On End Times and Verbs for God

As we come to the end of the church year our thoughts turn to the end of time. Why? Because the natural cycle of things demands that we do. All created things have an end.

And so, now, as our thoughts turn to the end time, so do our verbs for God. Specifically, we make the decision as to whether God at the end times is Savior or Destroyer. Is God the willing participant in the end of times, or the saving grace found when time ends.

I choose the latter.

I choose the latter in the face of those who pray for the end. I choose the latter in the face of those who claim the "reckoning" to be coming, who claim the destruction of the world is God's plan.

"Fools," I say. "Have you not seen? Have you not heard? Remember the angels, the first time God came. Not with cries or shouts of death, but with the cries of a baby, the cry of life."

But, its not always easy to call God Savior. It's not always easy to see life in this world.

Walter Brueggemann speaks to this in his prayer "You are known in hiddenness." It reads:

God hidden from us in your myriad verbs,
we confess you where we do not see you:
in healings,
in emancipations,
in feedings,
in forgiveness,
in many ways of newness.
We do not see you, but we dare to name you
by our best names-
we name you father and mother,
we make you lord and saviour,
we praise you giver and lover.
In our daring naming of you and in our very glimpsing,
we know you are beyond us
unutterable,
hidden,
refusing all our manufactured labels.
You are known in hiddenness,
powerful in suffering,
whole in woundedness
and we are yours...all of us...gladly. Amen.

See you in church,
VT...