Readings: John 17:1-11; Acts 1:6-14
Today’s readings both come from the New Testament – both are about leave-taking. One is from the beginning of the book of Acts to do with what we now call Jesus’s ascension. But first we’re going to hear from John’s gospel and what is known as Jesus final prayer.

As Bill Loader points out this has to be understood against the background of common patterns of ‘biography’ of the time….[where]it was customary in portraying someone’s life to seek to crystallise the essence of their message for future generations in the accounts of their last words and sometimes their final prayer. This prayer is not something Jesus would have actually said in his lifetime but rather the writer of John’s gospel, in summing up what the story of Jesus’ life means for the world, has creatively imagined what Jesus might have said and what would have been the issues for him in this final prayer. This seems to follow the modelling of an envoy, commissioned to do a task, now reporting back to the commissioner. So let us hear what that mission was, how it was ratified and what outcomes are named.

(from The Message)
(from The Message)

Those words ‘glory and to glorify’– what on earth do they mean for us today when the word has been somewhat hijacked? One thing’s for sure, it’s nothing to do with glory-boxes or the soccer mania of Perth Glory. To glorify someone these days probably means to put them on an unreal pedestal – the cult of celebrity status, ripe for taking down again – like a crazy game played out by our media in a dumbing down of intelligent engagement with things of real issue.

So I looked up where the English word ‘glory’ comes from; and found it’s from the Latin word ‘gloria’ meaning ‘fame, renown, great praise or honour’. This had been used when translations were made of the New Testament Greek word ‘doxa’ which means ‘expectation, opinion or reputation’. This in turn had been used to translate the Hebrew words ‘hod’ meaning `majesty, splendour’ and `kabod’ originally meaning ‘weightiness’ but by figurative extension describing that which was important.

Old Testament scriptures state that when God appeared to humans, the phenomena of the kabod accompanied divine presence. For example, this took the form of fire and smoke when Israel gathered to worship at Mt Sinai as God ‘descended’ from heaven (Ex 19:18). This sense of God`s glory is also associated with great brightness and clouds like after the dedication of Solomon’s temple when a ‘cloud filled the house of the LORD,’ so that the priests found that they could no longer minister due to ‘the glory of the LORD’ that had filled the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11).

This concept of divine glory is an important motif in both Judeo and Christian theology, where God is regarded as the most glorious being - not just in a majestic transcendant sense but also in an abiding, indwelling sense. This is experienced in Exodus 40:35, where ‘Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting, because the cloud settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.’ The Hebrew word used is ‘sha-kan’ meaning ‘to inhabit or dwell’ and on Sabbath Eve it is still the custom for the Jewish woman to invoke this shekinah blessing as she lights the candles.

However, the second century BCE Greek Septuagint version translated this cloud of God’s presence as ‘overshadowing’ the tabernacle. And that’s the word which the writer of Luke’s gospel picks up on in his opening chapter where the angel tells Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God."(Luke 1:35)

The New Testament gospels carry an appreciation that this divine glory has indeed become indwelling in our world, not limited to a temple, but rather as a free-ranging spirit energy inspiring humans and shining through them. And Jesus not only embodied this in his life he also encouraged us to see that we too express glory as images of God’s love. ‘Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.’ (Matt 5:16)

Our readings for today both express affirmation for Jesus’s life message. We are not meant to take them literally. Luke’s story of the ascension is a symbolic narrative with the cloud being a metaphor for God’s presence. It completes a full circle not just back to Jesus baptism (with the spirit symbolically descending as a dove) but also to the beginning of Luke’s gospel where the Holy Spirit becomes present, as a ‘potential’ incarnate in Jesus.

But, rather than Jesus’s departing being an ending, it becomes the beginning of Luke’s sequel book of Acts. The next round in this sacred story is up to us. The life and hope which Jesus’s message brought, had been attested by Jesus himself in his statement of mission back in Luke 4:18-19 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

Jesus had lived his life trying to express God’s love and hope to those whom society saw as disfavoured, outcasts or sinners. Through Jesus good news for Israel and its poor becomes good news for all peoples and their poor everywhere as they are invited to believe the story and join the expanded people of God and share its blessings. (Loader) And so this now becomes the mission of the disciples and of us all reassured that, the Spirit, God’s inspiring glorious presence, will energise us to tell out this good news and embody it in our lives too.

And as I was putting this reflection together I started thinking about where I might have witnessed God’s spirit, God’s glory, shining in the world this week. And my mind went back to last Tuesday and what happened in the space of two hours. First Martin and I went to visit two people in Charlie’s Hospital. One was a man whom we hadn’t seen for a long time. We had met him and his wife when migrating out on the same plane together forty years ago and maintained vague contact over the years. Out of the blue, because of a large tumour, he had had to have his whole leg amputated the week before. His wife had rung to let us know of his progress and when I asked about visitors she had suggested Tuesday to visit because he would be on his own all day whilst she had her hair done. But when we eventually got to his room (having spent quarter of an hour trying to find a parking space!) there sitting by his bed was a lady who just glowed gentle warmth. It turned out she had been an amputee herself for fifteen years and they had all met recently by chance, I think at a local gym. She had come up from Mandurah specially that day to offer support on this difficult journey.

So after a chat and promises of having a dinner get together soon, we left him to go down to D block to see how one of our Rainbow friends was. Actually she had her bags packed ready for the doctor’s OK to go home and her lunch had just been brought, so I didn’t stay long there either. But her face lit up in delight when I gave her a box of chocolates and card and told her the Rainbow folks were thinking of her. It always surprises me that so little can mean so much to another.

By then Martin and I were running a tad late for the special Rainbow lunch here - but would you believe every traffic light bar the Weaponess Road one was on green so we sailed through in ten minutes. And as we came into church we could hear the lovely sounds of the Starlight Hotel Choir which Linda had arranged to visit us. It’s based in St Pat’s Community Support Centre, Fremantle’s primary service provider for people who are homeless or at risk of being so, and many choir members have experienced homelessness and/or mental ill-health at some time or other. Apparently there are about 47,000 people under the age of 25 homeless in Australia. And we also learnt that the name for the choir arose from a conversation one of the directors had when the choir was starting and he asked a young guy where he was sleeping that night. The lad waved at the sky and said ‘the Starlight Hotel’.

It was a great pleasure not only to experience their singing but also to watch the members of the choir enjoying themselves too. Afterwards we had a chance to chat over lunch and, having bought their CD, I was regaled with who sang what in which song. One of those the choir had sung for us called ‘Feed my soul’ is Troy’s story about his ongoing struggle with ill-health. We’ll get to hear it when we take up our offering. I also noticed on the CD cover-book comments from choir members including "the choir, the people, their energy and encouragement get me through” and “I’d been in therapy for two years but still didn’t leave the house. Now I’ve been coming to choir regularly and it’s better than any therapy” and another “in the future I’d like the choir to get out and reach more people, people with problems in their lives and let them see there’s a light at the end of the tunnel – a bright light.” Divine glory indeed!

And so I conclude this reflection time with a poem I found in the Seasons of the Spirit materials.

When the Saviour is gone,
the story continues.

When the wind howls,
we can hear God’s voice.

When the night is long,
dawn will come.

When the way becomes lonely,
Christ’s presence calls.

When the future is unknown,
the Spirit is waiting.

When the mountain is empty,
the journey continues.

When the Messiah is ascended,
the community becomes the body of Christ. Amen