You have gone shopping in the Stockland Plaza in Townsville. It's rather crowded and you take good care not to get lost - and not to forget the particular items you had come to buy! As you walk along, you see one or two of your friends, say "hello" and stop for a talk before walking on. Then you see someone else with a familiar face. That lady over there - now, who is she? I've seen that face before! Where was it? No, I just can't place her! Seems a nice person - a very nice person. And that man she is with - both of them stir the memory, but I can't place them! Where have I come across them?
That evening you turn on the TV for the news, "It was revealed tonight that the Queen and Prince Philip have had a private holiday in North Queensland. The Queen reportedly enjoyed the Billabong Sanctuary, while the Prince caught some good barramundi at Groper Creek. He said it was the most outstanding fishing trip he had been on anywhere. He hopes to return some time. The Queen and the Prince flew out of the Townsville Airport for an undisclosed destination late this afternoon…"
Well, how would you feel? Of course! I should have recognised them! But - they were in casual clothes (no diamond tiara, no body guard, nothing to mark them out from other visitors) and - I wasn't expecting them.
What would it be like to meet God? Scary? Totally awesome?
Adam and Eve met with God. He walked with them in the garden of Eden. They felt no awkwardness about it. It was just natural to listen, to talk… But then when they disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit, they were ashamed and tried to hide themselves from God. Meeting with God was very different after they disobeyed.
The prophet Isaiah had this vision of God in the temple - "seated on a throne, 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.' At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty'." (Is. 6.1-5)
The royal anthem, "God save the Queen", describes her as "gracious", "noble" and "glorious". She is "her royal highness" and, if we had the opportunity to do so, we should address her as "your Majesty". We are not entering into the republican issue here. Some of those who debate that issue are "honourable" members of Parliament - even though their speech and behaviour sometimes tempts us to question the title. The Bible tells us plainly that we are to honour those who govern us. They have a status that is to be respected. True, they are human beings like us. At times their humanity is all too evident. Sometimes their behaviour is definitely to be avoided. Yet they have a function and status in our society that is to be honoured.
Of course, "glory" and "majesty" are God's qualities. The Queen and the MP's are essentially human and have honour and glory and majesty bestowed on them. But God is essentially glorious and majestic. He is Almighty - the all-powerful Creator of the whole universe. He is always present everywhere and knows everything. He is perfection - always right and the standard of rightness by whom all others will be measured and the Judge before whom all of us must give account of how we live. He is pure Love - the source of genuine love.
Human beings may, for a time, become glorious. But God is glorious. So, when Jesus became a man, he had to lay aside his glory. He had to humble himself.
There was just that once, when Peter, James and John climbed with Jesus up what we call the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw Jesus in dazzling glory - an impression they could never forget. In the first chapter of his gospel, John writes, "We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1.14b). Peter writes in his second letter, "we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain" (2 Pet. 1.16c-18).
It is easy to recognise the glory of Jesus when his face shines "like the sun" and his clothes are "as white as the light" (Mt. 17.2), when Moses and Elijah appear and are talking with him. What was the subject of this glorious conversation? "They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem" (Lk. 9.31).
And now, in today's passage, Judas Iscariot has just left them and is on his way to betray Jesus to the Jewish authorities (Jn 13.30). Jesus says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer…" (vv. 31-33a).
A couple of chapters later, Jesus has been telling his friends how they will all be scattered because of him, leaving him all alone, but when they are united in him again they will face suffering. "But take heart! I have overcome the world" (16.33) Then he looks up to heaven and says, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you… I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began" (17.1,4-5). The work of showing the Father's glory would be completed through the cross.
And in today's reading we hear Jesus saying, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (13.34-35). Practical, sacrificial love was at the heart of how Jesus showed the Father's glory on earth - right up to his death on the cross! He calls us to that too!
Frightened by the clamour of thunder in the night, a little child cried out. Holding her securely in his arms, her father explained that she needn't fear. God would take care of her because he loved her greatly.
"I know God will take care of me and love me," she replied. "But right now, Daddy, I want someone with skin on to love me."
Jesus laid aside all the heavenly appearance of his glory and showed his glory through caring love. He was God's love with a skin on!
Today is Mothers' Day. How thankful we are for our Mothers and their practical loving care! We may not expect to see God's glory revealed in the work of caring for children and home. Yet God is calling Mothers - and us all - to be his love, with a skin on!
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