Ticket to ride . . .

So the guys were hanging out and asked Jesus how they were supposed to pray. He told them that when they pray, to say something like this:

“Our Father in Heaven, may your name be holy. May your kingdom and your will in Heaven be done here on Earth. Give us all we need today. Please fogive us for what we hold against our brother, and forgive them as well. Lead us in righteous living, and save us from wickedness.”

Makes a pretty nice thing to say on occassion. A lot of people have unpacked different aspects of this prayer, but I keep getting caught up on the whole kingdom and will be done on Earth stuff.

Are we really praying that God’s Kingdom would reign on Earth like it is in Heaven? Do we understand the repercussions of such a statement?

It seems that our understanding of God’s Kingdom reigning on Earth is if people have been “saved” from themselves. “Given your life to Jesus yet? No? Well pray this prayer and then wait for Heaven.”

Please hear me out, I’m not saying that eternity isn’t important, but Jesus didn’t say, “May you grant people eternal life so that they can get a free ticket into Heaven and not make a difference here on Earth.”

So what does God’s Kingdom in Heaven look like? For starters, it’s total allegiance to God. I have certainly failed that one. In Heaven we will be worshipping God constantly, forever singing His praises. How often do we worship and sing praises to ourselves, or the things that will bring  us perceived happiness?

Heaven is free of suffering. New bodies! No more tears! Wait, sounds an awful lot like what the apostle Paul said of our lives here – something about being a new creation. And then James said something about joy in trials. Heaven is sounding a lot closer than this distant place where we float around in white robes.

Heaven is a cross-cultural, multi-lingual experience where we use our unique skills. Heaven is like the best job ever, doing what we love to do for God with people from literally everywhere. Dude, where to I apply?!?

So that’s Heaven. But what about Earth? We are supposed to pray for Earth to be like Heaven, and I think there’s a lot of responsibility and work that comes along with that. It’s not enough to have a “personal relationship with Jesus.” We need to weed out the things that take our allegiance and worship only the one true God. There is suffering in the world that we need to alleviate through truth and action. Jesus was a healer. The disciples were healers. We are called to be healers. And we need to get over our arrogant culture and build bridges into the lives of people from all tribes, tongues, and nations and use our desires, passions, and skills to make much of God.

Whoa. I don’t know if I can pray that today. But Jesus said when you pray to pray like this. Here we go . . .

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