A Reflection on Glory

This post is an abbreviation of a sermon given by Micah Intern Mac Stewart at St. Marks and St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Dorchester on May 16.


“Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” 
  
Glory.  It’s one of those words that we hear a lot in church.  We hear it every time we say the Lord’s Prayer: “for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever.”  A commonly repeated phrase in our Book of Common Prayer is “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.”  We just sang a few minutes ago the “Gloria”: “Glory to God in highest…”  So we hear this word all the time in church.  But not only here.  The world outside of churches is pretty interested in glory as well.  We love to see and enjoy big, beautiful architectural structures like Trinity Church in Copley Square, or buildings like Symphony Hall that ring with glorious music.  I’m a huge sports fan, and I find this word used all the time in sports world.  When my school, the University of North Carolina, won the national championship in basketball in 2005, the cover of Sports Illustrated the following week had a big picture of one of our players on the cover with the heading, “Return to Glory.” 


So we think about this word often, in many different contexts, but given that we hear it so much in the context of church, many of us probably naturally associate the word as having something to do with God. 

-We know that glory has something to do with beauty; and we say that God is the Beautiful One who is the source of all other beauty. 

-We know that glory has something to do with goodness; and we say that God is Goodness itself, the One from whom all goodness flows. 

-We know that glory has something to do with power; and we say that God is the All-mighty Creator who spoke and the world came to be. 

In the Old Testament, this word is intimately tied to all the stories of the presence of God among the people of Israel.  The glory of the LORD is the power that brings Israel out of Egypt.  It’s the devouring fire that Moses enters to receive the commandments on top of the mountain.  It is the goodness that is so good that Moses cannot look at it face to face and live.  It is the weightinessthat demands awe, so that one cannot help but fall on the ground and worship in its presence.   
And so with all these ideas floating around about where we often hear the word glory and about what this word might mean or what thoughts it might conjure up for us…with all of this in our heads, let’s turn to our lesson today from the Gospel of John.


The very first thing we notice when hearing this passage is the first five words: “Jesus prayed for his disciples.”  Jesus is praying for us.  And this is not just a quick blessing before dinner;  this is the very last thing Jesus does before he is arrested, put on trial, and crucified.  His last act, his last words before heading to the Cross, are this prayer.  And then we look at what he is praying for.  He prays a lot of things here, but there’s one thing in particular I want to draw attention to, the verse I started with: “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”  To see the glory which Jesus had before the foundation of the world…What is this glory?  Is this the glory of a beautiful sunset, of music that speaks to many souls at the same time?  Is this the glory of the devouring fire on Mount Sinai, of the presence of God that leads the people of Israel through the wilderness?  “Father may they see my glory which you have given me because you loved me.”  This is the glory of the love that the eternal Father has for the eternal Son, the love that a parent has for their precious child. 


God says of Jesus: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  This is the glory of the sheer delight that two persons have in one another….the glory of a relationship….the glory of Love.  That’s the new definition of glory, revealed in Jesus Christ.  And my brothers and sisters, here is the good news: Jesus says to God: “the glory that you have given me, I have given them.”  We are given a share in that glory, graciously, as a free gift, without cost or condition.  We are invited into that relationship, into the love that the eternal Father has for the eternal Son.  We are adopted into this life, the life of the Holy Trinity, as children of God.  Jesus prays to his Father that “the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  The love of the Father in us.  Jesus in us.  This means that when God looks at us he says exactly what he says when he looks at Jesus: “This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.”  Can we believe this?  Can we believe that we exist for God’s delight?  We are reminded of this every week at the Eucharistic table when we pray, “Holy and gracious Father, in your infinite love you made us for yourself…”  That is what we are for.  And that is good news. 
  
Jesus prays that we would see his glory, and he shows us where that glory is found: in all the crucifixions of our lives.  May the Love of Christ give us the strength to confront those places in our lives and in our world, and the eyes to see and the ears to hear the bright morning star that sings to us there, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you.”