I have been thinking a lot lately about the doxology with which the Lord's Prayer ends in Protestant traditions. "...for thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." Coming at the end of the Lord's Prayer, this affirmation seems awkwardly out of place in our world and time--a world and time in which leaders make claims of absolute authority, of unlimited power, and endlessly seek their own glory. It seems as though we live in a world in which Christianity and the Bible have become weaponized against oppressed people. Yet this doxology stands as a reminder that as Christians we cannot substitute the rule or claims to power of anyone for the kingdom, power and glory of God. Neither can we recklessly be silent when leaders usurp what belongs to God alone.
The doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer confesses that "yours (that is, God's) is the kingdom, the power and the glory. It disputes all human claims to making kingdoms, to idolatrous exercises of power and to ruthless quests for glory. It sets God's kingdom, power and glory over against all attempts to claim autonomy from the sovereign rule of God.
The Bible records a long history of human rulers who claimed absolute power, yet who quickly passed from the scene. One of the most striking examples is found in Isaiah 14. In this taunt, the dreaded king of Babylon who claimed to hold absolute power in his hands is brought low...so low, in fact, that when he enters Sheol--the place of the dead--the other dead shades clamor at the sight of the mighty king of Babylon descending into the place of the dead. "You, too, have become like one of us!" they taunt. All of the claims of sovereignty, power and glory of the mighty king of Babylon melted away in the face of his mortality.
At the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, when the wise men brought to Herod word of the birth of a new king of the Jews, Herod exerted his authority--laid his claim to sovereignty--by killing the innocents in Bethlehem. But he, too, passed from the scene...and the infant Jesus was delivered from the tyrannical violence of one who sought after his own kingdom, power and glory.
The book of Revelation was written against the backdrop of Roman claims to kingdom, power and glory. But as John envisioned it, such claims would not survive. What he knew--in spite of all the evidence to the contrary--is that such claims will not stand.
Human claims to the kingdom, power and glory almost always end with the use of violence to enforce their governance--with tear gas, truncheons and rubber bullets. Too often this is done with a Bible in hand. But the Lord's Prayer teaches us that such claims are fraudulent--even farcical. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong only to God.
Let us not be fooled into thinking that law and order are a product of such false claims. Let us not think that justice is established by riot police—or by political leaders standing in front of sacred spaces with a Bible in hand. This is not Christian; it is demonic and it’s time to name it as such. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. Amen.”