The Silence of God

by Peter Lockhart on Psalm 42

Video Andrew Peterson 'The silence of God'

“As a deer longs for flowing streams,

So my soul longs for you, O God.”

The silence of God in our era, as with many other eras in history, is palpable. The longing words of Psalm 42 are words that could be cried out as much by an agnostic as man or a woman of faith.

Where is God?
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

These are words of confusion and of lament, words that many of us in our faith are reticent to articulate for fear others might judge us as somehow inadequate in our walk with God. If I admit I do not hear God’s voice to other Christians, let alone people who have a different or no faith, what will they think of me?

Yet I would argue that direct revelation whether they come in dreams or audible voices are the exception not the rule. Certainly this is the case in the Biblical narratives. Whilst there are people who have such miraculous moments of connection, those whose hearts are strangely warmed and those who see visions, so many others have only silence.

Where is God?
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

In the storm of life there are people who cry out to God all the time.

The cry of those born in poverty who die as yet another statistic in a roll call far too great for our hearts to bear.

The cry of those without work and whose dignity is lost and whose lives so often spiral into despair.

The cry of those who live with constant pain as age and infirmity eat away at their lives.

The cry of those who suffer from a terminal illness as they long for a miracle.

The cry of our own lives as we look for a glimpse of the divine in the midst of our joys and sorrows.

I often think that those who sit in the mysterious silence of our God are in some way are especially blessed if maintain any faith at all. Jesus said to Thomas, blessed are those who believe without seeing, and might I add hearing.

For it is not simply the silence of God which confronts us it is the loud doubt and scorn of the world that surrounds us. The Psalmist laments:

My tears have been my food day and night,
while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”

We live in a country and a time where and when less people are involved in the church and the church is subject to judgement and to ridicule. The mob’s voices fill the silence with a raging torrent of words offering other options and other hopes and other despairs.

Whilst the voices clamour around us as people of faith as we are questioned in our confused silence and misconceptions about God’s revelation we argue amongst ourselves.

Where can we find hope?

In the Old Testament we read of the prophet Elijah in the midst of despair on the run from Ahab and Jezebel and in the midst of his trials God comes in this way:

9At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 11He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 15Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.

The storm may rage around us, the storm that is life and we might think that God is absent as we cry when God is silent but let us not forget Elijah’s experience that it was in the sheer silence that God was present.

Maybe the silence that we experience is simply that moment which rests on the cusp of God’s speaking and maybe like the Psalmist we will remember that whatever we may be feeling or thinking, that:

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

For the silence of God that we experience is the silence that Jesus experienced in his sense of abandonment on the cross. The silence we experience is the still of Saturday when Jesus descended into the dead. But the silence we experience is also the sheer quiet in the empty tomb from which Christ has risen. God is never absent from the silence and if God is silent it never means that God is absent. Let us find hope and heart in the silence of God that we are not alone.

Two widows, two windows into grace!

Rev Peter Lockhart

The readings today from 1 Kings and from Luke 7 lead us into hearing about 2 nameless widows who

encounter God’s grace. Widows in ancient societies often are numbered among the poorest of the poor because in male dominated societies they had no male to provide for and protect them. This morning I want to revisit each of these stories to consider the lessons which God might be giving to us on this day.

To begin with we travel back long before Jesus to the time of the prophet Elijah and we encounter a widow gathering sticks outside the town of Zarephath. Now Zarephath we are told belongs to Sidon and it is probable that she was a Phoenician woman. She is in desperate need in a time of drought.

Now if we had have read the preceding passages we would know that this drought was been sent by God and proclaimed by the prophet Elijah because the Israelite King Ahab had married the Phoenician Princess Jezebel and Ahab had begun to worship Baal with her. This helps us to understand not only the reason for the drought but that the widow that Elijah is sent to by God could be classed as God’s enemy.

So here we have this widow of Zarephath collecting sticks for her fire when Elijah the prophet appears asking for water. Now Elijah had been sent by God to this widow and trusting in God’s word he approaches her for help. The woman responds to his initial request with grace and goes to get water but before she gets fare Elijah asks for bread as well.

It is at this point the true depths of her situation are revealed as she informs Elijah that not only does she not have bread but that she had been collecting would to prepare the last her food for a final meal for her and her son after which she expected to die. Elijah reassures her that the Lord would provide and that neither the jar of meal or of oil would be emptied but would not fail until the rains came again.

Regardless of what the woman believed she obeyed the prophet’s words and used what she probably thought was the last of her food to make a meal for Elijah. The woman’s jars do not empty and do not fail and this is undoubtedly a miracle. God provides.

If we were to keep reading we would find out that despite God’s provision the woman’s son dies. She questions the prophet as to what she has done to deserve this at which time Elijah takes the boy and prays “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” God responds by raising her son from the dead at which point the woman goes on to declare that she now knows that Elijah is truly a prophet and the word of the Lord in his mouth is truth.

As I thought about this tale of the widow from Zarephath there were a number of lessons that came through that I believed were worthy of note.

First, that God’s gracious acts extend beyond the community of faith, the Israelites, to include even those who might be identified as God’s enemies.

Second, that God’s grace can be enacted by such outsiders and even those who have the least to offer.

And third, that both Elijah and the widow show some level of trust in the word of the Lord that comes to them even though they have every reason to doubt.

This brings me to say something about the widow from Nain. We have jumped ahead in history to Jesus time. And we hear about this widow as she accompanies the funeral board of her son. This woman is in a dire predicament not only has she lost her husband but now her son is dead as well. Her son no doubt represented the promise of a future for her.

There are two processions occurring: the funeral procession leaving the town; and the procession of Jesus and his followers entering the town. Jesus followers would have been on a high. He had just healed a centurion’s slave. This was another demonstration of God’s concern for those outside the community of faith. So those following Jesus would have had a sense of expectation and even joy.

As the two processions come together the centre of the story is punctuated by Jesus response, “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her.” Here is the heart of the story Jesus compassion, our Lord’s compassion - God’s compassion for those who suffer.

The woman did not seek Jesus’ help; she did pray or beg; nothing is said of her faith. Jesus responds to her because he has compassion for her - his heart goes out to her. This is the essence of God’s grace as Jesus heart goes out to the one who is suffering. Jesus raises the son from the dead not so that he can have eternal life but for the sake of the woman.

Once again there are clear lessons from the story but at the heart of the story is God’s heart, Jesus compassion for those in need. God’s grace comes in times of need without conditions and expectations but with love.

The two widows find themselves as recipients of God’s grace, non identities by the lack of their naming their place in scripture is elevated to being people who are cared for by God and moreover in the case of the woman from Zarephath can be agents of God’s grace.

These two stories should challenge any sense of piety or security in self righteousness that we have as they remind us that God’s grace is truly an unconditional thing and that whilst we might celebrate as God’s community of faith God’s love extend far beyond the bounds that we may wish to draw around things. For example if we were to think of whom we might consider outsiders and even enemies the notion that God is at work in them and through them might come as something as a surprise to us.

Or, if we were to consider those who suffer in the world making conditions on our aid of others may in fact be counter to the gospel.

I want to give you the opportunity to reflect a little more on what God might be saying to you this morning about grace and our response to God’s love.

Faith in Action

A. Grace is often encountered in surprising places; amidst people who we might consider strangers and even enemies or in moments of tumultuous moments of life, like a funeral procession.
Where or when have you encountered a glimpse of God’s grace in place or time that was unexpected?

B. God’s grace is at work in people who are not part of the community of faith.
Where do you see God’s grace at work in peoples who are not Christian?

C. God’s grace is worked through people who are not necessarily part of the community of faith.
Who outside the church has challenged you to grow in your faith?

D. God’s compassion for those who are suffering comes without condition.
Who is God calling you to help without condition?

Photo Creative Commons

Sing to God a new song!

by Rev Peter Lockhart

In a conversation with one of my colleagues recently he suggested a good way to test if a person was growing in their faith was to ask the question, “What was the last song that they had learned which had an
impact on their faith and how long ago was that?”

For people who love music and a sung faith I believe this is a poignant question. Even for those of you who may struggle with music and singing there is something in this.

Through the scriptures the Psalmists especially encourage the people of God to have a sung faith and there can be no doubt of the power of music in our lives and in our faith generally. We remember songs. They bring back memories. They speak to our souls. They can enfold us in a warm hug like an old friend or lead us to feel old hurts long past.

I have discovered through my ministry that often our favourite hymns embedded themselves in our lives at an early age, often as children, teens or young adults. Why? I suspect this is because our identity and sense of being is largely determined in these formative years, particularly with respect to our faith.

In these years our emotions are strong, there is vitality and hope in our outlook, there is passion for life and for love.

In terms of singing our old favourites are often associated with times of new and surprising discoveries about our lives, or our faith or about God.

Despite how beneficial our sung faith is to our spiritual growth and nurture I learnt many years go that the same sort of emotions evoked by our religious songs could be experience beyond the walls of the church

Like the Jimmy Barnes gig I went to at the Lismore RSL the night of my 18th birthday or the Hoodoo Gurus gig at the Mansfield Tavern or the James Taylor concert at the Boondall entertainment centre when his songs wafted through the building and left me soaring.

In fact it is because music is so powerful in our lives that I would constantly want to challenge people about whether hanging on to our favourite songs holds us back from new experiences that might help us to continue to grow.

The Psalmist encourages and yes also warns us to “Sing a new song to the Lord.”

Now singing a new song is an entirely personal experience because a new song is simply one that I have not sung before.

I can well remember the first time I sung the hymn ‘Lo! He comes’ at Toowong church about 15 years ago. I knew it was one of the minister’s favourite advent hymns.

Initially I saw the hymn as archaic; another dirge for the organ. But the reality was I was singing a new song to God. It didn’t matter that it was a few hundred years old – it was new to me and I did not like it – I felt it was hard to sing and old fashioned.

Yet if old favourite’s fit like my comfortable old ugg boots then maybe new songs sometimes are like a new pair of shiny black school shoes. They might cause a few blisters but in time they can be worn in and their true purpose and comfort to protect and support my feet will be found.

“Lo! He Comes!” is now one of my favourite hymns – it has become like another old friend who reminds me of the promise of Jesus return and God’s love for me. It just took some time for me to get used to it.

Now I might have just well have chosen a contemporary song, or a more ancient hymn of the church to give my example. My point is that sometimes learning the new song, singing the new song, and doing it exuberantly, as the Psalmist suggests, is not that easy. It involves taking the risk to actually sing that new song and be open to new things in our journey of faith.

This is not a carte blanche to novel understandings of the faith rather a learning process of remembering God’s faithfulness. The Psalm invites new songs to be song about what God has done.

Generation to generation the music in the church has changed. I once read a sermon by a Presbyterian Minister from New Zealand written in the late 1800s suggesting that the organ was the devil’s instrument. I have heard the same things said of drums and electric guitars. At my wedding a Piper lead us from the church – no true Scot would have done that. The Pipes were banned in churches because they are an instrument of war – the clans were lead by their pipers into battle.

Styles and instruments and words change and we are ever invited to sing a new song to the Lord. Those new songs may be ancients sung discovered anew or freshly words and tunes for our new age. Yet, wherever they come from they are an indication of a broader issue that we are growing together as a congregation.

Of course the question of singing a new song might be applied to every aspect of our faith as well. God is constantly calling us to new expressions of who we are and what we are doing.

In the book of Lamentations we read: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."

We believe in a God who comes to us afresh day by day to reinvigorate our souls, to create the new moment in which we are to live and to remind us of the constancy of God’s love revealed in Christ.

It is the good news shared with gentiles: “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

It is the intimacy declared to the disciples: “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”

It is the mystery of our participation in God’s grace: “And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”

In the Basis of Union of the Uniting Church it declares in Paragraph 11, “The Uniting Church thanks God for the continuing witness and service of evangelist, of scholar, of prophet and of martyr. It prays that it may be ready when occasion demands to confess the Lord in fresh words and deeds.”

Our whole faith is to become a new song as it adapts to the news rhythms of life around us and the cacophony of new ideas, whilst not losing touch with that ungirding and grounding beat of the creation’s song described by the Psalm and the gospel which we proclaim.

The question that lies before us as a congregation is what is the new song we are to be singing now? The new song of our faith!

Sometimes like singing a new song the possibility of change might seem a bit of a difficult ask, it might take a little time for us to get used to a new situation and embrace it, yet still we do the new thing that we believe God is calling us to in faith. We focus on the composer of life, its creator, sustainer and redeemer and we sing our faith with every aspect of our being.

If music is representative of our faith then singing new songs reflects our growth not just in musical appreciation but in our relationship with God.

I wonder when you last learnt a new song to the Lord and came to appreciate anew the gift of grace for the mercies of God which are indeed new every morning so great is his faithfulness.

Photo Creative Commons Tracy West

Peace: not as the world gives!

In the movie Miss Congeniality the contestants of the Miss America contest are asked, ‘If there is one thing in the world that you could wish for what would it be?’ One after another the contestants respond ‘world peace’, ‘world peace’, ‘world peace’¸ ‘world peace’… The answer is the expected one, it is the obvious one and in its own way it is the shallowest one.

Now whilst many people have hope for world peace the gospel reading today challenges us with a different

notion about peace than the peace that the world gives and that the world seeks. It speaks of the peace of Christ. So what is the difference?

If we think first about the peace that the world offers I would consider this peace on a number of different levels. First there is the idea of political or national peace. Second is the idea of peace in my personal relationships with family and friends. And third is the concept of inner peace.

To give a couple of examples of the kind of peace established by political means I would start by giving you the example of the world in Jesus time. In Jesus time people across much of North Africa, the Middle East and Europe were part of the Roman Empire. The Emperor Augustus established a vision of peace called the pax Romana or the peace of Roman. Rome established and kept this peace by invading territories and ruling those territories with might. True, the regions conquered by Rome were offered some concessions but ultimately it was on Rome’s terms. Peace was kept through the use of force and fear. This was the peace that the world offered in Jesus time. I wonder whether it has changed that much.

When I was growing up in the late seventies and early eighties people lived in the time known as the cold war. The two so called super powers, the USA and the Soviet Union, were having an arms race, building weapons of mass destruction to keep the peace. Peace was maintained through the threat of the annihilation of the planet. I can remember during my high school years believing that the world would be destroyed by war and I would die before I reached 18. As detached as I was from these great political events, I and many of my friends spoke of our fears. Just as in Jesus time a fragile peace was kept through the use of force and fear.

And, what about now? Well we know there is a still talk of a war on terror. Now I am not particularly interested in whether or not you agree with the ‘might is right’ approach to political power but ultimately this is the kind of peace that the world offers. It is unstable, often unsustainable and often very expensive. This kind of peace can inadvertently impact on the lives of millions.

What else can we say about the peace that the world offers? Do we have peace in our personal relationships and communities? I can remember hearing my own mother and many a teacher appealing for some peace and quiet. In most families relationships between brothers and sisters, parents and children, cousins and so on are never perfect. We may have good families but there are still times when there are problems. The same is true of friends, of colleagues, of teachers. Try as we might none of us develop perfect relationships. And even if we believe that we are getting on with everybody else we cannot control how others might be getting on with us. Is this the peace the world offers?

But what about inner peace? Spiritually and personally the world expects us to find inner peace, to have peace with ourselves, but how difficult is this when there is so much pressure? Reading any magazine, or watching the TV you will discover happiness lies in for example for a guy like me having a great set of pecks, and a good solid rack, enough hair, charm, good looks, intelligence, and charisma.

Questions continually confront us. Are you too fat or are you too thin? Do I wear the right brands of clothes? Is my hair perfect? What about my make up? The pressures to conform ourselves to the image of other people, especially the stars, is immense and contributes to great stress for many people – depression, anxiety, loneliness, isolation. The standards are unattainable.

Many individuals search out spiritual answers. Spirituality expos are on the increase. Meditation, crystals, oils and balms all directed at assisting people find their own sense of peace and well being. But even here the focus is often isolated from people’s experiences of life and when things don’t work out the sense of peace is too hard to sustain.

On all levels the peace that the world offers is limited to say the best.

So what does Jesus offer? Jesus says my peace I give to you. Drawing from his Jewish heritage Jesus when he speaks of peace is speaking of the fullness of a right and perfected relationship with God. Jesus had just such a relationship with God. His is a relationship which was not affected by sin, by turning away from God and God’s ways.

It is the relationship whereby God dwells in him and he in God and this has implications for Jesus relationship with the disciples and all other people. This is the peace that Jesus gives his disciples as a gift. The peace Jesus offers is not something that is to be strived for but accepted with thanks and praise. The peace that Jesus offers is our homecoming to God.

I am not sure where you think your true home lies but Jesus and the Bible speak of our true dwelling place, our home, to be in and with God. The reading from the book of Revelation this morning pointed us towards our future with God when we will live in the fullness of God’s presence. We sung of it in the song before the sermon.

Then we shall see a newborn sky,
A newborn earth below,
A newborn city, lit by love,
Where nothing false will go.
And God will live with humankind –
They will be his people sure –
And he will wipe their tears away,
And death shall be no more.

The promise of God’s future is that people will dwell in the presence of the glory and holiness of God: God who is the source of life in place that is abundant with food, with water, and with the light of God’s presence. It is a place where nothing false will grow. This is the destiny of all things reunion with God as God intends.

Yet in the reading from John it is clear that Jesus was going away from his disciples and that the new age was still to come. The fullness of the kingdom and peace with God lay ahead. So it is as I said to the children earlier that Jesus promise was that God would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to teach and remind us of everything that Jesus had said. To remind us of the peace that we have already with God and the peace that is promised.

As Christians whilst peace is given to us as a gift this is not some excuse for us isolating ourselves from the world and its suffering to live in some cocoon of peacefulness. Rather, the Spirit is sent so that through those who follow Jesus’ word others would come to know of God and God’s peace. We walk through the ups and downs of life like everybody else but in the midst of our journey we can know that we are not alone.

However, like the disciples we are still awaiting the return of our teacher, as the song put it we groan in longing and ask how long? In the mean time we are lead into sharing Jesus’ peace which passes all understanding. In the presence of this peace breaking out around, in and through us we become witnesses to the promise of the coming kingdom as it becomes part of our lives right now.

The answer of the Miss America contestants in the movie was a little glib. And more often than not in real life and whilst many of us probably do long for world peace it is too complex for us to see how that might happen. As Christians the peace that we have been given and await for in hope is the peace Jesus offers. Peace with God, which ultimately will bring us the fullness of peace with one another.

(Photo: Creative commons. Flickr Samantha Celera)

The Glory of God

Peter Lockhart Easter 5

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

These words of Jesus to the disciples are among the best known from all of the scriptures. Even many outside the church know that Jesus calls people to love one another.

Ironically, even sadly, despite how well these words are known, and how easily we might think we understand them, when we consider our own lives and the history of the church and the world around us we know that we fail miserably.

Loving those closest to us can be difficult – parents, husbands, wives, children, close friends – all of these relationships can cause us heartache and confront us with the difficulty we have in our capacity to love. This is before we even begin to think about loving other people in the church, and beyond, even our enemies!

Yesterday was ANZAC day. It is a day we commemorate those who have fought and died in wars, those who have lost loved ones and those who still serve. The need for ANZAC Day is an indictment on humanity in respect to the call to love one another.

Jesus love for his disciples was profound and challenging and we who follow Jesus as his disciples know this so well.

To understand the difficulty of love I want to explore a different but not unrelated theme from our 4 readings this morning – the theme of glory. It is theme which is quite pronounced in the gospel reading but rather than begin with Jesus being glorified I want to begin with the Psalm; then move to Peter’s address in Jerusalem recorded in Acts; after which, I will comment about Jesus glory; and, finally, we will hear about the promised future.

Turning then to Psalm 148 I want to begin with making a brief comment about the meaning of the word glory in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we are taught that God in Godself could not be seen – to look upon the face of God would be death to mortal humans. Yet God’s presence could be apprehended, his radiance known, and this was God’s glory, radiating from God’s own being.

To glorify God, to praise God was to reflect that glory back and this is what we hear that the very creation is doing in Psalm 148:

Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he commanded and they were created.

Praise the Lord from the earth,
you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command!
Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
10Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!

The relationship between God and what God has made in the creation is made manifest in the idea that creation itself sings out praising God. I would go as far as to say that not only is God’s glory being sung by the creation but that creation is reflecting that Glory and God’s presence to the world.

How many of you have found yourself staring into the starlight sky, or watching the roiling ocean, or wandering through the bushland or mountains and had a sense of God’s glory being reflected in what you are seeing and feeling.

Yet as the great reformation scholar John Calvin points out despite the fact that God’s glory is so manifest in the creation which surrounds us this knowledge flows away from us without it profiting us.

Yes we know God but then we fail to be transformed into loving God and God’s creation and people as we ought. For me the importance of Psalm 148 in reminding us of the goodness of the creation is so poignant in our modern era where we have so deeply exploited the world that the scars it now bears threaten our very life and security through the processes leading to pollution and climate change and desalination and deforestation and the destruction of the oceans and the list goes on.

How have we humans sought to mute the praise of the creation found in Psalm 148? Yet God still loves us and all that God has made.

This brings me to the second reading from the book of Acts where Peter is before the Jewish Christian in Jerusalem. He is being criticised for visiting gentile Christians.

In response Peter relays a vision which he has had in which God affirms the breaking down of barriers between Jew and gentile and challenges Peter to understand that God’s mercy and grace are available to all peoples who live on the earth.

It is only after hearing this challenge that we see that Jewish Christians are silenced from there divisive ways and praise God. God’s glory and God’s love are not restricted to those whom we may think belong. Or to look at it from the other angle God’s glory and love is not held back from those whom we may think are outsiders.

As human beings we have a tendency to exclude others.  This is challenged by God and this breaking down of barriers should not be a cause of fear or consternation but an invitation to glorify the God who shares his glory with all peoples.

So God’s glory is reflected in the creation and in all peoples but the reality is that we find these messages of good news hard to accept and understand fully. Perhaps this is because it is easier to feel as if we are somehow more special or different from others, which brings me to make a comment on the nature of God’s glory found in John’s gospel.

The passage from which we read is a part of the story of the last supper. The segment we read begins with the words, ‘When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.”’

This passage takes us back to that pre-Easter setting and it is important to reminded of who it is that had just gone out – Judas. It is after Judas leaves to betray Jesus; after Jesus has washed their feet; and after Peter had contradicted Jesus that Jesus says ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified!’

Jesus glory is revealed in the moments of betrayal that lead to the cross. God’s presence is seen here, glimpsed, in a way which simply does not fit with the way we think as human beings.

Instead of retaliation for the betrayal, for the doubt and even for the violence to be committed against Jesus, and so also God Jesus accepts with humility this rejection. In these moments Jesus shows that God’s love does not respond to such ignominious acts with anything but grace and mercy.

This is what God’s love is like, this is the love that Jesus invites his disciples to share in and this is God’s glory. As Christians who experience this amazing grace, this love divine, we who become Jesus disciples are taught that tolerance is not enough, that retribution has no place, and that loving one another sometimes involves sacrifice beyond our abilities.

It is through Jesus glorification that you and I are drawn into God’s glory as he carries all humanity into the space of the cross and resurrection and so reveals the promise of a new future.

This brings me to make a brief comment on the vision of Revelation 21. The overarching theme of the vision is a world at peace with God and each other living in the glorious presence of God – responding to that glory appropriately and celebrating it.

“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” 5And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.”

Despite our constant incomprehension and incompetence in responding to God’s glory revealed and sung by the creation, God’s promise is or a future when will live with one another in that glory. This is God’s love revealed in Jesus, the love which we have been given to share in as good news. Possibly this is the most difficult thing to do – to love as Jesus loved.

But the glory of God draws us in and homewards to participate in God’s glory and God’s life alongside the whole creation. So let us be silent and glorify the one who shares his glory with us and let us carry the good news of grace as the heart stone of our lives: God is love. Amen.