Glory!

Seventh Sunday of Easter / June 5, 2011

John 17:1-11

Glory!  It’s one of those words that is easier to see than to define.  And it is all over our gospel lesson today.  “Father... glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.” “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.” And, “I am asking on behalf of those whom you gave me... I have been glorified in them.”  That’s a lot of glory!  But what does it look like?

We’ve seen glory erupt on the soccer field when the game is tied and there are only seconds left.  A player kicks in the winning goal at the final moment and the field bursts into celebration.  The players lift the one who scored the winning goal up onto their shoulders as the team basks in glory.

We’ve seen glory at graduation.  As the graduates who have worked hard to receive their diploma walk across the stage there is a certain glow on their faces as they bask in the praise of that moment.  Then, as we look at the faces of the parents, we see glory there as well.  The glory that comes from knowing that all those years of hauling their child to soccer practice, helping with homework, having difficult conversations about how to make good decisions, and watching their child make mistakes – all of that has paid off.  Now, this child is no longer a child; she is going out into the world.  It is good to bask in glory.

Now God’s glory is so much greater than human glory.  God’s glory shone so brightly on Moses’ face when he came down from Mount Sinai that Moses had to wear a veil when he was with the people!  After the temple was built, God’s glory filled the temple with so much power and goodness and beauty that no one could enter the temple.  And now, the hour has come for Jesus to be glorified.

Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus has been telling the people, “My hour has not yet come.”  But now, as Jesus prays for his disciples just hours before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prays, “The hour has come; glorify your Son.”  Like the parents at graduation, Jesus is looking back over his ministry – the challenges and the blessings – and he knows his disciples are ready to go out into the world on their own. 

The disciples are ready because (1) they have kept God’s word, (2) they know that everything comes from God, and (3) they believe that God sent Jesus into the world.  Let me repeat these three things, because they are also proof of our readiness to go out into the world. We are ready because (1) we have kept God’s word, (2) we know that everything comes from God, and (3) we believe that God sent Jesus into the world.  Let’s look more closely at these three points:

Throughout John’s gospel, keeping God’s word centers around one commandment: “Love one another as God has loved you.”  Love one another and show that love in very incarnational ways.  God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, who became flesh and lived among us.  Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus – raising Lazarus from the dead.  Jesus loved his disciples so much, that even though they called him Lord, he took off his outer garment and stooped down to wash their dirty feet.  The disciples are ready for this next stage of ministry because they know how to keep God’s word and love one another.

Jesus then points to their readiness by praying, “they know that everything you have given me is from you.”  God the Father gave Jesus the Son everything, and “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory... full of grace and truth.”  The Son, Jesus, has the power to heal, the ability to transform lives, and the words that speak truth in the face of injustice – and all of this comes from God.  In Jesus the disciples were given a way of seeing the world from the bottom up, through the eyes of the poor and the outcast and the sinners.  Through the Word, who became flesh, the disciples believe everything comes from God. 

Knowing everything comes from God, it does not take much of a leap of faith to believe that God the Father sent Jesus the Son into the world.  Jesus came into the world that all might believe and be saved.  And we have seen his glory, but in a most startling way.  Like the soccer players who lifted up the player who scored the winning goal, Jesus was glorified when he was lifted up onto that cross.  The crowds weren’t cheering on that day, because they didn’t know what would happen three days later.  But on that early Easter morning the women found the tomb empty – now that is glory! 

“This is eternal life, that [the disciples] may know... the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom [the Father has] sent.”  This is eternal life: keeping God’s word, knowing that everything comes from God, and believing that God sent Jesus into the world.  This is eternal life: knowing we have been saved through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus who is fully human and fully God.  This is eternal life: living as people who know that everything we have comes from God.  This is eternal life: glorifying God by loving one another. 

Today we celebrate the ascension of our Lord.  For forty days following the resurrection, Jesus appeared to many, speaking about the kingdom of God and teaching them many things.  And on that fortieth day Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of the sight of his disciples.  Jesus is no longer physically in the world, but we are in the world, and the Son is with the Father.  This means the hour has come for us to be the church – to be the body of Christ on earth. 

We know we can do nothing without God.  It is God the Father who gives us all we need; it is God the Son who gives us eternal life; it is God the Spirit who empowers us to be the body of Christ on earth.  And Jesus knew that the disciples were ready to be his body, his temple.  Jesus knows we are ready.  On this Service Sunday, Jesus knows we are ready to share the gospel of truth with the world.  Jesus knows we are ready to glorify God in all we do.  I know we are ready to take bold steps forward, knowing Christ and making Christ known through loving, learning, and serving.

And all of this begins right here in worship.  It is in worship that we learn to serve.  It is in worship that we learn what it means to love one another as Jesus has loved us.  And not just from the pulpit!  In worship we wash one another’s feet, revealing our willingness to stoop down and serve.  In worship we pray for one another, sharing our joys and concerns.  In worship we share the peace of Christ, seeking to be one as God is one.

Furthermore, it is in worship that we embrace God’s abundance.  We do this most visibly by giving of our tithes and offerings – giving back to God a portion of all that God has given us.  But we also acknowledge that everything we have comes from God when we listen to the Spirit’s nudging and give of our time and share our gifts – in worship and beyond.  Today we are giving of our time and sharing our gifts by building picnic tables and trimming bushes and cleaning the sanctuary.  In God’s abundance we give back to God in so many different ways!

It is also in worship that we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.  Through songs and creeds and prayers we give ourselves and our lives back to God because God has given God’s self so powerfully to us through his Son.  It is in worship that we are given a piece of bread – this utterly radical offering of God’s Son – Christ in us.  It is in worship that we taste the cup of salvation – the blood shed for us that we might have life and have it abundantly.

It all begins right here in worship.  But if it ends here, we’ve completely missed the point.  In our worship of the one true God we learn how to embody the teachings of Jesus.  In worship we live out the practices that make us the body of Christ in the world.  Worship shapes and informs all of the rest of our lives.  If it doesn’t then we are like a lamp that is under a bushel.  When it does, then everything we do glorifies God.   So let’s get about the business of glorifying God, filling the land with the Father’s glory.