Kingdom Come

This is a devotion I wrote as a reflection on the Senior High WorkCamp to New Orleans. It is based on Matthew 6:5-15.

Reflection
At the end of July, twenty-five teenagers and nine adults traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild homes and churches for this community still struggling to recover from the hurricane and floods of three years ago. For many in the group, this was the first time they had visited New Orleans—before or after the storm—and it was an eye-opening experience.

While we labored at what we would call charitable work, we were also committed to thinking about the persistent issues of justice that Katrina revealed in New Orleans. We talked about the priorities of our nation and where helping the poor in New Orleans (and elsewhere) lands on this list.

We began our evening devotions on Monday with this Bible passage, one of the stories in which Jesus teaches his disciples what we call the Lord’s Prayer. We discussed that, in Jesus’ context of imperial Rome, this prayer was subversive in the sense that it seeks God’s rule on earth, an implied criticism of the empire and its ways of doing things.

For us, this prayer became a reminder that Jesus teaches us to seek the priorities and values of the kingdom of God, not the priorities and values of the powers that be. In this way, this familiar prayer became a call to seek justice and live our lives through God’s radical love.

Prayer
God of justice, help me to hear your call and live out your will through love for others. May it truly become on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.