Above:  Cloud Over a Mountain 

Image in the Public Domain

Transcendence and Imminence

MAY 14 and 15, 2021

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The Collect:

Gracious and glorious God, you have chosen us as your own,

and by the powerful name of Christ you protect us from evil.

By your Spirit transform us and your beloved world,

that we may find joy in your Son, Jesus Christ,

our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with and

the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 35

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The Assigned Readings:

Exodus 24:15-18 (Friday)

Deuteronomy 34:1-7 (Saturday)

Psalm 47 (Both Days)

Revelation 1:9-18 (Friday)

John 16:4-11 (Saturday)

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God reigns over the nations;

God sits upon his holy throne.

The nobles of the peoples have gathered together

with the people of the God of Abraham.

The rulers of the earth belong to God,

and he is highly exalted.

–Psalm 47:8-10, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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Once I read a summary of the differences between The Book of Common Prayer (1928) and The Book of Common Prayer (1979) of The Episcopal Church.  The most basic difference, the author concluded, was theological, for God is transcendent in the 1928 Prayer Book yet imminent in the 1979 Prayer Book.  We read of both divine transcendence and imminence in the pericopes for these two days.

God is transcendent in Exodus 24 and Deuteronomy 34.  There Moses meets God in dramatic mountaintop settings.  In Exodus 24 there us even cloud cover to add to the mystery.  A sense of mystery remains in the symbolic language of Revelation 1:9-18, a report of a vision of the triumphant, cosmic Christ.  By then the crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension were in the past, as was the most famous Pentecost from the New Testament.

Jesus is present in John 16, where the Holy Spirit is imminent.  I like the spiritual reality of God being both present and imminent, as the Kingdom of God is both.  It has become a reality partially, with its fullness reserved for the future.  The unveiling of the Kingdom of God is incomplete, but we are far from bereft.  That theology works better for me than does that of a remote, transcendent deity whose holiness is fatal to mere mortals.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 20, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF SAINT DOMINIC OF SILOS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF SAINT PETER CANISIUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

THE FEAST OF KATHARINA VON BORA LUTHER, WIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/12/20/transcendence-and-imminence/

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