In just a few days now, it’s going to be Christmas. There’s something about Christmas that seems to capture the hearts of all of us. We’ve been told for weeks now that we ought to be purchasing that special gift. We have our family plans. We’ve probably been attending get—togethers and celebrations associated with Christmas. We’ve seen the decorations everywhere. And we have been hearing that Christmas music again that was put away just about a year ago.
I wonder what thoughts and memories you associate with Christmas. Is it a good time in your family life? Or is it a time of loneliness, when you feel isolated from others or miss someone who is gone? Or maybe it’s a time of considerable confusion and frustration, feeling that somehow it just ought to be more than it is!
Sure, Christmas means different things to different people.
Maybe you are one of those who is quite intrigued by all the tenderness of a little baby in a manger, of a new teen mother quite overwhelmed by it all, and you wonder what it’s all supposed to mean. Maybe you hear those stories again of Bethlehem, of shepherds, of angels, of wise men following a star and….well, you like stories like that…but you really wonder what it’s all about.
Well, let me point you to a side of Christmas that is quite different than the one we normally think about. Christmas marks the time when God entered right into the history of this world and gave us an extraordinary opportunity to see his wonderful glory.
During the recent broadcasts of the Back to God Hour, we’ve been thinking about who God is and how he shows himself to us and what it means during this Advent season. We’ve said He’s not an aloof and unreachable God way off in the heavens. He’s a God who comes, who breaks in, who gets involved in all the stuff of our lives and our world and, in doing so, he makes a difference! Now today I want you to think about the fact that in Christmas God came, he broke in, and in his coming we see glory.
Most people seem to agree that Christmas and glory go together. I have tapes and CDs that are entitled "The Glory of Christmas". There are Christmas programs and cantatas with very similar titles. It’s sort of a natural — The Glory of Christmas.
But do you know what that really means?
The story that we read from the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel certainly points in that direction. This is what we know as "The Christmas Story", or "The Nativity". The story begins when we meet some shepherds outside Jerusalem taking care of their flocks of sheep. It’s nighttime.
Now, in a number of ways, "glory" and shepherds are two concepts that just don’t seem to go together at all. Shepherds have no glory. They are out there in the fields, generally by themselves. It’s a very lonely business. They usually don’t manage to become very prosperous. They surely don’t have any prominence or power as far as the folks in town are concerned. Some even think of them as rather disreputable characters.
But suddenly these shepherds, however many of them there were, are brought face to face with glory. And…it’s the glory of the Lord! It says an angel came to them and the "glory of the Lord shone around them.!" Wow, imagine that! No wonder it says they were terrified. I guess we all would be with something as mysterious as that.
But quickly the angel tried to put them at ease by explaining to them what was happening. "Don’t be afraid", the angel says, for I am bringing good news to you. And this is the good news — a Savior has been born to you, in Bethlehem, and he is Christ the Lord. You’ll find him in a manger, wrapped in cloths.
And then the whole scene changed. It virtually exploded with a huge crowd of angels joining this first messenger. A whole heavenly host appeared, and they were praising God. And what was the first idea that surfaced in their praise? "Glory to God in the highest".
So it’s no wonder that we get the idea that "glory" and Christmas go together. The shepherds surely experienced that.
Well, we may know that too, but I think most of us really don’t have a clear idea of just what "glory" is, do we? I mean, just what is this "glory of God" that shone all around them? And what did the angel choir mean by singing "Glory to God in the Highest"?
Actually, both the word and the concept behind it are pretty complex. Theologians have written page after page trying to explain just what it is. Let me try to summarize some of what they have said by telling you two things:
First, Glory is about God and who he is. It has to do with the presence of God and all the perfections of God. God is and has glory! So the direction is toward God. It’s about him. And second, glory is a reference to the way we perceive of the reputation, the honor, the radiance that comes from the holiness of God. So "glory" is about God….and it’s about the honor of God. And it’s such a big concept, we can hardly get it into these little boxes that we call "words". It takes angels to show it.
And now, the point of this story, the point of Christmas, and as a matter of fact, the point of the whole Christian gospel is that when we become a believer in Christ, we humans actually get in touch with the glory of God. Or at least we become much more aware of it.
I know that’s hard to describe and explain. Perhaps the best thing to do is for me to take you to a few other biblical stories where you can see it. You know how there are times when you are trying to explain something to one of your friends, and you sense that you are just not getting the message across, so you say, "Well, you’ll just have to come and see it for yourself!" So let me take you to three places where you can see it for yourself.
Let’s go back to the Old Testament where the Israelites are worshiping at the Tabernacle that they built. They’ve been delivered from Egypt and are on their way to the Promised Land for a whole new life. The Tabernacle would be the place where God would come to meet his people; they called it the Tent of Meeting. They met God there. Well, they built it according to all God’s commands, and then it says in Exodus 40 (v.34—35)…
"The cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud has settled upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."
And if you asked them to describe it, they’d probably say something just like the shepherds would have said, "Well, it’s just too much to put into words, but the beauty of God was everywhere!"
For our second visit let’s go to the prophet Isaiah. He had a similar visit with God in the Temple that was built in Jerusalem. Listen to how he describes it in Isaiah 6:
"…I saw the Lord, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty: the whole earth is full of his glory"
Isaiah says that the whole place shook, and the temple was filled with smoke, just like the Tabernacle back in Moses day. Isaiah was as terrified as the shepherds were. He cried, "Woe to me, I am ruined!" and he confessed all his sinfulness. There he was, surrounded by all the glory of God.
And now may I take you to one more visit? This one is much later, in the New Testament, and it’s up on a mountain in Palestine. We call it the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus took his closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, up that mountain with him where they met Moses and Elijah. Jesus, you see, was being prepared for the intense suffering that lay ahead for him, and he was being prepared by getting in touch with the glory of God which would equip him for the journey ahead. It says that the three disciples "saw his glory". Apparently the whole scene radiated with the glory of God.
Now if that all seems rather mysterious and daunting to you, let me remind you that Christmas is all about being in a position to see the glory of God. It’s about God coming into our world and our lives so that we can see his glory. Yes, Christmas is about seeing the glory of God! It’s that big!
You see, that’s how the Apostle John described the first Christmas. In his Gospel, John gives some commentary on just what was involved in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming into this world. And he said this,
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
So from the tabernacle, to the Temple, to the manger, God is involved in coming to us, in breaking into our lives and our world. And when he comes, we have the opportunity to see his glory.
But maybe that all sounds very strange to your ears. Maybe you can understand it when we say that Christmas and glory go together, theoretically at least. But there’s just no way you can see God’s glory in practical every—day experiences of this world. And you want to say that there is so much in this world that isn’t really glory at all. It can better be called "unglory", the opposite of glory. You and I look around and we don’t really see glory, do we? We see darkness, suffering, violence, brokenness. This is a world of war and violence. It‘s a world of crime and abuse. It’s a world where the strong often oppress the weak. The haves take advantage of the have not’s. It’s a world of crime in the streets, drug traffic in the suburbs, and corruption in high places. It’s a world of tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, devastating fires, poverty and disease. A world of abuse, or lost jobs, and dashed hopes. Maybe you are feeling that right now. And how do you talk about "glory" then?
Well, that’s nothing new in history. The history of our world has been filled with violence, warfare, failure and oppression. It’s been that way since nearly the beginning. Newscasters tell us every evening that our society is filled with unglory. And then it’s terribly hard to catch any glimpses of this glory that the Christmas story is talking about.
But I guess it was that way in the day of the shepherds and the first Christmas too. Shepherds generally had a pretty dreary life — not much glory there! And their entire home community in Bethlehem was all too painfully aware of the reminders of Rome’s mighty power everywhere with its big boot ready to stomp on them at any given moment — not much glory there! And they heard day after day about Caesar on his throne, and how he wanted to be called God and Lord — not much glory there. And their local potentate Herod was such an evil and jealous man; he even murdered all the boy babies in Bethlehem right after Christmas — not much glory there. So where is this glory we’re supposed to be seeing? Have you seen it? Can you find it?
Well, now let me tell you something else about this glory we’ve been talking about. It’s coming, but it isn’t fully here yet. We can see it, but we can’t yet see that its work is fully done. The Bible talks about this glory in two verb tenses — both present and future. It is here, and it is coming.
Back in the Old Testament the prophet Isaiah pointed to this glory as a hope that should burn brightly in the lives of Israel to give them strength and confidence while they lived in the middle of all the unglory around. He met people in a rugged world and told them,
"Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, for all mankind will see it". (Isaiah 40:4,5)
And they lived with that, the Hebrews did, for centuries. And God always kept that promise before them that breathed hope into their spirits in a world of unglory, hope that "the glory of the Lord will be revealed". Yes, whenever Israel had that hope of God’s glory burning brightly in their hearts, they were a healthy people. It gave them encouragement to carry on. But when they lost that hope they also lost their way.
And they learned to look for the glimmers of that glory among them. And every time they saw a glimmer they knew that God was among them. When God delivered them from their enemies, they knew they were seeing glory. When God lifted the guilt of their sins, they saw glory. When they gathered for worship, they knew they saw glory. When he brought them into the Promised Land, they knew they saw glory.
And it was the same during the days of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. When the angels came the shepherds saw glory. When they saw Immanuel in a manger, they saw glory. When he healed the sick, cured the lame, forgave the outcasts, and welcomed sinners, they knew they were seeing glory. And when they went out there to that tomb on Easter Sunday morning and found it empty, and heard the words of the angel, "he is not here, he has risen", they knew they saw glory — right in a world of unglory.
Yes, John said that when we stand there and look in that manger at Christmas time and see the Word made flesh, taking up his dwelling among us, we are to see his glory…. But, maybe we do; or maybe not. Oh, the glory is there. The question is whether we see it or not. Are you able to see it?
John is calling us to look at things very differently. He’s calling us in a world of unglory, with all its brokenness, sin and sorrow, to look for something very different, so different it’s easily overlooked. Look, he says, for the glory of God coming in the life of Jesus Christ.
And so for that matter, what a very different kind of Christmas he calls us to observe. Get beyond the tinsel and glitter, get beyond the merchandize and stuff, even get beyond the cute little baby, meek, mild and cuddly, and see the glory of Almighty God there. The supreme tragedy today is that the glory is here, but so many do not see it.
I wonder…do you see it? The glory?
Whether you do or not will depend on whether you have been there at the manger in faith and recognized the child in the manger as the eternal son of God, God himself entering this world in the person of his son. He actually came to live here, to dwell in our neighborhood, and he brought all his purity and perfections along. It will depend on whether you have eyes of faith to see all that. Can you see God in the birth of that baby?
And when you receive this Christ—child, the bringer of God’s glory into this world that so badly needs his redemption, then you have the hope that you will be able to see something else too. Oh, you may not be able to see it right away, but you will have the hope burning in your heart that makes you sure it will come fully someday.
And do you know what that will be?
You can have the hope of living in a world where all unglory is gone, and it is finally fully filled with the glory of God. You see, this same Apostle John who told us we have seen his glory in the manger, also told us in the last book of the Bible that God has a new heaven and earth for us that will far exceed anything that we can imagine. Yes, the glory was there at the Tabernacle; it was there at the Temple; and it was there at the Manger; and on the Mt. of Transfiguration; but the fullness of that glory is still coming — and if we are children of Christ we will be there to experience it.
You see, the Bible tells us that there is a new day coming at the end of this world, and in that new day there will be a new city waiting for us, and glory will be the theme of that new city. Jesus told us that when he comes back at the end of time he will come with all his angels, in all his glory. (Matt. 25:31) There is a lot we don’t know about that city, or rather a lot that cannot even be described satisfactorily by human language, but I do want you to notice two sentences in the next—to—the—last chapter of the Bible. In Revelation 21 we read of how John was carried away by the angel to take a look at this new city so he could tell us about it. He was shown the New Jerusalem, that Holy City, coming down out of heaven from God. And then he says, "It shown with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal." (Rev.21:10,11) And then later in that chapter he explains that there is no need for sun or moon there "for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." (Rev.21:23) Yes, the Glory of God!
Only a few days are left before Christmas. True, there may be a lot of things that you have to do during those days. But more important than all those other activities is the need to make sure you can see the glory of God coming this Christmas. You have to go look in a manger to see it. I mean, really look in the manger in faith! Look there until you see the son of God who brings God right into our world, and then embrace him as the Lord of life. When you do, then you’ll see glory. And right in the middle of all the un—glory of this world, and perhaps even your own life, you will have the hope of God’s glory that will hold you, more and more make you like him, and give you the vision of that day when you’ll be in the new city he has prepared, that city where it all shines with the glory of God.
Prayer
Lord of all glory, how amazing that you have come to our world in the birth of your son Jesus Christ. And you have come to us through him. Yet, we have often failed to see you, and failed to see your glory.
Lord God, in these important days, we ask that you direct our hearts that we may recognize you, love you, trust you. Bring hope and healing in our brokenness. Bring peace and wholeness in the midst of our stress and emptiness. Bring grace, we pray, and make us your children. And then, we pray, hold on to us patiently until that day when you are ready to take us to your new city in glory.
We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forever, Amen.
Howard Vanderwell
Howard Vanderwell was ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in 1962. He received his M.Div. and Th.M. degree from Calvin Theological Seminary and his D.Min. at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. He has served as pastor to four congregations over 40 years in Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. After leaving the pastorate in 2002 he began a new ministry at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. He is currently a staff member at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI and Adjunct Professor of Worship at Calvin Theological Seminary. He consults with local congregations, provides worship materials, leads conferences and workshops, and teaches courses on worship at Calvin Seminary. Howard’‘s interests include planning, leading and evaluating worship, preaching, and worship renewal throughout the evangelical church. “My life-long prayer, from my days as a child, was that I might be honored to serve as a Christian Reformed pastor preaching the Word of God to encourage and challenge his people. I consider the forty years of my pastoral ministry to have been the most valuable way in which I could have invested those years! When I consult with pastors, teach and mentor students, hold conferences for worship leaders, or write worship planning materials, my aim is to equip and inspire others to serve their Lord and Savior by making a whole-hearted investment in his church and his people. Such ministry is certainly not without its stresses and discouragements, and those of us who have found such joy in a life-time of ministry are uniquely fitted to encourage others.” Howard lives in Hudsonville, MI with his wife Eleanor. They have three married sons and ten grandchildren ages 5 through 19. His hobbies are yard-gardening, walking, photography and model railroading.
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