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"Glory"
She was the most unlikely of heroes, at least from a human perspective, but not from God’s perspective. When the news began to travel around the black community of Montgomery what Rosa Parks had done, the initial response was two words: "Glory! Hallelujah!"
What does glory mean there? Glory is a human being making an extraordinary life and death commitment regardless of what lies ahead, and doing so by God’s grace. "Glory to God" in the angels’ song is about God's extraordinary commitment to us. Glory enables us to affirm meaning, despite all the ambiguities and tragedies and misunderstandings which surround us. We are named and known and loved. Advent and Christmas is about a God with an awesome commitment to us and the world. God reaches out to us hearing our anger, embracing our pain, accepting our hurt, and preparing us for healing by one who takes account of our wounds and who knows what it means to be wounded, Jesus himself. Glory! Has not a rod and a staff been put in your hand when you have passed through the valley of the shadow? In the darkest moments, when you nor I could discern neither road nor bridge, neither shepherd nor staff, somehow we did not lose our confidence in God's guiding hand. Glory! This God forgives our sins, is with us in our anxiety, comforts us in our loneliness, shows us our neighbor, and kindles love in our hearts. You and I discover that, in all times, good and bad, in all the high points and frustrating times of our life, it is God that reaches out to us, shepherds us along, bears our burdens, wipes our brow in times of trouble, and makes death easier by holding us in the everlasting arms. That's the way it is with God. "He who comes to me I will not cast out," says Jesus. He died for those words. He took us that seriously. Glory! The Hebrew word for glory means weight: to have weight. God who is weighty gives weight to us. In the realm of glory we know far more than we can grasp with our finite minds. We see with our hearts. This new knowledge is not simply rational or logical, it is something much more profound. We know that a loving God will not abandon what God creates. We know that the human calling is living with this power of love. We know that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Such love does not falter, is not dependent upon merit, virtue, or qualifications. Glory! Hallelujah! But you and I get bogged down in our own depression over losses too deep, needs too great, and wounds too old. We say, "Oh, but I have been defeated too often"? Then the gospel says, this glory is for the defeated. We say, "But don't you see? Life has beaten me so utterly"? The gospel says, this glory is for the beaten. We say, "Oh, but you don't understand! It is my character I am thinking of, it is fixed and hardened and bound and fettered as with chains"? The gospel says, this glory is for the hardened. "To him that loved us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood, to Him be glory and dominion!" We are loosed, we are free! Glory! What does glory mean there? Glory is being pulled out of ourselves, of being linked with the consistent creator who has a constant purpose for all: growth into the likeness of God as selfgiving love. Glory is linked, linked with the power which brought the galaxies into being and orchestrated the music of the spheres. I have a point of view. You have a point of view. But God has view; God knows and comprehends it all. God gives weight to history and nature, to us. Violence grips the world we live in, confusion and bewilderment possess it, and all kinds of arrogant ideas and plans are afoot for the future. Things we thought solid have turned out to be mere shadow, and some shadowy things, by our reckoning have come to stand solidly. But God has not abandoned this world. God is faithful to the divine intentions. We have reason to make commitments, pledges and vows to get on with the painful joy of fulfilling our destiny. There is an Easter force for life in a world where the power of death appears to be vibrant and pervasive. Justice will be established in the earth! God ceaselessly wrestles with us, thwarting our sins from ever coming to final triumph. Glory! Darkness does not change the stars. Storm and cloud may obscure or hide them, but they remain. So this world's vast, violent storm may "blot out" many things for a time, but the "foolishness of God," the grace of Jesus, the glad news of the gospel, all the seemingly impractical, unreal, intangibles of the Spirit reappear and manifest their eternal character and enduring worth. God reminds us of these things when the storm is at its worst, and they seem to be overwhelmed by stronger and more powerful forces. The fog and the mist and the clouds in our lives and our minds do not destroy God's creative purposes. Our horizontal thinking is challenged by the verticalness of God's glory. Above this earth's confusion, glorious is the mighty plan, the steadfast order sure, in which the world began, endures, and shall endure. Feel again the weight of God’s glory, God’s commitment. Glory! Sometimes we must say that's the way things are! We can't see beyond the pain, the difficulty. We need to be reminded in this do-it-yourself age that it is indeed God who has made us and not we ourselves. We are human and humble and of the earth. And yet we have a share in God's creating, in God's work. Our freedom to create is far less limited than some people think. Glory enlarges our own sense of reality. We are set in a Kingdom here with work to do. Recognition of the glory of God as revealed in Jesus Christ is of the greatest importance for life and conduct. We human creatures crave glory, some kind of splendor that may clothe our lives with meaning and significance. But here it is easy, treacherously easy, to miss the real thing! Too often we think of "glory" in terms of the private possession of great wealth, or in terms of the pomp, prestige and power of position. We now desperately need to behold a "glory" that does not mean loss and pain to others, the glory of One who lifted the fallen, healed the sick, befriended the poor, the outcast, and little children; who abhorred cant and cruelty and all injustice; who, when he was reviled, did not answer with reviling, and when he suffered prayed: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." This is the glory we need, the glory of compassion feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, bringing hope to the despairing; the glory of good will, with no other desire than to do the things that make for peace; the glory of a love that knows no distinction of nationality, race, color, or class but is all-embracing, and that works for the good of both friend and foe creating justice, compassion, forgiveness, community, a good livelihood for all. Glory! The commonplace and ordinary is filled now with new glory--old burdens become lighter, deep and ancient wounds lose much of their old, old hurting. Despite all of the crassness of life, despite all of the hardness of life, despite all of the harsh discords of life, life is saved by the glory of God. The power behind every thought of your brain and every beat of your heart and every breath of your body is God! The environment in which you live and move and have your being is God! The final, irreducible, and inescapable factor of your universe is God! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Get a little emotion, passion, realization, insight into your Christmas. Let me get you started:
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Harry Daniel