : 20 ). When we receive Jesus
word we receive the Father’s word, and this new commandment is also
from the Father.
We can also
refer to the Church, where the Holy Spirit inspire Her and guarantees
what she receive from the Father. Refer to CCC
2822 Our Father "desires
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."95
He "is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish."96
His commandment is "that you love one another; even as I have loved
you, that you also love one another."97 ( Jn 13 :34)
This commandment summarizes all the others and expresses his entire
will.
When I reflect the Father’s
will from the paragraph of CCC, what comes on my mind regarding His
will is this. He want all men to be saved which for
me is to come to the Father, then also to come to the knowledge of the
truth. The truth itself is revealed through Jesus, and in fact He is
the source of all the truth. One of the truth is this, I am created
by God in His image, He created me uniquely and
He has planed a great plan for my life.
For we are what he
has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand to be our way of life.( Ephesians
2 :10)
So for me when Jesus gave
me the new commandment, my understanding is this. Be the best of you
and use all the talents that I created in you, then love one another
as I love you by doing the plan which I prepared for you beforehand
to be your way of life.
How to do His will?
The next question is how
to do His will? We must learn from our perfect example Jesus Christ. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he
said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you
have prepared for me; in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings you
have taken no pleasure. Then I said,
“See, God, I have come to do your will, O God” (Heb 10 : 1-7)
Or we also
can learn from a role model for a Christian, the mother of Jesus, Mary
when she said to angel Gabriel ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your
word.’ (Luke 1:38)
But first
of all, I must have the willingness to do His will. By contemplating
His love for me, why and how He created me, and to think of Him in prayer
everyday, I make my self to be more aware of my longing for God, and
to realize that His plan is the best of all plan. I make myself aware
that no matter how great my life experience, in faith I believe in His
plan will still be the best for me.
When I realize
and fully aware that by doing His will is the best for me, then I can
freely choose to obey His commandment and ask Him in prayer so that
His will be done on earth as it is already done in Heaven.
The requirement
is still the same, our love to the Father which make us obey His will.
For me,
after I know the will of the Father,
I still face difficulties to do His will. So what I do so that His will
be done is to ask the help from the Holy Spirit in prayer.
I started
to pray to ask the Holy Spirit to give me the strength to overcome any
obstacle to do His will.
Praise
The Lord!
Forgive us Our Sins, as We forgive Those... (17th November 2007)
by Iwan
Expanded
Outline
Welcome
[opening
story] ??
How
may sinners do we have in this room? (Rom 5:20)
“God
created us without us, but He doesn’t will to save us without us”
(St Augustine)
And
forgive us our sins..
[sharing]
‘I am your dad’ experience
Luke
15:11-24. (v17) and coming to his senses..
[story:
Lion King] Junk food = sinful attitudes, unforgiveness
[sharing]
My ‘Prodigal Son’ experience
‘Give
me some money’; ‘Give me something to eat’; ‘Give me
something to drink’
we need to acknowledge ourselves as sinner!!
[story:
the white snow in Eskimo] Go for confession regularly
‘He
doesn’t will to save us without us’ Come before God gratefully
as His child.
..as
we forgive those who sin against us
[story:
Holy Spirit confirmation camp]
Matt
18:23-35. (v23) The Kingdom of God..
God’s
will that all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the
truth in Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:3-4)
Matt
6:9-15 (v14-15) Emphasizes added by Jesus
[story:
healing because forgiveness]
Forgive
your enemies? Impossible!! He is with us, nothing is impossible
[sharing
from me]??
E. CONCLUSION
“God created us without us, but
He doesn’t will to save us without us”
(St Augustine)
Fr Tom Forrest: we need to the power
of God to do the impossible things. To love our enemies, to forgive
others.
Invitation:
