Tower and Town, December 2017

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Clergy Letter

Undoubtedly the most well known and prayed prayer is the Lord’s Prayer – the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. Most of our services include it somewhere in the liturgy. It can roll off the tongue without much thought. But what is one praying for when one says this prayer? After addressing God as Father, it goes on to pray: ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’

But what does this really mean? What are we praying for when we pray ‘Thy kingdom come’ and what changes might we see that would cause us to thank God for answering that prayer? When Jesus started his ministry the Gospel writers say that he came proclaiming ‘good news’ and that in him the kingdom of God had come near. He goes on to teach his disciples what this means in practice. The kingdom of God is not a geographical place but is wherever the rule of God is acknowledged and his will is done in the lives of his followers.

In December we enter the season of Advent. Advent is the time we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus as a baby at Bethlehem and the significance of God taking human flesh. But it is also a time when we look forward to Jesus coming again – the time when heaven and earth will be united and the whole of creation will be renewed and there will be no more evil and suffering.

Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus we live in a world in which there is still much darkness and suffering. Yet there are also many examples of when the light of Christ shines in the darkness, when something of the life of heaven comes on earth. If we claim to be followers of Jesus then as we look back with thankfulness for his first coming and look forward to him coming again, so we need to be open to his coming into our lives today that we might be channels of his love to a needy world.

David Maurice