4 posts tagged “glory”
Exodus has a great theme embedded in the English title meaning, "Exit" or "Departure."
The great beginning of the world, and of the people of God, is traced in Genesis. Exodus begins with a pastoral scene--albeit a bloody one--where we see in miniature the deliverance which will be more fully detailed in the coming chapters.
Moses, in a fragile bed of reeds, floats to safety into the arms of--his own mother, who delivered him to death, only to be repaid with a Moses Resurrected.
This Great Delivering God has some competition, however. Mainly from the imaginations and culturally ingrained traditions of the "chosen people" who did not escape Egypt without some baggage. And I don't mean the plunder either! (See Exodus 4 and 12 to see what I'm talking about.)
Their baggage was spiritual, it was religious. When push came to shove, their trust was not in this Delivering God, but in the gods of their childhood: the gods of Egypt.
Afraid Moses missed his connecting flight, the people grew impatient and demanded an all-too eager to please Aaron to build them a god they could "really put their faith in." He did (Exodus 32):
...Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
This is affirms what Bethlehem Baptist executive pastor (Minneapolis, MN), Sam Crabtree, has observed about the basic nature of worship and "seeing": "We become what we behold, so we behold God to become like him."
These ancient believers became lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure. In their dancing orgy, they longed for the True God, but had replaced Him with something Less. Thus, they forgot their creator, and the Fact of their creation: satisfaction comes in serving and loving the One Who Made Us.
In this sense, true worship, true seeing, is obedience.
What god are you beholding today? Who or what are you serving? The answer will tell you what you're becoming today.
CNN founder Ted Turner once remarked, "If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect." Reminds me of the country song, "Oh Lord, its hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way!"
Humility, according to Turner, is merely an add-on, an extra to an already full coat of medals and ribbons. What really matters, the chief virtue, is not humility, but self-aggrandizement.
To be fair, Turner likely was speaking tongue-in-cheek. After all, we all know that "business is business." Still, Turner has spoken out against characteristically Christian virtues before.
What is "characteristically Christian" about humility? It is the view that weakness is the path to power.
What the Kingdom of God does is turn the idea of "humility as extra" on its head. Instead, humility goes to the front of the line of virtues. The Kingdom of God puts humility first because humility puts God first. Humility is an "extra" for us when we put ourselves first, and ourselves become idols before God.
Turner isn't alone in his idolatry; it is part of the human condition. We can learn from his mistake, and "seek first His Kingdom." Then, everything else, all the medals, all the glory, all the gain--these will be added to us, and eternal life.
I read a book at the beginning of this year or end of last year called Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition. It was an outstanding and warm, yet scholarly treatment of the subject of "how do I know when I'm pursuing the right calling?"
The bulk of the book dealt with the ethics of "ambition" per se, and explored how being ambitious is in many ways the exact opposite of being called. Ambitious for that Ivy League education? Or called to serve the poor?
The gem quote of the book is when the author quotes Buechner's concise yet profound definition of calling:
Calling is where the world's great need and your deep gladness intersect.
That is a version of Ovid's classic motto for a liberal arts education: dulce et utile, "sweetness and usefulness." In other words, gladness alone is not enough; nor is usefulness. It is also a version of Piper's Christian Hedonism motto: "God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in Him."
May God give us, then, a holy ambition for His Church, such that we are both useful, and beautified in the process; both satisfied in Him, and glorifying Him.
This is a difficult question when the "things" in question are related to suffering and trials. How can suffering bring about glory? The sermon attempts to capture the wind of God in the sails of this question by exploring God's Loving Plan. This audio excerpt highlights how it is the timing of God's plan that so clearly shows His love. The full sermon is available here.
