THE VEILED, HIDDEN, MASKED GOD

Christian ethics speaks of God as veiled, hidden, and masked in the world.  Furthermore Christian ethics speak of God’s “hiddenness”  made manifest in human vocation. What is meant by these assertions?  An explanation  might begin with the Apostles’ Creed confessed in corporate worship: asserting God is “maker of heaven and earth.”  Any implications in that statement? As a lad I was taught  Luther’s explanation to the Creed: “I believe that God  has created me and all that exists. That he has given me and still preserves my body and soul”.  Then follows, in Luther’s explanation, a catalog of various things.  And with what implication?  The answer: “therefore I surely ought to thank and praise, serve, and obey him”. This world is, the Creed suggests,  God’s world. But where is God to be found:  God is hidden and masked (words often used by theologians) in the world of natural creation. How is the hidden, veiled, masked  God made known?  How?  Luther’s explanation continues: “thank and praise, SERVE, and obey” by serving  through my vocation thankfully, praisefully, and obediently my  fellow humankind and nature itself.  The “hiddenness” of God becomes known through you and me (whether we are aware of this or not). At this point Christian faith points to  Christ as a revealing of God’s “hiddennesss”.  We live. as C.S. Lewis put it, ON A VISITED PLANET (visited by God in Christ).  Christ as God’s incarnate love shows us how to love God through loving one another and caring for God’s creation.