Reflections on The Kingdom, by Sam Berg (Days 25 – 30)
Day 25 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom June 18, 2025
Matthew 6:7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name
In addition to caution us about praying in order to demonstrate our piety (v. 5f), Jesus cautions against “empty phrases.” The older version of this text uses the descriptive phrase,” vain repetition.” In some circles, special prayer language has developed that has become a norm for how one should pray. Often in public prayer, “God” or “Lord” is mentioned overly often. We have an idea that “fervent prayer” requires an intensification of our tone of voice. Some have recognized this problem and have offered many suggestions to alter our prayer language which I won’t take space to review here. The main effort has been to make it more like ordinary speech.
Rather, Jesus offers a corporate prayer for us to pray together. It is addressed to “Our Father.” This is more than “your Father and my Father.” He is the heavenly Father of the whole of us, the Father after whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named (Ephesians 3:15). Addressing him as Our Father underlines the communal nature of life in the kingdom, a theme that shines through in this Sermon.
I have no quibble with those who point our that Father is a patriarchal term and that God is above gender. I will listen to those who say that we should talk about Mother God. Male and female bear the image of God so there is something inadequate about the term Father. And I understand from my counselling work that there are some whose experiences with earthly fathers has made the word itself difficult. The selfgivingness of this Father, as demonstrated in Jesus, understands and accepts those with such stories.
I also appreciate those cultures, especially North American Indigenous ones, who pray to the Creator. This is a more generic and inclusive term and offers us a commonality that can provide a basis for community and communion. After all, we are taught to pray to OUR Father who is the Creator.
This name is to be “hallowed,” recognized as holy. We are invited to address this one with awe. And when we do, because this is the name given to the whole family, it reflects with awe on the family that bears this name. That inspires us to live up to the rights and responsibilities of life in the Kingdom.
Day 26 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom July 16
Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
This next line in the prayer that Jesus taught us reminds us of the overarching theme of the sermon and indeed of the entire gospel of Matthew. Jesus said, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near (Matthew 4:17).
The American David Mains (there was a Canadian David Mainse) defined the kingdom as being where Jesus is recognized as king and his will is obeyed. The kingdom understood in this way is not a future hope. It is rather prayer for a present reality. It is possible to live “in the kingdom” now as Jesus followers who live out the implications of the repentance towards the kingdom to which Jesus invites us. It is essentially a righteousness that recognizes the common humanity of the brother with whom we might be angry, the sister who might be objectified, and each of the other examples that Jesus cites as he explains the righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:21-48).
Day 27 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom July 27, 2025
Matthew 6:11 – Give us this day our daily bread.
At the end of 1993, I resigned my position as pastor of a church and decided to try my hand at private practice counselling. With that decision came the surrender of a reasonably secure regular monthly income. Now, at the end of each day, I would go to the ATM machine (radically new technology then) and deposit my daily earnings. I gained a visceral appreciation of what “daily bread” meant!
However, as I have reflected on Jesus’ teaching about life in the kingdom in this Sermon, I have come to see this prayer differently. Essentially, my prayer had been, “Give me this day my daily bread.” Jesus, I have come to see, intended this prayer as something much broader. This prayer for daily bread is part of the prayer Jesus taught his kingdom community to pray collectively, as part of the prayer we pray to “our Father,” not “my Father.”
So, what does it mean for us to pray for our daily bread? Then, “What responsibility do we as members of this kingdom community have towards the needs of daily bread for our community?” More, what responsibilities might we as a community have towards those of the communities in which we are to be salt and light who lack their daily bread? And as we see daily bread as a metaphor for all that is needed for living, how do we respond to the invitation to consider poverty in our communities and our world?
Commentators state that the words “this day” might be translated as “for tomorrow.” Thus, “Give us for tomorrow our daily bread.” This suggests not just daily subsistence but prayer for provision going forward. The current literature on poverty discusses the issue of food security. There are those who live in situations where they experience the anxiety that comes with having just enough for today and not being sure about tomorrow. The August issue of Maclean’s magazine’s cover story is about the “secretly poor” in Canada. Jesus’ manifesto in Luke 4 included preaching good news to the poor.
I submit that this prayer for our daily bread includes a prayer for tomorrow’s provision that calls our attention to this issue of poverty. This is part of what it means to live in the Kingdom.
Day 28 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom July 29, 2025
Matthew 6:12 – and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
A good friend has said that we should probably apologize to someone for something every day.
Forgiveness – both offering and receiving – is at the seams of the kingdom’s community relationships.
Often this requires a conversation about the offence to come to an understanding of what happened. And as often, agreement on what happened in its details will be elusive. Forgiving and being forgiven doesn’t depend so much on agreement of the details but the bi-directional understanding of the hurt that we experienced or caused and a willingness to go forward with the relationship.
Someone has said, “Let us strive not for more accurate understandings but for more compassionate misunderstandings.”
Day 29 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom July 29, 2025
Matthew 6:12 – and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
A good friend has said that we should probably apologize to someone for something every day.
Forgiveness – both offering and receiving – is at the seams of the kingdom’s community relationships.
Often this requires a conversation about the offence to come to an understanding of what happened. And as often, agreement on what happened in its details will be elusive. Forgiving and being forgiven doesn’t depend so much on agreement of the details but the bi-directional understanding of the hurt that we experienced or caused and a willingness to go forward with the relationship.
Someone has said, “Let us strive not for more accurate understandings but for more compassionate misunderstandings.”
Day 30 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom August 13, 2025
Matthew 6:13 – And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
According to Psalm 23, our Good Shepherd leads us to rest in green pastures beside still waters, and leads us in paths of righteousness, and even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, his rod and staff comfort us. I have found these words to be a source of great comfort and encouragement during my time of following our Good Shepherd Jesus.
This prayer to not be led into temptation but to be delivered from evil is a prayer for each of us, but it is also a prayer for all of us together, as we pray to “our” Father.
In two passages in John, we have Jesus’ teaching of where obedience lies. In John 13: 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
And then in John 17: 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
This is what Jesus said will convince the world of the truth of the gospel. It begins with our love for one another, and our oneness. This is the heart of life in the kingdom. It is this about our life together that enables us to be the salt and the light that Jesus said we are.
The great temptations are those that lead us away from being this presence in the world and culture in which we live.
[Further episodes are expected and will be posted as released.]