THE GLORY OF CHRIST

 

Sermon delivered on the 4th May 2008 the Sunday after Ascension Day by Fr Nicholas J G Sykes in the Holy Eucharist of St. Alban's Church of England, George Town, Cayman Islands.

Scriptures: Acts 1: 6-14    1 Peter 4: 12-14; 5: 6-11    John 17: 1-11

John 17: verses 8,10 "I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me. ...All mine are thine and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them."

PRINCIPLES OF GOTHAM CITY

About six years ago I was paid a visit from a member of the community and provided with a document addressed to, and I quote, "the World's Religious Leaders", coming from, and I quote again, "The Universal House of Justice". The document began by extolling the progressing globalisation of the world and what it claimed to be the results of that, namely the virtually complete breaking down of male supremacy, of nationalism and of racial and ethnic prejudices. To quote again, "Fundamental principles have been identified, articulated, accorded broad publicity and are becoming progressively incarnated in institutions capable of imposing them on public behaviour." I have no doubt that the institutions being referred to would be the United Nations and regional institutions such as the European Court. The Canadian Supreme Court would doubtless also qualify. The burden of the document's argument is that the world's religions must now recognise one another to be equally valid in nature and origin, and acknowledge that beyond all diversity of cultural expression and human interpretation, religion is one. The document refers to what it calls "the transcendent Figures who gave the world its great belief systems." What it does not do is refer specifically either to the Person or the words or work of Jesus Christ or to His unique enthronement at the right hand of God.

GLOBALIST IDEOLOGY

These thoughts were in fact expressed by the governing council of the Baha'i international community, which with extraordinary panache apparently terms itself the Universal House of Justice. They express too, it is very clear to me, the ideological humanistic language of "fundamental principles and rights" that all of us are becoming engulfed in, a language that is pressing on us so much through the utterances of government figures, for example recently Meg Munn of the FCO, academic institutions and the media, for example Cayman Net News in its editorials and some of its contributors, that the race of man is in danger of finally losing its capacity to think. We are more and more in danger of succumbing to thought control, such as was envisaged by George Orwell. I consider that the last bastion against this tendency, which is fatal to true humanity, is traditional Christianity, because this is not based on merely human words, but is both derived from and refreshed by the Person and words of the one true and perfect manifestation of God, our Ascended and Enthroned Lord Jesus Christ. For just as marine life depends on the light filtering down into various depths of the sea, so we too in our life on earth actually depend far more than we realise on what comes down into our world from a higher and greater one. And sometimes, like fish in an aquarium, we can catch a glimpse of that greater universe and can respond to it appropriately.

Certainly to say such things would be judged eventually by the purveyors of those so-called "fundamental principles" that are now apparently enshrined in supposedly fixed constitutions whose meaning, however, can be adjusted at the whims of judges, to be guilty of arousing religious prejudice and alienation. I am asking you again therefore to recognise that the principles by which the Church of England in the Cayman Islands stands and to which it aspires, will inevitably and increasingly be judged by many to be those that arouse religious prejudice and alienation. If you think the church should avoid such charges at all costs, perhaps here might be a reason for you to jump ship.

THE STANDARD OF CHRIST'S GLORY

In the great high-priestly prayer of Jesus, from which our text comes, Jesus observes that He has imparted to the apostles His words, which the Father gave Him, and that they have received them. We often refer to the great imperfections of the disciples at this time, but here we see our Lord in His prayer to the Father referring to things that the disciples had got right. Moreover the fact that they had received His words, and also knew that Jesus had come from the Father, meant that Jesus was, as He said, glorified in them. Now there is a very strong connection between teaching and glory in the original language. It would be impossible for Jesus to say that He was glorified in His disciples if they had not received His words. It makes nonsense to say that we glorify Jesus if we do not receive His words, but start teaching things that do not agree with His teaching. It is His glory and His words that are the only true international standard.

HIS GLORY, HIS SPIRIT AND HIS WORDS

St. Peter in the second Lesson also speaks of the revealing of Christ's glory. I believe the concept of glory being revealed is difficult for our age, because it has to do with the admission that neither we nor our own time are self-sustaining. When the glory of God is perceived, and now when those that are His glorify Him, and declare His glory to one another and the world, life is sweetened. The light has penetrated from the realm above into the depths of our sea. And the glory of God in the face of Christ is in His words, in the content of the teaching that He has given to us to be received. So we read at the end of St. Luke's Gospel, that when Jesus parted from them and was carried up into heaven His disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. We read in the Acts of the Apostles, though, that they were headquartered in the upper room, praying there too, along with the women and the mother and brothers of the Lord. Not in the act of Ascension alone, but in the whole drama of His revelation to them, His ministry on earth, His Passion, His rising and His appearing to them in the days after the Resurrection, His glory had been revealed, because through His words to them they had been shown the truth. "I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes", Ezekiel had prophesied. They knew that the Father had invested the Son with all glory, and now He was being glorified in them as well. In spite of the physical withdrawal of His presence, life had become very sweet for them. The 180E change in direction that discipleship to the Lord had involved for them, was eternally vindicated.

GLORIFYING CHRIST THROUGH REPROACH

I pray that in the life of this church, we will come to know more and more what it is for Christ to be glorified in us. I pray that more and more we will as the course of our life proceeds, be blessed even through being reproached for the name of Christ, for then we may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed, as St. Peter puts it. Even if now we do not see Him we will in all aspects of our life here continually be, as it were, in the temple blessing God. God has glorified His Son and His Son has glorified His Father, and our task and our delight in even these days of great and subtle ideological opposition, is to be those vessels in which Christ is honoured, obeyed, and taught and glorified.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the institutions that are becoming capable of imposing "fundamental principles on public behaviour?" Discuss how they can do this, and whether this is a good thing.

2. Do the words and the teaching of Christ support or conflict with the "fundamental principles of public behaviour"?

3. Why might reproach for the name of Christ be glorifying to Him?