I AM THE OMEGA AND THE ALPHA

A church on Sutherland Avenue has been converted into a coffee shop; the building also contains some offices, I believe, but it is the coffee shop that matters to me in this moment. And, while I hate to see any once consecrated building secularized — particularly a church — if it must be done then a coffee shop is one of the least objectionable alternatives. Like the church, a coffee shop promotes a community of sorts, and this particular one supports a mission in Haiti. And, the coffee is good, so there’s that in its favor.

On a recent morning I sat outside on the patio of the building with a dear friend enjoying coffee and conversation. As I glanced upward at the church front I noticed its stained glass window, in reverse from my perspective: Ω Α, Omega Alpha. That was theologically disorienting. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” Jesus said and says, “the beginning and the end.” But there is much to recommend the inverse, as well: Jesus was and is the end and the beginning, the Omega and the Alpha. Jesus was the end of the old world order dominated by Satan and characterized by death and sin and slavery to the fallen powers. And that had to end before the Kingdom of God could be inaugurated on earth as it is in heaven. Death had to die, to be trampled down by its own power before new and unending life could begin. The final atonement for sin had to be made before grace could cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The cross had to precede the empty tomb, crucifixion before resurrection: the Omega and the Alpha, the end and the beginning. Alpha and Omega is the old way of things; things begin and then the end. But, in Jesus, the order was reversed; things were brought to an end so that they might begin anew.

Often at Midday Prayer we read this sentence of Scripture:

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-18, BCP 2019, p. 36).

Through Christ, the old has passed away — Omega — and the new has come — Alpha. And in my favorite prayer for the universal church we say:

…let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord (BCP 2019, p. 646).

There it is again: Omega and Alpha.

Of course, it is there from the very beginning of our life in Christ, from our baptism in which we renounce the world the flesh and the devil — Omega — and make our vows to follow Christ — Alpha. It is the nature of baptism itself: a participation first in the death of Christ before we are born anew in him.

Yes, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega; he said it and it is true. But, he is also the Omega and the Alpha, which is a profound pattern for our lives in him: a dying first before the rising again, a continual dying and rising again. Surely, Jesus is both Alpha and Omega and Omega and Alpha because he is all and in all.

It was a very good cup of coffee.