Bible Text:

"Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”                 (Matthew 6:10b)

This is the season of March Madness. Dozens of NCAA basketball teams compete to become members of the Sweet Sixteen, and then the Final Four. I don’t hold a torch for any particular team, but it is the only time I watch basketball all year long.

Sadly, there is another form of madness that has begun in March of this year—a human form of madness called war—where two groups try to destroy each other, both believing in their own cause. 

Into this particular March madness comes a text, a prayer. We have all prayed it hundreds of times, perhaps even thousands of times: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

How do I speak to you of this text today? What do I say? What kind of guidance shall I give? How do I speak without taking a political stance? How do I speak as a Christian who loves his country?

I was helped a bit this past week by a short quotation from retired Bishop William Boyd Grove. Some of you will remember that Bill Grove led this congregation from this pulpit for about 5 years in the late 1970s. Recently he was in Italy with a group that held an American Christian audience with the Pope. He reported that on the streets of Rome he was often asked the question, “Can war between the United States and Iraq be avoided?” He gave this answer each time; “My political hope is small. My gospel hope is large.”

I think that’s where I am today. I trust my gospel hope completely.

Twenty-five years ago Hans Kung wrote something that helps me as well. This is what he said: “The Christian message provides no detailed information as to… disarmament conferences and peace conversations. The gospel is neither a political theory nor a method of diplomacy.”[i] 

Hans Kung is right. There are no political or peace strategies in the gospel. So I say this morning with my friend Bill Grove, my political hope is small, but my gospel hope is large. 

What then is the gospel hope in the text for today? As the bombs explode, as the Iraqi people flee or cower, as many of us experience our own kind of fear at home? 

Last weekend I read to you from a sermon by Helmut Thielicke preached in the spring of 1944 in Stuttgart, Germany. You may recall that he preached a sermon on “Thy kingdom come” from the choir loft of his bombed-out church on that Sunday morning. 

By the following Sunday the church was completely destroyed. The text for that day was “Thy will be done.” Listen to part of what Thielicke says. 

This petition too is prayed before the dark backdrop of a world in which, notoriously, God’s will is not done. Or are we to think that it is God’s will that nations should exterminate one another, that churches and homes should sink into the dust? Are we to think that what we have experienced in our city and probably will have to go on experiencing is really God’s will—not only what we now see as ruins, but above all what we do not see: the sad nights of the homeless and the bereaved, the mortal struggles and panics in the pits and cellars deep beneath the earth, the scenes of terror that nobody ever hears about—is all this the will of God?[ii]  

What do I hear from Jesus in this teaching from his prayer? Jesus’ prayer brings a radical reorientation to traditional thinking. 

THE WILL OF GOD IS ALWAYS FOR GOOD 

For one thing, Jesus says the will of God is always for good. That may sound a bit strange and paradoxical today, but I believe it’s true. This is my deepest conviction and expectation. This is why my gospel hope is large. Even out of war, good can come. 

What possible good can come out of war with Iraq? Let me suggest some possibilities. We can learn something about sacrifice. We not only learn about military sacrifice, but we learn about sacrifice back home as well. We may have to give up some things to make this work for the long haul. This entire experience may teach us something important about the virtue of sacrifice. 

Good may also come from deepening our sense of compassion. Relief organizations are amassing huge stocks of food along the borders of Iraq. I can assume but do not know for sure that UMCOR is among those organizations. I know that we will be called to a deeper, broader compassion in the months ahead. 

Or good can come out of a combination of sacrifice and compassion. No one has really talked about the cost of rebuilding Iraq after the war has ended. Might this not call us to combined virtues of sacrifice and compassion? Might that not be God’s good at work in us? And will we not be a better, spiritually stronger people for it? 

I also think that good can come from deepening our prayer life. About 300 people gathered here this past Wednesday night for a time of prayer as the bombs began to fall. A new United Methodist-sponsored television commercial began this past Friday on CNN, on Fox News, on Headline News, and on MSNBC. It shows a roll of spinning duct tape. The voice over it says, “Two months ago it was just duct tape. And someday, hopefully soon, it will be just duct tape again. Along with the world, the people of the United Methodist Church are praying—for understanding, for healing, for peace. May God bless us all during this time.” Perhaps war will deepen our prayer life. 

God will work for good. This is the larger hope of the gospel. This is our outlook. As such, it provides a kind of radical reorientation. 

SURRENDER TO THE WILL OF GOD 

Jesus also says in this prayer that I must surrender myself to the will of God. This is the fundamental nature of the Christian journey. Life is a journey of surrender to God. Surrender comes not in resignation or capitulation, but in bold confidence.

 Someone reminded me this past week of the serenity prayer—the one used in 12-step groups, including AA. Part of the prayer we know very well; “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” But did you know there is much more to that prayer? Here are two lines from part of the rest of the prayer: “Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; trusting that God will make all things right if I surrender to His will.”

 Many of you know the name of Oswald Chambers. His most famous book, My Utmost for His Highest, is a book of devotions for each day of the year, published after his death. It has been one of the top sellers of religious books for nearly 70 years. One commentator says of the book, “No one can read this book without becoming a better servant of Jesus Christ.” We are told that President Bush reads this book every morning in his private devotions.

 Oswald Chambers was a Scotsman. Paradoxically, he died in World War I as a YMCA chaplain working in Egypt. The devotion for January 1^st—the first day of each new year—concludes in the contemporary version in this way: If a crossroads comes in your life on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.” 

That is radical reorientation, and it is not easy.

 I read a story about a plane that was about to leave the United States to fly to England. The plane was situated on the runway, preparing for takeoff. The pilot made his opening statement to the passengers on board. This is what he said: “This flight will take us to 35,000 feet. We will be flying at approximately 700 miles per hour. We will fly over parts of Canada, over the Atlantic, over Iceland and Greenland, over parts of Scotland, until we finally land in London. We will be in the air about 9 hours. We are just about ready to take off—just as soon as I get up my nerve.”

 We have to get up our nerve to surrender to the will of God. Perhaps that’s why pray the Lord’s Prayer so often. Week after week, day after day, we say, “Our Father, who art in heaven… thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It is a prayer of surrender to the good and perfect will of God.

 GOD’S WILL IS OUR PEACE

 One other thing Jesus may teach us in this prayer. These are words spoken by Dante in the Divine Comedy: “God’s will is our peace.” When we have the sense that we are in God’s will, we have peace.

 Are you looking for peace right now? I know that many of you are—looking for a peace that overcomes fear and uncertainty and doubt and anxiety. Many of you have told me that you are looking for peace for your children or your grandchildren. We look for internal peace in the presence of external threat. Jesus says that heaven and earth come together in perfect peace to those who seek the will of God. 

Listen one more time to Helmut Thielicke in that same sermon from which I quoted before. These are his final words on this text. 

And because we hear the songs of those who have become one with the will of the Father, we too begin to be comforted. The praise of the children of God in glory catches up our own pilgrim voices. It puts the bickering, complaining soul to rest and gives us, instead of gloomy resignation to our fate, a foretaste of the peace of God. 

So when we say and repeat the words, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” this is nothing else and nothing less than a first timid participation in the song of the heavenly host: praise to thee, O God, that we can bury everything—yes, everything—in thy will, our Father![iii] 

To become one with the will of God is to have a foretaste of the perfect peace of God. 

RADICAL REORIENTATION 

So what is all this radical reorientation? It is to invite the will of God into our lives. Yet we get so busy, so preoccupied, so caught up in CNN news, so caught up in the debates and the “what ifs” of war, that we forget to simply invite God’s will to dominate our lives. Jesus knew that. That’s why he taught us this prayer. 

Many years ago there was a program on television called “I’ve Got a Secret.” On the show, a number of guests would appear who had secrets, and the panel of experts would try to guess what their secret was. One night a man showed up who had a most unusual secret. Friends had gotten together to plan a birthday party for him. They went to great lengths. They set up committees for details. They had a committee for the decorations, a committee for refreshments, a committee for entertainment, even a committee for gifts. It was to be a great party. The night came and all was ready. The guests were present. All of a sudden they realized that they had forgotten to invite the guest of honor. The man on “I’ve Got a Secret” was the man they forgot to invite. 

Do not forget to invite the will of God into your life in these days. Remember that His will is our peace. Pray often and deeply, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Pray—as we shall sing in a moment—“Myself I give thee; let thy will be done.”[iv] 

This is a radical reorientation for life. But it’s the only way to go, and the only authentic way to live.”