Over the years I have developed the habit of focusing on a person’s name whenever it is time to do a message that relates to that individual. For example, I have done funerals for people named James, using something from the New Testament letter of James. I did a funeral service once for a woman whose name was Eunice, and brought a message out of that encouraging word to Timothy about his mother Lois and his grandmother Eunice. I have even resorted to Latin on occasion, and preached a funeral message about one of our members whose name was “Amanda”, a Latin participle meaning beloved. Names have served me well in funerals, and some day I shall hover over my own casket to see which Joseph the preacher selects to send me home with – will I be the carpenter of Nazareth, who stood by while God did wonderful things with his wife? That sounds like a winner! Or will I be the one whose brothers put him in a big pit in the ground? Probably not; I usually dig my own bottomless pits when I’m preaching.
But I have used names, too, on those wonderful occasions when I have been asked to preach for an ordination or for an installation. Sometimes it is a bit of a stretch, I admit, but it’s fun nonetheless. When I preached for Vallerie King’s installation in Virginia, I worked with the lovely little story of Rhoda standing at the gates in the Book of Acts. You have to have watched the old Mary Tyler Moore show to get the connection between the name of the actress, Valerie Harper, and the character she played, Rhoda Morgenstern. A stretch, but fun. And the last ordination we did here, a few months ago, was for Yolanda Sampson, and the temptation to use the Biblical character Samson was just too great to pass up.
Let me warn you: I doubt that I shall get off this kick any time soon. In about one more month we expect to ordain a man named Victor, and that surely has lots of Biblical possibilities. And then we have another one named Jonathan who is about to start seminary; I may not have to come out of retirement to preach for Jonathan’s ordination if I warn him that the message might be about the son of Saul who died on the battlefield, much too young. You might not want to hear that!
Names are important. Names, in the thought world of the Bible, teach us about the character of the person named. Like our Native American cousins, Biblical people named their children for aspects of their character. Sometimes God changed those names, because God did something radical with those people. Names are clues to who we are and to who we can become.
And so we turn to Gloria. The Latin for “glory”. When I think of your name, Gloria, I think of that story about the small girl who said that she just absolutely loved the music at Christmas time. Why was that? Because, she said, the church choir sings my name over and over again! “Gloria, gloria, gloria.”
But I propose to you today that therein lies the issue. We in the church have been captured by a personality-oriented culture. We in the ministry tend to hear our own names called when the church is doing its work. We are no better than the cult of personality all around us, which so quickly points its fingers of either blame or credit at individuals, and does not understand what lies behind either failure or success. If the economy is going badly, we blame the President – remember the fate of the late, lamented, Jimmy Carter? If there are abuses in the prisons in Iraq, we blame the Secretary of Defense. If the schools are not performing well, go find a six hundred thousand dollar person to fix them. We have such a cult of personality.
And in the church, we are no different. If there is success, we speak quickly of Rick Warren’s Saddleback or T. D. Jakes’ Potter’s House, as if they were to get all the credit. And if there is failure, we ask what that pastor did, how lazy was he, how aloof was she? It’s the pastor’s fault. We hear our own names called in everything the church does.
But I propose to you today that a minister is not to call attention to herself, but to God. I propose to you that when we succeed, it is not our own success that we tout, but God’s. And that when we fail, still we look not to our own egocentric guilt, but we look to the power of God to redeem. Gloria, my sister, the song of the angels at Christmas is not, “Gloria in excelsis., Gloria in the highest.” It is “Gloria in excelsis – Deo”. To God, in God, with God, for God, through God. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Glory to God in the highest.
I
The Bible reports no more vigorous leader than King David. By most measures, his reign was a success. He extended the territory of the Kingdom; he consolidated his hold on Jerusalem; he held together the squabbling tribes of Israel. There were many successes.
There were also any number of failures. There were moral failures, like that Bathsheba thing. There were political failures, like the Absalom rebellion. And there were military failures, like the Philistines’ capture of the ark. But when we come to the Chronicler’s account, David has recovered from that one. He has recaptured the ark and has brought it to the city, where he is ready to place it in the tent of meeting and to enshrine it at the center of Israel’s life. It’s a great moment. David has overcome lots of opposition to get to this point. He has overcome his detractors, who felt that it was David’s fault that this trophy had slipped into the hands of the enemy. He has overcome the suspicious, who got scared when the first time they tried to move the ark, a hapless soldier named Uzzah was killed. And most of all, David has overcome his own heart, his own anger. David has overcome many obstacles. Who would blame him if he gloated a little on this day of recognition?
And yet, David glories in only one thing. He glories in God and in those who seek God. David’s heart is turned toward his real purpose. He has not brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem to create a monument for himself; he has done it to focus the people on God and to encourage them to seek God.
“Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually.”
My sister, the cult of personality in the church, if you let it take you over, will focus you on all the wrong things. It will focus you on statistics and not on spirit. It will turn you to numbers and not to hearts. Do not be captured by the usual measures of success. Let the measure of your ministry be that because you are at work, someone will seek the Lord and His strength. Because you minister, someone will seek the presence that will not let them go. Because you are there, someone will seek the joy of the Lord. The numbers do not matter. The seeking does.
Not long ago someone asked me for the statistics of my tenure here at Takoma Park – how many weddings, how many funerals, how many baptisms, how many members received, and the like. I must tell you that I drew back from that. I understand why the question was asked, and I have given my responses. But I drew back a bit from it, because we focus so much on the things that can be measured, and so readily overlook the things that matter the most.
Sister Gloria, be like the apostle Paul, who obviously was not a Baptist preacher, because he could not even remember baptizing anybody at the church at Corinth, or, if he did, maybe it was just a couple of folks, but he says that what he came to do was to point people to Christ. He came to help them seek the Lord and His strength, to seek His presence continually. When you come to the end of the ministry you begin today, few will care about how many you brought through ecclesiastical channels. But someone will care that you were here and led them to seek the presence. Someone will know Christ simply because you were here and pointed them toward Him.
Gloria in excelsis. Gloria in the highest. Make that gloria in excelsis Deo – to God. It is not about your accomplishments. It is about helping others seek God.
II
Now in this hymn of praise that the Chronicler records, there is not only a reference to David’s accomplishments. There is also a reference to what David avoided. The singers of Israel gave thanks not only for what David had done, but also for what David had come through. They gave thanks for protection and for redemption.
“When they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in the land, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no one to oppress them, he rebuked kings on their account, saying, ‘Do not touch my anoint ones, do my prophet no harm.’ ... Sing to the Lord, all the earth .. Declare his glory among the nations”
We know the story, don’t we? We know that David dealt with a host of challenges. We can catalog David’s messes. Things are no different today. When Richard Foster wrote his book on sex, money, and power as the unholy trinity that brings us down, he was writing about timeless troubles, as relevant to leaders today as they were to David three thousand years ago. You would expect me to admonish you about those things, and I do. I know more than I want to know about sexual misbehavior and craving for creature comforts destroying ministers. I have seen more than I care to recall about how ministers wield political clout for their own glory. Yes, watch out for the unholy trinity of sex, money, and power.
But today I also encourage you to remember that God protects His own. I encourage you to remember that God is able to keep you from falling. There are predatory people, inside and outside the church, who want nothing more than to see a minister falter. Their tactics may take the form of offering you opportunities to cheat – just a little on your taxes or on your expense account. Just a little special affection behind closed doors. But they are not doing you a favor; they are setting you up to go from just a little to a little more, and from a little more to a great deal more. Watch out for the predators, and hear the word of God, “Do not touch my anointed ones, do my prophet no harm.” Believe that the one who brought a nation, few in number and of little account, wanderers and strangers, to a settled place, is able to settle your heart and to establish your mind. When somebody attacks your preaching, discounts your teaching, criticizes your style of life, you should listen, of course. They might be right. God speak once through Balaam’s ass, so I guess he could speak through another one. But discern what is real and sift out what is predatory. Be strong in the Lord; be of good courage. And He will strengthen thy heart.
For when your witness is assessed, it will not be about your learning or about your eloquence. It will be about your integrity. It will be about your character. It will be about whether you have allowed our redemptive God to protect you and shelter you, as He did His servant David. If you will give yourself to God’s protection, then all of us will declare His glory. His glory. Gloria in excelsis. Gloria in the highest ... not because she has successfully defended herself from harm, but because she has accepted God’s protection from harm. Gloria in excelsis Deo, glory to God in the highest.
III
And yet, the issue remains, doesn’t it? I’ve tried to say that we focus on the cult of personality. We put all the burden on the shoulders of leaders. When things go well, we idolize them. When things go badly, we take them down an peg or two. When the songs are sung, we expect to hear our own names. Gloria, gloria, in excelsis.
David, however, learned to glory in God and not in himself, despite his considerable achievements, because David knew that statistical success meant very little. David knew that all that matters is that from what we do men and women seek the Lord.
At the same time, David discovered that he must glory in God despite his own failures, because God is a redeemer, and God took David, protected him, brought him through his failures. David discovered that it made no sense to wallow in his own muck and mire, because God had something far better in mind.
And so David learned to feel. I think that’s the bottom line here. David learned to feel. David learned to express his heart. David learned to lift up his voice and say what he had to say. David learned to let loose his passion, to follow his instincts, to trust his own heart.
Oh hear the king of Israel just release his soul! Listen to him abandon his inhibitions and give vent to his spirit!
“Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come before him. Worship the Lord in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth ... let the sea roar ... let the field exult ... sing for joy ... give thanks ... let us glory in your praise.”
Oh, David got past some kind of emotional barrier, and just turned loose. David got past the posing and the posturing and let things happen. When I graduated from seminary, back in nineteen-hundred-and-none-of-your-business, I was part of a group of young people who were determined to show the churches that we were not like the preachers of old. They were the whoopers and the shouters; we were the cool academics. They were the shallow fundamentalists; we were the bright young intellectuals. They were the ignorant, but we knew our systematic theology, we were steeped in Barth and Brunner and Beethoven – oh, no, wrong discipline – well, whoever it was, we knew it all. In fact, we knew so much we were all stuffed up inside and kept our passions in firm control. We didn’t want to show anybody we felt anything; we were theological thinking machines.
But some of us grew up. Some of us matured a bit. Some of us experienced life as it really is. And we learned to feel. We learned to let go and let God. We released our passions, we opened our hearts, we became human again. And when we did, we found great joy. When we quit worrying about our image, we found wonderful joy. When we let go and offered our feelings to the Lord, we began to ascribe glory to His name and not to ourselves.
My sister, I covet for you today the joy of the Lord. I covet for you the maturing of the habits of the mind you have learned as a seminarian, so that as a minister of the Gospel you may release the habits of the heart. Then the world will see who you are and whose you are, and will gladly sing, Gloria. Gloria in excelsis. Gloria in the highest. But it will always be Deo, to God. To God be the glory.
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.’ ... Let us go now ... and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.
