telling the story ~ prologue
Composition version: none.
Metanarrative begins with an instrumental, but that doesn't mean there is no story to tell....
narrative
Trinity
Have you ever wondered about the Christian view of God? Other religions always teach that either God is one, period, or that there are many gods. But Christianity insists that God is both one and three - three Persons, one God.
That's admittedly hard to understand - but then, isn't all reality?
Actually, the Trinity is at the core of the Christian confession that God is love. Think about it: if there were simply one person, by the nature of the case, that person could not be an eternal lover. He (or she) would only have himself; he would be closed in upon himself. It thus makes sense that it is the Christian God, not Allah the monad, who is described simply as love. All three Persons of the Trinity have always been giving themselves for one another. These relations form the basis for the reality of love and self-giving as we know it.
The notion of many gods fares no better than the idea of a monad. For if there are simply many gods, then none of these are ultimate and we have simply pushed the question of the ultimate - which is, after all, the question of God - back a level. Polytheism (the idea of many gods) must either imply chaos (many beings in collision, with no ultimate unifying reality) or another sort of God behind the many little gods. Thus, the Trinity, as mysterious as the notion truly is, alone makes sense of reality. Behind, above, and in all things we know is the God who is one and three - three Persons who are happy in each other, giving of themselves for one another.
And that happiness freely overflows. That is creation....
tohu-wabohu
Tohu-wabohu is a Hebrew phrase that comes out to something like "formless and void." When God created the cosmos, He chose to create it as a sort of undifferentiated watery mass. All sorts of disparate elements appeared....
it was so
But God, being one and many, is a God of both diversity and ordered harmony. No sooner had He created that initial mass of tohu-wabohu than He began to set it in order, creating light, dividing the darkness from the light, the sea from the dry land, and generally, making things habitable and enjoyable.
This ordering of creation displays the wonder and love of God. He creates because He is so full of good. And He makes that creation orderly and beautiful by the power of just His Word.
Shabbat
When all is complete, there is a day of rest. All is good, very good; man is at home with his Maker in the home made for him....