Dear Friends,
I was recently challenged with the following question: "When you do Communion, why do you say, 'Almighty God,' instead of 'Father Almighty'? (see The Great Thanksgiving, e.g., hymnal pp. 9 and 13). The person asked, "Do you not think that God is our Father?"
I assume if one person has a question others probably have the same question, so I explain it here as I did then.
Yes, I believe God is our Father, just as I always say, in unison with you, in our Lord's Prayer. Sometimes, I choose that phrase in our Communion Service also.
However, I am always looking for ways to express my belief that God is much bigger than any term we have used over the ages or still use today. God cannot be contained in one name, so the biggest name we can think of is still too small for our Great God. The Hebrews had many names for God (Yahweh, YHWH, I-Will-Become-Whatsoever-I-Please, I Am Who I Am, Lord, the Rock, Mighty One, Holy One, Wind ...). The prophet Isaiah uses powerful images referring to the Messiah as "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). Every name we use for God is a name that limits God through our human eyes and personal experiences.
Jesus too was called by many names in the New Testament: Christ, Messiah, King of the Jews, Rabbi, Apostle, Lamb of God, Son of God, Savior, Mediator, Shepherd, Light of the world, Son of Man, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Bread of Life, on and on, nearly 100 names for Jesus. When we use any one name -- as powerful and strong as it might be -- we limit who Jesus is in his fullness.
Each of these names has a meaning that helps us understand who God is and what God is all about in our lives. So long as we know that God is so much more than any human form of utterance, we can use wonderfully powerful names for God.
Even now, we are thinking of God in a special and particular way ... how he came to earth as one of us, fully human, as he is fully divine. To give us a complete vision of how much he loves you and me, he was born to a carpenter and a young woman, in the midst of poverty, in the grimmest of places and conditions, to identify with the least and the lost among us. To show us whom we should be most concerned about.
This month we prepare for God the Baby. Yes, God revealed himself even as a newborn baby, naked and crying, just like each of us -- you and me -- came into this world. When we see the baby Jesus, we get all sentimental and nostalgic, feeling the same love and tenderness we have for every beautiful, helpless newborn.
We need to be reminded that God knows our pain, suffers our grief, understands our hurts, agonizes over our rejections, is with us in the deepest trials of life.
As we see the babe in the manger, we see more than the never-ending empty belly and messy diaper. We see hope and promise. We see in that newborn infant the future of God's people. We see in that gurgling, babbling child all the hopes and dreams that we never realized and will never fulfill. Emmanuel ... God with us.
May the Baby, too, remind us of how truly BIG our God is! Yes, he is Father, and, yes, he is infant Son, and yes, he is Almighty God! May this always-surprising God bless you now with peace in this season of hope and joy!
Pastor Ron |
Howland United Methodist Church