My Theology
“Your kingdom come; Your will be done
On earth as in heaven.”
(All Translations from the New Zealand Prayer Book).
The kingdom of God is coming, but the kingdoms of earth are not subject to God. We would not pray for what we already have. We pray for God’s kingdom because that perfection exists only with “God” or “Lord’ or “Mother/ Father.” Where is heaven ? I surely don’t know. But we are praying for its coming. It is not already here.
C. S. Lewis, in his trilogy that begins with Out of the Silent Planet, imagines that Earth is a singular planet in the Solar System that is separated from God. Lewis would be the first to call the trilogy fiction, not theology, but his ideas are intriguing experiments in understanding a good Creation fallen and violence threatening to destroy it.
The idea of Earth being a singular “silent” planet develops from the imagined planet being disconnected from the rest of the planetary beings. It is “silent” (called “Thulcandra”) because God has been rejected in favor of a secular civilization. The voice of Earth no longer communicates with the other planetary presiding spirits.
This is a crude theology that tries to account for a good Creation in the midst of conflict and violence, a concern that humanity is on a path to destroy itself. I am optimistic about the wonders of science, art, and nature, but not about the ruling powers that threaten to conscript them. I think this would have been Lewis’ view of the predicament of Western civilization.
“Romanticism,” at least the Wordsworthian version, seems more optimistic of the perfectability of humankind. The unspoiled world of Nature will rule over the spoiled civilization so that humankind’s best impulses will eventually rule. Romanticism is optimistic, at least in the present age. Romanticism does not believe we are a fallen world that God must rescue.
“Our Father in heaven
hallowed be your name.
The prayer is addressed to a male figure, but I assume that God is not gendered, because it would be a limitation of God’s identity. We worship God when we say “hallowed.”
“Your kingdom come; Your will be done
On earth as in heaven.”
The prayer expresses a hope, but not a confidence, that God will control our destiny. The primary distinction comes from “on earth as in heaven.” We pray for the reign of God, but it is not yet fulfilled.
” Give us today our daily bread”
Some of us are not in need of tangible bread, but we recall that Jesus said “I am the Bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry”(John 6:35). That bread we all need.
“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
To me, this is the core of the Good News: we are forgiven our shortcomings, but that entails forgiving our neighbor. I don’t think of this as conditional. God forgives us regardless of what we do. But receiving the “Bread of Life” could entail forgiving, because God forgives those who offend us.
“Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.”
I find this line comforting. To me it says that God may spare us from attack, temptation, bad judgment, and the consequences. Most likely, God will allow what is necessary for our deliverance from evil, not immunity from necessary trials.
“For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,
now and forever.”
The conclusion tells me that power and glory belong to God, and that is how God plans to finish the story of earth. The kingdom is coming.
I find this prayer more dependent and responsive to the choices of humans, than the ideals of Romanticism. Both Romanticism and Christianity celebrate the freedom of humans to act responsibly, but only Christianity connects that freedom to the consequences of human failure. Christians rely on their hope for the kingdom of God and their actions in the quest of the kingdom . Forgiveness is necessary for this kingdom to come–both God’s and God’s creatures. But come it will.
We stand halfway between the kingdom coming and the kingdom come. We believe that God will assume “the power and the glory forever.”
This tension between the kingdom and the kingdom coming defines Christianity’s expectations and its distinction from Romanticism.