I want to preach on one word this morning. At first you might be thinking to yourself: Oh great, a short sermon. Don’t get your hopes up because the word I have chosen is so large, so multifaceted, so majestic that one might write their Ph.D. dissertation on this single word.
This one word is found in our New Testament text that was read from Ephesians 3: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
It is also found in 2 Corinthians 4:17: we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Our one word is also found in that high water mark of Divine inspiration – Romans 8:18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
If you haven’t guessed already the word is GLORY. It is found all over the Bible. To Him be Glory in the church, He is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory, our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
I heard the word glory a lot in the Church I was raised. When I was a boy if it was a particularly good service the members would get up and march around the sanctuary shouting, glory, glory, glory. Take a wild guess: Was I raised in an Anglican Church?
When I was a teenager, we sang the great American Civil War Hymn: The Battle Hymn of the Republic: My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the King... Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
We also sang ‘To God be the Glory’ and at Christmas time we sang Wesley’s great carol: Hark the Herald Angels sing, Glory to the newborn King.
Almost 80 years ago this month C. S. Lewis stood in the pulpit of St. Mary the Virgin Oxford and preached from our text in Ephesians 3 about glory. It is one of the greatest English sermons of the Twenty Century.
And now in my final years I end up in a church that ends every Sunday service with the Doxology. The Greek word doxa means glory. I have come full circle: I started off life in a Church that shouted glory and ended up in one that sings glory.
Putting all of this together I want to tantalize you, I want to entice you, I want to hold up this word glory as one would hold up the Hope Dimond and let you be dazzled.
The Bible promises the believer five things:
1. We shall be with Christ
2. We shall be like Him
3. We shall have glory
4 We shall be fed, or feasted or entertained
5. We shall have some sort of official position in the universe: rule cities, judge angels.
It is the middle promise that I want us to focus on this morning. Glory. What is the glory that God has promised all those who place their trust in Jesus?
One thing that complicates any study of the word glory is the fact that it has several meanings in the Bible.
It’s like the word bear. If you hear someone talking and they say the word bear are they talking about the woodland creature or are they talking about a baby without cloths or are they asking you to help them with a heavy load or are they asking you to forgive them? Glory is a word like that.
In the Old Testament the word glory often means ‘heavy’ or ‘loaded’. We would say of a rich person, that guy is loaded. Jesus used the word that way: Solomon in all his glory... Solomon was loaded. He was very rich.
Glory can also mean beauty. It is used that way in Exodus when Moses is describing the beauty of the Holy Tabernacle. It is that same idea of beauty that is referred to in Psalm 19: The heavens declare the glory of God.
But I want to focus on the way the word is used in these three Pauline texts. What is this eternal weigh of glory that God is preparing for us; what is this glory that is not worthy to be compared to the suffering we must now endure?
From John Milton to Thomas Aquinas Bible scholars agree that glory in these verses has a two-fold meaning. It means fame and it means light. When C. S. Lewis first read this text in 2 Corinthians he laughed. Who would want to be so twisted and evil as to wish eternal fame? And who would be so deranged as to want to be an eternal flashlight? Fame and Light.
But the more he delved into the word glory the more he was convinced that the old scholars were right. Glory does mean Fame and Light.
Glory means fame. Not with men but with God. The approval of Father God. Most of us have been seeking all our lives for the approval of our parents, especially of our father. Some of us never felt approved by our father. We carry that loss in our hearts to this day. We can achieve many things in life but if we never receive Dad’s approval there is a sadness, a void in our life.
But even if we were approved by our earthly father that approval doesn’t fully satisfy because we were created by Another. And we yearn for His approval. There is nothing in all the universe to compare with hearing those words: Well done, good and faithful servant. That is Glory!
As Lewis points out: in the End that Face which is the delight, or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame unspeakable. What Almighty God thinks about you is the most important fact about your life. Everything else is a footnote.
If we get a good report from the Boss of the Universe, then nothing else matters. If God accepts me than I can be rejected by my parents, my spouse, my kids, my supervisor, my friends, my Church, indeed I may suffer all manner of rejection but if I am accepted by God; The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed.
The Acceptance of God, the smile of God, the warm embrace of my heavenly Father. That is glory. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last. The affirmation we seek will finally be ours.
But that is only half of what glory means in our texts. Glory also means Luminosity or Light. I think most of us, certainly those of us who have taught school, have had the experience of walking into a classroom and seeing one student. Out of 30 kids one child stands out. We say that girl shines. That person has charisma. Most of the kids were just average but that one child was extraordinary.
That is also what glory means in this text. God is preparing us to be extraordinary beyond all comparison. There are no ordinary people in the coming Kingdom of God. There are no dull people in heaven. There are no boring people on the other side.
I know what I am saying is a real leap of faith but look around you this morning. If you could see what God is going to make of that person sitting next to you – your fellow worshipper, your spouse, your friend. If you could see what they will be like in 100 years from now you would be tempted to fall down and worship them.
The glory, the radiance, the beauty, the holiness of that person. Yes, our outer self is wasting away, as Saint Paul says. But our inner self is being renewed day by day. We are being changed from glory to glory. As grow older we wake each morning and play a little game: what will be the ache of the day? Will it be arthritis in my finger or the disk in my back? We are falling apart. Literally.
But friends, the Bible says that this is a light momentary affliction. God is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. You are not boring, you are not dull, you are not ordinary, you are not trapped in a sick body. You are destined for glory.
Next to the bread and the wine, next to the Blessed Sacrament your neighbour is the holiest object in this room, indeed, on this earth. We shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and like the stars forever and ever.
Long after the sun and galaxies have passed away, each one of you will still be alive radiant with the glory of God.
Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
