The Glory of God
By Charles Rush
December 7, 2003
Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9
e choir just sang about the birth of the Christ Child, emanuel, which means “God is with us”, and later “Arise and shine, for the glory of God is with you.” And the text I just read promise a time when “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”
It is said that the glory of
God rested upon the Ark of the Covenant that the Israelites carried through the
desert to the Promised Land. A sense of its power was so wonderfully captured
in the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. The nasty, bad Nazis found the Ark were
planning to bring it into battle because its supernatural powers used to drive
back the enemy in the Bible. The SS were in possession of the Ark and were
about to ship it to Berlin, when curiosity got the best of them and they
decided to open it and see what was inside before they opened it for Die
Fuhrer. They had done a lot of homework but not enough.
The adventuresome scholar
Indiana Jones knew better. He had done all his homework and knew that in the
Bible no one can look directly upon God and live, so he closes his eyes and
makes sure his very nice, pleasant girl friend closes her eyes too. The bad,
nasty Nazis open the Ark and light pours out. They all smile this supernatural
smile that quickly turns to horror as they melt before our very eyes. Don't you
wish the moral universe were so straightforward and quick? Bad Nazis get
theirs, good scholar/adventure guy gets nice girl.
In the book of Exodus, Moses goes up to the top of
Mount Sinai to conference with the Almighty. The top of Mount Sinai is covered
in cloud and he ascends above it. Moses returns with the 10 commandments and
the story goes on to say that his face shone so brightly that his brother had
to put a veil around him for three days so that people could look at him.
In the First Testament,
there are three different powers that designate the presence of God: Spirit,
word, and wisdom.[1] The
universal presence of God is depicted in terms of light, a light that is said
to be the food of angels. Light illumines the four corners of the earth and
sustains us. When angels appear, they are flooded in light. It signifies that
the fullness of God has drawn near to us.
In the ancient world there
were two famous examples of people trying to imitate that effulgent light of
God's glory. The first was Egypt. The capital city of Egypt had a couple of
stele. The Washington monument is a copy of one, albeit the Washington monument
was much taller than the original.
These stele were covered in
a finish called electrum – a mixture of silver and gold. In the desert, when
the sun hit them they created an aura of effulgent light that was reportedly
visible over the horizon. Travelers to the ancient city saw a round glow of
golden hue on the distant horizon before they ever saw the actual city itself.
The glow commanded a certain humility in those who might think of attacking the
grand Imperial city especially. It was intended to send a not so subtle message
that the rulers of this empire were themselves human but also divine and to be
treated as such.
The other was Pantheon in
Rome, a building with the largest dome in the ancient world, which housed
shrines to all of the gods of the Imperial City. The dome in the Vatican and indeed
the dome in our Capital building were both inspired by the Pantheon. Like all
buildings that were constructed before the invention of glass, illumination is
a central architectural challenge. The pantheon solved the problem this way.
The center of the dome is held together by a circle that is open to the sky. On
the inside, they covered in a reflective metal, either brass or electrum, I
cannot recall. On the floor below, the also had an inlaid circle, probably 12
feet in diameter, that was covered in electrum as well. Light bounced off the
brass ring in the ceiling and reflected back up from the inlaid gold and
silver. Finally they lined the upper dome with inlaid electrum and inset
precious jewels. The total effect was to create and effulgent light of
mysterious quality. The apocryphal story about the building is that it was so
beautiful and unique that when the barbarians conquered Rome, and entered the
building with the intention of looting it, they stopped in awe, and quietly
left it intact.
Effulgent light has that
spiritual effect on us. Think for a moment the way that you have felt at the
glory of a sunrise out in the wide-open space of nature with a mountain in the
background. You just let it bathe over you. The earth wakes up and comes alive
with the light of the Sun. One of the most dramatic visions of nature I've seen
was at the tip of the Sinai desert, at a dive spot called Ras Muhammad. That
morning, I was there with only one other diver. The coral reef drops off a
cliff that is several hundred feet deep. Visibility is lucid and clear, so the
backdrop changes wonderful shades of azure fading into midnight blue. The water
was streaked with shafts of light from a cloudless day and the sea teemed with
tens of thousands of coral fish swimming in schools by the hundreds, in the
most vivid assortment of colors. It was a jaw dropping display of natural
beauty and wonder. Light has that way of opening up the world, bringing things
to life.
It is not surprising that
God is described as effulgent light, the force, the power that under-girds us,
and makes us alive. We come to the season that celebrates light, remembering
the towering words from the gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God;
all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that
was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… The true light that
enlightens every man was coming into the world… And the Word dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have
beheld his glory.” We remember that God draws close to us and under-girds us.
God is an accessible force.
And we are for each other. I
was reading an article in the Journal this week on Father's and their daughters
that illumined our spiritual support for each other.[2]
A woman was sharing her first memory of her father. As a very small child she
woke up. Her father was carrying her from the car into the house to bed. She
remembered his strength and his comfort, supporting her when she was small and
sleeping. What a wonderful image. What a great way to be remembered by a grown
daughter.
The article mentioned a
bunch of very simple things that we can do to support those around us. One Dad
used to write his daughter a note every day and put it in her lunch. They were
simple notes that told her she was important, that she was beautiful. He never
got much of a response from them, but a couple years later he was in her room,
looking for something, and he noticed that under her bed she had a box and she
had saved every one of them.
It is so important to be a
blessing to other people, to shine the glory of God upon them. We know how
atrophied we can be without it. One woman described the emotional distance that
her father had. He never communicated clearly love to her. She said that for
her, what happened was the first man who said he loved her she jumped right in
the sack with and there followed a promiscuity that was a failed attempt to
find genuine love.
No question us fathers can
be an enormous blessing, reminding our daughters that they are beautiful just
as they are and that they have intrinsic value and are important to us. It is
not a dramatic one time event, but lots of small lights of love and support
that work.
And we can get better. One
father said that he made sure that his first communication of the day was
positive and a blessing. Before he was conscious, his first comment was often
something like, “Alright, who left their shoes in the kitchen?” Now, he stops
himself, rewinds tape, and plays it again. He is still concerned about the
shoes… but that can't be his sole identity and communication.
We can be a blessing to each
other. We need to stop for a moment and take stock and think about that and why
not during this season of light and blessing. How can we give each other the
real spiritual gifts that we need, the gift of light, the gift of life. The
author of 1 John says “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one
another then God abides in us and God's love comes to perfection in us” (4:12).
Earlier he says, “if we walk in the
light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” In short,
we are a blessing, a love for one another. That is God in action. It is the
gift that keeps on giving. My hope is that we can stop in this season, open
ourselves in a fuller way, and bless one another. Amen.
[1] This comes
from the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible in the article on the
Shekinah
[2] The article,
I believe, was in Thursday's paper. Dec. 4, 2003. It was on the front page of
the Personal Journal section.
© 2003
Charles Rush.
All rights reserved
