2025-06-17
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
“Changed From Glory Into Glory”
Psalm 8: 1, 3-5; Romans 5: 2b-5
Rev. Judith Bagley-Bonner
Psalm 8: 1, 3-5
1O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
4
what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals[a] that you care for them?
5
Yet you have made them a little lower than God[b] and crowned them with glory and honor.
Romans 5: 2B-5
…we[c] boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we[d] also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
The basic, moral nature of humanity has long been debated. Is humanity basically good or basically evil? Well, scripture gives us a clear, and I think, an accurate answer, but, like most truth, it’s a little complicated. Genesis one says it plainly from the outset: we are created in the very image and likeness of God, the imago dei. Indeed, we share God’s glory! And what is glory? Well, the Hebrew word kavod and the Greek word doxa, are often translated as "glory," and signify the manifest presence of God, described as a dazzling light or radiance. We are beings of luminous light! Examples include the cloud that filled the Tabernacle or the brilliant light surrounding the resurrected Jesus. Synonyms include splendor, magnificence, and blessedness! And today’s Psalm says WE humans are crowned with that glory! That splendor, magnificence and blessedness! The manifest presence of God! The creation narrative tells us in no uncertain terms that as with all the other elements of creation, God created us and calls us fundamentally good!
But clear as that answer is, it is not simple. Because a mere two chapters later, in Genesis three, the story tells us that something else entered the picture, and we get Adam and Eve eating that metaphorical apple, the fall of humankind, and sin, otherwise known as distortion, pain, and brokenness enters the human experience. So in one sense we can say that almost from the very beginning, humans are basically both- good and bad in ambiguous mix. But here’s the thing- the good was first, part of the deepest prototype, part of the hardware, if you will, and the tendency to sin is an error in the software. The fall happens later and represents a distorting of the imago dei, the image of God. So the good news is that the page itself is dazzling, radiant light- And the stain that obscures it, what scripture calls sin, is water based, not oil based.
That doesn’t mean the distortion isn’t real or challenging. Paul says it best in the end of Romans 7 as he laments his feet of clay humanity- “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. When I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Who hasn’t known that struggle as we sometimes watch our best intentions go right out the window and we give in to some temptation that hurts the very one we love as well as us ourselves and maybe the wider community or even the world. I love Paul’s honest humanity at the end of Romans 7. I have uttered the same words a thousand times in my life. You too?
So the basic dilemma of being human is that we are made in the very image and likeness of God, just a little lower than God, today’s Psalm says, and full of radiant glory! But then, a mere two chapters later, that glory and radiance gets distorted and we are a struggling, ambiguous mix of good and bad, wanting, in our best moments, to feed the healthy wolf of our nature, but giving in all too often to the sick wolf in the parable. The answer appears to lie in the epistle reading we heard today: we boast (or it can also translate “celebrate”) We celebrate our hope of sharing the glory of God again. 3 And not only that, but we also celebrate our afflictions, knowing that afflictions produce endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts!
Wait! What’s that? We celebrate our afflictions??? Indeed, that seems to be the Biblical suggestion. Our afflictions produce endurance and character, and restore to us, bit by bit and struggle by struggle, the very glory of God, the dazzling light and splendor, that was besmirched in the Fall in Genesis 3. Our afflictions, our problems and challenges, indeed the people, circumstances and situations which most bedevil us, are here to help us, to teach us, and to transform us, bit by bit, back into the full and unmarred glory of God!
There is another way to put it, much simpler and clearer for our times: These are the mere eight words I want as the epitaph on my tombstone: “Life is the school; love is the lesson,” Indeed, I believe that life is the very school by which we grow, bit by bit, grade by grade if you will, into the radiance and glory with which we were first created, into the fullness of who God created us each, uniquely, to be. It’s the whole purpose and meaning of life- for each of us to grow into that full imago dei, image of God, each in our own unique way.
My favorite CS Lewis book is one of his lesser known works. It is “The Great Divorce” and can be read in an hour. It tells the story of a busload of souls who go from hell to heaven. There they are met by souls they knew on earth, who journey with them from the outer reaches of heaven into the deeper, higher parts, as they confront and deal with unfinished business from life. They are given the choice to stay in heaven, but they must develop the new, heavenly bodies to navigate its super-real properties. Initially, they are mere smudges of whining complaints who were not so much sent to hell by God, but chose it themselves because they were so miserable they wouldn’t have been happy anywhere else. Now, they climb upward and inward, toward deep heaven, but must let go of the earthly burdens and struggles that would weigh them down and keep them from navigating the high terrain.
Well, I believe that sort of process starts right here on earth! Life is the school, the long, slow process by which, aided by Christ, who represents unfallen, new humanity, aided by Christ we grow, bit by bit, back into radiant, love-based beings, fit, eventually, for deep heaven. And our afflictions are the fast track lessons for getting us there. Happiness and gratitude teach, too. Don’t get me wrong. But affliction seems to be God’s two by four, and it seems to be what some of us need to keep graduating to the next grade.
It’s like the long story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph is the favorite son, given the brilliant coat, and his brothers are jealous. They betray him and leave him for dead in a pit. Through long, circuitous circumstances, he is rescued and raised to a place of power in the government. Finally, he is reunited with his brothers who fear he will be understandably angry at them and will punish or kill them. But Joseph sees the bigger picture and forgives them. “You intended it for evil” he says, “but God used it for good!” Joseph lets go of any resentments he might have had, fully forgives and reconciles with his brothers, and goes on to save the Kingdom, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope of a return to glory!
How about you? What resentments are weighing you down and keeping you from scaling the heights into deep heaven here and now? What circumstances and struggles are grinding you up right now, and how might God be wanting to use them to teach you, and to bring a greater good for everyone involved? I need to be very careful here. It’s not that I believe God premeditates or causes tragedy or struggle in order to teach us or redeem us. But given that life is always full of these challenging episodes, I believe God can use whatever happens to burn away the dross, to turn us from whining little smudges of complaint into the little g gods and goddesses we were intended to be! I’ll repeat George Bernard Shaw from our prayer of confession, who said “This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” (Not to put too fine a point on it)
Our lives are a long school and the curriculum is transforming us from that feverish, selfish little clod of grievances into radiant beings, full of glory, restored to the image and likeness of God but with your personal twist! And here’s the best part- we do it not just because it makes us happy, although it is ultimately the only thing that really does, and it’s what you are really longing for, (even though you think it’s the new, Nintendo Switch or that exquisite couch from Wayfair.) You are really longing for wholeness, for the joy of being redeemed into your higher, glorious self! And it’s not just for you because when we are operating out of our imago dei self, then we can take our place in transforming and healing the world! Stewarding it back into the glorious, balanced, whole community of love and justice and righteousness for all!. Buechner said God’s will for us is to live at the intersection of our deep gladness and the world’s deep need. We can do that when we are operating out of glory- out of our redeemed, whole, splendid, radiant selves, that is to say, out of love. And then we are partners with God in healing the world, in creating the Kingdom of God, begun here and now, on earth as it is in heaven.
This is what this life business is all about. You didn’t know you were going to come here today to find out, at long last, the purpose of life, but I’m telling you, here it is in a nutshell- The purpose of life is to allow this school of life to transform us, bit by bit and grade by grade, back into the glorious, love-based, just-a-little-lower-than-God creatures we were created to be, and then to take our place in the glorious process of healing the world. That’s it. That’s ultlimately all she wrote.
So here’s the question: are you in this school paying attention and working with this process toward your own spiritual growth into glory, or are you drifting through half asleep as that little clod of grievances? Well, I’m here today to call you and myself to wake up! To reframe our afflictions, our problems and struggles, to come to understand that they are here to teach us and transform us, into active participants in God’s creative curriculum, and to help us to grow in glory for our joy and so that we can take our rightful place in healing the world.
I close with the words of David Archuletta in his beautiful song, “Glorious”
There are times when
You might feel aimless
And can't see the places
Where you belong
But you will find that
There is a purpose
It's been there within you
All along
And when you're near it
You can almost hear it
It's like a symphony
Just keep listening
And pretty soon you'll start
To figure out your part
Everyone plays a piece
In their own melodies
In each one of us
Oh oh oh, it's glorious
And you will know how
To let it ring out
As you discover
Who you are
Others around you
Will start to wake up
To the sounds that are
In their hearts
It's so amazing
What we're all creating
It's like a symphony
Just keep listening
And pretty soon you'll start
To figure out your part
Everyone plays a piece
In their own melodies
In each one of us
Oh oh oh it's glorious!