Glorified in Us

WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR?

We are currently facing a crisis in mental health. It is far beyond the ability of our health system to apply a bandaid or quickfix.

Symptom of a living in a world where, for many people, there is very little sense of purpose, and very little hope for the future.

For many people life is drudgery.

Yet, it has not always been this way. There have been communities and whole societies in the past who were far less wealthy that we are today, but who shared a sense of purpose and direction that we do no have today.

The Shorter Westminister Catechism, regularly used since the mid-1600’s by Presbyterians, Baptists and Congregational churches to instruct young Christians, begins with a question about human purpose:

‘What is the chief end of man?’ ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.’

That may sound superspiritual to modern people. But it was this underlying sense of purpose that enabled people to see thier life and work, not as mere drudgery, but as a vocation in which they could express something of God’s character and truth. In other words, to glorify God.

In John’s Gospel we are given the priveledge of hearing the words Jesus prayed before his arrest. Jesus, in his prayer to the Father, expresses his desire. Jesus wants to glorify God, and to be glorified in the lives of those who follow him.

DO WE REALLY CARE?

We have a powerful witness in the life of Jesus himself and in the life of the Christian Community in many different times and cultures. Surely people should be flocking to churches to find out what this God-glorifying life is all about?

Sadly, many of us pass over the words of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 as if it had no relevance to our lives whatsoever.

We have forgotten that glorifying God is central to practicing the Christian life. We have also forgotten that glorifying God is something that extends to every dimension of our lives.

Glorifying God, giving praise to God, is not something limited to a worship gathering or time of prayer. In fact Jesus condemned those who worshipped God with words but whose hearts and actions were far from God. When Jesus described what a God glorifying life looked like he gave examples such as:

being people who are quick to reconcile and forgive,

who are faithful in thier relationships,

who show love to thier enemies.

who give to others without seeking reward.

The apostle Paul pointed out that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit…and that we are to therefore “glorify God in your body.”

How often do we ask ourselves if what we do gives glory to God? We need to learn to ask that question in ways that draw us further and further into a God glorifying life.

Does buying food or clothes produced by cheap labour give glory to God? Does eating this burger or this bag of junk food give glory to God? Does filling up a landfill with all my rubbish give glory to God?

We need to realise that glorifying God is an all of life kind of thing.

GLORIFYING GOD

Before we think any further about what it means for us to glorify God, we need to put our focus on Jesus and how he glorified God.

Jesus uses most of his prayer in chapter 17 to talk about himself; about his relationship with God the Father and with his disciples.

Anyone else praying like this would be considered egocentric. But Jesus is unique. He is clearly the focal point for Christians when it comes to a God-glorifying life.

In John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus glorifies God by giving eternal life to all people. And eternal life is described as a relationship in which we know the “only true God and Jesus Christ” who God sent.

This means the starting point for any God-glorifying life is first of all to recognise the glory of God in Jesus, especially in his work of salvation on the cross.

In his prayer we see Jesus like the Jewish high priest, praying a prayer of consecration before making the sacrifice that cleanses the people of sin. But there is an important difference. In this case Jesus is not only the priest, he is also the sacrifice.

This is his prayer of consecration as he prepares to complete the God-glorifying, saving work of the cross. Jesus prays both for himself and for the discipleship community. His prayer gathers them into his saving work asking that they would be sanctified, that is “set apart” for God, and protected from the evil one.

It is the God-glorfiying prayer of Jesus and his saving work on the cross that makes it possible for us to live a God-glorifying life.

IT INVOLVES ALL OF LIFE

Often giving glory to God is costly. But our focus is not on the cost but on the hope of glory.

Jesus expressed this in his prayer to the Father. He asked, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.”

It cost Jesus something to reveal God’s glory to a sin blinded humanity. He had to leave his glory behind, he “entered our world his glory veiled.” He had to suffer the agony of the cross. But Jesus looked beyond the cross, asking to once again be glorified in God’s presence.

Now, the same pattern holds true for those who follow Jesus. At the end of John’s Gospel Jesus renews his call to Simon Peter to follow him. As he does so Jesus indicates to Simon the kind of death he will suffer in his old age. Tradition has it that Simon Peter was also crucified. John says that by this death Simon would “glorify God.”

When Anna and I became a couple we really wanted to glorify God in the way we did that. One way we chose to glorify God was to not to cohabit until we were married. Our friends and family thought we were just being old fashioned, but it was important to us that our intimacy didn’t run ahead of our committment to each other. Of course we were young then. We’ve since learned there are thousands of little sacrifices we must make to glorify God in our relationship, and we definitely don’t always get it right.

But the point is this, there is a cost to a meaningful, purposeful life. But the cost is far outweighed by our growing awareness of God’s glory amidst the everyday tasks and rhythms of life.

SEEING THE GLORY

Several years ago, while on Sabbatical, I was deeply moved by one of the prayers an elderly Jesuit prayed during the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper.

“Lord open our eyes, that we may see the world as you saw it in your lifetime on earth. Lord open our ears, that we may hear the world as you heard it in your lifetime on earth. And above all, open our hearts, that we may feel the world as you felt it in your lifetime on earth.”

It reminded me that following Jesus is not simply about how we “do” things. It is about how we “see” the world. Psalm 19 tells us, “The heavens are telling the glory of God.” The Apostle Paul wrote that all things convey some God-given glory, but each in their own way. The sun. The moon. The stars. Heavenly things and earthly things, all conveying a God-given glory. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has read the Bible that we exist to glorify God in our bodies, in our speech, and in our actions.

But are our hearts open. to see and hear and feel the glory?

Even in a world that seems so broken, socially and environmentally, God’s glory is both a present and future reality. Terrance Mallick’s heart-breaking film “The Thin Red Line” tells the story of US soldiers fighting in the Solomon Islands during World War 2. Amidst the conflict one of the characters, Private Witt, has an epiphany of God’s glory. He witnesses the glory in the natural world, in the hymns of the local village people, in the playfulness of the children. Even in the midst of mindless devastation Private Witt invites us to “recover the good within us and reach out to touch the glory.”

INVITATION

I began by acknoweldging that we are facing a crisis in the mental health and wellbeing of our nation.

You may, like many of us, know someone, or experience in your own life, the struggle for wellbeing. It’ not easy to live in a world that seems harsh and insensitive. Where progress, performance and profit seem more important than people.

But there is something we can do.

We can begin to recover the underlying purpose that gives energy and direction to human life. We have been created to share in the glory of God.

Jesus has made it possible for us all to share God’s glory, and to glorify God in the big things and in the small things of our lives. There is no one who needs to miss out. There is no one beyond redemption. It doesn’t matter what you have done in the past, or what has been done to you. Jesus has included you in his prayer. The greatest prayer ever prayed asked that you too would be set apart to share God’s glory.

Take time in the week ahead to reconnect yourself with God’s glory in the world around you. And invite Jesus, in your prayer, to begin to be glorified in who you are and in what you do.