Narrative Lectionary Summer Series – Lord’s Prayer Series, Week Two
Luke 11:2-4
Free Additional Resources for Study & Sermon Preparation
Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Rev. Dr. Clint Schnekloth
The first question we need to address today—is “kingdom” an adequate term for our use in English in 21st century life? There are two issues with it. First, it is very gendered. The “reign” of God is connected to “kingly” rule. Second, it’s a rather antiquated form of government. We’ve kind of moved on, monarchies are a relic if they exist at all.
Some of us play around with alternatives to the kingdom language. One of my favorites: the kin-dom of God. Here the emphasis becomes kinship with Jesus rather than the kingly reign of God. Somehow a term like both resonates better with democracy, the “rule” of the people, combined with the familial terms of the ecclesia—that we are siblings in Christ, part of the same body. Kin.
Preachers might decide just to lean into this one aspect of the Lord’s prayer, praying for God’s coming kingdom, but changing it to the kin-dom of God on the way to us and already seen in fits in starts in our shared life together as the people of God.
What does it mean to ask God for such a kin-dom to come? And what does it mean to see such a kin-dom present in the life of God?
Well, this is where the language also helps us with conceptions of the Trinity. In the monarchical terminology of king, you need one member of the Trinity to reign over the others in some way or another. But kinship introduces a level of mutuality we already know to be a truth of Trinity. All the members of the Trinity share in one another’s life. They perichoretically share in everything. They are in this sense “kin.” Father and Son literally, Spirit as the personhood of that kin-ky relating.
This kind of imagining allows us to get beyond the traps of extrapolating our always failing models of government from becoming our primary metaphors for God’s life. Instead, we look to the way we see God relate to Godself and to us as our understanding for what kind of shared life we will have in God in Christ.
For that we pray. Your kin-dom come.
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The following links and resources are not produced or maintained by Clergy Stuff. However, at the time of this posting, the links were active and considered to be good source material for proclamation for the text for this week. Please scroll down or click on the quick jump menu you find below. For more free worship resources & planning materials, please visit our links for RCL Worship Resources.
Historical Exegetical Resources
Commentary on the Petitions in the Lord's Prayer, from Martin Luther's Large Catechism.
On the Lord's Prayer -- Cyprian of Carthage (c. 252)
Swimming in the Sun: Discovering the Lord’s Prayer with St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas Merton, Albert Haase
Contemporary Resources
Exegetical Links
Thy Kingdom Come, Kathryn Kleinhans
First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 10, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
"Jesus' Teaching on Prayer," Rev. Bryan Findlayson, Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons, Pumpkin Cottage Ministry Resources.
The Kinship of Jesus: Christology and Discipleship, Kathleen Elizabeth Miills
A Good Read
Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus
by Neil Douglas-Klotz
Video Resources
Definitely tongue in cheek, but perhaps you need some humor today.
Daily Devotional Feed
Free Dramatic Reading For This Text (NRSV)
Readers: Narrator, Jesus
Narrator: He said to them,
Jesus: “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.”