INTRODUCTION
Good morning, everyone. Today is the 7th Sunday of Easter, just one more week till the wonderful celebration of Pentecost, next Sunday May 24. Thursday this week, just three days ago, May 14, was Ascension Day. Do you get how the numbers work? – 40 days from Easter Sunday (April 5) to the Ascension on May 14, then 10 more days to Pentecost on the 24th, 50 days in total.
The Ascension: today’s lectionary reading from Acts Chapter 1 describes the scene:
“… when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” [6-9]
You can see the picture on the screen – from the Jesus Mafa series, again, by the Mafa people of Cameroun. “Don’t go!”, I imagined the disciples saying when I was a kid, “Please don’t leave us alone again!”
But, of course, the promise was the coming of the Holy Spirit in just 10 days, the comforter, our spirit guide: we’re not alone, we’re never alone, the Spirit is always there, available to us 24/7.
Today’s Gospel reading is from John Chapter 17, with Jesus preparing his disciples for what is to about to come, which begins:
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you” [1]
Our theme today, therefore, is “What does God’s glory look like?”, how do we see it, experience it, now? We’ll see that there are actually two types of glory: God’s glory shown in the natural world, which I call Glory 1.0; and a new type of glory – Glory 2.0 – which comes into the world through, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit – all this coming up in the Message after the Gospel reading.
GOSPEL READING: JOHN 17:1-11
Jesus’ prayer for his disciples
17:1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,
17:2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
17:4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.
17:5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
17:6 “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
17:7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you,
17:8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
17:9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.
17:10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
17:11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
THE MESSAGE
So, what does God’s glory look like? Let’s start with Glory 1.0.
David Attenborough turned 100 last week, on the 8th of May – did you notice?! A gala concert at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate, no less! There he is in the promo for the concert.King Charles, by all accounts, sent him a birthday card, which in a video was delivered by several animals, including a hedgehog, a squirrel and an otter – as you do!
Does anyone not love David Attenborough?! We’ve grown up, and old, with him. Why do we love him? He’s sort of the quintessential good human being: humble, kind, knowledgeable, wise, with a seemingly unquenchable enthusiasm for the natural world. Is he a believer? I’ve always assumed he was an atheist – certainly God never gets a mention in any of his docos – so I asked Google AI. This is what they said:
“David Attenborough describes himself as an agnostic rather than an atheist. While he does not believe in a personal God and often questions the notion of a benevolent creator due to suffering in the natural world, he has stated he is not confident enough to rule out a supreme being entirely, citing human limitation in understanding the universe.”
“Suffering in the natural world” – hold that thought – it’s an important clue to where we’re going.
For me, the stand-out, of many, many documentary series, was Attenborough’s ground-breaking 1979 “Life on Earth” series, which traced the entire three-billion-year evolution of life on our planet. Three billion years of evolution: I was already, by that time, 1979, an arch-evolutionist, having long since rejected the idea of a personal God who was a benevolent creator. But the “Life on Earth” series really crystallized it all in my mind: the wonder, the amazing drama of it all, life not just surviving in a fundamentally hostile physical environment, but evolving, becoming more complex, sophisticated, until finally you get to – new kids on the block – us, homo sapiens, human beings. This is the wonder, the glory of the evolution of life: all life is one unified thing, we are one with all living things, we are all one thing: life! Our connection to all other living things is intrinsic to our nature. It’s so much better than just being created, all species created separately by a creator God, so that our connection to other living things is really only incidental, after the fact. Evolution connects all living things together in a way that creation never can.
So, the wonder, the glory of the natural world is not the hand of a creator at work, rather it is the wonder of life itself surviving and evolving, against incredible odds – life which is us. This, at any rate, is what I got out of the “Life on Earth” series back in the day. That’s why we love going out into nature: we’re re-connecting with our roots, where we come from, we’re made from the dust of the earth – from “stardust”, as you hear people now say! We need to take precautions, of course, plan our little excursions out into the natural world carefully, because, yes, it’s still essentially hostile to us.
Suffering in the natural world – survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten, everyone for themself and nature against all – the hard, cold reality of evolution – that’s what convinced David Attenborough there couldn’t be a benevolent creator God out there, behind it all. Suffering in the natural world, and in human society, is compelling evidence, we’d have to say, along with David, for the non-existence of a benevolent creator God. In theology it’s known as the problem of theodicy, and over the years theologians have put forward all sorts of fancy ways of getting around it; but in the meantime, many or most people, have, like David, simply voted with their feet and abandoned any sort of belief in God because of it. So, no, to repeat myself, the wonder and glory of the natural world is not the hand of God at work.
Oh, but yes, it is! – you were hoping I was going to say that, weren’t you! Yes, it is! Not the hand of a creator God at work, but a very different God, who, in fact, Jesus himself introduces us to. Three times in today’s reading from John 17, Jesus, praying directly to God, refers to God as “Father”. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus never says, “O great creator God in the sky”; rather, always, “father”, “my Father”, “our father”, “holy father”. Yes, there is a certain patriarchal influence here in the use of “father” rather than “mother”, so let’s just read “Divine Parent” – who is obviously neither male nor female.
Divine Parent: yes, a supreme being who, as Google AI noted, David Attenborough said he is still open to the possibility of; who gave birth to this wonderful universe we live in, about 13.6 billion years ago in the Big Bang, which then grows and evolves, apparently under its own steam; organic life emerging around 3 to 4 billion years ago, humans around 300,000 years ago.
We are one, in fact, not just with all organic life, but with the whole universe, out of which we evolved; and even before that, with God themself, who gave birth to it all. That’s how scientists actually describe the Big Bang: the “Birth of the Universe”. So, the life which is coursing through our veins is literally God’s life – just like the life of our children comes from, is a continuation of, our lives as human parents. We are all, therefore, completely literally, God’s children.
So, yes, the natural world certainly does reveal the glory of God – Glory 1.0 – not the hand of a creator at work, pulling all the strings, making everything happen, including all the bad stuff; rather, just as the David Attenborough docos always show, the wonder of life itself, which comes from God the Divine Parent, surviving, evolving, hopefully flourishing, against the odds.
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Fast forward, now, to us, human beings – very much, as I said, new kids on the block in evolutionary terms – and this is where Jesus, and today’s reading from John 17, really come to the fore:
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.” [1]
Jesus, in fact, reveals God’s glory in a brand-new way – Glory 2.0 – not just a new God, but a new way of operating in the world, through the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, especially for us humans. Why for us especially? Because we are so wonderful?! No, because we are the problem. We’re a danger not just to ourselves, but to all life. We are the first living thing to be capable of conscious, intentional self-focussed action – a.k.a. sin! Help! Animals don’t sin; only we sin. And yes, we need help, the whole natural world needs help, needs saving, from us!
This is the context of Jesus’ prayer in John 17.
“And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” [11]
“So that they may be one”: this is the challenge we face, the thing we are worst at, that doesn’t come naturally to us, that we need to learn how to do, that someone needs to teach us. To be one: to learn how to set aside our natural-born, self-centred me-focus, and open ourselves up to a little selfless cooperation with others; to be one with each other, have a unity of purpose, sharing our lives together – before it’s too late, before we wreck everything! ‘Twas ever thus, of course: the end of our world always seems to be about to come – right now, for example, the big threats are global warming and the potential, once again, for nuclear conflict – so we always need saving, we’re always in need of a divine parent to bail us out when we’ve mucked everything up once again!
This is the Holy Spirit. Not some obscure, arcane, esoteric thing; but a very practical, day-to-day, quotidian thing. Praying regularly, as often as we need to, opening ourselves up in faith to receive regular download doses of spiritual energy and agency, to help us stop being so self-focussed and selfish all the time, so that we can keep getting better at the things that really matter: kindness, friendliness, generosity, helpfulness, respect, caring for others, sharing our lives together.
Adelaide Crows star Izak Rankine – sorry to all you Port Power supporters out there! – expressed it beautifully. Interviewed after last Sunday’s match – he was BOG with 33 possessions – referring to the disaster last year when he missed the finals, suspended for a homophobic slur, he said:
“No matter what you’re going through or what you’ve been through, you can always bounce back and be a better person.”
A better, more selfless person not just for the team – he’s in the midfield this year working a lot harder each game – but a better more selfless person overall.
[I apologize again to Port supporters]. This is what God’s Glory 2.0 looks like: individuals, groups of people, even whole communities and societies being transformed by God’s Spirit.The two words we’re looking for – in case you thought I wasn’t going to say them today! – are Metanoia – that beautiful Greek word in the New Testament which refers to repentance, conversion, sanctification, people gradually becoming, through faith, more open and selfless in how they interact with each other – and the Kingdom, of God, which Jesus spoke about continually, the growing, spreading Metanoia transformation of, ultimately, the whole of humanity – yes, hopefully before it’s too late, before we manage to wreck everything for good!
So, I commend them to you: God’s Glory 1.0, revealed in nature; and God’s Glory 2.0, Metanoia and the Kingdom. Amen!
