For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory…
By: Karen Crutchfield
My name is Karen Crutchfield, a member of this church for 8 years. I grew up near Charlotte, in a small rural Methodist church. My parents were quite active church-goers, so we children tagged along (or were forced along) on Sundays and Wednesdays and many other days. The Lord’s Prayer was carefully taught, both by my parents and my teachers at the church. (And extra credit for learning the Apostle’s Creed as well.) I must have been quite young when I learned the Lord’s Prayer, because I remember being proud that I could recite it with the adults in the congregation.
“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.” This final phrase, or section, is not even in the oldest Biblical texts! It was probably added in the Byzantine period as a doxology to the Lord’s Prayer, but it is ubiquitous now. Both Roman Catholic and Protestants churches add some form of this doxology. It mirrors the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer (Kingdom, power, glory) and signals our love for God that words can only begin to express. Such power! Such glory! Words fail- but we praise God in a heartfelt way. We acknowledge God’s total agency in our lives, as a king would have over us. We bow to God’s unlimited power over us and all creation. We sense awe when we consider God’s glory. And we affirm all of these things with “So be it” or “Amen.”
As a child, I felt the Lord’s Prayer was a guide for me personally, asking God for all things necessary and living by God’s rules. As I grew and learned more about congregational life, I thought this prayer was something we could all agree on, even if we disagreed about other things. But not until I visited the Church of the Pater Noster (Latin for “Our Father”) did it hit me that the entire world prays this prayer. The cloister walls of this church in Jerusalem hold 140 ceramic plaques, in 140 languages, of this very prayer. And the church’s modern website translates this prayer into 1440 languages and dialects. What a connection with so many humans on Earth!
We humans share this world by God’s creative power and continuing grace, and we share it with so many different living things. God’s glory is, for me, evident in what I see and know of nature. God’s voice may be music, as some have said; but the visible wonder and beauty of our world shows us God in infinite and unknowable glory. When I buy thoughtfully, use sparingly, compost food scraps, reject plastic bags and straws, learn the rules of recycling, and put in a native flower garden, I am trying to love God’s creation in helpful ways. Taking care of this amazing creation, Earth, is a way of loving God and all living things. God’s power and glory are on full display in nature’s mystery and wonder, and we are given the opportunity of being good stewards, to care for God’s loving gift to us. Thanks be to God.
