Wouldn’t it be loverly?

 

Matthew 6:10  NRSV

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  

Another day, another variation on doing God’s will.  

The Beloved Community, the community of humanity that comes about when all of that community is doing God’s will, featured large in sermons and speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Those words - the Beloved Community - invokes for me images of justice rolling down like water, of liberty from sin of all kinds for all persons but especially from the sins that cause people to oppress one another.  Greed, racism, lust for power, hatred, self centeredness . . . the Beloved Community will come about when we all love one another as we love ourselves and as God loves us, each and every human loved exactly as every other human is loved.  

Love and justice and mercy - these are inextricably linked in God’s world.  If the world was a just place, that is, a place where God’s love and God’s will ruled, all of those isms that divide us would not exist.  Social status and wealth would not be factors in the way people are treated.  People would certainly still disagree over stuff, but those disagreements would not result in wars.  No one would go hungry, or die of preventable disease, or languish in refugee camps. Commandments like do not let the sun set on your anger and love your enemies would be obeyed by everyone.  

It would be like heaven - which is exactly the point of this part of the prayer.  We are supposed to work toward following God’s will so well that the earth and all its inhabitants live as the inhabitants of heaven live.  Sadly, we are not even close.  But then again, we are not God, we are not perfect nor are we expected to be perfect.  We are only expected to do our best to live according to God’s will and God’s commandments.

I, for one, am grateful that I am not expected to be perfect.  For much too long I expected perfection from myself, and because I could never achieve perfection I thought of myself as a failure.  Learning that we are expected only to do our best is such a relief - that knowledge has allowed me to love myself better than I used to.  I’m still not really great at that, but it is better most days.  I still have fears to overcome, triggers that paralyze me, and sensitive issues that will cause pain or anger if poked, but I’m better than I used to be.  And for that, I give thanks to God.

Loving God, thank you for not expecting perfection from me.  Thank you for all the people and situations you have put in my life to help me heal and teach me how to love.  May I continue to do my best to love as you would have me do, so that your kingdom may indeed come.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.