From William C. Placher’s “Narratives of a Vulnerable God”
Can we be sure that a free God will not turn away from creatures and stop loving? Can we be sure that God will not be engulfed, overpowered by vulnerability? If God is with us in love today but perhaps not tomorrow or the next day, then God cannot be, in the words of the Scots Confession, the one “ whom only we must worship, and in whom alone we must put our trust.” It is therefore important that the God encountered in the biblical narratives remains trustworthy loving, even amid the risks of vulnerability.
“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)
There’s that promise that will have no end. It not only sits there, this promise brings life to those who are lifted up by the mere mention of God’s enduring word. People have stepped into a whole new way of life trusting that God keeps God’s promise and never fails. God’s promise to be the love that will sustain us invites us to trust and to love within our own lives. It is a word that calls forth acts of vulnerability with the assurance that God will never be far from us and therefore we will always be upheld and empowered.
Connection: It is not easy to trust something we cannot see. And yet, we are invited to live a new life today by a spoken promise. So…
By your Word of life we stand within this day, O God, trusting that you will be with us in all things and that your love for us will be our life forever and ever. Amen.
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