Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Paul Sponheim.
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Rev. 4:11)
Revelation is a strange book, as we are beginning to learn. This week’s passage could seem strange, not just in form (here the four six-winged “living creatures” and the twenty-four elders) but also in content. Notice the third word in this key verse: “worthy”. In their singing the elders seem to be affirming God’s worth. Does that bring GOD down a step or two? Yet it is clearly God who is being assessed and addressed, for the figure on the throne “lives forever and ever”
(vv.9,10); that’s God territory, alright. Somehow Revelation seems to say that sizing up our God talk is a role we have been given.
So, let’s ask what makes God worthy of worship, the action in which mere mortals give God glory, honor and power? This almost sounds like the God the great process philosopher Charles Hartshorne describes as “the divine beneficiary”. And I have a second question: Are there gods on offer in the Patmos of the 21st century that are NOT worthy of worship? I think there are. At seminary, I tried to critique the concepts used to describe what I called THE ALL BIG TEN GOD. At the heart of this concept is the notion of unqualified omnipotence. The logic of omnipotence stipulates that in any situation God has all the power and it follows that we must have none. I’ve never been clear about how it is the case in this view that we can be blamed for our sins.
The elders sing out why they worship GOD: “ . . . for you created all things . . .” This God, truly worthy of worship, does not hog all power to Godself, but gives some measure of reality to the creatures. Is that not the meaning of love–that the beloved makes a difference for the Lover? It is in love that the God worthy of worship establishes a genuine relationship between the Creator and the creatures. There’s risk in that, but great worth in the promise of new life. God is the Creator of “all” things. So, there is an “all” here. Not the “all” of omnipotence, but the “all” of the reach of God’s love. In class I would say “if you don’t want God to love you, Good Luck!” Is there no judgment then? Yes, there is judgment as surely as there is creaturely responsibility. But in God’s amazing economy there is no judgment without love. That’s a God worth worshiping.
Is this too good to be true? More and more people seem to be saying it is. At least in reports of religious identification the percentage of the “nones” in American communities keeps rising. Churches are shrinking; some are closing. On Thursday we will consider what seems to follow for our life in the world from embracing this understanding of a God worth worshiping. The Creator is not only beginning and end (Rev. 21:6, 22:13), but also is deeply at work in the messy middle where we live. We can have hope.