Tag: honour

Christ pours his grace upon his own

Today’s Trinity hymn from Sing Praise is “Christ pours his grace upon his own” by Timothy Dudley Smith to a bespoke tune by Anne Harrison. It differs from most such hymns in placing the Son/Christ first, before the Father/Creator, and is also much more original in its wording than yesterday’s, as befits TDS’s reputation as a leading hymnwriter. 

One of the tensions I find in any discussion of the Trinity is between an insistence that they are equal in divine nature and all existing since before time (as an old hymn puts it, ‘consubstantial and co-eternal’), and a hierarchy in which the Father begets the Son and both together send forth the Spirit.  If all of them have existed as persons in the same unity since before time, does it matter what order they go in, just because the son was incarnate at a particular time, and the Spirit appeared immediately after the Son’s departure? (immediately? well, what’s ten days in ten billion years?)

Anyway, if the link phrase on Monday was ‘the way’, today’s is the phrase ‘to him [or God) be glory’.  In verse one, it is in response to the grace given by Christ thorough his death; in verse two, to the changeless love of the Creator; and in verse three to the work of the Spirit is making us one. The refrain of the last verse is repeated: “to God be glory from us his children, throughout all ages” which takes us back to the co-eternal. Glory is a quality of God and the basic meaning of the word may be something more like ‘honour’, see my previous post ) : we honour God in response to his grace, love and abiding presence with us.

The Bible in a Year – 24 December

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

24 December. John chapters 16-18

Chapters 17 and 18 are the conclusion of Jesus’ last speech to his disciples.  They are immediately followed by the betrayal in Gethsemane and the trial by the two high priests and Pontius Pilate.  These are the readings of Holy Week (the approach to Easter).  So what can they say to us at Christmas?

One word you hear a lot in church at this time of year is “glory”.   It occurs thirteen times in the Bible readings and liturgy for Christmas Eve.  The angels at Bethlehem called out “Glory to God on high, and on earth peace to men of goodwill”.  The opening of John’s gospel that will be read at midnight services around the world tells us that “The Word became flesh and lived among us; we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

It is easy to talk about glory when we celebrate a miraculous birth. But what did Jesus say about glory as he was about to die? “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.” (17:1-5).

It may seem counter-intuitive, as does much of Christianity when you think about it carefully, that someone about to be crucified can talk about his death bringing glory.  ‘Glory’ as a concept is closely related to ‘honour’, which itself is something less important in our society than it often was in the past or still is in other cultures.  Someone may be honoured for having an important role in society, or for doing something brave or selfless, or for bringing about justice.  No-one is honoured by receiving a death sentence, are they?  But if you think about it, Jesus’ death was a brave and selfless one as he accepted an unjust death sentence in order to start bringing about God’s rule of justice over the whole earth; and far from being the unimportant radical preacher that the Romans imagined, he gained supreme importance when he was resurrected as the eternal Son of God.

So it is that Jesus could speak of God the Father glorifying (honouring) him in his death, as he had glorified (honoured) the Father in his work on earth.  Understanding that makes it easier to understand why the angels sang of glory at Jesus’ birth, for at that time only they knew what would come of it.

 

The Bible in a Year -24 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

24 June. Zechariah chapters 1-7.

Zechariah is not to be confused with yesterday’s prophet, the similar sounding Zephaniah, although the latter is mentioned in his writings, and they lived at the same time.  Whereas Zephaniah’s style of prophecy was like many others in hearing the word of the Lord in both judgement and mercy, Zechariah was a prophet more like Ezekiel, or for that matter John the Divine (author of Revelation) who saw symbolic visions.

 

Such visionaries are rare, and given an understanding of the spiritual truths “behind the scenes” of human life.  So in his visions Zechariah saw angels and spirits of various kinds, represented as people, horses or other animals.  Some of these were God’s messengers, sent to “patrol the earth”, and surprisingly they report that the whole world is at peace (1:11) – a rare situation, then as now. It reminds us of Noah’s dove which brought back an olive branch to show that the flood had receded and new life could start.  Here it seems that the report of world peace is the sign for God to start a new movement, of the Jews back to their homeland.

 

Another of the visions reveals Satan to be stood next to Joshua the high priest accusing him, so that he felt dirty before God.  That is always the devil’s accusation, to make us feel unworthy of God.  So another angel is told to dress him in fine clothes and a clean turban, and he is tasked with rebuilding the temple.  Coming out of the vision, Zechariah does something practical and has a crown made for Joshua as a physical symbol for the whole community of the spiritual truth that he had understood.

 

The lesson from this? That whatever accusations people or spirits may level at us of being unclean and unworthy, in God’s sight, if we trust in him we are quite the opposite – not only clean but honoured, and called to God’s service in whatever way he has chosen.