“Peace has in it confidence in the Lord: that He directs all things, provides all things, and that He leads to a good end.” - Arcana Caelestia §8455
Kempton New Church

Week 2
Day 3

    Listen:

The Lord’s Prayer

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon the earth. —Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2

Praying That His Kingdom May Come

And the spirit and the bride say, Come; and let him who hears say, Come; and let him who thirsts come; and he who wills, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17

AR 955. And the spirit and the bride say, Come, signifies that heaven and the church desire the Lord’s coming. By “the spirit” is signified heaven, by “the bride” the church, and by “saying, Come” is signified to desire the Lord’s coming.... By the church, which is here called “the Bride,” is not meant the church consisting of those who are in falsities of faith, but the church consisting of those who are in truths of faith, for these desire light, consequently the Lord’s coming....

AR 956. And let him who hears say, Come; and let him who thirsts come, and he who wills, let him take the water of life freely, signifies that he who knows anything of the Lord’s coming, and of the New Heaven and New Church, thus of the Lord’s kingdom, should pray that it may come; and that he who desires truths, should pray that the Lord may come with light; and that he who loves truths will then receive them from the Lord without his own work.

By “let him who hears say, Come,” is signified he who hears and thence knows anything of the Lord’s coming, and of the New Heaven and the New Church, thus of the Lord’s kingdom, let him pray that it may come.

By “him who thirsts, let him say, Come” is signified he who desires the Lord’s kingdom, and, at the same time, truths, let him pray that the Lord may come with light.

By “him who wills let him take of the water of life freely,” is signified that he who from love is willing to learn truths and appropriate them to himself, will receive them from the Lord without any work of his own. By “willing” is signified to love, because that which a man wills from his heart he loves, and that which he loves the same he wills from the heart. By “the water of life” is signified Divine truths through the Word from the Lord (n. 932); and by “freely” is signified without his own work.

The things in this verse have the same signification as these in the Lord’s Prayer:

Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also upon the earth (Matt. 6:10; n. 839).

The Lord’s “kingdom” is the church which makes one with heaven. Therefore it is now said, “Let him who hears, say, Come, and let him who thirsts come.”

AE 1217 ...The signification of “the Lord God, the Almighty, reigns” is that His kingdom is on the earth as in the heavens, which means that when the good have been separated from the evil, and the evil have been cast into hell, all the good came into a better state for receiving truth and good from the Lord, a state in which they had not been before. For as long as they were held in connection with the evil, if they had received goods and truths, they would have defiled and perverted them. For the same reason interior truths were not revealed on the earth until that separation had been effected by means of the Last Judgment.

AE 1217:2. This, too, is the meaning of the words in the Lord’s Prayer:

Thy kingdom come on earth as in the heavens (Matt. 6:10). The Lord’s kingdom existed before the Last Judgment, for the Lord always rules both heaven and earth. But after the Last Judgment, the state of the Lord’s kingdom became different from the state before it, for after it the reception of Divine truth and good became more universal, more interior, more easy, and more distinct. It is said, “the Lord God, the Almighty,” for the Lord is called “Lord” from good, and “God” from truth, and “Almighty” from the separation of the good from the evil by the Last Judgment, and also from His power to save those who receive Him.

Questions and Comments
  1. In the readings for the first day, we read in TCR 112, “the reason why this Prayer was commanded for the present time is evident, namely, that through His Human an approach may be had to God the Father.” In what other ways is the Lord’s Prayer specifically about the New Church? Remember that the Lord gave this prayer while He was in the world, and they were still wondering when His kingdom would come, as we can see from the words from Luke 17 in yesterday’s reading.
  2. Yesterday’s questions ended, What are we truly praying for when we pray for the Lord’s kingdom to come? From today’s reading, what further ideas come to mind?
  3. In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2) the New Church was described as a stone cut out without hands that became a great rock and filled the whole earth. Given what we read in today’s reading, what idea should we have in our mind when we pray that the Lord’s kingdom will come, remembering that the earth represents the Lord’s church, or His kingdom on earth, and the stone and rock His Divine truth?
  4. Since the Lord has made His Second Coming and revealed His Divine Truth, in what sense has the Lord’s kingdom already come? Yet this prayer is especially for the New Church, so in what ways are we praying for His kingdom to come?
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