The ancients had a saying: “As above, so below”.
Christians say something similar: “On earth as it is in Heaven”.
Ours is a prayer.
Maybe it is also a lament.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we’re asking for things to be made right.
Jesus taught us to pray for enough, but not more than we need.
Jesus taught us to pray for the humility it takes to be forgiven and the grace it takes to forgive. With this he levels the playing field.
Jesus taught us to pray for deliverance from evil, for escape from prisons, for freedom from oppression, injustice, brokenness, disease…the list could go on.
In teaching us to pray, Jesus seems more concerned with setting the world aright than he does with making any individual richer, more powerful or better looking. In fact, he seems most concerned about justice; about the way the world ought to be—its systems, relations and institutions. He wants this world to be a lot more like it is in his Kingdom in Heaven.
Thy Kingdom Come. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in Heaven.
These words are a lament that things are not yet as they should be; a cry for justice from deep within the hearts of the People of God.
If this idea is so central to our faith, and fundamental to the teachings of Jesus, why have we, his followers, spent so much of the last two thousand years worrying about other things - mostly who is right and who is wrong in any number of moral dilemmas?
Can we not agree that in many ways the world is a mess?
Can we not also agree that the gospel has something to say about that mess?
This month, the Ethics Centre suggests that you might like to read a book called 'Everything Must Change'.  With our resources, we take our cue from church leaders, like the book’s author Brian McLaren, who suggest that the gospel has something to teach us about the root of the world’s deepest problems as well as a solution.   (Click here for the worship aid package.)
Righteousness is more than being right. Social Justice is more than a twenty-first century buzzword. Peace is possible. Let’s keep praying.  Thy Kingdom Come. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in Heaven.

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