The Glory of God

On a splendid day we look at the countryside and declare, "Isn't it glorious?"   Do er truly know what glorious means?   If asked to answer the question, "What is glory?" what would we say?

My answer is that glory means sheer, exuberant beauty.   When Moses stood before God to receive the Ten Commandments he believed himself extremely lucky not to have perished.   The power of God's glory was considered to be capable of striking a person dead.   Throughout the Old Testament we see glimpses of God's glory but never the full monty!   We go through life not knowing what God's glory is really like.   Many years ago, at a church youth conference a minister was asked, "What do you think heaven will be like?"   His answer was that he thought of heaven as a place in which God was in the centre with bright light shining from him.   The rest of heaven was like an amphitheatre with everyone basking in that light.   By your earthly deeds you were seated nearer to or further from the throne.

In the Gospels we have the Transfiguration that reflects some of this glory and the light shines out from Jesus.   Peter, one of the three disciples that accompanied Jesus, was amazed and blurted out that he wanted to build three shelters to mark the place that others might see where it happened.   After the vision Jesus told the disciples to keep quiet about it until he had died.   I think this was an occasion that the three men would back to and say, "I was there!"   This would be the sort of remembrance that would enthuse them whenever they felt their mission was flagging.

For the most part, references to glory in the New Testament were about something yet to be witnessed.   There were, however, two occasions that we exceptions.   The first was when Stephen cried out to his stoners, "Look, I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right-hand side of God!"   Then there was the moment when Saul was struck down and the voice from the storm asked, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"   Saul knew in that moment that he was in the presence of a power and a glory well beyond him in a very much higher place.   His words were, "Tell me Lord who are you?"

Believe it or not, I was once a teenager!   One day a group of us went to the other Congregational Church in my home town of Nelson.   It was their Anniversary Sunday and they had a guest preacher we wanted to hear.   As he preached the sermon I was aware of a light surrounding him and then he disappeared and in his place was Jesus with light shining from him.   To this day I cannot explain this vision but simply refer to it as a religious experience.   It set me on the road as an itinerant preacher among the churches in that area.   Was this not a short glimpse of the glory of God?

George Macleod, founder of the Iona Community, spoke of a Pentecost that stood out for him.   He had been working very hard to get everything ready for the Sunday service and had gone to bed very tired on the Saturday night.   Next morning he awaoke, feeling very refreshed.   Then he heard the sound of a wind blowing.   He looked out of the window and the sea was flat calm.   Yet he could still hear this wind.   He went all round the house to check on doors or windows that might have been left open but nothing was left open.   Then he noticed the carpet rippling as though a current of air had got under it.   Yet there was not a breath of air moving!   This was a pentecost when God was communicating a a special way.   Was this not also a glimpse of glory?

Turn to the final new Testament Book, Revelation, and read in chapter 21 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.   The first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished.   And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from god, prepared and ready like a bride dressed to meet her husband.   I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: "Now God's home is with mankind!   He will live with them, and they shall be his people.   God himself will be with them, and he will be their God.   He will wipe away all tears from their eyes.   There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain.   The old things have disappeared."

Think of life when you experience a great knock down with force and weight of everything.   All this pain and tears will be gently wiped away by God as you stand before him.   What a thought!   What a promise!   Just think of that vision describede as a bride adorned in wedding dress.   Married men will all know how they felt as they saw their bride approach them in the church on that special day.

The second passage here reads, "The angel also showed me the river of the water of life, sparkling like crystal, and coming from the throne of God and the Lamb and flowing down the middle of the city's street.   On each side was the tree of life, which bears fruit twelve times a year, once for each month; and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.   Nothing that is under God's curse will be found in the city.   The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him.   They will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.   there shall be no more night, and they will not need lamps or sunlight, because the Lord God will be their light, and they will rule as kings for ever and ever."

John's vision is to prepare us for that future in God's glorious presence.   There is so much to look forward to!   Today's life is very hard for many but then it will be wonderful in the very house of God.   The church banner in Nelson read, "Where there is no vision the people perish."   We need to have that vision of glory in order to continue in service and it is God's gift to us!   Praise his Holy name!

Going to Church

When the early Christians met together for worship it appears they were not forced to attend their meetings. They attended because they were incredibly keen to hear about Jesus and to be charged up with the forward push in promoting the Gospel.

Centuries later, when Christianity had been accepted as national religion by many countries the faithful were required to attend church. It was a serious offence not to attend. In the United Kingdom it was farcical because when the people assembled in church they stood around talking whilst the priest and choir went through their holy office. No doubt the congregation remained on the move as services were long and tedious. Most of them had not a clue as to what worship entailed because it was conducted in Latin and they did not speak the language.

In fact, in the Roman Catholic Church, it was only following Vatican 2 that the mass was said in the vernacular and the priest faced his congregation! At the end of the fifteenth century it was still punishable by death to print and/or publish the Bible in English in this country.

Everyone had to state belief in the same aspects of the religion. There were no opinions allowed. Orthodoxy was all. To say that you believed even the slightest departure from standard belief could end in death. Heresy was punished in many different painful ways by the torturers used by ecclesiastical authority. In other words, people were told what to believe! It is quite amazing to us in the 20th century that belief was not considered a personal matter.

Although many people of the Victorian era stayed away the perceived way was to attend church. If you were a non church attender you were considered to be very low as a person. No value could attach to you and you would not be invited to families of churchgoers. Moving into the 20th century there were flurries of ups as certain events influenced people. The First World War was one that saw numbers increase as the perception was that God was “on our side”. In Wales there was an amazing uplift in church numbers, let alone congregations. The 1904 revival saw many churches being built right across the principality. It was not long before the revival stalled and things began to return to normal.

The Second World War drew a further increase, again on the basis that God could not possibly be on Hitler’s side. But from the beginning of the century the numbers had begun to slowly fall away. The Roman Catholics, as I remember them in the 1960s seemed to be doing so much better than everyone else. As I passed the main Catholic Church in Burnley on my way to preach in a country Baptist Chapel on the moors above Todmorden there were three masses every Sunday morning. There were crowds standing on the pavement, waiting for the earlier service to close.

By 1969 when I left to live in East Anglia for four years I was the very last “young person” to worship at Manchester Road Congregational Church, Nelson, Lancashire. By the time I returned four years later the numbers were even less and the decision had to be taken to close the Evening Service which had recently been attended by just a few Elders out of duty.

Work took me away once more and I lived in the Oldham and Rochdale area for the next 31 years. During that time I saw the congregations diminish at Shaw United Reformed Church. The old Sunday School building lost the entire outer leaf of its rear wall and had to be demolished. We raised enough funds to build a new church hall which was much smaller but designed for purpose in the millennium period. I left in 2004 to live in Anglesey, North Wales. Since then the church no longer is in use and plans are afoot to extend the new church hall.

Within my lifetime (67 years) I have watched the numbers fall away. Today the church attenders comprise a mere 10% of population. Indifference is the prevailing feeling of the populace towards Jesus, his crucifixion and resurrection. Yet still the church people try to think of ways to get people to come to church. They forget that they were never required to achieve “bums on seats” but to enhance the lives of those who suffer.

In John 21 Jesus asked Peter three times, “Simon Peter, do you love me?” To each affirmative answer he replied “feed my sheep.” So few people today really connect to this. They still think that if the church isn’t warm on a Sunday “they won’t come.” I have news for them. They will certainly not come and they might as well forget the heating system because that is not a draw. Those who come to church do not come to get warm on a cold day. They are the faithful few who recognise their need to worship God because of what he has done for them.