When God Speaks
The NFL playoffs begin this coming weekend, and being an avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I am pleased that I still get to cheer for my team for at least one more week. It came down to the wire, but the Steelers did in fact make the playoffs despite some seriously disappointing and doubtful weeks in the middle of the season. But now, as they say about the playoffs, it’s a whole new season. It doesn’t matter what your regular season record was…it doesn’t matter that you blew three games in a row to some of the worst teams in the league this year. Everyone is back to 0-0, and you’ve got to win to stay in. So, naturally, I have been consuming inordinate amounts of Athletic articles on the Steelers’ chances. Why they are a tough team no one should want to play right now, why we fans should be worried because of injuries, why they could go on a run, and why they could lose their first game. Everyone trying to predict the future, reading the tea leaves to try to figure out what might happen. This is the life of a fan.
And it’s just a microcosm of the general human experience – trying to predict what is coming…what will the future bring? For as long as people have depended on the land to provide them with food, we have tried our hands at being fortune tellers. Will there be a drought this year? When will the rains come? Will there be a frost? Etc., etc. The same can be said for hunters who paid attention to the seasons so that they would know when animal herds, or flocks of birds would be on the move. We learn a bit about what the seasons generally do in our area trying to anticipate what is coming next year. And not unlike your favorite sports team in the playoffs, our survival depended on it. Yes, I know connecting football to our existential survival is ridiculous, and at the same time, it makes my point…AND helps you all to see the light of becoming a Steelers fan, so win, win.
This same survival instinct of trying to anticipate what’s coming kicks in with every new year. What is 2024 going to bring? A mild winter? A harsh winter? A dry summer? A wet one? Prosperity or hardship? Another new war? More of the same wars dragging on? A new leader? The same leader? Economic expansion? Economic contraction? New optimism? Increased pessimism? Like Genesis 1, 2024 is without form and void. We don’t know what to expect. We can’t see past today even though we constantly try.
I bet you all the money I have (which isn’t much, but it’s something) that when you look back on 2023 there were a bunch of things that happened that you had no idea were coming. I’m not even talking about the geo-politics, socio-economics, or anything else on a global scale. I mean to you personally…in your everyday life. That’s true for every single human being on this planet. Every single one of us lives an unpredictable life. The only thing you can really count on living on this earth is change. Some of us may find that exciting. We may channel our inner Forrest Gump and look at life “like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” Or I think Bilbo Baggins probably captured the mix of excitement and fear more accurately when he told Frodo, “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to” (Lord of the Rings).
Life is certainly an adventure, but for many of us who have lived long enough we know it’s not always a pleasant adventure. The surprising changes are not always good. Instead of biting into a chocolate and being pleasantly surprised with a delicious caramel filling, we might be horrified to find that it’s a cherry filling and want to spit it out and grab a quick drink of water to rinse out the awfulness that almost claimed our lives. We would have never chosen that chocolate if we knew. (I hate cherries, as I’m sure you guessed). Insert your own fillings to make the metaphor work. The original naïve optimism of our youth has been transformed into realism by the surprising traumas, disappointments, and losses we’ve known. So, what do we have to hold onto in face of all of this uncertainty in this new year?
As Genesis tells us, the formless void is not all that there is…the Spirit of God is there “hovering over the face of the waters.” As you may know, the sea in ancient times was a symbol for chaos. We understand this living here on an island. The ocean is something that cannot be tamed. We cannot control it. One minute it can be calm and inviting, a source of fun and enjoyment, but the next minute a storm can blow in and the sea turns into a powerful destructive force, one that we cannot stop or contain. The unpredictability of our lives. And yet, God was over the waters. He was in a position of power and control, literally over the waters. And what does he do? He speaks, and it happens. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (1:3).
Genesis introduces us to God, the true God, the God of necessity. Whatever he says is. There is no possibility when he speaks, no potential, as if there were a chance that his word may not come about. No. His Word is definite. His Word is alive, living, and active. He creates and defines reality by speaking it into being. To know such a God of pure power is a fearsome thing, a terrifying prospect for a little speck in the universe like me. In his The Bondage of the Will Martin Luther referred to God in his raw majesty as the unpreached or hidden God. Systematic Theology Professor, Amy Marga, wrote,
“The God not preached is God in eternity, God the absolute, the immortal, the omnipresent and omniscient One. This God is the governor of the universe, the judge and upholder of the Law, who sees that all things come to pass. The God not preached is the ‘naked God in his majesty.’”
She goes on:
“We want nothing to do with this God, for this God is a God of wrath, a God who cannot stand sinners being in God’s holy presence. The God not preached is hidden from us because God is impenetrable. Human minds cannot peer into the being or intentions of this God.”[i]
We don’t know what he will do or what he is about in his naked majesty. And the amazing thing is that God doesn’t want us to know him in that way. He doesn’t want us to try to figure him out purely through the speculation of observing nature and the universe. Rather, God wants us to know him preached, revealed…spoken to us in his Word, clothed in his Word. This is why he moved on his people through the power of his Holy Spirit to write things down in the Scriptures.
When we hear what God speaks, or more accurately, Who God speaks, something new is created in us: hope and faith. John tells us that Jesus Christ is God’s Word incarnate (John 1). He is the one through whom God created all things (John 1 and Colossians 1). In Christ God says to us, “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36, John 20:19). It’s the same in Genesis 1. He hovers over the waters and uses his power and authority to bring order out of the chaos. He creates everything out of the nothingness. He speaks light into the darkness: Jesus. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5). It’s the very first thing the Bible tells us about God…and it’s so reassuring to a race of would-be fortune-tellers.
It means that no matter what kind of surprises 2024 may have in store for us…big, small, good or bad…we have the Word of God spoken over us, spoken to us. “Peace…peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27). Jesus calms our anxiety about the future. Just as he did at the very beginning, he fills the formless void of tomorrow with his words of life and love for you. He brings order to the chaos. He brings light to the darkness. He says to you, “You are my brothers and sisters” (Mark 3:34-35). “You are my friend” (John 15:15). “You live in my grace” (Rom. 6:14). “You are safe in me” (Psalm 3:4-6). “I have hidden you in me. Nothing can take you from me” (Col. 3:3, John 10:28-30). “No matter what happens this year, I promise you I will use it for your good” (Romans 8:28-30). And so, so many more.
You can take hope in his words spoken over you today and every day ahead because what he says is. Amen.
[i] Amy Marga, https://www.workingpreacher.org/theology-and-interpretation/the-hiddenness-of-the-preached-god
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