Reflection for September 23

“GOD GETS THE LAST WORD.” In the death and resurrection of Jesus it is clear that our God is the kind of God who insists on having the last word. To be sure, the second-to-last word, which can be very powerful, can be given to something else—despair, estrangement, hurt, evil, even death. But our God insists on having the very last word, and that is always a word of hope, of reconciliation, of healing, of goodness and life. (Martin B. Copenhaver, “The Gospel in Seven Words,” Christian Century, September 5, 2012. Read other pastors’ and theologians’ efforts to capture the Gospel in seven words here.)