EXODUS 34:29-35

PSALM 99

1 CORINHIANS 12:27-13:13

LUKE 9:28-36

Sermon – 2/22/04

The word for today is GLORY. Glory is a word which is too lightly used in this day and age. Most often, some people get glorified and viewed as “stars” far out of proportion to the importance of what they have done. This is true even for good and reputable people, not even mentioning those whose deeds are truly inglorious.

The kind of “glory” which is most often publicized in this country is that of so-called “star” athletes or entertainers. However, the amount of true glory even “big stars” like Alex Rodriguez – or Tom Brady – or Nicole Kidman or Tom Hanks have, could be likened to this night light [lift it up]. It is light – but it’s small, and if it’s the only light you have, then you are really in the dark. And if the only glory you know about is this kind of glory, then you are really in the dark in more ways than literally.

Then there is the glory more justly awarded to those who risk their lives to save others – for example, many brave fire fighters, police officers and members of the armed forces. They are not playing games, unlike the athletes. It really matters whether emergency personnel “make the plays” or not. Their glory in comparison to that of so-called stars is, you could say, like this 100-Watt bulb, far outshining the so-called stars of entertainment and sports.

Then there is the glory of those who save or profoundly change for better the lives of thousands or millions through their dedication, hard work, brilliance and, often, courage. Jonas Salk, inventor of the vaccine against polio, made it possible for millions to grow up asking “What’s polio?” instead of seeing its lethal and crippling effects first hand, and there are many other medical pioneers like him who had earned their glory. Mahatma Gandhi led a movement that won independence for more people than any movement in history – and without any war for independence. Winston Churchill was crucial in preventing a victory by Adolph Hitler in World War II. Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union and freed the slaves – and, incidentally, if America had not stayed one united country which would then enter World War II united against the Nazis, World War II might not have ended as it did – so Lincoln’s legacy looms extra large. The glory of history-making leaders like this is like the searchlights used at the opening of shopping centers: enough to light far more than a room.

But the glory we’re talking about in today’s Gospel is brighter than any of these kinds of glory, greater even than that of Moses “whose face shone because he had been talking with God.” Moses’ glory was brighter than these other kinds of glory; his glory was like that of a full moon, reflecting the sun’s rays enough for people to see by across a vast expanse of earth.

The Glory of God, on the other hand, is like the sun itself, far, far outshining even the brightest glory of the greatest human beings. This is the glory Moses witnessed on Mount Sinai, this is the glory Peter, James and John witnessed revealed in Jesus Christ, who even outshone his great forebears Moses and Elijah and was revealed on the Mount of Transfiguration as unique.

It is no wonder good old St. Peter, the impetuous, blurted out a proposal to build booths for Jesus, Moses and Elijah in response to this revelation – neither Peter nor anyone else had any basis upon which to formulate a proper response to so stupendous a revelation.

But Jesus didn’t invite Peter up the mountain because Jesus wanted him to be Junior Warden, with James and John as the rest of the Property Committee. They were invited so they could begin to understand what real glory is – and to be able to respond appropriately by, as God’s voice told them, listening to Jesus.

And one of the things Jesus told them to do was to love other people. Not with sentimental love, or here-today-and-gone-tomorrow love, or just with love for the lovable in circumstances that make love convenient and easy, but all-weather love. Love when life doesn’t make sense, love when the going is tough, love when it’s easier to be cynical or passive or pretend we don’t care, love when the other person is difficult to love, love when the situation is hard to face, love when it means going the extra mile, love when it’s beyond our own abilities and we have to ask God for help.

Self-giving, self-sacrificing love. Christ-like love. Agape is the word for it in Greek. It’s the kind of love St. Paul is taking about in today’s Epistle, one of the most famous passages in the entire New Testament.

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

This is “all-weather love”, “four-wheel-drive love”: when the going gets tough, the tough get Agape.

Mother Teresa said, “We can do no great things, just small things with great love.” This is the path to true glory for us: not to glorify so-called “stars” but to reflect in the way we live our lives the glory which comes from the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us, every time we see the sun or experience its light through the heaviest clouds, think of how we can reflect the glory of God by bringing this kind of love to all we do and having it become who we are. Glory, Glory, hallelujah!

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church