Psalm 90: A thousand years in the Lord’s sight are like yesterday when it passes by, as a watch in the night. He sweeps them away like a flood, and they fall asleep. In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; toward evening it fades and withers away.

What kind of story is God telling in your life? Is it a story of sickness that issues in miraculous healing, or is it a story of sickness leading to premature death? Is it the story of a prodigal son who eventually returns, or a story of hardening and ultimate apostasy? It is the story of a marriage that triumphs over early challenges to blossom in long years of joy, or the story of a marriage that grows colder and colder with each passing year, and ends in angry silence or divorce?

We learned in the sermon this morning that only the end will tell. A series of events looks like a deliverance; it looks like a story of victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. But then Yahweh turns the tables, breaks out in wrath, and defeat is snatched away from Jehoram, at the very moment of apparent victory. Just when we expect the walls to tumble down, the three kings instead fall before the wrath of Yahweh. God is a living God, and that means He is a God of surprises, a God who brings unpredictable twists and turns into our lives. He is the God of surprise endings.

We have no control over our ends, whether the end of our lives or the end of any particular story-line of our lives. We can’t number our days. When we recognize this, we might respond with fear and anxiety. We feel so helpless, so dependent. But recognizing that we are not in control only produces anxiety when we assume that we SHOULD be in control. In Scripture, recognizing that we are not in control produces joy because it is combined with the belief that there is Someone in control. Recognizing that we cannot control our endings is just the flip side of our basic Christian confession that God controls our endings. This is part of our basic confession that God is God and we are not. The meaning of our story depends on what happens tomorrow, what happens at the Omega-point of our lives, and we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. But there is a God in heaven who has knows and controls every Alpha and every Omega, a God who IS Alpha and Omega.

We don’t know our future in detail, but we are not entirely in the dark. We don’t know how our days will end, but we do know where the whole story is headed. And by God’s grace we can find our place in it, not least at this table. This tables demonstrates our utter dependence on the goodness of God, for unless we eat and drink the body and blood of the Son of Man, we have no life and can do nothing. This table is a table of joy, and calls us to rejoice in the midst of all the uncertainties of our lives. This table calls us to faith. That means many things, but one aspect of the faith that we are called to at this table is the confidence that at this table we have a glimpse of the Omega, the end.

We cannot know the end of our days here on earth, but this table is a weekly assurance that we do know the ultimate end of our days – that we will feast eternally in a new heavens and new earth at the marriage supper of the Lamb.