"Glory is..."

Glory is
what the Lord gained from himself through Pharaoh and all his army
when they pursued the children of Israel into the desert

The glory of the Lord
is what appeared in the cloud to all of Israel
and settled on Mount Sinai as a consuming fire

God’s glory
is what passed by Moses
in a cleft of the rock on Mount Sinai

God’s glory is what filled the tabernacle
in the wilderness

The glory of the Lord is what fills the whole earth

God’s glory
is what was shown the people of Israel
when they heard God’s voice from the fire

Glory is what departed from Israel
when the Ark of the Covenant was captured

The glory of Israel
is the Lord who does not lie or change his mind

The glory of the Lord
is a cloud that filled the temple

I Chronicles 29.11

The glory of the Lord
is what God bestows
when the psalmist declares that God is shield that surrounds

God’s glory is
what men turn into shame
by loving delusions and pursuing false gods

God’s glory is what God has set above the heavens

Glory and honour is what God has crowned upon humankind

The glory of God is what the heavens declare

Glory and strength is what the mighty ones ascribe to the Lord

God’s glory is what is over all the earth

God’s glory and power are what are seen in the sanctuary

Glory is what all nations will bring to the name of the Lord

Glory and strength are what are in the sanctuary

Glory is what
all the peoples see when the heavens proclaim God’s righteousness

A king’s glory is a large population

Glory is the strength of young men

The glory of God is to conceal a matter

The glory of the survivors is the fruit of the land

Glory to the Righteous One
is what is sung from the ends of the earth [Isaiah 40.5]

All the glory of men is like the flowers of the field [that wither and fade]

God’s glory is what he will not give to any other

God’s glory is what God displays in Israel

His glory is what God will not yield to another

The glory of the Lord will be the rear guard of the righteous

God’s glory is what men will revere from the rising of the sun

Not the sun nor the moon but the glory of the Lord
will be the everlasting light Isaiah 60.19

Glorious and holy is God’s lofty throne

God’s glory is what all nations and all tongues will be gathered to see

God’s glory is what
God’s people have exchanged for worthless idols

Glory is what
we give to the Lord before he brings the darkness
before our feet stumble on the darkening hills

The glory of the Lord is
a radiance around God
like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day

The glory of the Lord is
the cloud that filled the temple
and the radiance that filled the court

The glory of the God of Israel
had a voice like the roar of rushing waters
and filled the land with radiance

The glory of Ephraim
is what will fly away like a bird

The knowledge of the glory of the Lord
is what will fill the earth
as the waters cover the sea

The glory of the Lord
is what covers the heavens

God’s glory
is what is within Jerusalem
at the same time as
God is a wall of fire around it

Glory as well as honour and power
is what the Lord God is worthy to receive

Glory
as well as power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and praise
is what the Lamb who was slain
is worthy to receive

Glory and salvation and power to God
is what the great multitude shouted in heaven

The glory of God
is what the holy city of Jerusalem descending from heaven
shine with


new testament

The Father’s glory wwith the holy angels
is what the Son of Man comes in
on the clouds of the sky

The glory of the Lord is what shone around the shepherds of Bethlehem
when as angel of the Lord appeared

The glory of the Father and of the angels nd of his own glory is what the Son of Man will come in

The glory of the Lord is what Peter and his companions saw on the mount of transfiguration

Glory is what Christ entered into after he had suffered

The gory of the Lord is what we have seen when the Word became flesh and dwelled among us

Jesus’ glory
is what was revealed when he performed a miraculous sign in Cana of Galilee

It was for God’s glory that Lazarus died and was restored to life by Jesus

The glory of the Lord is what can be seen by those who believe

Glory on earth is has been brought to us by Jesus completing the work given to him to do

Glory is what
Jesus gave to his disciples so that they may one as Jesus and God the Father are one

Glory is what God gave to Jesus because he love him before the creation of the world

The glory of the immortal God is what xxxxx exchanged for images made to look like mortal men, birds, animals and reptiles. romans 1:23

The glory of God is what all who have sinned have fallen short of

Glory is what Abraham gave to God in his strengthened faith

It was the glory of the Father through which Christ was raised from the dead

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

Impetus for a dramatic reading on God's glory

This will be an ongoing post that lists the major topic areas for a dramatic reading. The following are possible areas of focus:

• Glory is a word whose use today is mostly applied to sunsets of overwhelming beauty or the victors of sporting events. But it is a seemingly ubiquitous word used through Scripture in a wide range of contexts. It's exact meaning is never clearly defined, yet for all its indeterminancy of meaning, its position suggests its extreme value. It seems that we have lost the capacity to see or recognize a deeper glory.

• the changes/transitions in how YHWH reveals his glory, how YHWH makes his glory known.

• coming to an understanding of how believers are in many senses "guardians of God's glory"

• to fully appreciate God's glory — does that change our relationship with God? Does it change our understanding of the "personal" nature of God? Is a personal God necessarily intimate? How does one reconcile/synthesize/comprehend the other nature of God and the deeply penetrating nature of God?

• the liturgy of worship should lead us to encounter the glory of God.

If the gathered people feel in their inmost selves how much in need they are of the arrival of the Lord among them and in them in order to grow into a real church and for each one to be filled with an ecclesial attitude, then a subjectively responding event will correspond to what occurs objectively. With the awareness of one's own unworthiness, the worthiness of the liturgy grows. [Hans Urs Von Balthasar]

But if it is really God's word and self-communication that we are to hear and understand, then this surely cannot occur on the basis of a neutral foreknowledge about what 'words' mean or what 'truth' is. Such encounter with God can only occur by virtue of a primary sense of being over-awed by the undialogical presupposition of the dialogue that has started — namely the divinity of gory of God. If this shock did not take place then the whole conversation would rest on a foundation of untruth... The first impact of divinity can never be spared the person encountered, a shock that will then penetrate and affect all succeeding speeches and replies. [Hans Von Balthasar]

•

Glory and Confession

In reading The Glory of the Lord, volume VI by Hans Urs Von Balthasar, I have been struck by how often the "situation" of confession arises in discussing God's glory.

p.13
The glory of the God who discloses himself always reveals his holiness as well, and thus it also discloses the full unholiness of the person beholding the glory: 'Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips [Isaiah 6.5]. 'When Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord"' [Luke 5.8]. For Paul, the voice comes out immediately from the blinding light: 'Why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads' [Acts 26.14]. Ezekiel sees the glory already in the colours of judgment, and Daniel likewise [Daniel 7.9f], and the glorified Son of Man seen by John also has the figure of a judge [Revelations 1.13-16].

It is not possible to enjoy a reposeful aesthetic contemplation of the divine glory, a contemplation that would consider God in himself and thus could dispense with the opposition between God's holiness and the unholiness of the world [which includes the contemplator].

Glory is the intruding lordliness of him who comes to confront the world, both judging it and gracing it. It is this that distinguishes the biblical reality from the epiphanies of gods outside the Bible.