Prayer: "May Your Kingdom Come Soon"
Scott Lyons
2/11/2010

In the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, "May your Kingdom come soon," we immediately run into the problem of definition: What is the Kingdom of God?Simply speaking about this petition requires some kind of definition. Of course, the Kingdom of God is the rule or reign of God. Even in this simple construction, however, we run into many questions, some of which concern time and place: When is the Kingdom of God? Where is the Kingdom of God? The Scriptures give differing answers to these questions, but they are not contradictory.

The Kingdom of God is both now and not yet. The Kingdom of God is both within you and must be entered by you. It is both-and rather than either-or. Now, in a very true sense, the Kingdom of God is Christ himself. Christ fills all in all: Now and not yet, internal and external—we carry him in our hearts though the universe cannot contain him. The Kingdom is the present reign of God in my heart and simultaneously is the future reign of God over all things—the stuff of "every knee should bow . . . every tongue confess" (Philippians 2:10-11, NLT). I am becoming holy, and by God’s grace I will be holy; there is a fire within me, and if I choose, I can be all flame. The Kingdom is like a seed, like yeast, and like a treasure—we pray that it be so within us; it is sought, and it seeks; it is bought, and it sells everything to buy.

John Cassian, a desert father, speaks of this petition in the Lord’s Prayer as a request for this reign of God within us that we might possess an "unwavering gaze" toward Christ. And John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople and contemporary of John Cassian, speaks of it as a petition for detachment from our world, that our fondness for Christ would make all other affections pale so that neither the joys nor the sorrows in this life would disrupt our interior peace in him.

Even so, it seems to be the "not yet" that is the primary—though never exclusive—emphasis of this petition. As we say in the Creed: "And he shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his Kingdom will have no end." There is a longing intrinsic to the petition. We long for this blessed hope (Titus 2:13), and it is right to do so. Evil will not have the final word in the universe. To one who is dealing with cancer, loneliness, or any kind of suffering in their lives, this hope may resonate more than with someone for whom everything is progressing well—for whom this world is providing its own consolations. For those of us who are not currently suffering, we must be on our guard, because the comforts of this world numb us; they delude us with what is not to destroy our desire for what is. We are like Odysseus' crew: happily trapped in the land of the Lotus-eaters, in a terrible stupor, forgetting their home. But what Odysseus do we have who can rescue us from our material delusions?

We must never forget that we are strangers and aliens in a foreign land—this is the not-yet aspect of the Kingdom. But we are also pilgrims who transform the Valley of Baca—these bitter, desert places—into a place of refreshing springs (Psalm 84:6). This is the "now" aspect of the Kingdom. It is right to long for home, but we also carry it within our hearts. We must be converted ever more to Christ, the overflow of which is the transformation of our world—not through political power or violence or persuasion, but through the springs of love that well up within us when we allow ourselves to be consumed by God’s fire. But we cannot enter into the Kingdom and it cannot enter us as long as we are satisfied with technology and Twinkies, with consumption, clothes, and the abundance of things.

May our lives be the Kingdom’s proclamation. May it come soon. Come, Lord Jesus.