Today’s author is Prince of Peace member Carol Swanson
…and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah 9:6b)
Maybe you are like me. When I hear or read Isaiah 9 and it gets to the part about a child born, a son given, my mind immediately goes to Handel’s Messiah, and I hear a full choir singing in my head. And His Name shall be call-ed Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (You may notice the different wording and punctuation used in the NRSV. Handel, of course, used his KJV.)
This fall’s process-relational theology discussion group has given me some new insights into the nature of God and reflected in Jesus as we read Marjorie Suchocki’s book, God, Christ, Church. Instead of emphasizing words used in traditional theology like omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent to describe God, Suchocki uses relational themes: trust, hope, and love. First Corinthians 13:13 comes to mind: And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (Suchocki uses “trust” instead of faith, I think, because faith can also mean belief, dogma.) These are relational themes, enhancing one another, and they can enrich our understanding of these titles in Isaiah 9:6.
Wonderful Counselor-
Our Advent theme is You’re Invited to Hope. And at the Sunday forum, Bob and Marilyn Reichman shared Stories of Hope. Bob began by reading Romans 8:24-25, 38-39. He also quoted George Bernard Shaw (and Robert Kennedy Sr): You see things and you say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were and I say, “Why not?” Bob then shared his process view of what the quote means. “I think it is the message of hope, the way God sees the world while encouraging the best possible outcome in each new moment.”
Marilyn, sharing from their personal experience of a crisis, gave us a clear snapshot of our Emotion Mind (What we feel is true), our Reasonable Mind (What we think is true), and that space that combines them together, our Wise Mind (What we know to be true) where the Holy Spirit can work in us, comfort us, guide us to “radically accept the situation….And if the worst happens, I know God will be with us to help us through it.”
We can trust that this Wonderful Counselor, God’s Wisdom. She (Yes, Wisdom is feminine in Hebrew: Sophia) will continue to offer us the best possibility in each new moment, according to our circumstances (past and present). Such trust can give us the hope to get through dark times.
Mighty God-
God is the Alpha and the Omega, omnipotent (all-powerful, almighty) at the beginning of creation and at the end of life. But in the middle, process theology says, God shares power with creation. We creatures are cocreators with God. From the beginning, God has had an overarching vision of a just world where all members of creation feel their kinship and are valued and loved by one another. From moment to moment, God creates the best possibilities that matches our circumstances and abilities to actualize this vision, yet we usually don’t follow God’s guidance well; it often feels hidden from us among the pressures and complexities of the world, or we choose to follow our own path. As a species, perhaps we have made some progress over the millennia, but now we ask ourselves if time is running out and the world is an unjust mess. What are we leaving our children, the next generations? Even so, God empowers us with hope in the darkest times. And as Micah 6:8 tells us, God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Time does run out for each of us. We live in God and we die in God (to paraphrase Romans 14:8). Thanks be to God. Remember that God is the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8). Suchocki shares the hope that beyond death and resurrection, God’s vision of justice, reconciliation and forgiveness is completed in God’s eternal Self where we all are made whole with one another and all creation. Interested? Read her amazing chapter 16, “The Reign in God.”
Everlasting Father-
The Hebrew word Hesed (sometimes spelled Chesed) is translated a few ways in English, including steadfast love, unfailing love, loyalty, kindness, mercy, and grace. The Hebrew word is used 248 times in the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament); about half appear in the book of Psalms. God’s Hesed speaks of God’s presence with us. And it is connected to the concept of covenant. God made several covenants in Scripture, binding promises to Noah, to Abraham and Sarah, the Hebrews of the Exodus, to David. Plus, the New Covenant given by Jesus.
There are times we feel isolated and lonely, but God will never let us go, never abandon us. God’s love is deeper and more complete than any of us can imagine. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, gives the best description of God’s enduring love. It sustains our hope and trust (faith) in God.
Prince of Peace-
It was believed that the Messiah, God’s anointed, would bring everlasting peace to the world. The hope was always that the next king of Israel would be that Messiah. None succeeded, including Jesus. There is still war, still much violence and hatred in the world. Yet we see Jesus as God’s Messiah, the Christ. Jesus is the one who reflects God’s never-failing nature and dream of love and justice in the world. His crucifixion by the world was not the end. God raised him, vindicated his life, death, and resurrection. May we continue to follow the way of Jesus and gladly hold up his title as Prince of Peace.