The Glory

Psalm 148 & John 13:31-35
Fifth Sunday of Easter 

Sometimes Scripture can be a little hard to understand.  That’s why people like me go to seminary and learn things like how to read Greek.  But sometimes, Scripture does not require a master’s degree.  Sometimes, like with Psalm 148, it isn’t at all difficult to understand what the writer is getting at.  In the fourteen verses of Psalm 148, we hear the word “praise” thirteen times.  Hmm, let’s check out the commentary to see what this one’s about.  

Psalm 148 is all about praising God; it’s about all of creation praising God, beginning with the highest heights and ending with you and me.  Psalm 148 calls upon everything that God has made to praise God because God has created everything and God should be praised for that.  

The point of Psalm 148 is clear.  But perhaps, what is not so clear is how we ought to give God praise.  Should we create poems like Psalm 148?  Should we sing?  Should we dance?  Should we, like good Presbyterians, sit very still or should we put up our hands, jump around, and shout “halleluiah?”  How do we praise God?  

Well, although I can’t answer that question exactly, I do have a thought: perhaps, our truest praise of God doesn’t really happen… while we’re in here.  Maybe our greatest praise begins only after we go out and join the rest of creation.  

(As we seek to praise the God who made us, saves us, and sustains us, let us gather our hearts and minds to God in prayer.  Please join me.  Loving God, as we turn ourselves to your Eternal Word, we ask that, by your Spirit, you would help us to understand what you have done for our redemption.  Help us to see and understand what you have done for us in Christ, that he may live in our hearts by faith and be proclaimed in our lives by our love.  This we pray in the name of Christ our Savior. Amen.)

Speaking of repeated words, our Gospel lesson begins, “When Judas was gone, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.  If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son himself, and will glorify him at once.’”  If you were keeping score, that was five glorifys in two verses.  Hmm, perhaps that points to a theme.  

We time-travel a little in our Gospel lesson this morning.  For the past few weeks we’ve been hearing some post-resurrection stories, watching for what Jesus calls his followers to be and do.  And then we jump back in time to read a part of the Gospel of John that is appropriately read during Holy Week.  As if, perhaps, these words are meant to be like the wisdom our parents spoke when we were young… when we weren’t completely listening… only to treasure many years later.  There’s a reason we celebrated our graduates last Sunday instead of today, the day they actually graduate: they wouldn’t hear a word about our hopes and admiration for them today; they have too much to distract them.  Now that the somber, reflective season of Lent is over—now that the distractions of Holy Week are behind us—now, perhaps we can go back and really hear the words that Jesus spoke to us during those days.

In the passage we read this morning, Judas has just walked out the door; he’s gone to betray Jesus.  Jesus knows what’s coming.  Jesus knows that his friend Judas has just waked out the door to betray him and to set things in motion that lead to his death.  Jesus knows all this… and yet the words he speaks at that moment are all about glory.  

I’m struck by how out of place this seems.  It seems like such a tangent that I initially want to skip past it and on to the “New Commandment” part: Judas goes out to do what Judas is going to do and Jesus responds by saying, “Now God is and will be glorified in me.”  Betrayal, persecution, suffering, and death are not exactly things that come to mind when we speak of glorifying God.  Perhaps an uplifting worship service comes to mind.  Maybe a song or a poem that draws our hearts to dwell on God’s majesty is what we think of.  Perhaps the wonders of creation that we see in a sunset or a newborn baby move us to remember the grandeur of God.  But pain?  Makes about as much sense as calling the day of crucifixion “Good Friday.” 

But in the end, it is good; it is glory.  The glory of God that was revealed in Jesus was revealed thorough his pain.  Sometimes glory isn’t revealed in a song, or well-crafted words, or a beautiful sunset.  Sometimes glory isn’t pretty.  

Which brings us back to my original question from Psalm 148: how do we praise God; how do we give glory to God?  We see how Jesus did it, but suffering is probably (hopefully) not how we’re called to do it.  Jesus says as much: “Where I am going, you cannot come.”  Whew!  And then Jesus goes on to tell us how we do it… sort of.  He says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."  

When Jesus speaks of glorifying God by his work on the Cross and then jumps right into the New Commandment to love one another, I think Jesus is talking about the same glory.  One is the glory of God revealed in the work of Jesus; the other is the glory of God revealed in us.  Just as the glory Jesus demonstrated was through something much greater than words or sentiment, so also is the love that we are commanded to show.  Remember, Jesus did not simply command us to love one another; he said, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  For those of us who have found new life, we are commanded to love, but we have been commanded to love as Christ has loved us: a love that glorifies God through our lives.  

After losing his job in 2010 amateur photographer, Brandon Stanton, moved to New York and began an ambitious project: to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street and create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants. Armed with his camera, he began crisscrossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in an attempt to capture New Yorkers. Somewhere along the way he began to interview his subjects in addition to photographing them. He asks one of two questions, which seem to open the doors into people’s lives: “What is your greatest struggle?” or “Give me one piece of advice.”

Alongside their portraits he includes quotes and short stories from their lives. Brandon’s portraits and captains became a blog “Humans of New York” and now the project has over 20 million followers on social media.

One of the Humans of New York helped Brandon understand his project is really about the power of stories. She was older woman photographed.  Her story kind of answered both questions. 

She said, “When my husband was dying, I said: ‘Moe, how am I supposed to live without you?’

He told me: ‘Take the love you have for me and spread it around.’”

Isn’t that just beautiful? Take the love you have for me and spread it around. I think Jesus tells us the same.  

Take the love I’ve shown you and pour it out in the world. “Just as I have loved you...you also should love one another.” In fact, in the Gospel of John, Jesus doesn’t really give us anything else to do—no turn the other cheek or walk a second mile or give away your cloak. Just love one another. The only thing he seems to want from us is to let him live in the world through the love of his followers—not just our love for him, but in our love for one another.

So let us pour out his love in this world.  Pour it out, on strangers and friends; from the cashier at the grocery store to the difficult family member. Pour it out, every day, in every interaction, and in every place. Take the love you’ve known through, and give it away again and again and again. And May God give us the grace to allow such love to embody and pour out of us every day.