“An absence that has been overcome.” That is what the church believes about God. A religion that talks about God being obviously present all the time is not true. That would be a religion that had taken God for granted, that had tried to appropriate God for its own ends. The lament of Isaiah teaches us something different. The church cannot possess or control the presence of God. Only God is in control of his own presence. It is faith that teaches us that God is to be trusted, in spite of appearances.
