From the Lord's Prayer:
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.
God's dominion is not a democracy. It is not a constitutional republic. It is a Kingdom. There is one who rules and His rule is absolute. You and I don't get a vote.
If God's rule is absolute, then that means nothing and no one else in the universe can assume absolute dominion over us. We cannot be totally dependent on anything or anybody except God. No addiction to any substance or sensation, no allegiance to any flag, no loyalty to any political figure, no love of anything or anyone else can ever override our love of, our need for, our allegiance and loyalty to the King of Heaven and the King of our lives. Any country or politician worth their salt will freely admit this.
Now it's true, you and I don't get a vote. But the point of a vote in a representative republic like the one in which I and my fellow-citizens reside is to consent to the government of those whom we wish to empower, in hopes that their political work will help our freedom and happiness, or at least not encroach on either.
But God is a benevolent King, not a tyrant. He does not force His royal will upon us his subjects. His people are a free people. He has always desired them, since He first created them, to be free. Free from the devil's manipulation, free from slavery to Egypt, free even from slavery to their own passions. Thus He invites us to freely submit ourselves to His absolute rule. This portion of the Our Father is a direct response to that invitation.
Although we are free to refuse to submit to God's will, there is in a sense no escaping it. We may refuse to live according to His desires, but we may not refuse to live according to His desires and still be happy. The consequences of defying God are nonnegotiable and inevitable. That's what it means not to have a vote. Either we will freely subject ourselves to His rule and, by letting go of our desires for selfish and self-centered autonomy, and thereby come to know true freedom and happiness; or we will flee from Him and find that we have become slaves to powers and passions not only beneath Him, but beneath ourselves. When you're addicted, when you're a slave to your bottom line or your political interests, or whatever else, you still don't get a vote. In the end, you get nothing.
Where is the Kingdom of God? It is easy and understandable, given that imagery, to picture God's Kingdom as some geographic place where everything is beautiful and there is no injustice at all. And we may strive for that in our own geographic place.
But the Kingdom of God does not begin by works that we do. It begins by the work of grace from one who is greater than us. God's Kingdom has to consume us, and take root in our very hearts. Our works for justice flow from that.
That work of grace from God is what sustains and strengthens us to work to build the Kingdom. The work of grace is what is called in the prayer, "our daily bread." That's tomorrow.
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