The Power in Glory

In our sometimes glib declarations concerning the glory of God, we tend to neglect the might and power aspect of glory for the glowing radiance or gorgeous sunset aspects. There is liitle sense of the weightiness, the preponderance, the imposing presence originally implied in the word 'glory'. Glory can be quickly reduced to something observable in detachment and completely non-threatening. An exercise in feeling-good aesthetic contemplation.

Perhaps we resort to this habit of distancing because we have trouble holding together God as a consuming fire and God as a compassionate father.

Glory in the story

How much is some form of glory the ultimate objective and fulfillment of all our human strivings? Yet we tend to see glory in terms of possessions, beauty, honour, fame, influence, power. Marketing and consumerism capitalize on this longing for glory.

We claim glory, we strive to achieve glory -- but glory has always been with us. It has been given us by God.

Glory: conventional definitions

Working script...

< What do we know about the glory of God?

< We gather here each Sunday
to worship God
to encounter God in his glory.
to encounter the glory of the living God

What is this glory?
What is this encounter?
Where is it found?
How does it happen?

There is a history of these encounter over the ages.
The children of Israel....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

< What do we know about the glory of God?
What do we know about
the glory of the Father
the glory of the Son
the glory of the Spirit?

We make claim to glory
we strive to achieve glory
— yet glory is given, bestowed on us by God
We are made in God's image, we reflect his glory
We are guardians of God's glory.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

< « When you wake in the morning,
where is the Glory?
do you see the Glory?
do you know the Glory?
When you greet your friends in the street
where is the Glory?
As you labour in the workplace
where is the Glory?
When you lay down to rest for the night
where is the Glory?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[begin with a riff on the 'Gloria']

< The glory of the Lord.

What is this glory? It is not a word that doesn't come often to our lips except when we speak of sunsets or sports championships. But we encounter it everywhere we look in Scripture — in the accounts of Moses, the Kings, the Prophets and the Risen Christ.

It is one of the major attributes of God the Father: it is also revealed to us through the Son Jesus, and we brush against it everyday through his Spirit.

But what is this glory? By definition, glory has to do with great honour, praise, prestige or distinction; brilliant radiance, majestic beauty and splendour, dignity of mind or heart. There is also a sense of weightiness or might of being that by nature imposes itself upon all present. And it is not only a mysterious external radiance, but also the radiant centre of a being, in its stateliness for itself and others.

Instances of Glory in Scripture

"Who among the gods is like you?"

God's glory that fills the whole earth.
• In the splendour and magnificence of the created order
"The heavens declare the glory of God."
• also in the deep forces of nature.
"Our God comes and does not keep silent,
before him is a devouring fire and a raging storm all around him."

God's glory shown in the mighty deeds of saving and leading his people.

"You have crowned human beings with glory and honour."

God's glory as reflected in humankind, made in his own image.

The Glory of Jesus the Messiah

The Glory of God's Abiding Spirit