Finally, I would like to look at the third piece of the Doxology which is recited many times daily at Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery where I visited recently. The Doxology begins by praising the God Who is, Who was, and Who is to come.” In some ways this God Who is to come is the most difficult to describe.
Clearly, the language is future tense. The verb indicates the not-yet quality of
this aspect of God. (I am assuming there
are not three gods being affirmed in the Doxology!). It is the one true God who
is the God who worked in the past (tradition), who works in the present time,
and the same God who will be at work in the unfolding of future time. The good news is this God Whom we knew
yesterday and today will be the same God Whom we will know in the future time.
I have no doubt, the popular understanding of this God Who
is to come is that God Who will inaugurate the future judgment. For many people this is probably the era of
the Apocalypse. In addition to the
judgment, there will be the wailing and gnashing of teeth. In this scenario one certainly hopes to be on
the right side. Typically the story
goes, the earth will be finished and the Kingdom will come for some. And for the other, unlucky ones, well….
I do not dismiss out of hand this popular view. It may be correct. There is biblical evidence that can be read
to support this viewpoint. And certainly
the God Who was often is portrayed as judging the people. So it might be true.
However, I want to suggest an alternative view of the God
Who is to come. I believe we have hints
of how this aspect of God will work if we pay attention to how that God worked
in the past. One of the most important
characteristics of our Divinity is the creative. Genesis begins with the account of
creation. It seems to be God’s very
nature is to be creative. That is why
you and I are here. God wanted us and,
therefore, brought us into being.
Love is as good a reason I know to account for why God
wanted us. God needed some lovers! And look at what God got: you, me, and a
bunch of others. But it did not go too
well. We turned out too often to be lousy
lovers. We became too self-focused. We did not always honor our gift of life, our
blessing of free will, and our need to be careful.
So the creative God---the God Who is to come---still is
present in creative ways to bring us back into relationship. And it seems clear to me that God is going to
continue to be Lover and not Boss. This
is the cue to understanding the God Who is to come. That God will be found in desire, not
despotism. That God wants us and will
not whop us! I do not think the God Who
is to come will come apocalyptically. I
am convinced love is the key.
The God Who is to come will love us into new being just as
much as we were loved into being in the first place. It will be a slow and, sometimes, painful
work. It will be slow for God and it
seems slow to me. I am convinced this is
the only way the kingdom can come. The
God Who comes will be appreciated as Host and not Henchman. The gift is life. One needs life to love. That’s the kingdom secret.
The job of all of us who want to work with the God Who is
willingly sign up for some hosting of our own.
As harbingers of the kingdom, we seek ways to bring life into
death-dealing places and situations. If
we are alert, we can see these all around us.
We will seek ways to inject love into places which become seeds of hope.
Hope is the currency of the God Who is to come. Hope is how we participate in tomorrow
today. I am ready lovingly to do my part
to plant seeds of hope…hope grounded in the God Who is to come.
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