Realised eschatology
In my world, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” doesn’t mean, “Dear Lord, please wind up this whole show as soon as possible, it’s too hard here.” Instead I think it means, “Dear Lord, please renew this place and these people, and make me an active agent of that renewal.”
7 responses to “Realised eschatology”
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we recently had a sermon on this petition and it was along the same lines.
well yes, except that when Jesus said it originally, it had a much sharper meaning. Not that the two meanings are incompatible, but you’ve generalised a specific point.
Aaron, have you considered what the intentions of St Matthew & St Luke were — that is — what did they want to happen to the hearers/readers of their words? What kind of (a) people did they intend to form?
Perhaps not as much as I should. Do you have suggestions?
But in return – isn’t it reasonable to suppose that they based their wishes on a clear view of what Jesus himself was on about? And that, I’m suggesting, is more obvious if we acknowledge Jesus’ original meaning for the phrase, “Thy kingdom come”.
For once, I think I’m with Aaron on this one.
Also, for some reason ‘Luke’ sounds so much better than ‘St Luke’.
Dr Luke?
whatever his name was, this Luke fella had more force behind him than that Luke kid in Star Wars.