This is our final week for our sermon series following The Lord’s Prayer. This final week, we conclude with a section generally included by most Protestants that is commonly known as a doxology: for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
What does forever mean? Generally, I don’t think we understand the passage of time very well. I read an admittedly dark article online the other day that said in part that we will spend more time not alive than we will spend alive. While we may argue that this statement lacks theological influence, we must acknowledge that our current consciousness is impermanent, that our current consciousness is but a blip in time compared to God’s consciousness.
Consider the math of the average 80-year life-span compared to the 4.54 billion years that the Earth has existed, or the 13.8 billion years that the universe has existed. Can we possibly understand what “forever” means?
Matthew 6:9-13 (NRSV)
9 “Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.
1 Chronicles 29:11 (CEB)
To you, Lord, belong greatness and power,
honor, splendor, and majesty,
because everything in heaven and on earth belongs to you.
Yours, Lord, is the kingship,
and you are honored as head of all.
Consider these questions:
- How do you think of “old?” Is there a place that you’ve been that strikes you as old? How old is that culture/community? Is there a historical time that you think of as “old?” How long ago is that time? How does that compare to the age of the Earth or the universe?
- What does “forever” mean to you? How long is it? Can you comprehend it? If so, how? If not, why do you think that is?
- Where is God in “forever?” When is God in “forever?”