Kingdom Building

July 28, 2019

Scripture Reading: Luke 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
   Your kingdom come.
   Give us each day our daily bread.
   And forgive us our sins,
     for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
   And do not bring us to the time of trial.’ –Luke 11:1-4

Jesus was brought to the time of trial and he prayed ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ (Luke 22:42) He faced both a literal civil trial and the spiritual trial of taking on evil. Jesus did not want to face it and he does not want us to face it but for the kingdom to come many have and will face both kinds of trials as we work toward the fruition of the kingdom of God in the midst of a world driven by the Caesars of evil.

I remember the chill that ran down my back watching a documentary of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer seeing his naked back as he stood before the gallows where he was hanged for waging war with the evils of the Nazi regime.

My definition of doing justice was shaped by reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letters from the Birmingham Jail. His murder resulted from his stand for all poor people as he faced the Caesar of greed and lust for power still alive in our country today.

This week I heard the call of justice from The Reverend Doctor William Barber II as he has taken up the mantel of doing justice through the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. He was tried and was convicted of trespassing during a protest at the NC General Assembly. So much for freedom of speech. It was not trespassing as we normally think of it, stepping on restricted ground, crossing a threshold. His crime was talking too loudly. When asked in court to demonstrate how loud his voice is, he turned facing the jury and in his full preaching voice quoted Isaiah 10:1-2 (NIV):
Woe to those who make unjust laws,
    to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
    and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
    and robbing the fatherless.

We are right to pray not to be brought to trial. Do we have the commitment that Jesus had to also pray not my will but thine be done?

Prayer: Lord, strengthen us in our work to do justice. Always test us to make sure we are on the right track. Bring us together as one, to face the trials of evil through the synergy of love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.