I got into a discussion this past week about the word glory. Yes, when you live life in the fast lane like I do, seeking extreme thrills wherever they can be found, you find yourself daring to discuss Latin word derivatives.

 

            It’s actually more interesting than it sounds. You see, we use this word a lot in our worship. At the end of the kyrie, we often sing, “Glory to God in the highest.” We say that word when we sing carols at Christmas time. Glory. Glory to God.

 

            The catechism of the Presbyterian Church leads off with the ultimate question of existence: what is the chief purpose of man? Their answer to that: To glorify God. Most Christian denominations, our own included, say amen to that.

 

            So this word “glory” lies right at the heart of the Christian faith. It’s the key to existence and the meaning of life. Our mission in life, should we decide to accept it, is to glorify God. It occurred to me after this discussion that this word “glory” is so important that it sure would be nice to know what that word means. And the longer I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn’t.

 

            Glory is another one of those words that just slides off the tongue so easily in religious circles. We don’t think about it, we just say it. And I’ll bet most of us don’t have a clear idea of what it means. A word that important to our very existence and it so often gets tossed around without a second thought. Kind of like playing Frisbee with your best china.

 

            I came to the conclusion that I didn’t know what the word meant when I tried to piece together all of our uses and definitions of the word:

           

            When an outstanding Christian person is being honored for a major achievement, he or she will often say, “It’s not about me; give God the glory.” One of the coaches I most admire, Tony Dungy, said that after the Super Bowl.”  In this case, glory equals credit. “Give God the credit.”

 

            Great warriors such as Achilles in the Iliad went into battle for one reason: to gain glory. So people would talk about them for years to come. In this case, glory equal fame. Give God the fame.

 

            In the motion picture Glory, about the first African-American battalion to see action in the civil war, the soldiers were not looking for fame. And this particular group did not accomplish anything of importance militarily. What they were looking for, and what they gained with their heroism, was respect. Give God the respect. 

 

            My mother was a really good cook, but one recipe of hers I couldn’t stand was something called glorified rice. Nuts and whipped cream and pineapple. Glorified in that usage means to dress up better than otherwise was. Give God something extra to make God even better?

 

            When we sing Glory to God, we do so in the form of a song, a song of praise. We talk about how great and wonderful God is. Give God the praise.

            We probably use all of these definitions of glory at one time or other, but the one we most commonly use is praise. 

 

            When you look back at how the word is used in the Bible, though, it’s easy to get confused. We read in Exodus that God’s glory settled on the mountain. God’s credit settled on the mountain. God’s fame settled on the mountain. God’s respect settled on the mountain. God’s praise settled on the mountain.

 

            I’m having trouble getting a picture of that. Then I really get confused when I read this passage from Ezekiel 3: “May the glory of the Lord be praised in his dwelling place.”

 

            If giving God glory is praising God, then the verse is redundant. It reads, “May God’s praise be praised” which doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 

            Then I noticed that all those definitions of glory and glorify that we so commonly use have to do with us giving something to God. We glorify God; we give God praise and respect and honor and credit.

 

            But looking back in the Old Testament to the origins of the word, we find that glory is a characteristic of God. Glory is used well over 100 times in the Old Testament, almost always as a word to describe God, and the effect God has on people.  In other words glory is something God already has in spades. The Hebrew word that we translate as glory is hod, which means majesty and splendor. Glory is the manifestation of God’s presence, in other words, glory is the overwhelming sense of majesty we experience when we come into contact with God.

 

            When Exodus says that the glory of God settled on the mountain, it is saying that those present at that time and place experienced in a special way the awesome presence of God.

 

            The glory of God is such an overwhelming force that it’s not something humans can handle full strength. Biblical writers who feel the immense presence of God speak of a brilliance that is absolutely blinding, of an explosive aura of majesty so strong that we could no more survive in its presence than we could survive the detonation of a nuclear bomb. And, as we read today, they speak of veils that protect us from the full force of this majesty.

 

            Somehow we are supposed to give God this glory, as though it were an award that we bestow upon God for outstanding services?

 

            Ascribe to God glory, says Chronicles and Psalms—speak correctly about God. Proclaim the glory of God. Sing about the glory of God. Tell other people of the glory of God. But give glory to God? God has more glory than we can comprehend; how are we going to give glory to God?

 

            At this point, it would be easy to say, we can’t. Glory is something God produces. We can proclaim that glory, honor it, praise it, worship it, but we can’t give it.

 

            Except that the Bible then throws us for another loop in a few places. There is Psalm 86, for example, in which it is proclaimed that the nations will bring glory to God’s name. How can nations bring glory to God? It would be like throwing a match into the sun.

            But there again, in Revelation 4, all the creatures give glory to God, and then they shout: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor.” The creatures give glory; God receives it. What’s going on here?

 

            Then to tie us totally in knots, we have Paul’s letter to the Romans. Within the space of two chapters, 3 & 4, he talks about Abraham, how he was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God. And he reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Glory is God’s alone. Put those together and Paul has just told us that Abraham gave God something that Abraham didn’t have, that wasn’t his to give.

 

            It is tempting at this point just to give up. To say that there are different definitions of glory and they are totally contradictory. That we’re not really sure what glory means but we know it’s something good. And since we like to say good things about God, we’ll keep using the word all sorts of ways, whether it really means anything to us or not, because it’s a kind of jargon that religious people use to show they’re religious.

           

            Fortunately, we don’t have to do that, thanks to this little incident from Luke that we celebrate today in what we call the Transfiguration. In this narrative, Jesus goes up in a mountain to pray. And as he is praying, the appearance of his face changes, and his clothes become as bright as a flash of lightning. Moses and Elijah appear in glorious splendor. The disciples were just nodding off but when they saw this, they saw God’s glory.

 

            This strange incident reminds us of a story in Exodus 34. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai after his encounter with God, his face was so radiant that all the people were afraid to come near him. He was so filled with God’s glory that he had to put a veil over his face to keep from blinding those around him.

 

             What are these stories telling us? Where does glory come from? Moses didn’t have it until he had a close encounter with God. He wasn’t generating this light on his own. All he was doing was reflecting just a small bit of the intense glory of God.

 

            That is what we see with the story of the Transfiguration. Brilliant, unbearable light—glory--comes during an intense encounter with God. Glory is not generated outside of God; it only reflects what comes from God.

 

            Glory is the overwhelming majesty we experience when we are truly in God’s presence. We don’t have glory to hand out on our own. The only thing we can do with glory is reflect it when it comes at us.

 

            God’s glory is so blindingly bright, so explosively powerful, that we cannot live in it. We can occasionally get glimpses of it. Occasionally a few of those powerful rays shine on us and overwhelm us and change us, as happened to Paul.

 

            But for most of us, the way we experience God’s glory is through reflection. The glory of God has been reflected through the ages, and continues to be reflected. And that reflected glory is so powerful that it can still change lives.

 

            Whenever we encounter someone giving outstanding care at a nursing home, we see the reflection of God’s glory. Whenever someone makes a tremendous sacrifice, even going so far as to surrender their life so that others can live, we see a refection of God’s glory.

            Whenever we encounter someone who has lost the use of all their limbs and lives in pain every day, and yet they smile and laugh and praise God for the gift of life, we see a reflection of God’s glory.

            Whenever we read about a small child who takes all that she has saved in the past year and donates it to someone who has suffered tragedy. When teens take the time to go on a mission trip to give something back to the world.

            When people devote much of their spare time to feeding the hungry, and sheltering the homeless. Whenever we encounter a person who can open our eyes to the passion of the human spirit and God’s creation through music, drama, and art.

            Whenever the oppressed refuse to give in to despair or vengeance. Whenever we encounter a parent or a spouse who patiently shoulders the overwhelming demands of giving care to a loved one with severe disabilities.

            Whenever people show the courage to stand up for what is right in the face of peer pressure or public opinion. Whenever people devote their lives to mission work, disaster relief, or peace and justice.

            Whenever we stand in awe at the beauty and majesty of the natural world. Whenever we are moved to tears by a demonstration of undying love:

 

            We are seeing the reflection of the unimaginable glory of God.

 

            We can give God praise, we can give God honor, we give God our worship, we can give God credit. But glory belongs to God, and when we are giving glory to God, we are not really giving at all. All we can do is reflect the light that God shines on us.

            But that is not such a small thing. It is a privilege to be a part of this. To take away the veils and reflect the light the shines on us, until the day comes when all the earth is filled with God’s glory.