GLORIA!

Last weekend was the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Homiletics Society, at Birmingham, AL, on the campus of Beeson Divinity School (Samford University). Most of our plenary meetings were held in the fabulous chapel at Beeson. Quite a sight, this building—the Andrew Gerow Hodges Chapel. At the center of the chancel under the 90-foot dome is a bronze plaque on the floor: “This hallowed place is consecrated to the spiritual and intellectual preparation of men and women who will minister in Jesus’ Name to all peoples to the ends of the earth until the end of time.” For the glory of God!

The chapel is a remarkable specimen of Colonial/Gregorian architecture with semi-classical overtones, modeled after the Il Redentore (The Redeemer) chapel in Venice (the work of Andrea Palladio, 1508–1580). Hodges Chapel’s cross shape maintains an enduring and powerful, though silent, witness to our Lord Jesus Christ, supplemented by another equally eloquent testimony—the cross on the top of the organ casing (organ by Orgues Létourneau). And the organ casing, in addition to bearing Bach’s monogram, also proudly displays in gold letters, below the cross, the words: Soli Deo Gloria! To God alone be the glory!

Glory—that’s what God is about. That’s why He’s done all that He has; that’s why He’s doing all that He is; that’s why He will do all that He’s promised.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments
and unfathomable His ways!
For from Him and through Him
and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33, 36

All of creation exists to glorify Him.

“Everyone who is called by My name,
and whom I have created for My glory,
whom I have formed,
even whom I have made.”
Isaiah 43:7

Everything in the universe is moving towards God’s glorification. Everything and everybody.

… at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow,
of those who are in heaven
and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:10–11

This is the end, the goal, the terminus, the Omega of all creation—the glory of God.

And He rightly demands glory, for He alone rightly deserves it.

Ascribe to the LORD,
O sons of the mighty,
Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD
the glory due to His name;
worship the LORD in holy array.
Psalm 29:1–2

That verse demarcates our role in all God’s glorification, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648) agrees, acknowledging that only in glorifying God are we humans fulfilled:
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

So whether you eat or drink
or whatever you do,
do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

That is what we were called for—to glorify Him, to bear witness to His pre-eminence in all things and over all things.

But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession,
so that you may proclaim
the excellencies of Him
who has called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9

Not for my glory, am I to live. Not for my exaltation, do I draw my breath. Not for my praise, does my heart beat. But for God’s.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
but to Your name give glory ….
Psalm 115:1

Soli Deo Gloria!

SHOW!

The other weekend I was in Chicago to attend a conference, held at the Chicago O’Hare Hilton. In other words, for one long busy weekend, I flew in to Chicago, stayed at a hotel located right in O’Hare airport, and flew out a couple of days later. Never once breathed the salubrious air of Chicago. Never once took in the sights of that famous city. From airport to walkway to hotel. And the route in reverse the day I was to return. Strange trip!

Anyway, right outside my hotel room was this huge concrete edifice, formerly an Air-Traffic Control tower. The ATC moved to better digs half a mile away 10 years ago, leaving the old tower in the hands of City of Chicago; they use it now to manage city vehicles engaged in ground operations.

No longer was this structure the glamorous center of activity for O’Hare Air-Traffic Control. No longer the authority that decides flight and landing patterns of aircraft in the world’s busiest airport. Usurped. Overtaken. Downgraded.

But it looks fancy. Especially at night. All those neon pink lights throwing their ebullient incandescence on its wall. Pretty!

Dressed up to make up for disuse, I thought.

Jesus had some choice words for people like that in an extended section in Matthew 23 where He pronouced a series of woes on the Pharisees.

Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you clean the outside of the cup
and of the dish, but inside they are
full of robbery and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee, first clean
the inside of the cup and of the dish,
so that the outside of it
may become clean also.
Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you are like whitewashed tombs
which on the outside appear beautiful,
but inside they are full of
dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
So you, too, outwardly
appear righteous to men,
but inwardly you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:25–28

An easy danger to fall into for anyone. The danger of a cultural Christianity, form without function, concocted externals without consistent internals. A false honoring of God, a dressing up on the outside, merely an attempt to glorify oneself, not God.

Beware of practicing your righteousness
before men to be noticed by them;
otherwise you have no reward
with your Father who is in heaven.
When you pray, you are not to be
like the hypocrites;
for they love to stand and pray in the
synagogues and on the street corners
so that they may be seen by men.
Truly I say to you, they have
their reward in full.
Whenever you fast, do not put on
a gloomy face as the hypocrites do,
for they neglect their appearance
so that they will be noticed by men
when they are fasting.
Truly I say to you,
they have their reward in full.
Matthew 6:1, 5, 16

While there is something to be said for letting our faith show on the outside and allowing Christ to shine out in our lives, there is also significant value to the spiritual discipline of secrecy. Approval comes from God alone; security comes not from the applause of mankind—a good reminder that we serve an audience of One.

… from the Lord you will receive
the reward of the inheritance.
t is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
Colossians 3:24

Serving and pleasing God.

Therefore we also have
as our ambition,
whether at home or absent,
to be pleasing to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:9

May we consumed by the ambition to please God and God alone.

READY!

The last time I came close to a dog was in Aberdeen, but that was a “dawg,” not a “dog.” And there was a whole bunch of us dawgs there (another old story). This, however, was a real specimen of the species—the four- not two-legged variety.

One of our Dallas Seminary students is legally blind and so is accompanied by a seeing-eye dog, Largo. That brings me to the rather strange task I had to perform the other day. Largo, in some unknown manner, developed a laceration on one of his hind legs and needed sutures at the doggy ER. His blind owner, in order to avoid another trip to the vet, asked if I could take out the animal’s stitches a week later.

Hey, why not? If I can do humans, surely I could handle dogs? I promptly agreed, keen on doing a good deed, but not without a little trepidation. Would he sit still? What if the canine attacked me as I approached him with the tools of my trade? Visions of being mauled came to mind. I started having second thoughts. Unless I found favor in Largo’s eyes, I’d be in big trouble. And not knowing me from Adam, there was no reason why Largo would be kindly disposed to a guy with scissors working on his leg. I worried that Largo would get irate allegro.

But my fears were unfounded. When I first touched his left hind leg, now healing well, he moved a bit, but then, surprisingly, sat down, and became calm immediately. He seemed to know I was trying to help him. The rest of the brief surgical undertaking went like a charm. Largo sniffed his thanks, looking at me with his big brown eyes.

And so there I was, degrees and all, implements and all, crouching on the floor in the office of the Department of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Seminary, removing stitches from … a dog!

The things you have to do in Seminary! Life, I tell you, is full of surprises. But you gotta be ready. Always ready!

And so it is also in the Lord’s service.

… preach the word;
be ready in season and out of season;
reprove, rebuke, exhort,
with great patience and instruction.
2 Timothy 4:2

Always ready. And this ain’t no idle command. It is a formal call to responsibility for proclamation—to be ready always—that Paul prefaces with a sober, stern, stately adjuration.

I solemnly charge you in the presence
of God and of Christ Jesus,
who is to judge the living and the dead,
and by His appearing
and His kingdom:
preach the word ….
2 Timothy 4:1–2

This is a serious task for which we must be ready. Always. Whether convenient or not. Whether circumstances are auspicious or not. Whether the occasion is favorable or not.

Always ready! To talk about God anywhere, anytime, to anyone. Not that we should jump in insensitively or indiscriminatingly, tastelessly or tactlessly. But that we should be ready.

Readied by prayer. Readied by a spiritual life. Readied eyes and readied ears awaiting a God-given opportunity. Ready to throw the word “God” into a conversation. Ready to steer a chat towards spiritual issues: Gosh, is there any real security in the world these days? Readied by the power of God.

We proclaim Him,
admonishing every man and
teaching every man with all wisdom,
so that we may present every man
complete in Christ.
For this purpose also I labor,
striving according to His power,
which mightily works within me.
Colossians 1:28–29

Always ready!

SALTIRE!

In front of the King’s College quadrangle at the University of Aberdeen, guarding the noble building that dates back to the late 15th century, stands a unicorn of stone, silent and immovable, nonchalantly throwing a casual hoof over a shield that bears the telltale markings of the early Christian history of Scotland.

That white-cross-on-a-blue-background is the Saltire. Technically, for those devotees of vexillology (the study of flags), it is a white saltire—a crux decussata (an X-shaped cross) on an azure field—the symbol of the patron saint of Scotland, Andrew, the first-called apostle of Christ.

History notes this noble apostle as having preached in modern day Turkey, Romania, and Russia. Andrew’s connection with Scotland is a bit more tenuous. Apparently in 832 A.D., King Óengus II (“Angus”) led the Scots against the English. Surrounded by foes and close to being vanquished, Óengus took to prayer. That night, Andrew appeared to the King and assured him of victory. The seal of his promise was a white saltire appearing on the blue sky the next day. So the Scots took heart ... and the English took to their heels. Since then, it is said, the white saltire on blue has been on the Scottish flag, and Andrew has been the patron saint of Scotland.

But why Andrew and the crux decussata?

This worthy is said to have been martyred in Patras (Greece) by crucifixion. However, Andrew, or so the tradition of martyrs holds, was not nailed to a standard issue Roman cross like the one on which Christ suffered, but on an X-shaped structure. That, apparently, was Andrew’s own choice, to be spread-eagled on that frame, as he considered himself unworthy to be crucified in the same fashion as his Master.

The Saltire—St. Andrew’s Cross—became the symbol of that apostle’s self-confessed unworthiness.

It is striking then, isn’t it, that Jesus announces …

“And he who does not take his cross
and follow after Me
is not worthy of Me.”
Matthew 10:38

Andrew did—literally. (And probably so also did Peter and Simon the Zealot, among the apostles). But it is obvious that “taking up of the cross” is not a literal indication of how followers of Christ are to die.

Jesus said to His disciples,
“If anyone wishes to come after Me,
he must deny himself,
and take up his cross and follow Me.”
Matthew 16:24

This cross-bearing is a self-denial, a denial unto death of the self and all that that implies. No, the cross is not my car problems, or your mother-in-law, the umpteen loads of laundry to be done, that ornery boss, or the diapers that need changing. Nor is it the uncertain elections, or even the plunging stock market, for that matter. The taking up of the cross is the ultimate picture of sacrifice—of one’s very life. In some cases, that may be true literally.

What will we give Him in sacrifice, who gave His all for us? A sacrifice of time? Energy? Resources? A major turning point in life? A dramatic change of direction? In the different stations that God has placed us and in the different stages of our walk with Christ, the sacrifices will no doubt be different. No one can prescribe it for you; that is between you and your God. But let us never dismiss the call to sacrifice: being a Christ-follower is a costly endeavor.

And, oh, yes, cross-bearing does come with eternal rewards. As the old song goes,

If you will not bear a cross
You can’t wear a crown,
Way beyond the blue!