Signs of Glory
1991 (Year B), 27 January /
Epiphany 3
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
If I ask you, what for you is a sign of God’s glory. What kind of things would you name? Most of us would shuffle uneasily at first, not used to questions like that. Frightened of getting it wrong or being laughed at. Eventually we’d come up with a list and it would maybe have on it some kind of divine intervention. Just like the feeding of the five thousand. Dramatic and powerful. Maybe it would include voices from heaven. Mighty crashes of thunder and miraculous healings. They would show God’s glory.
Perhaps it’s the in the majesty of creation or in the judgement when God comes on the wings of the wind. The great big things come to mind first of course the smaller ones, if not forgotten come after. There are the still small voices easily missed but once heard never forgotten. The birth of a baby or the beauty of flowers beginning to bloom after winter. All these are signs of God’s glory.
The sad thing is that we’d all have difficulty in doing this little exercise. We’re out of practice, most of us couldn’t recognise a sign of God’s glory if it fell on our heads or we bumped into it.
The essential point of the story, of the feeding of the five thousand, that we’ve just heard read, is that Jesus revealed his glory in midst of our world. And if feeding the hungry is a sign of God’s glory then suddenly a whole new list of possible answers to the question ‘What is a sign of God’s glory? Come to mind. Feeding the hungry is a sign of God’s glory whether it’s done by a government, through foreign aid, or in Soup Kitchens. Meals on Wheels for the elderly and in aid for the starving in Africa. It can be visible moving and heroic like rock concerts. It can be quiet and unseen – even go unrecognised and unthanked like the meal you are likely to prepare when you leave here. Suddenly what at first seem mundane, unimportant actions are transformed into vehicles of God’s glory. ‘They become acts of the utmost significance.
And the signs are precious. ‘They are to be treated with reverence just like the surplus food in the story. The twelve baskets were gathered, after the multitude was fed, so that as Jesus says ‘nothing gets wasted’. We are left thinking about the implications not only for ourselves but for our communities. What at first seemed unimportant is now most precious. None of it must be wasted.
And a sign is exactly what it says it is. In this case it reveals the proximity of God. It shows his nearness. But in this case it’s not something pointing to a distant reality. Just like a sign telling me that Leeds is so many miles away from London. ‘This sign is much more than that. ‘In this case it means that where one person cares and tends another, there is a sign of God’s glory. Yet it also means that God is present there. Where one person forgives another. It is a sign of God’s glory and God is present there. And where one person feeds another, God is there.
Jesus was the one who provided food for the hungry. The church should be a place where the hungry are fed. Where the blind can see and the deaf hear. Where all are given life, nurtured and encouraged to grow. If we manage to do that then our actions indeed become a signs of glory. A revelation of God. If the church does none of these things then quite simply it’s not acting as a revelation of God. It points to nothing but itself.
We need, in spite of all the knowledge which the world can give us, in spite of all the marvellous advances in our society, to recapture a sense of wonder as we probe the mysteries of God and his love for us. At the moment we are at the foothills in our understanding of God and his world. But it is good that we should be at the foothills, for that keeps us humble. Eventually we shall get to the top of the mountain. We shall then see the full glory of God. AMEN