ramble, mumble, mutter mutter mutter

It's troubling, bothers me, and must worry others also, and all the more so as Hubble peers further and further back into the universe, creation, toward the Big Bang; Voyagers 1 & 2 and others travel deeper into interstellar space; and human knowledge advances beyond what We believe, and yet we cling to.

My favorite psalm of evening Compline

     Psalm 134  Ecce nunc 

1    Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, *
         you that stand by night in the house of the LORD.

2    Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the Lord; *
         the Lord who made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion.

And the closing of the phos hilaron, which should be part of our every evening service of worship, sung or said

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of Life, 

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

And I especially like the last phrase of its Greek original,

διὸ ὁ κόσμος σὲ δοξάζει.

for which the cosmos glorifies thee.

Among modern English versions, I like the Lutheran

The universe proclaims your glory.

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Of the six (BCP, nine adding three from EOW) we have but one eucharistic prayer (C) that gives more than passing nod to what we know, that Cranmer nor the Nicene Fathers ever knew, nor could have known, that indeed was beyond their wildest imagining:

God of all power, Ruler of the Universe, you are worthy of
glory and praise.
Glory to you for ever and ever.

At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of

interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses,

and this fragile earth, our island home.

By your will they were created and have their being.

Bothers, worries, troubles me, and obviously did J B Phillips nearly a century ago as he contemplated what we believe, the limited smallness of it and the constraints of our religion, religions, beliefs, faith, spirituality compared to the reality of creation, all that is, seen and unseen, and our unfolding awareness and knowledge.

"Who or What is God?" our theology professor posed in the opening session of Theology 101, and then answered, and later required each one of us to answer in his final exam. Who or What is God? God is Whoever or Whatever God SAYS God is, in and as God's Word:

In the beginning, God ... and God SAID ... יְהִ֣י let there be ... 

יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר let there be light ...

Nothing profound here, zero, zilch, nada, but intrigues me that our religion has come to concentrate not on God - - Whoever or Whatever God says God's Self to Be, אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה. Tell them אֶהְיֶה sent you. But on us, ourselves, our perception that what God did for us in the Incarnation was to absolve us of our sins. Are you saved? No? Just say this sinners prayer and you're as good for heaven as you were already there. That is the focus of Eucharistic Prayer I, and basically, in contemporary language, of Rite Two Prayer A. And even Prayer B. That the purpose of the Incarnation was to "save" us from our sins; when what the Incarnation accomplished was to show us what אֶהְיֶה is like, and to so enthuse us (fill us with God) by the love of Jesus, that we might live to return to that likeness in which we were created but so soon quickly lost.

J B Phillips is right, our God is too small, and we dogmatically keep God too small, not to say personal. It's been decades since I read his book, and long years since I've even seen it on my bookshelf. Maybe I gave it away leaving Apalachicola. Maybe I gave it away leaving MLP and squeezing into 7H. Maybe it's packed away in one of multiple boxes in my church office waiting to be found. But it's so cheap that I may order it again, maybe today. 

My ultimate vision of God might be an Incomprehensible and Indescribable One with a bottomless basket of tiny dots.The One, who speaks fluent Hebrew, stands out on the edge of an infinitely high bluff, amusing self by tossing dots into empty space, saying, יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר and gleefully watching the fireworks. Our own universe is one of those dots that the One tossed, in our Time, 13.8 billion years ago, and still bursting as the One watches and enjoys. But IDK, it's just me.  

+++++++++++

Original text of the Phos Hilaron

Φῶς ἱλαρὸν ἁγίας δόξης ἀθανάτου Πατρός,

οὐρανίου, ἁγίου, μάκαρος, Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ,

ἐλθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλίου δύσιν, ἰδόντες φῶς ἑσπερινόν,

ὑμνοῦμεν Πατέρα, Υἱόν, καὶ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, Θεόν.

Ἄξιόν σε ἐν πᾶσι καιροῖς ὑμνεῖσθαι φωναῖς αἰσίαις,

Υἱὲ Θεοῦ, ζωὴν ὁ διδούς· διὸ ὁ κόσμος σὲ δοξάζει.

O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.

Joyous light of glory of the immortal Father,
Heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ,
We have come to the setting of the Sun
And we look to the evening light.
We sing to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy of being praised with pure voices forever.
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
The universe proclaims your glory.

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Top photo from Hubble, capturing some 15 thousand galaxies, of which in our universe alone I recently read there are two hundred billion galaxies.

T