Catch the Glory

How often have you said or heard phrases like these? If you eat your vegetables, then you can have dessert. If you finish your homework then you can play video games. If you study hard and get an A or a B on the test, then you can go to the Bulls/White Sox/Bears game. If you sit, stand, stay or roll over on command, then you get a homemade liver treat. Rewards. We use rewards to teach and train. We offer appealing and exciting rewards to entice appropriate behavior from those to whom appropriate behavior may not come naturally. I’m not sure these days that this strategy is considered the most appropriate of human parenting techniques, but I can attest to its general effectiveness in the canine world. And in the world of professional sports and corporate management, I think they’re called contract incentives. To use a really desirous reward to motivate positive behavior.

So Jesus says if you follow me, I will make you fishers of men. Fishers of men. I hold out before you the reward of becoming an evangelist if you will act in a way appropriate to a disciple; that is, leave your livelihood, your families and your communities and follow me. Who could resist such an offer? Who would not be motivated by such a reward? The way of life of a disciple may not come naturally to us, but who would not do their best in order to become a fisher for people, an evangelist for the Good News of God’s salvation in Christ? No rushing to be first in line??

Simon and his brother Andrew and James and John, sons of Zebedee, evidently found the offer very enticing. Mark tells us that immediately… immediately they left what they were doing and followed Jesus. Was it the enticing reward of becoming evangelists, the opportunity to be apostles, that motivated them?

Or maybe something else was going on. Maybe Simon, Andrew, James and John had epiphanies. Listen to the proper preface for Epiphany. The proper preface is that part of the Eucharistic Prayer where the Celebrant seems to go off on her own for just a bit before returning to the familiar, "Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with angels and archangels…" The proper preface changes with the seasons, and it is always a powerful, focused statement of each season’s meaning. "It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. [And here’s the Epiphany bit.] Because in the mystery of the Word made flesh, you have caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge of your glory in the face of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord." To know the glory of God in the face of Jesus. That’s an epiphany. Maybe Simon, Andrew, James and John just looked at Jesus. And in Jesus’ face they saw the glory of God. Immediately, they dropped everything and followed Jesus. In Jesus they saw, they knew, stood next to, they experienced a share in the glory of God. Not a future reward or promise offered to motivate a change in behavior. An experience in the present that transformed them.

God’s glory. What do we really mean by God’s glory? Human glory is easy enough to define. It means fame or extraordinary accomplishment. It means winning a gold medal in the Olympics. But God’s glory… Evidently some 25 different Hebrew words in the Old Testament are translated glory. In the New Testament it is usually the Greek word doxa that becomes glory in English. But what is God’s glory? For me it means wonder, glow and sparkle, awesome majesty and mystery, joy, the peace that passes human understanding. Frederick Buechner says that glory is God’s "style". A style that we can recognize as God’s. "Glory is what God looks like when for the time being all you have to look at him with is a pair of eyes."

With our mortal eyes we do not see directly God’s immortal presence. No bearded man on a celestial throne. And, unlike Andrew and Simon, James and John, we do not see God in the flesh, Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee. But God’s glory shines through into our world. The evidence of God’s presence and handiwork is everywhere. The glory of the Lord shines all around us. Glory is what God looks like when all we have to see with is our feeble eyes.

One of the most wonderful things about God’s glory is that it is contagious. Highly contagious. You cannot be exposed to God’s glory without catching it yourself. And once you’ve caught it, once you’ve become a carrier, you can’t help but pass it on. You can’t avoid infecting others.

Do you remember the story of Moses on Mount Sinai receiving the tablets of stone, the second time around? Moses goes up onto the mountaintop. In the midst of the smoke and lightning he communes with God. He is awash in God’s glory. Scripture tells us that as he comes down the mountain, Moses’ appearance, Moses’ face has been transformed. Moses’ face shines with the glory of God. Glory is contagious, and Moses caught it. He doesn’t even know he has it at first, but the people are frightened by his appearance, frightened presumably that they might catch it, too. So Moses covers his face as he comes back to the people. Why the people were frightened is a good question, but my point now is, that had Moses not covered his shining face, had he not deliberately masked God’s glory, Moses would have spread it among the people. God’s glory is contagious.

How might you or I catch God’s glory? If you want to have an epiphany of your own, to know and experience God’s glory in your own life, what should you do?

Spend as much time as possible with glorious people. With people whose lives show forth the glory of God.

Children are glorious people. God’s glory was shining pretty bright and was certainly contagious as St. John’s children and friends gathered yesterday afternoon for the Little Hands ministry. Or listen to this reflection by Michel Quoist. God is speaking. "God says: I like youngsters. I want people to be like them. I don’t like old people unless they are still children…. I like little children because my image has not yet been dulled in them. They have not botched my likeness; they are new, pure, without a blot, without a smear. So, when I gently lean over them, I recognize myself in them." Children reveal the glory of God. If you want to catch the glory of God, hang out with children.

Or hang out with people of any age who live their lives to the glory of God. James, John, Simon and Andrew did not stop fishing after Jesus’ call. They did not give up their vocations as regular fishermen who set their nets to fish for food. Yet they fished now to the glory of God. Their faces shined as they fished. Any life, any activity, can be offered to God’s glory. Anything can be done as an experience of God’s glory, in the knowledge of God’s presence. Humility and gratitude; wonder and joy; unshakable perseverance. These are some of the human manifestations of God’s glory. Some people live in God’s glory; some don’t. It’s usually pretty easy to tell. God’s glory is contagious. If you want to catch God’s glory, expose yourself as often as possible to other people who have it. You will be infected.

In addition to direct human contact, there are other ways to catch God’s glory. They seem to be variably effective for different people. But in general, God’s glory seems to be highly contagious; I think you really have to work pretty hard not to catch it. Other ways to catch God’s glory: God’s Word conveys God’s glory. If the incarnate Word, Jesus, reveals God’s glory, so too does the written Word. Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest Holy Scriptures and see if your face doesn’t begin to glow. Some people find the glory of God in meditation or contemplative prayer and, like Moses, come back from that spiritual encounter transformed.

And Scripture tells us that nature reveals the glory of God. Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. One day tells its tale to another, and one night imparts knowledge to another. Although they have no words or language, and their voices are not heard, their sound has gone out into all lands, and their message to the ends of the world." You can catch God’s glory anywhere in creation, to the ends of the world, if you just stop long enough to notice. And once you notice God’s glory, you’ve got it.

When Jesus says, follow me and you will become evangelists, fishers for people, he is simply stating a fact. God’s glory is contagious. Simon, Andrew, James, John caught it from Jesus. Once they had it, they would give it to others. Remember this morning’s collect for this third Sunday after the Epiphany. In it we pray that we may have our own epiphanies, that we may hear God’s voice in Jesus, may know God’s glory in our lives. But we also pray that that glory will, indeed, be contagious throughout the whole world. "Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."