Page 1 Text: Matthew 6.13b March 20th, 2016 St Stephen’s Weekend Message The Lord’s Prayer: Repose

All through the season of Lent we had been looking at the Lord’s Prayer. I hope it is been helpful to you; there is no prayer like this prayer known to the men and women of the world. It is a prayer for this holy week. I’ll come to that in a few minutes.

FD Bruner calls the Lord’s Prayer, ‘the Christian’s daily companion and Prayer Book’ (Matthew, Vol 1, p 256). The Lord’s Prayer is a faithful friend. That is what the Lord intended it to be.

With its help, we come to ‘our Father’ in prayer, day by day, the great God who is closer than the air you breathe, and we bow our heads and open our hearts to him, blessing and praising him and yielding to his great will for his world – and for us.

With its help, we ask him for what we need to live the life he has given to us. Daily food for our bodies and souls. Keep us forgiven – and forgiving. Lead us, guide us - keep us safe from ourselves and safe from the Devil.

It covers a lot of ground. Bruner comments (p.256) that “our ancient church parents audaciously believed that the world is held together by the prayers and the pray-ers of the Lord’s Prayer, and that the earth is upheld by the company of those who in good faith pray this prayer.”

I want to look at one more phrase in the prayer as we come to Palm Sunday today. It is the last phrase… For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen. Matt 6.13

You know the phrase, and we pray it often, but if you check a modern , it is not there. You will, if you look carefully, see a little footnote, ‘some ancient manuscripts add, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, Amen.” What that means is that when the Bible was put in Page 2 English for the first time, the KJV, the best manuscripts of the ancient text of the NT all had the phrase. But over the last 400 years, we have found even better manuscripts, and the best of them don’t have it, which is why it isn’t in the ESV or the NIV or most of the modern translations. But the jury is still out on this. It is very ancient, and some scholars still think, was taught by Jesus. So because it is so ancient, and because scholars are still a bit uncertain, and because we have prayed it like that for so long, we keep it in place in our prayer books. But there is one more reason to keep it in place. Prayers like this are found all through the Bible.

You will notice ‘For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory…’ is not exactly a petition. It is a statement of fact, a statement of our confidence, of our trust. Some ancient commentators call it a prayer of ‘repose’, of rest. After all our praises (looking deeply at God) and all our petitions (praying honestly for our needs), we look again at our Father and yield to him, happy to be in his kingdom, confident of his competence, of his care, hidden under the shadow of his great wings. If we have him, and if he has us, then “all shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well…” as Julian of Norwich heard it from the crucified and risen Lord. That is a prayer of repose. Or, you remember Bp Alf Stanway’s phrase at the end of his life as he suffered from Parkinson’s, “What God allows, I accept.” Another prayer of repose.

These prayers are found on the lips of prophets and priests and kings and apostles and martyrs. It is an all star list: Moses and David, and Paul and John - and normal people like you and me.

This is David near the end of his long life: Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. David in 1 Chron 29.11 Sound familiar?

This is Paul on the verge of his martyrdom: The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into Page 3 his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 2 Timothy 4:18

In the last book of the Bible, John writes of a day that is coming: I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” Every Creature in Heaven and Earth in Rev 5.11

I had the joy of being with Roy Faulkner twice in his last days last week. The first time he was awake and aware, and I had a long and tender conversation with him about his life and his Lord and about what lay ahead. We talked of wedding bells! The second time he was unconscious, and I had a long and tender conversation with Lisa. We told stories together in his room. Such thankfulness for Roy’s life and love! You know we will have a memorial service for Roy two weeks after Easter, on April 16th here. As Lisa and I prayed over Roy that day, I finished with the prayer of St Simeon, when the aged prophet had received infant Jesus in the Temple: Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Luke 2.29-32 It is a prayer of repose, one that we knew was true for Roy, for he, too, had laid his eyes upon the Savior, and he knew, we knew that all was well and he could go in peace. I hope to have that prayer on my own lips as I depart this world.

I want to introduce you to Allen Francis Gardiner… Page 4

He was an Anglican who died at the age of 57 in 1851. After his career in the British where he was an officer, he led pioneering missions first to South and then to the southern tip of South America known as . Patagonia is a long way from . When he sailed for Patagonia, he took 6 men and six months of supplies. The conditions were so harsh that the resupply boats could not make it, and one by one all six men perished from starvation. Gardiner was the last to die, and his journal was recovered by those who searched for them. These were the last words in his journal… “I am by his abounding grace kept in perfect peace, refreshed in a sense of my savior’s love and an assurance that all this is wisely and mercifully appointed.” It is another prayer of repose. Gardiner was convinced that though he had lost everything, he had lost nothing, and that he had gained far more. Three years after his death, his only son, Allen W Gardiner, went to Patagonia to re-establish and develop the mission his father had begun.

Why is the prayer of repose so central to the Bible and central to our lives – and central to the Lord’s Prayer itself? It is because the prayer doesn’t mean what you think it means. It means something very counter-intuitive. ‘For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory…’ would make you think that he has everything in control and everything will work out well and this will really be good. But no one thought it was going to be really good as Holy Week began to play out.

What I want to do for a few minutes is to keep our prayer of repose on our lips as we skim through what lies in front of us…

Thine is the Kingdom Page 5 Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ Matthew 21:5 As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday to the praises of the crowds, he did so on a donkey. Imagine one of our presidential candidates on a donkey! We might like the picture!!

But no ancient king and no conquering monarch - and no modern leader would come to a capital city that. But Jesus did. Later that week he would gird himself with a towel and wash his disciple’s feet. The ancient prophecy of the coming King said he would be humble. Humility and authority were never known to co-exist until Jesus put them together. It was counter-intuitive then. It still is, today. He intended to turn everything upside down – or rather, right-side up.

Behold your king…

Thine is the Power… “the whole multitude began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice.. saying, “Blessed is the King who comes!””

“but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!”” Luke 19:37; 23.21

As his last week unfolds, it begins with a surge of praise: “Blessed is the King who comes!”” But within a day, the opposition mounts – and then comes the betrayal, and then the arrest, the mock trials, the shouts: Crucify, crucify him!” - the beating, the scourging, the abandonment… it is shocking to everyone, everyone except Jesus, it seems. He alone is steady, he alone seems to expect it, be ready for it – with an unnerving determination he moves towards Friday.

He has come to save, not by taking power and climbing up, but by losing power and stepping down. Not by exalting himself, but by emptying himself. Not by keeping his life, but by giving his live away. He is a rock of strength, and he weeps over Jerusalem. Page 6 There is in Jesus this sovereignty – he seems to be in charge - and yet he submits, even to evil men. He is accused, and he answers not a single word…

Behold his power…

Thine is the Glory… One of the most startling facts of the death of Jesus is that it seemed as though he himself was the author of the plan. Though he died at the hands of men, every one of the writers of the Gospels attribute Jesus’ passing to an act of Christ himself... "He breathed his last...”, we are told. “He gave up his spirit", or in Jesus’ last words: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

It is his own prayer of repose. St Peter never forgot it, and years later he wrote, When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 1 Peter 2:23

‘If you are the Christ, come down”, they taunted. But he did not. Would not. They saw it as the measure of his shame and disgrace. But it was not – it was the measure of his glory.

You stand there and look at him long enough, and it begins to dawn on you that the centurion had it right. This man was innocent, really innocent. The Son of God, indeed.

And something is happening here. Something terrible. Something wonderful. Something he intended all along. He was bearing our shame, suffering our disgrace.

And there it is, the glory of God. A glory so strong it can heal the world. That is exactly what it is doing.

It is the determined, expensive, ‘no matter the cost’ love of God for you Page 7 and me. Behold, your God.

Be sure to stop and take a good look this week. Be sure to pray along the way… “for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen”