The Power of an Amen

We conclude letters with “sincerely yours,” memos with “respectfully submitted.” We finish stories with “the end.” We wrap up conversations with variations of “goodbye.” And we end our prayers with “amen.”

There’s something different about an amen. It doesn’t imply finality, like those other terms. Amen doesn’t put a fine point on an ending. Amen makes room for a new beginning.

When I officiate a wedding, after the couple exchange their vows, I sometimes ask the congregation to affirm what the couple has just pledged to each other, and for those gathered to pledge their own support of the marriage. And I invite them to voice their affirmation of what is, and their support of what will be by saying “amen”; because ‘amen’ means “verily, truly, may it be so.”

Saying “amen” is more than a formality at the end of a prayer. It is a reminder of paradise, a reminder of how God dreamed everything to be from the beginning for all of creation’s sake—for the whole world’s sake. And it is an expression of our hope that we would return to that goodness. It is a commitment to nurturing that hope for all our sakes. It’s like a Doxology we sang in the Baptist church where I grew up put it: “As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be, world without end, amen, amen!” That is the power of an amen.

And, so, today I pray, Everlasting, Ever-Loving God, that Your will be done: that the poor in spirit and pocket would be rejuvenated and supported in all manner of things; that everyone who is holding tremendous grief and pain would be comforted by unlikely friends, overlooked beauty, and surprise visits from someone or something good; that the meek will tower over their bullies and be so gratified by their inheritance that they would share it to the betterment of every heart that has been hardened by this world’s malice; that the hungry would take their place at a table overflowing with sustenance, and invite their starving neighbor to join them; that those who thirst would be able to drink freely again from faucets that have carried contaminated water for a shamefully long season; that the merciful would not be gaslighted into thinking that their mercy is foolish and instead be so encouraged toward compassion that others would recognize it as strong, right, and just, and then carry themselves likewise; that the pure in heart would remain steadfast in their vision of Your peace and goodness for all, O God; and that we would recognize the crucial difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking in order that every beloved human being made in Your image would be reconciled to one another and, in that reconciliation, called children of God. Verily, truly, may it be so. Amen.