James T. Cleland - "Glory to God" (December 16, 1962)
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| - | Let us pray. | 0:07 |
| Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts | 0:11 | |
| be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord our strength and | 0:17 | |
| our Redeemer. | 0:21 | |
| Amen. | 0:25 | |
| If you will turn with me to this morning's order of worship. | 0:31 | |
| We're noticed together that one ectatic note | 0:36 | |
| is repeated at least five times, | 0:42 | |
| following the violin and the organ preludes. | 0:46 | |
| The choir sang a fanfare for Christmas day and you see the | 0:51 | |
| words Gloria in Excelsis Deo, | 0:57 | |
| glory to God in the highest, | 1:02 | |
| the first hymn picks up the same words. | 1:05 | |
| They were repeated six times. | 1:10 | |
| Gloria in Excelsis Deo. | 1:12 | |
| First Anthem is entitled To God on High be Glory. | 1:16 | |
| And then the Lector read as the first part to the | 1:23 | |
| scripture lesson; | 1:26 | |
| the story of the Bethlehem shepherds who heard the angel | 1:28 | |
| choir chant exultantly, "Glory to God in the highest, | 1:32 | |
| and on earth peace goodwill toward men." | 1:38 | |
| And then the central line of the second hymn is; | 1:41 | |
| Glory to God, all glory in the highest. | 1:46 | |
| Now the last time I preached here, I complained | 1:53 | |
| that the hymns I wanted were taken away from me. | 1:55 | |
| Sorry. They have returned them to me this morning, | 1:59 | |
| pressed down and running over. | 2:01 | |
| Because my subject is glory to God | 2:04 | |
| and they certainly surrounded it for me. | 2:07 | |
| My problem is just to live up to what they did, | 2:10 | |
| now brother, this is not vain repetition | 2:14 | |
| such as the heathen use. | 2:17 | |
| This is the properly recurring emphasis | 2:19 | |
| of any service of corporate worship. | 2:23 | |
| Particularly at Christmas and Easter. | 2:27 | |
| Let's look together at this idea of glory to God | 2:30 | |
| and try to discover what it says to us. | 2:34 | |
| Holy scripture is permeated with shouts | 2:39 | |
| and acts of glory to God. | 2:44 | |
| Which is at its simplest, a willing and enthusiastic | 2:47 | |
| recognition of the primacy of God. | 2:53 | |
| One of the Psalmists wrote; | 2:58 | |
| ascribe to the Lord Oh heavenly beings. | 3:00 | |
| Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. | 3:04 | |
| Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name. | 3:09 | |
| Worship the Lord in holy array. | 3:12 | |
| And Saint Paul repeats the emphasis in the new Testament | 3:17 | |
| over and over again. For example; | 3:20 | |
| to our God and Father be glory forever and ever, Amen. | 3:22 | |
| Glory for both old and new testaments is in one of its | 3:31 | |
| aspects, the joyous recognition of the majesty, | 3:35 | |
| the pre-eminence and the excellence, | 3:39 | |
| which belong to the transcendent God, | 3:44 | |
| the God high and lifted up, | 3:47 | |
| who is our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. | 3:51 | |
| And yet | 3:57 | |
| an unusual fact about the Christmas season, | 4:00 | |
| is that this glory, | 4:06 | |
| rightly reserved for God alone, | 4:09 | |
| is offered not only for a child, but to a child. | 4:14 | |
| Born into a humble family and cradled in a cattle stall. | 4:23 | |
| The wise man fell down and worshiped him. | 4:31 | |
| And when they opened their treasures, | 4:36 | |
| they presented under him gifts; | 4:38 | |
| gold, frankincense, and myrrh. | 4:40 | |
| The shepherds praised God, | 4:44 | |
| but notice what they praised Him for, | 4:45 | |
| the song of the angels and the sight of the child. | 4:48 | |
| The angels were heralding the transcendence of God, | 4:54 | |
| glory to God in the highest. | 4:58 | |
| The wise man and the shepherds | 5:03 | |
| were acclaiming the imminence of God, | 5:05 | |
| the indwelling presence of God in His world. | 5:10 | |
| This baby was no ordinary child. | 5:15 | |
| He was, | 5:18 | |
| dare we say it? | 5:21 | |
| God incarnate. | 5:24 | |
| The very word God had become flesh | 5:28 | |
| and tabernacled among us. | 5:33 | |
| That's how the fourth gospel puts it. | 5:35 | |
| Christmas, the first Christmas and all Christmases | 5:39 | |
| transfers to the child of Mary, | 5:43 | |
| the adoration rightly reserved for God on high. | 5:48 | |
| It's quite a breakthrough theologically, | 5:56 | |
| that God is uniquely revealed in Jesus. | 6:02 | |
| That's the central message of Christmas. | 6:06 | |
| Because of Jesus, we know better the character | 6:10 | |
| and will of God. | 6:13 | |
| That is a joyous fact. | 6:15 | |
| That's why Christmas is praise, glory, hallelujah. | 6:17 | |
| Some words of Shakespeare quoted here, clean out of context, | 6:23 | |
| speak what should be our attitude. | 6:29 | |
| "Oh, wonderful, | 6:32 | |
| wonderful, | 6:36 | |
| and most wonderful. | 6:38 | |
| And yet again, wonderful." | 6:42 | |
| This is the refrain, | 6:47 | |
| which catches the mood of this happy, merry season. | 6:48 | |
| Now the Presbyterian church, | 6:56 | |
| of which I am a member. | 6:58 | |
| Recognizes this in theory, | 7:01 | |
| but doesn't manage to catch it in practice. | 7:04 | |
| Do you know the first question and answer | 7:09 | |
| in the shorter catechism, | 7:11 | |
| that abbreviated digest of Christian doctrine, | 7:13 | |
| according to one reform tradition. | 7:18 | |
| First question in the shorter catechism is; | 7:22 | |
| What is man's chief end? | 7:25 | |
| What is the important purpose, | 7:29 | |
| goal in the life of any human being? | 7:33 | |
| And the answer is very concisely; | 7:38 | |
| man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. | 7:41 | |
| Now we learn the shorter catechism in day school, | 7:52 | |
| not Sunday school. | 7:55 | |
| And my sister startled the teacher once | 7:58 | |
| by her answer to the primary question. | 8:00 | |
| At the age of seven, without a moment's hesitation, | 8:04 | |
| my sister replied; | 8:07 | |
| man's chief end is to glorify God and to endure Him forever. | 8:12 | |
| She knew Presbyterianism existentially. | 8:23 | |
| No one in his right mind will deny that | 8:29 | |
| Presbyterianism glorifies God. It does. | 8:32 | |
| The service is marked by awe, by reverence, | 8:37 | |
| but Scottish Presbyterianism too regularly | 8:41 | |
| endured rather than enjoyed. | 8:44 | |
| So it missed the heart of the Christian faith. | 8:50 | |
| The gospel is good news it isn't even good advice. | 8:53 | |
| It's God as Father, rather than as judge. | 8:58 | |
| It's sin forgiven, not punishment threatened. | 9:02 | |
| It's life everlasting, not eternal damnation. | 9:08 | |
| Unless we choose to warp and twist the message of it. | 9:12 | |
| Glory to God in the highest is the shouted thank you, | 9:18 | |
| of man to God for letting us know what He's really like. | 9:22 | |
| Oh, that hallelujah may be said with tears, | 9:28 | |
| but they're tears of gratitude. | 9:33 | |
| There should be a thrill in our adoration. | 9:36 | |
| What do we do about this? | 9:40 | |
| Just what we're doing at this service, | 9:42 | |
| and what I hope many of us will do tonight, | 9:45 | |
| again here at eight o'clock. | 9:47 | |
| In the service of Christmas, in word and in music. | 9:50 | |
| We listen to the choir sing not to us, no. | 9:55 | |
| But for us. | 10:00 | |
| Theirs is the ministry of music for the whole congregation. | 10:04 | |
| We listen to the Lector read and the minister expound | 10:08 | |
| for us, the old, old Christmas story, which is ever new. | 10:14 | |
| This is the ministry of the Word for all of us. | 10:18 | |
| We listened to the presiding minister, | 10:22 | |
| pray to God for us and with us, | 10:24 | |
| our adorations, confessions, intersessions | 10:28 | |
| and especially our thanksgivings. | 10:32 | |
| For we're all priests, | 10:35 | |
| that's why we use the verse of; the Lord be with you | 10:38 | |
| and with thy spirit. | 10:41 | |
| And the musicians send to heaven | 10:43 | |
| our joy and gratitude and love. | 10:47 | |
| Do you know the accompaniment for the praise of God, | 10:50 | |
| according to the hundred and fiftieth Psalm? | 10:53 | |
| Trumpet, psaltery, harp, timbrel, stringed instruments, | 10:55 | |
| organs and symbols. | 10:59 | |
| Boy, I wish we had them all here this morning. | 11:04 | |
| We normally glorify Him, I think we'd enjoy Him. | 11:06 | |
| You know the Salvation Army is so resonantly right | 11:10 | |
| to have a band, yep. | 11:15 | |
| Christmas would be gloriously vibrant. | 11:17 | |
| Gloria in Excelsis Deo. | 11:22 | |
| Now there's one other thing to be said about this, | 11:30 | |
| glory to God. | 11:33 | |
| Just one other thing. | 11:35 | |
| And the way to come to it I think is by a story. | 11:37 | |
| Once upon a time, | 11:42 | |
| all the best stories start that way. | 11:46 | |
| Once upon a time, there was a church in Scotland I reckon, | 11:51 | |
| which had a stained glass window, over the incarnation | 12:00 | |
| with the text lettered below for all to read; | 12:05 | |
| glory to God in the highest. | 12:08 | |
| But a small boy, | 12:14 | |
| a naughty boy, | 12:17 | |
| threw a stone at the window. | 12:19 | |
| And neatly nicked out, | 12:23 | |
| eliminated the E in highest. | 12:27 | |
| So that the text now read; | 12:34 | |
| glory to God in the H I G H blank S T | 12:36 | |
| that is in the high street. | 12:45 | |
| Glory to God in the high street. | 12:48 | |
| Now my best critic, and my poorest judge, | 12:54 | |
| tells me that I should explain to you, | 12:58 | |
| that the high street in any Scottish town, | 13:01 | |
| corresponds to the main street | 13:04 | |
| in American urban communities. | 13:07 | |
| So remember to think of the main street | 13:12 | |
| when I talk of the high street. | 13:14 | |
| And about Glory to God in the high street. | 13:18 | |
| What do we think of this accidental, | 13:27 | |
| stoney, textual emendation? | 13:30 | |
| Is it a Word of God, an act of revelation? | 13:34 | |
| I think so. | 13:40 | |
| Why? | 13:42 | |
| Because it is hardly contrary to the nativity narrative. | 13:44 | |
| The wise men thought they would find the child | 13:51 | |
| in a palace in Jerusalem. | 13:55 | |
| Instead they knelt before a cattle stall | 13:58 | |
| near an inn in the marketplace in Bethlehem, | 14:03 | |
| It was probably a smelly hole. | 14:11 | |
| Quite, quite unlike the centrally heated creche | 14:15 | |
| in Radio City. | 14:19 | |
| The baby grew up as the son of a journeyman carpenter in | 14:23 | |
| Nazareth, Nazareth, a village of very dubious reputation. | 14:27 | |
| In his first sermon as an itinerant preacher, | 14:35 | |
| he laid down his platform. | 14:39 | |
| As it was heard in the second part of this morning's lesson, | 14:41 | |
| "The spirit of the Lord is upon me | 14:46 | |
| because he hath anointed me to preach | 14:52 | |
| good news to the poor." | 14:55 | |
| Many of us would get in on the congregation. | 15:01 | |
| "He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, | 15:07 | |
| recovery of sight to the blind, | 15:14 | |
| to set at liberty those who are oppressed, | 15:19 | |
| to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." | 15:23 | |
| Now that shouldn't have upset anybody | 15:29 | |
| because general principles from the pulpit seldom do. | 15:32 | |
| But Jesus went on to apply the proposition | 15:38 | |
| to Nazareth | 15:43 | |
| and the congregation threw him out. | 15:46 | |
| In fact, they tried to murder him | 15:50 | |
| and he spent his earthly ministry walking the high streets | 15:53 | |
| and the main streets and the country roads | 15:57 | |
| and when he died he wasn't crucified | 16:01 | |
| between two candles on an embroidered altar. | 16:06 | |
| He was crucified between two criminals | 16:12 | |
| at a place called Golgotha, | 16:16 | |
| which means the place of a skull | 16:19 | |
| outside the city walls. | 16:23 | |
| And there must have been glory to God in all this because | 16:25 | |
| God placed his seal of approval upon him | 16:29 | |
| by raising him from the dead. | 16:33 | |
| In fact, his disciples gave him this information | 16:37 | |
| a week before he was judicially murdered. | 16:43 | |
| When he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, | 16:47 | |
| his followers shouted , "Blessed be the King | 16:50 | |
| who comes in the name of the Lord." | 16:53 | |
| And one more sentence, | 17:00 | |
| "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." | 17:02 | |
| That's almost the angel's song repeated word for word | 17:06 | |
| on the first Palm Sunday, | 17:09 | |
| I think that text was accidentally, but worthily amended. | 17:16 | |
| It is a word of God. | 17:22 | |
| A word about the real meaning of the incarnation. | 17:27 | |
| One of the heresies perpetrated by a too facile reading of | 17:30 | |
| Browning's Pippa Passes is that God's in His heaven, | 17:34 | |
| all's right with the world. | 17:39 | |
| If God is only in His heaven, | 17:41 | |
| all is not right with the world. | 17:43 | |
| The transcendence of God is an all important truth, | 17:47 | |
| that keeps man humble. | 17:50 | |
| And therefore ready for high religion. | 17:52 | |
| But Christmas points out to the fact that God Himself saw | 17:55 | |
| that transcendence is not the last word about deity. | 18:01 | |
| That if God is only in His heaven, | 18:05 | |
| all is not right with the world. | 18:07 | |
| That it is essential that God be known | 18:11 | |
| in what He created | 18:15 | |
| and the Christmas messages that God of His own free will | 18:18 | |
| came to earth in the form of a man and dwelt among us. | 18:24 | |
| You know what's one interesting thing, | 18:28 | |
| that all the great titles were claimed by Jesus | 18:30 | |
| and each one was given a new twist. | 18:36 | |
| For example, he is the Messiah, | 18:39 | |
| highest title that Judaism could give. | 18:41 | |
| Claims to be the Messiah, | 18:45 | |
| but he's going to be a Messiah who suffers. | 18:49 | |
| He is King, yes, King of kings, | 18:54 | |
| but he's a King who serves. | 18:59 | |
| He has no palace. | 19:03 | |
| In fact, he said once that he had nowhere to lay his head, | 19:05 | |
| he's surrounded by courtiers, but what a following; | 19:10 | |
| fishermen, tax collectors, women of the street. | 19:13 | |
| He walks the common ways of ordinary men, men in the street, | 19:19 | |
| common five eights. | 19:24 | |
| He was puzzled by man's inhumanity to man | 19:29 | |
| and angered by the stubborn selfishness | 19:32 | |
| of those who would maintain the status quo. | 19:35 | |
| But he blessed the poor. | 19:40 | |
| He forgave penitent sinners. | 19:44 | |
| He healed the sick. | 19:48 | |
| No wonder that a very prominent English Divine once said | 19:52 | |
| these shocking words. | 19:56 | |
| The incarnation has something to do with drains, | 19:58 | |
| drains. D R A I N S. | 20:07 | |
| Now that is God imminent with a vengeance. | 20:12 | |
| That's right underneath the high street. | 20:15 | |
| Listen to two contemporary ministers; | 20:19 | |
| one of whom has preached in the Duke Chapel | 20:21 | |
| and the other of whom ought to preach here. | 20:23 | |
| Bishop Bain has written, and this is shocking; | 20:26 | |
| "God does not spend most of His time in church." | 20:30 | |
| That should be an eye opener to us who have so many | 20:38 | |
| services around here. | 20:40 | |
| President once asked me if we should have a religious | 20:42 | |
| emphasis, we could do it, and I said, oh sir, God forbid. | 20:44 | |
| I said, that would be like having a support baseball week | 20:48 | |
| during the World Series. | 20:50 | |
| So many religious services | 20:53 | |
| and chapels and the sacrament all over the place. | 20:55 | |
| I'd like a, well now I shouldn't say this, but I'm going to, | 20:59 | |
| I'd like a suppressed religion week for one week. | 21:02 | |
| Just one week. | 21:04 | |
| Not suppressed private religion, but public religion. | 21:06 | |
| God does not spend most of His time in church. | 21:09 | |
| As is said by a high ranking Bishop who may be known. | 21:14 | |
| Any worship which is not organically related | 21:19 | |
| to life in the world | 21:23 | |
| is not true worship. | 21:25 | |
| And David H.C. Reed, | 21:29 | |
| whom you can hear at 10 o'clock on Sunday mornings, | 21:31 | |
| has said this; | 21:34 | |
| "the Christian life is worked out at the typewriter, | 21:35 | |
| the store counter, | 21:39 | |
| the desk, | 21:42 | |
| and the kitchen sink." | 21:45 | |
| You ask me, where is the glory in all this? | 21:46 | |
| Well, let me refer you to Gerard Manley Hopkins | 21:50 | |
| an English Roman Catholic Priest and Poet | 21:55 | |
| at the end of last century. | 21:59 | |
| In an address on St. Ignatius spiritual exercises, | 22:03 | |
| beautiful piece of writing. | 22:07 | |
| Let me read part of it to you. | 22:09 | |
| When a man is in God's grace and free from mortal sin, | 22:12 | |
| then everything that he does | 22:19 | |
| so long as there's no sin in it, | 22:22 | |
| it gives God glory. | 22:25 | |
| And what does not give Him glory has some, | 22:27 | |
| however little, sin in it. | 22:31 | |
| It's not only prayer that gives God glory, but we're | 22:34 | |
| smiting on an anvil, | 22:39 | |
| sawing a beam, | 22:42 | |
| whitewashing a wall, | 22:44 | |
| driving horses, | 22:47 | |
| sweeping, scouring. | 22:48 | |
| Everything gives God some glory, if being in grace, | 22:51 | |
| you do it as your duty. | 22:58 | |
| To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, | 22:59 | |
| but to take food in thankfulness | 23:03 | |
| and temperance gives Him glory too. | 23:06 | |
| To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, | 23:10 | |
| but a man with a dung fork in his hand, | 23:17 | |
| a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory too. | 23:21 | |
| So then my brethren, live. | 23:26 | |
| A kind of place where God worked in Jesus Christ | 23:31 | |
| is where we work too. | 23:35 | |
| Therefore glory to God in the high street. | 23:38 | |
| And in the wee houses off the high street | 23:42 | |
| and in the shops at five points | 23:44 | |
| and in the jungle, which is the dormitories on west campus. | 23:48 | |
| Is there any need to apply this to ourselves? | 23:55 | |
| Oh, I know we'll write Christmas checks | 23:58 | |
| for our favorite charities | 24:01 | |
| and entertain underprivileged kids from Edgemont | 24:02 | |
| and the right refuge and sing coddles in the hospital wards, | 24:06 | |
| and God will be pleased. | 24:10 | |
| Oh yes, it will give Him glory. | 24:13 | |
| But how shall we write or grade that cursed term paper, | 24:16 | |
| how should we behave to gas station attendants | 24:25 | |
| and other cars on the highway as we drive home. | 24:27 | |
| How should we respond if our maid or our janitor | 24:33 | |
| or our waitress loses a home by fire on Christmas day. | 24:38 | |
| A corollary to Gloria in Excelsis | 24:44 | |
| is glory to God in our daily life, | 24:48 | |
| without which there is little joy in heaven. | 24:52 | |
| It was the very Reverend Sir George McCloud | 24:58 | |
| holder of the Military Cross for valor in World War One | 25:03 | |
| honorary Doctor of Divinity, | 25:07 | |
| ex-moderator of the Church of Scotland, | 25:10 | |
| Chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, | 25:12 | |
| founder of the Iona community, | 25:16 | |
| gadfly of Presbyterianism. | 25:19 | |
| It was he who told that story about the naughty boy who | 25:21 | |
| threw a brick through the stained glass window | 25:25 | |
| and being George McCloud, he didn't leave the matter there. | 25:29 | |
| He suggested a unique repair of the window. | 25:33 | |
| The new piece of glass should have the missing E on one side | 25:37 | |
| and be plain in the other. | 25:45 | |
| It should then be mounted in the window on a swivel. | 25:48 | |
| And then in a high wind, it would revolve. | 25:56 | |
| And the text could be read both ways. | 26:00 | |
| For if God had the courage to become man, | 26:05 | |
| then be assured there is no | 26:10 | |
| adequate glory to God in the highest, | 26:12 | |
| unless there is also glory to God in the high street. | 26:17 | |
| Let us pray. | 26:26 | |
| May the blessing of the Lord come upon you abundantly, | 26:33 | |
| may it keep you strong and tranquil in the truth | 26:38 | |
| of His promises through Jesus Christ. | 26:43 | |
| Our Lord. | 26:48 | |
| Amen. | 26:53 |
