Sermon for the Sunday Next Before Lent – 19th February 2023: Exodus 24, 12-end; 2 Peter 1, 16-end; Matthew 17, 1-9.
Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens
It is an apophthegmatic saying, that is, a classic saying, of one of the great Archbishops of Canterbury in the last century, Michael Ramsey, when asked to sum up the 4th Gospel, the Gospel of St. John, that he used only one word. Glory.
Any reading – both surface and in depth – will understand why Michael Ramsay used this one word. In NT Greek it is δόξα. In English we get the word ‘doxology’ from this. The word, either with a large or small ‘o’ also gives us the word ortho-doxy.
In so many places in scripture we read of God’s glory being revealed. There is a God whose glory is not kept to himself, but has to be revealed, shown, to us in his wonderful acts – the outpouring of his very being into what he has created, ‘irradiating’ it with divine essence. It is almost as if he feels no option but to share his glory with others, with us.
As I was trying to say in last week’s sermon, based on the Creation Narrative of the Book of Genesis, God’s creation is not merely an ‘object’ but the very living and active creation of God. It is God’s glory revealed.
Dare I say it, the very existence of God, as we receive it as Christians, is that everything is shown, revealed. He has revealed his hand; nothing is hidden. He creates, and he constantly restores, not because we have a God whose existence depends on his ‘functionality’ ie. what is done in a mechanical way, but rather because he has created so that his glory can literally be revealed constantly. It is almost as if he cannot be God unless he is eternally outpouring of himself. This is a very extraordinary thing – something that can only evoke from us, his creatures, amazement, wonder.
