God’s Kingdom

When we use the word kingdom we often think of it as the land ruled over by a king, or a queen.  But of course, more important than the land are the people in it who are ruled.  So, even if a king is in exile from his native land, he is still king if his subjects are loyal to him.

Just as the Kingdom of England means the people of England, so the Kingdom of God means the people of God over whom God rules – in other words, the Church.  When, therefore, we say in the Lord’s Prayer “Thy Kingdom come”, we are praying for the Church and are asking God that it may grow and bring more people to obey him as their King.  So we sing in the hymn,

“The Church of God a kingdom is,
where Christ in power doth reign…” (1)

Loyalty

Now you and I became members of God’s Kingdom when we were baptised, and the first thing that is required is that we should be loyal.  That is why, at Baptism the priest makes the sign of the Cross on the forehead of the person being baptised and says,

“Do not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified”.

And everyone present says,

“Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ
against sin, the world and the devil,
and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life”. (2)

For in being faithful and loyal to his Church – his Kingdom – we are also being faithful and loyal to Christ our King.

It is a shameful thing, therefore, for any member of the Church – girl or boy, woman or man – to let Our Lord and his Church down.  Let us remember that the only reason we have a Christian Faith today is because of the loyalty of countless generations of Church people from the present day right back without a break to the times of the Apostles themselves.  As you know, there have been many, very many, who have suffered imprisonment and torture and death rather than be disloyal.  Their loyalty was shown in particular by being present without fail at the Eucharist, Sunday by Sunday though they risked their lives every time they went.  So one of the chief ways in which we are loyal to Our Lord and his Church today is by coming every Sunday to the Eucharist as they did.

Growth of the Kingdom

The Church’s missionary work

Another way, which is included in this prayer “Thy Kingdom come”, is by bringing more people to be members of the Church, in this country and all over the world.  As Jesus said to his Apostles before his Ascension, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them…and teaching them…” (NRSV, Matthew 28:19,20); “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (NRSV, Mark 16:15).

So “Thy Kingdom come” is also a prayer for the missionary work of the Church at home and overseas.  We can all help God’s Kingdom to come in our own country by talking with people about our Christian Faith and by encouraging them to come to church with us so that they can find out more for themselves.

It is also very important that we support the missionary work of the Church overseas.  We have the Faith today only because missionaries long ago loved Jesus so much that they wanted the people of this land to belong to him and his Church.  After the Roman soldiers were withdrawn from Britain in the year 401 AD, the country was overrun by wild barbarians, the Angles and the Saxons, and some 180 years later the Christian Faith was holding out only in the far corners.  You may have heard how Gregory the Great, the Bishop of Rome, saw some Northumbrian boys being sold there in the slave market.  Seeing their fair hair and blue eyes, he asked who they were.  “Angles”, was the answer.  “Not Angles”, said St Gregory, “but angels”.  And he made up his mind then and there that the Christian Faith must be brought to the people to whom these boys belonged.

St Augustine comes to England

So he sent a holy monk, called St Augustine, and with him 40 companions.  They landed in Kent on the Isle of Thanet, and there St Augustine met and preached to Ethelbert, King of Kent.  The king sat waiting under a great tree, and there came into sight the procession, singing a litany to a plainsong chant.  At the head a large silver Cross was carried, and next to it a picture of Christ Crucified painted on wood.  At the end of the procession came the immensely tall and impressive figure of St Augustine himself.  When they reached the king, the procession parted to the right and left, and St Augustine, standing in the middle between the Cross and the picture, told how “the compassionate Jesus had redeemed a world of sin by His own agony and opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all who would believe". (2) (3)

To the uttermost parts of the world

And now, from England, missionaries in their turn have gone out and established the Kingdom of Heaven in the uttermost parts of the world.  And so the work goes on and will go on until Our Lord comes again in glory and makes his Kingdom perfect.

SUMMARY

1. God’s Kingdom means God’s rule.  His Kingdom on earth is his Church over which he reigns.

2. This is a prayer that the Church may grow, that people may be drawn to become members of it.  It is also a prayer that all its members, including ourselves, may be loyal to God our King.

3. God’s Kingdom will be perfect when Jesus comes again in glory.

References

1. Muirhead, L.B.C.L. (1899) The Church of God a kingdom is.  Available from: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/t/t090.html  (Accessed 19 August 2010) (Internet).

2. New Advent (2009) St Augustine of Canterbury.  Available from: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02081a.htm  (Accessed 19 August 2010) (Internet).

3. Butler, A. (1936) ‘St Augustine, Bishop, Confessor, Apostle of the English’ in Butler, A. (edited by Kelly, B.) The lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and other principal Saints, Volume II, London: Virtue and Company Limited, p.548-556.