Feb 23, 2020                         Glory                                                   

Her name was Rev. Dr. Sheldon Culver. She was an intern at St. Paul UCC in Belleville, IL when I was in junior high. And one of her jobs at St. Paul’s was to organize and run the youth group. Of course, I was in the youth group, and as a pastor’s kid, I didn’t make her job easy. She went on to pastor a church in East St. Louis, Il, a tough place to do ministry. After 10 years she got her doctorate, and proceeded to work with the Missouri Conference, Illinois Conference, and Illinois South Conference as a mediator to resolve differences between churches and conferences. A number of times she was called to be an interim conference or association minister. Finally, she was called to be the Conference minister for the Illinois South Conference, and served in that role for the last 10 years of her ministry.

About three years ago, she retired, and to celebrate that, the conference had a wonderful celebration, recalling her years of service, inviting people from the churches and conferences she had served to come and speak about her, they had a lavish dinner, and a slide show. It was a glorious moment, and a wonderful evening for all. Bur for me, who knew her for 40 some years, this wasn’t the moment of her glory. That moment came on a Wednesday night, just three days before.

The week before last, I spoke about Pelagius, and how his followers replaced the crucified Christ with an image of their own moral perfection. Well, that heresy still happens today, and three years ago, it was happening at one our churches in the Illinois South Conference. As a member of the Church and Ministry Committee, I was there that evening to observe, and for an hour and a half, Rev. Dr. Culver answered questions from the church members, In that hour she listen to their concerns, she witnessed to her faith, and she proclaimed the gospel. She spoke the truth in love to a people who heard it, who rejected it, and some who even mocked her for speaking it.

This was the moment of her glory, not unlike that of Jesus glory on the cross.

This morning we see one of the moments of Jesus glory. There are actually four of them. The first three are Jesus Baptism, Jesus Transfiguration, and Jesus Resurrection, but the fourth is revealed to us in the gospel of John, Jesus passion and death on a cross. Good Friday is good, because it is the moment of Jesus victory over the powers of sin and death. Jesus words “It is finished” is a cry of victory to remind us that Jesus finished his task successfully. And after the disciples see the shining moment of glory on the mountain, of Jesus speaking with Elijah and Moses, they head down the mountain. Not to the glory they saw on the mountain, but to the glory of Jesus passion. From this moment on, Jesus is headed to the cross, and through the next six weeks of lent, we are headed towards Easter.

Now the reason I thought of Rev. Dr. Sheldon Culver’s glory, is because I believe all of us have moments of glory. Moments where we celebrate births, weddings, anniversaries, and funerals. Moments when we look back on our lives and remember the love, the life, the characteristics we admire of those we know and love. We live in a world where people are not just good or bad, we live in a world where we are all a little of both. Those moments where we rise above our fleshly lives and act in the Spirit of God, are the moments of our glory. The moments when we live not solely for ourselves but for others, are the moments of our glory. Now we don’t always win those moments, sometimes, we even know we are going to lose before them, but it doesn’t stop us from saying what we need to say, or doing what we need to do.

And I’ve noticed, that people remember those moments, appreciate them, and admire them. Those moments become the foundation of all those wonderful memories that are recalled at our celebrations, remembering who our loved ones were, and how they loved us and cared for others, above and beyond themselves. Every time I do a funeral, these are the moments I look for, that we can celebrate, and there are always there, all I have to do is let people talk about them. Those are the moments of Christian glory, where we are united with the Christ who allowed himself to be crucified, in order to fulfill God’s purpose, and save us from the powers of sin and death.  

Now I realize that our first inclination as human beings, is to live according to the flesh, and that our actions are almost always a mixture of self-interest and self-lessness. But I don’t think we always appreciate the importance of each and every act of self-lessness that we practice in human life. It is the glue that holds us all together, and the spirit that gives life to us in the face of death, and helps us to overcome the power of sin in human life. And so, Lent is a season in which we are to focus on the glory of those hard things that Jesus did for us, and to learn to do those hard things in our lives, so that we may overcome sin and death in our lives. That is the promise offered to those who believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that is the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.