September 18, 2021

Dear Road Church Friends,

Our ongoing reflections on the Lord’s Prayer turn this week to its second petition, “Thy Kingdom Come.” The kingdom of God is a prominent subject in the teaching of Jesus. The coming kingdom was also the theme of John the Baptist’s preaching. John and Jesus preached the same message, (the kingdom is near), but they imagined it very differently. John saw the kingdom as a future threat of divine judgment. He imagined its arrival would be accompanied by an avenging God carrying an axe in one hand and a flamethrower in the other, (Matthew 3:10).

But Jesus saw the kingdom as an opportunity for redemption in the present moment. Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom is already here and is within our reach. He declared that the kingdom was present in the good work he was doing, (Matthew 12:28). He taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom Come,” to serve as a reminder to seize each moment as a kingdom opportunity.

A best selling novel published in 1896, with the title, In His Steps, illustrates my point. It is the story of a church whose members resolve to live by the catchphrase, “What would Jesus Do?” (WWJD). Their lives and their town are redeemed. Sunday I will tell this story and show how it still speaks to us 125 years later.

SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 2:21    SERMON TITLE: “Thy Kingdom Come”—What Does That Mean?”

    For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

O BROTHER MAN

O brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother

Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;

To worship rightly is to love each other,

Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.

Follow with reverent steps the great example

Of him whose holy work was doing good;

So shall the wide earth seem our Father’s Temple,

Each loving life a psalm of gratitude.

Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangor

Of wild war music o’er the earth shall cease;

Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger,

And in its ashes plant the tree of peace.

by John Greenleaf Whittier

May the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.

Pastor Norm

Our worship service from September 19, 2021 on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BXImdfUgNXE