Seeing the Glory
Introduction
Listening to a testimony during the week about God’s call on a believer’s life, I was somewhat surprised to pick up that when this dear brother spoke of a shift from the workplace to pastoring, he seemed to elevate this latter phase of life above his previous vocation. As the context was a CBD prayer gathering originally designed to assist city workers understanding of the glories “marketplace ministries” I was mildly grieved. I should have recalled the famous saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” (Peter Drucker). Long schooled in Church culture, and the common practice of our elevating missionaries and pastors above ordinary 9-5 workers I should not have been alarmed. Nevertheless, through prayer, the Spirit works all things for the glory of God (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11). This teaching is a humble attempt to apply the following principle to my own ageing life: “What is first in intention (Why in God.) is last in execution (What in God.).”
Context
In this final stage of my life, however long, I need to be ever more attentive to what the Spirit of the Lord has to say to his Church on “the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). I was surprised, “grace is always surprising” (Luke 15:1-31), that in the middle of last night the Lord started to speak to me about the unity in diversity of all things in Christ. I sensed that all artistic gifts have equal value before the Lord. Whilst music and painting are elevated in Western culture to a position of pre-eminence, it cannot be that these are more important before God then pottery or poetry or writing or fabric work etc. It is likely not difficult to grasp this point, because of our personal experiences and our degrading in popular church culture of the significance of the wider creative arts. When however we broaden out the application of this principle that glory is diversely applied to everyday work, we encounter great difficulties. I’ve made close acquaintances between many in diverse occupations e.g. builders doctors plumbers entrepreneurs apostles architects brick layers electricians neuroscientists mechanics accountants prophets lawyers and so on. On one level this can be explained by my very plebian family of origin, but more foundationally its purpose is in the Lord. All these callings have a distinct glory before the Lord, Paul’s comments are rooted in the glory of God in his Son: “There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour.” (1 Cor 15:40-41).
One Glory One Word
When the scripture places the glory of the Father in the Son, “ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 cf. 2 Cor 8:9 Eph 2:10), it means that “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.” (Col 2:9). In Christ all the splendours and riches of what the Son is in the image of the Father (2 Cor 4:4) now indwells the Church as Body and Bride. The implications of this are brilliantly manifold (Eph 3:10). Whilst there is only one eternal Word/Logos there are many expressions/reflections in many words (logoi) in the Church (https://afkimel.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/jordan-wood-on-maximus.pdf; Athanasian Creed) as well as in the world (Matt 5:13-16). The One Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12; Rom 12) means that we all share equally in the one glory of God in Christ (John 17:20-26), a single infinite glory diversly distributed through the Church now and forever more! Therefore, all divinely bestowed gifts, graces and callings must be equally honoured before God (1 Cor 12:21-31). The hand cannot exult itself above the eye, and so on. This is a far deeper issue than any of us generally imagine (Eph 3:20).
Charismatic Words
The spiritual gifts, Greek charismata/ χάρισματα must not be limited to little lists in the New Testament e.g. 1 Cor 12 :7-9; Eph 4:11 but are in fact practical “packets of grace”, such as the grace to marry or to be celibate (1 Cor 7:7). There is nothing which is not spiritual, as Paul’s teaching on sex in marriage would indicate (1 Cor 7:1-5). The unifying factor of all the gifts of the Spirit is not found in their evidence of “spirituality” but in their exaltation of Christ. At the head of Paul’s teaching in 1 Cor 12 we find, “no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit” (v.3). The magnification of the Lordship of Christ, whether in the most “spiritual” of gifts. like prophecy and miracles, or in the most mundane and average of calling e.g. obeying God’s call to me to become a “detested” schoolteacher, is directly related to Christlikeness. In this context, the call to humility upon which our salvation hinged and hinges is indispensable. “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!… By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you… ” (Phil 2:5,8; 2 Cor 10:1)
Transparency
The main cause of our failure to honour each other in love, so that the gory of Christ is brilliantly seen (Eph 3:10) in all the dimensions of the Christian call, in marketplace and Church, is our struggle to be vulnerable with each other. This is no new theme for me (http://cross-connect.net.au/about/cross-connect-vision/ ; https://cross-connect.net.au/trauma-and-idolatry/). The reality is that a person and their call in Christ is the glory of God to be revealed on the Last Day (1 John 3:1-3). This fact, seen in the Spirit (Rev 1:10), is much broader and richer than any emphasis we may place on anointings (Charismatics -Pentecostals) or on academic rigour (Evangelicals) in the Body of Jesus today. Until we “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16) we will continue to suffer from an inbred Christianity producing “munted/deformed” spiritual offspring. It is past time for us to abandon the radical distinction we make between the sacred/Sunday and the secular/Monday-Friday. Jesus after all spent 90% of his life as a tradie (Luke 3:23), and Paul was a tent maker (Acts 18:3l 1 Cor 4:12).
Conclusion
Leaving for Myanmar on the 23rd I expect an opportunity to speak to a gathered group of highly talented entrepreneurs whose humility will enable them to see in one another the glory-in-diversity which is an image of the Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory…. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it.” (Col 1:27; Rev 21:24-26) Never despise the call of the Lord on another in Christ.