warning: fugue ahead

the first story of genesis describes creation by elohim, a strange plural-singular form for god, which is not a name so much as a category. this is the wonderfully conceptual understanding of creation and god that will be consonant with greek philosophy and what we often call natural religion. this is the god of whom paul will tell the romans ". . . the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." (romans 1:20)

against the orderly strains of this creation song plays another melody, one more difficult to describe with music theory or theology, in which the holy creator is revealed as a person with a name, although the name is too powerful to be pronounced.

the god of the first story we sing in the hymn,
"almighty, invisible, god only wise,
in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes."
this is the transcendant god, subject of systematic theology, who is described by rudolf otto in the holy as tremendum, of whom thomas acquinas wrote.

the god of the countermelody is sung in
"come down, o love divine,
and fill this heart of mine."
this is the holy one immanent, who is described by otto as fascinans, of whom thomas acquinas found, once he had experienced the one, that he could write nothing.

but there is only one god, creator of heaven and earth, transcendant and immanent. in the tension between these two revelations of the holy one are the contrasts between the conquered promised land and the lingering presence of israel's oppoenents. here are the kingdom of heaven which is at hand and the kingdom which comes at the end of the age.

this, you see, is the "the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity,
whose name is holy, who dwells in the high and holy place, who
also dwells with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to
revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite." (isaiah 57:15) this is the god who created by speaking the word in the beginning, but also the god who accepts the limitation of creation to walk with his creature in the garden in the cool of the evening.

this is the god for whom i have moved into a garden so that i might have a cool of the evening in which we might walk. it is to the story of the revelation of that god, described again and again in the liturgy as a "man-befriending god," to which we turn next.