Friday 8th November 2024
Thy Kingdom Come, O God
In our current series of reflections, we are exploring what it might mean to talk about the “kingdom of God”. What might our world look like if God were fully in charge? How might it be different from the world as we currently experience it? What differences would we like to see?
Down the centuries, Christians have given many different answers to these questions. In yesterday’s reflections, I gave an answer provided by Revd Lewis Hensley, an English clergyman who lived back in the 19th Century. He expressed his answer in the form of a hymn, “Thy Kingdom come, O God”. Hensley’s hymn has caught the imagination of English Christians, and it is still sung today. I say “English” Christians because I do not know whether this hymn is sung by Christians in other countries and cultures. The interpretation of “the Kingdom of God” will inevitably reflect our own culture, assumptions and life experiences. This is one of the joys of Christianity: the Chrisitan faith is lived out in different ways, in different times and places. By habit, we talk about “Christianity” , but it would be more accurate to talk about “Christianities”.
Hensley expresses his vision of the Kingdom of God in both positive and negative terms: it is about the presence of certain things and the absence of others.
In positive terms, the Kingdom of God is about “peace, purity and love”. It is about a world permanently enlightened by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ (“Arise , O Morning Star, Arise, and never set”).
In negative terms, it is a world freed from “the tyrannies of sin”, where there is no “hatred” and “war shall be no more”. It is a world with no place for “lust, oppression” or “crime”. It is a world where God is respected, and the church is protected the “wolves” which seek to “devour Thy fold”. It is not clear what Hensley had in mind when he referred to the “wolves” seeking to “devour the flock”, but it is probably a reference to unworthy church leaders, who use their position in the church to further their own selfish interests. It is a world where love, and especially Christian love, is a reality, and where love glows with the transforming life of God’s Holy Spirit. Hensley contrasts this with a world in which there are “many deeds of shame” and “love grows cold”. It is also a world where the “thick darkness” which “broodeth” over “heathen lands afar” has been lifted through the light of Jesus Christ. As mentioned before, by the early 1950s, there were those who felt that “thick darkness” was to be found much nearer afield : it was not confined to “heathen lands afar”. Hence the opening lines of the final verse of Hensley’s hymn now read, “O’er lands both near and far thick darkness broodeth yet”.
I wonder what you think of Hensley’s vision of the Kingdom of God? Some of his ideas are fairly uncontroversial : for example, he sees the Kingdom of God as characterised by peace and real Christian love, and where no one oppresses anyone. However, some of Hensley’s ideas are quite challenging. I suspect they were challenging even back in 19th Century, let alone in our own culture. Hensley sees the Kingdom of God in terms of the reign of “purity”, where there no “deeds of shame”. He also imagines that in the Kingdom of God, there will be no crime. Hensley does not elaborate why there will be no crime in the Kingdom of God, but it is probably the result of the hope that in the Kingdom of God every human being will have a pure heart, and be filled with love and focussed on the well-being of others. It is a wonderful picture.
Hensley also considers that it is not possible to believe in the Kingdom of God without faith in Jesus Christ. For Hensley, the Kingdom of God is all about the coming of Jesus, and the rule of Jesus in our hearts and in our communities. Why is this focus on Jesus essential? For two reasons. Only the return of Jesus can make the Kingdom of God a reality: otherwise, it is no more than a pious pipedream. And secondly, the Kingdom of God has to start in our own hearts: we need to become men and women of peace, living lives of moral purity, our hearts full of love and care for others. In other words, the Kingdom of God starts with the transformation of our hearts and minds, and only Jesus can bring about this transformation.
I wonder if you would agree with Hensley’s take on the Kingdom of God? Can we still believe in the Kingdom of God in our 21st Century world? What might the Kingdom of God look like today? We shall explore this further in next week’s reflections.