I was recently asked to take the funeral of an old friend of ours who had died in his 90s. He had requested the hymn “My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord” at his funeral. His widow was a bit uncomfortable with singing this so we compromised and had the tune, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, played on the organ instead. I could understand her discomfort. How many of us are comfortable these days with singing words like:
He is trampling out his vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He has loosed the fatal lightning of his terrible swift sword.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, Our God is marching on.
Such triumphalist and militaristic language sits uneasily with our modern understanding of Jesus. Rightly so.
What most of you will probably not know is that this hymn was written by Julia Ward Howe in America in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War. America was tearing itself apart in a battle for its soul, a battle between those who thought that white men were the only true Americans, and those who thought that all Americans had the right to be free. Ward Howe was inspired to write this hymn by the sight of the Union troops marching to war against what she perceived as the forces of darkness. There’s a clue to her view in the last verse of the hymn which goes:
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me.
As he died to make us holy, let us die that all be free!
While God is marching on.
So it’s tempting to think that glory lies in fighting, and winning, battles for a just cause where God is on our side. But is this right?
It depends what you think about glory I suppose.
Glory is a bit of a slippery word. In the Bible it’s almost always associated with God. Glory belongs to God. When human glory is mentioned it’s compared unfavourably to God’s glory. Remember Jesus looking at the flowers of the field and saying that even Solomon, in all his glory, wasn’t clothed like this.
So if we want to see what glory is really like we have to look at God. I’m reflecting on this because it is the Sunday before Lent and we always have a gospel reading about the transfiguration of Jesus – about Jesus being revealed in all his glory as some commentators put it. So what does glory look like?
Well admittedly the gospel writers describe Jesus as emanating a bright light, and appearing with Moses, of Exodus and lawgiving fame, and Elijah, foremost of the prophets. But I don’t see any description of a conquering king on a throne, surrounded by avenging hosts of angels, waiting to “trample out the vintage from the grapes of wrath.” We need to beware of imposing our human notions of glory on God.
There’s a voice saying “This is my Son whom I have chosen. Listen to him.” So perhaps that’s what God’s glory looks like. Perhaps it looks like a vulnerable human baby, born to working class parents, in an outhouse far from home. Perhaps it looks like a child forced to seek asylum with his parents in Egypt, a land and people which had in the past enslaved his own people. Perhaps it looks like a humble wandering Rabbi who gathered people around him and told them to trust in God and build their lives on God’s values. Perhaps God’s glory is seen in the love and respect for all human beings and God’s world, and the forgiveness even of our enemies, that Jesus preached and lived.
Perhaps God’s glory is seen in the politically naïve fool who arrived in Jerusalem to challenge the Temple authorities backed up by the might of Rome, and he came riding on a donkey. Perhaps God’s glory is seen in the suffering servant going meekly to his death on the cross and crying only “Father, forgive them.” Oh, and don’t forget they sealed his body in a tomb but on the third day it was gone and people saw him risen from the dead.
At this point you’re probably thinking “Ah, I knew it all along. Inside this ordinary man was hiding a superhero waiting to unleash his superpowers. Now he has and he has used them to overcome evil and sin and death and make the world alright again.” Wrong.
The resurrection is not about Jesus going into the phone box and removing his Clark Kent disguise and unleashing his superpowers. It is God’s affirmation that all of the above, the humility and humiliation of Jesus, the suffering, Jesus being the “holy fool” shows God’s glory. It is God’s glorious “yes” to Jesus.
Holy fool or conquering king? Which one do you follow?
“God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Cor. 4.6