The Alpha and the Omega

Sermon by Andrew Greenwood

Providence-Fort Washington United Methodist Church
Genesis 1:1-27; Revelation 1:4b-8
Christ the King Sunday – November 22, 2009

“The Alpha and the Omega.” According to today’s scripture from

Revelation, God is “the Alpha and the Omega.” Now, I was never in a
fraternity, and I haven’t studied Greek in any of my seminary courses, but
I’ve learned over the years that “alpha” is the first letter of the Greek
alphabet, and “omega” is the last. So God is the first and the last, the
beginning and the end. God is the one who created all things, and God will
be there when all creation passes away.
But “the Alpha and the Omega,” the beginning and the end, means
so much more than that. When the author of Revelation writes that God is
“the Alpha and the Omega,” he is using a literary tool called “hendiadys.”
Hendiadys is the joining together of two terms to express a single concept.
God is not just the beginning and the end; God is the beginning, the end, and
everything in between. To put it simply, God is eternal.
God was there at the beginning of creation, and God will be there at
the end. But God was also there to make a covenant with Abraham. God was
there to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God was there in Jesus Christ, God
Incarnate; in his life, death, and resurrection. God was there when each and
every one of us was born. And God is here today. God is past, present, and
future.
My question today, on Christ the King Sunday, is, “What do we
know about the God of the past (the God who created the world, made the
covenant with Abraham, and came to earth as Jesus Christ), and what does
that tell us about the God of the present and future?” To discover the God of
the past, I believe it is appropriate to start at the beginning. In today’s
scripture lesson from Genesis, we learn that God created all things out of a
formless void. The first thing this shows is that God is a creator who makes
order out of chaos. God stepped into a black hole of emptiness, and saw fit
to create a universe of order.
The six days of creation show this order very clearly. There is a
pattern in the six days, in which there are two sets of three days. Each of the
first three days is paired up with one of the second three days. The first day
is paired up with the fourth, the second with the fifth, and the third with the
sixth. On the first day, God creates light, and on the fourth day, God creates
the heavenly bodies to shine forth that light. On the second day, God creates
the sky to separate the earthly waters from the heavenly waters, and on the

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fifth day, God creates fish to swim in the earthly waters and birds to fly in
the sky. On the third day, God gathers the seas together, to create land, and
on the sixth day, God creates animals and people to live on the land.
While the creation account teaches us that God creates order out of
chaos, it also teaches us that God does not always accept the status quo. God
had created a perfectly ordered pattern of six days. God could have left it at
that, and nobody would know the difference. But God chose to rest. God
chose to step back from the pattern that God had created, and admire the
results. Thus, the Sabbath was born.
God did not intend for the Sabbath to become part of the status quo.
In Isaiah 58, the people were treating the fast day as a time of mourning,
instead of helping the poor. Isaiah made it clear that this is not the fast God
chooses. In Matthew 2, the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of working on
the Sabbath. Jesus responded by saying, “The Sabbath was made for
humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.” God does not do things
because they are the status quo. Rather, God turns the status quo on its head
for the benefit of God’s children.
The creation account also teaches us that God creates through God’s
Word. I’m not talking about scripture, although that is a particular form of
God’s Word. I’m saying that when God speaks, things happen. In today’s
reading from Genesis, we heard two phrases over and over: “Then God
said” and “It was so.” God speaks, and it is so. This is a testament to God’s
amazing power.
But God’s Word is more than just language. Some of us are familiar
with John 1; some might not be. Let me share a few excerpts from this
chapter. “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the
Word was God.” God’s Word is eternal, and it is a fully divine aspect of
God. Later in the chapter, John writes, “And the Word became flesh and
lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only
son, full of grace and truth.” Of course, when John writes that “the Word
became flesh,” he’s referring to Jesus Christ. We have seen Christ’s glory,
“the glory as of a father’s only son,” in the life, death, and resurrection of
Christ. But the book of Genesis tells us that Christ’s glory is also in creation.
God created the universe through God’s Word, and we see that Word in a
beautiful autumn day, a starlit night, and a newborn baby’s cry.
Many, many books could be (and have been) written about the
creation account, and what it says about God. But I think we have discussed
three of the essential characteristics of the creator God. God is a God of
order. God is not a God of the status quo. And, most importantly, God
creates through God’s Word, which we believe became flesh in Jesus Christ,
our king.
We’ve come a long way since creation, even though it hasn’t always

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been the right way. But what is the right way? Where are we supposed to be
going? According to today’s lesson from Revelation, Christ “made us to be a
kingdom, priests serving his God and Father.” Christ is our king, and God is
our Father. So how does the creation account tell us serve Christ the King
and God the Father?
First, it tells us that God desires order. As United Methodists, we
think we know a little bit about order. When I talk to my mother, who is a
Congregationalist, about administrative councils, charge conferences,
district superintendents, and bishops, her eyes glaze over. If any
denomination has this order thing down, we do, right?
Maybe. But just because we have the most bureaucracy of any kid
on the block, doesn’t mean we have the kind of order that God likes. What is
more important than what kind of system we have is how we use that
system. A friend of mine is a member of a United Methodist Church that
wants to build a new church building. Well…some of the members want to
build a new building. These members have enough power in the
congregation, and enough support from the district superintendent and
pastor, that the congregation will build a new building.
However, they seem to be going about it for all the wrong reasons.
Those who support a new building believe that it will revive the
congregation and bring new members in. But there is nothing wrong with
the current facility, and it is in a perfect location to bring in new members.
When this congregation builds their new building, it will not achieve the
expected results. While order is important to God, it cannot bring the change
that God wants to see in the world. Only a change of the heart can do that.
This is when it is important to remember that God is not a God of
the status quo. The status quo loves the illusion of change, but does not
embrace change of the heart. My friend’s church believes that they can bring
about change of the heart by changing outward circumstances. But a new
building does not change dry worship, and neither does new music or a new
preacher. Without a change of the heart, any other change is meaningless.
With a change of the heart, new doors are opened that we never knew
existed.
I saw the effects of a change of the heart firsthand yesterday. Pastor
Stephen, Alice, Shirley Gillespie, Shirley’s friend Edith and I participated in
the Help the Homeless Walkathon on the Mall yesterday morning. When I
got on the Metro in Tenleytown, it was fairly empty. By the time I switched
trains at Metro Center, the train was crowded. When I got to the
Smithsonian stop, where the walk started, the line to get out of the station
extended all the way to the train. I have never been so happy to be part of
such a big crowd. This was a crowd of thousands of people that had
experienced a change of the heart. These were people that had left their

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houses before 7 AM to walk three miles to raise money and awareness for
people they had never met. The status quo cannot do that. Only a change of
the heart can.
Whether we know it or not, only one thing can bring this change of
heart about: Jesus Christ, God’s Word incarnate. Christ’s gospel message is
one of repentance and forgiveness, and it was through this message that the
whole universe was created. We need to repent and ask God’s forgiveness
for the way that we treat God’s creation. As we read in Genesis, God called
all of creation “good” before humans were ever created. Whether it means
turning the heat down, carpooling to work, or using energy-efficient
appliances, we need to treat God’s creation with respect.
Because we were all created through Christ, our king, we also need
to treat all people with respect. While driving through the city the other day,
I honked my horn at a pedestrian for crossing against the light. The man
made a very rude hand gesture at me, even though I clearly had the right of
way. Respect, for all people, in all areas of society, is eroding.
One of the big news stories of the past few weeks has been
President Obama bowing when he met the emperor of Japan. Obama’s
critics say that it is inappropriate for the president to bow to anyone, but it is
well known that bowing is a traditional greeting and sign of respect in
Japan. Besides misunderstanding Japanese culture, Obama’s critics show a
lack of respect for respect. They seem to believe that showing a cultural sign
of respect to an emperor is the same as waving a white flag for all the world
to see. We are all created through God’s Word, and all people deserve
respect, whether they are an emperor, a president, or an average Joe.
The writer of Revelation assures us that Christ will come with the
clouds, and every eye will see him. That will be a glorious day! But we must
not forget that the original readers of Revelation thought that Christ would
come within their lifetimes. And there are many today who believe that
Christ will come within their lifetimes. But Christ did not come within the
lifetimes of those early Christians, and we don’t know if he will come within
ours.
What we do know is that God is the Alpha and the Omega. God is
eternal, and God’s character is eternal. God desired order in the beginning,
and God desires order today. God did not settle for the status quo in the
beginning, and God does not settle for the status quo today. God created all
of the world with dignity and respect, and that dignity and respect remains
today. And when Christ comes with the clouds, order and respect will be
restored, just the way God made them! Amen.