THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
June 12, 2005
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. M. Anthony Seel, Jr.
Matthew 6:7-13
"Agreement with God"
Martin Luther King, Jr. whizzed through elementary school and high school and began college at the age of 15. He wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to study, but he was sure of one thing: he didn’t want to become a Baptist clergyman like his dad. That changed after two years of college, and following graduation from Morehouse College in Atlanta he enrolled at Crozer Seminary, then in Philadelphia.
From the outset of his seminary career, King knew that he could never be “a spectator in the race problem” [Stephen Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, p. 21]. He believed that his calling was to serve God and humanity from the pulpit, and in Ph.D. studies at Boston University, King’s vocation became even clearer. Although several colleges offered him attractive positions, Martin believed that he was to be a pastor before an academician.
After stops in Philadelphia and Boston, King wasn’t sure that he wanted to return to the deep south, but he did finally accept a call to become the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. It was 1954.
African-American dissatisfaction with segregation was reaching new heights, and a young Baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama was feeling the discontent of his people. Young Martin Luther King, Jr. could not believe that it was God’s will for anyone to live in a separate and unequal society. He believed that freedom and justice were God-ordained rights for all men and women, and he was committed to working for these rights for all people.
Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God to this world, and King saw it as his personal responsibility to work for freedom, justice and equality now. Racism and racial inequality were blights on our nation, and they could not be tolerated by God’s people. King’s work was kingdom work.
Jesus began His public ministry, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). So, it shouldn’t surprise us that when we look at the heart of the prayer that He taught His followers we find the following petition about God’s kingdom:
v. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus instructs His followers to pray, “Your kingdom come… “
In the prayer that Jesus taught His followers is the petition for God’s kingdom to come to earth. The goods of godly society are not just a future hope. They are to be a present reality. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this.
One Sunday morning in 1965 while Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Washington D.C., 525 men, women and children were led by his associates Hosea Williams of Atlanta and John Lewis, now a congressman from Atlanta on a march along Jefferson Davis Highway outside Selma, Alabama. At the Edmund Pettis Bridge the demonstrators were met by state troopers.
As the marchers approached the bridge, an officer spoke to them through a bullhorn. “Turn around and go back to your church! You will not be allowed to march any further! You’ve got two minutes to disperse!”
One minute later, according to the march leaders, the officer ordered the troops to drive back the demonstrators. The state troopers went at the crowd with billy clubs flailing, hitting anyone who was in their way as they sought to push back the marchers. They swung their clubs at men and women and managed to fracture John Lewis’s skull. The confrontation was caught on film by news crews and broadcast all over the world. The crowd retreated that day to the Brown Chapel, the place where they had started.
The demonstrators were blungeoned and battered, but they were not beaten. You could say that in the face of the armed power of the state they didn’t have a chance, but you would be wrong. Through their prayerful nonviolence they galvanized a nation and led to change. Don’t ever forget that it was because of state-sanctioned violence against Jesus the Christ that we are here today. The cross was a sign of defeat to Christ’s enemies and it is a sign of victory for all who know Jesus as Resurrected Savior and Lord.
Days later, 1,500 gathered at Brown Chapel as Martin Luther King declared that they would defy a court injunction and march down Jefferson Davis Highway toward the state capitol in Montgomery. As the marchers proceeded down the highway, a U.S. Marshall read a restraining order barring them from continuing their pilgrimage. Major Cloud said through a bullhorn, “You are ordered to stop and stand where you are. This march will not continue.” “We have a right to march, replied Martin Luther King, Jr. “There is also a right to march on Montgomery.”
Cloud repeated his order, but the demonstrators said, “We’ve come too far to turn back now!” King requested a time to pray, and Cloud responded, “You can have your prayer, and then you must return to your church.”
They got down on their knees and bowed their heads in prayer. “We come to present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” prayed Ralph Abernathy, a close associate of King’s. “We don’t have much to offer, but we do have our bodies, and we lay them on the altar today.” After the prayer, the marchers returned to Brown Chapel. [Ibid., pp. 351-352] Two weeks later, the courts relented, the Federal government provided for the safety on the demonstrators and 3,200 gathered to begin a three day journey to Montgomery.
As planned, 300 Alabama Freedom Marchers went the whole distance to the state capitol. In Montgomery, 25,000 people joined the “clapping, singing, flag-waving” throng (ibid., p. 362). King stood on a flatbed trailer in front of the capitol to address the gathering. The Great March was over and for all intents and purposes, the battle was won.
God’s kingdom has not come to earth in all its glory, but when God’s people work for justice, God’s kingdom is served. The kingdom of God was absolutely central to Jesus’ teaching and mission, and the kingdom of God is what Jesus came to earth to establish. Israel had failed to be a light to all nations, an so Jesus came to be the Messianic King who leads all people into God’s Kingdom. It is through, what Old Princeton theologian Geerhardus Vos calls "His concrete acts of unprecedented grace" (Biblical Theology, p. 374) that Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom on earth.
The kingdom of God will be fully realized when Jesus comes again and this age becomes the age to come. The kingdom of God is a present reality and a future hope. The kingdom of God as a present reality is a spiritual realm that all followers of Jesus Christ enter through faith in Christ. In this age, we receive only a small taste of what will be in the age to come. God has not yet asserted His perfect will and authority over all creation. We still live a this present evil age until God does so. In the meantime, we pray,
… your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers marched from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, it was the turning point of the Civil Rights Movement. According to biographer Stephen Oates, “the Selma campaign was the movement’s finest hour, was King’s finest hour” (p. 365). Everything else that King worked toward and accomplished had its roots in the Selma campaign. Until his dying breath, Martin Luther King worked on earth with a vision of what God could accomplish through the courageous acts of His people. King’s work was God’s work, and He never lost sight that He was first of all a preacher doing God’s will.
You may also recall The Purpose Driven Life that we studied two Lents ago. The first line from Day 1 of Rick Warren’s bestseller is "It’s not about you" (p. 17). Warren elaborates,
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal
fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far
greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams
and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this
planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose
and for his purpose.
Have you noticed that the Lord’s Prayer to this point is all about God? Jesus encourages us to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name, Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." It’s all about God.
Rick Warren continues his Day 1 meditation, saying,
The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of
years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point -
ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like What do I want to be?
What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my
dreams for my future? [ibid.]
Warren concludes, "But focusing on ourselves will never reveal life’s purpose" [ibid.] Speaking about discovering our identity and purpose, Warren says, ’The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity’ (p. 21). Jesus calls this larger, cosmic purpose the kingdom of God.
When we pray, asking that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying that God’s kingdom will become a greater part of this present evil age. Of course, this is God’s will, and it is in praying for God’s will to be done that we find the greatest power of prayer. As our series booklet reminds us, we can ask for anything according to God’s will, confident that God will answer our prayer. As our booklet says, "Being is agreement with God is the most basic truth for a successful prayer life" (p. 16) .
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “Prayerful devotion to God is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.” This is exactly what the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer does for us. It opens us to seeing life from God’s perspective.
During our Lenten Series on Experiencing God, we looked at doing God’s will. You may recall that the authors consistently taught that one of the keys to experiencing God is our willingness to do God’s will as we receive it from God. At the end of chapter three, entitled “Doing God’s Will, Blackaby and King challenge us to doing three things.
Number one, “Agree with God that you will follow Him one day at a time.” None of us has adequate long distance eyesight. We can only see so far, but we can determine to live this day to the utmost for God.
Number two, “Agree to follow Him even when He does not spell out all the details.” God doesn’t give us the full blueprint for out lives. It has been said that God gives us enough light for our next step. We take that step and the next and the one after that with trust that God will never lead us astray.
Number three, “Agree that you will let Him be your Way.” Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Is He your Way, your Truth, your Life?
Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. If this is truly the prayer of your heart, will you now pray with me the prayer from the end of chapter three of Experiencing God?
Let us pray.
Lord, I will do anything that your kingdom requires of me. Wherever you want me to be, I’ll go. Whatever the circumstances, I’m willing to follow. If you want to meet a need through my life, I am your servant; and I will do whatever is required. Amen.
[Prayer from Experiencing God]
