Homily For The Second Sunday After Epiphany
This morning we have read of one of the great epiphanies of our Lord Jesus Christ – when God the Father speaks audibly at the time of his baptism, “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
This passage joins with other passages which we read in the Epiphany season – and they “are tied together by one common theme. They are all aspects of the showing forth, the shining forth” of God’s divine glory.
“… the miracle of God with us, … Emmanuel, God visible to human eyes, God audible to human ears, God tangible to human touch, God manifest in human life, judging, restoring, and transforming it by the grace and truth he brings. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory…"
And lest we grow forgetful of how great a grace it is to us, for the glory of God to shown to us, and even for the offer of the gospel to draw us into that same glory … this morning my desire is to remind you of the story of glory leading up to the these marvelous epiphanytide events, in order that we might marvel at the grace given to us in the manifestation of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
We will be aided in this great objective, by first beginning with the Old Testament.
In the OT we read of something called the Shekinah glory of the Lord.
It was the visible presence of God appearing usually in a luminous cloud.
The first time that Israel saw this glorious cloud of the presence of God was when they left Egypt and were headed towards the Red Sea, when the Lord led them with a manifestation of his presence in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Later, as you know, Moses – seeking to lead God’s people Israel, was often discouraged and dismayed and he would go into the “tent of meeting” to seek God, and the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the entrance of the tent, for God’s presence was there and he and Moses were communing.
When Moses was on the mountain for 40 days, receiving the Law for the 2nd time: the presence of the Lord was there with him and later when he descended – his face seemed to glow – it was radiant with God’s glory.
Later God created 2 physical structures as places for his glory to dwell somewhat near his people – though they had to keep distance, lest they die.
The first of these structures was the tabernacle – a tent so precisely described in Exodus that every fiber, texture, color, and shape had to be made according to a divine blueprint that God had given to Moses.
The book of Exodus ends with a description of the glorious presence of God – the Shekinah glory of the Lord – hovering over the tent of the tabernacle. This is what the text says:
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Ex 40:34-35)
From that time on, the glory of God dwelt in the heart of the tabernacle, a place called “the holy of holies”, into which the High Priest was permitted to enter only once a year, with the blood of the Passover lamb and he had to dump huge quantities of incense onto burning coals before him so as to create a cloud – a smokey barrier – lest he look upon the glory and die.
[…]
Eventually, the time finally came for Solomon to build his great temple.
Listen to what happened at the time of Solomon’s dedication prayer:
As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever” (2 Chronicles 7:1-3).
Seeing this, Solomon lifts his arms to Heaven, and prays to God, saying:
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! (1 Ki 8:27.)
Solomon said that because knew 2 things:
that God’s presence and his glory couldn’t be contained even by the universe much less by some man-made building,
but he also knew God’s glory was there – in the temple, luminous and good in its moral beauty and perfection.
Now, perhaps you know the story … as to what happens next, as the years go on decade by decade:
Sadly, the sinful and idol-loving heart of mankind began to be expressed, and so even in the light of the presence of the glory of the Lord – men began to use the temple to glorify themselves rather than God.
And the Lord, though abounding in mercy, was also wrathful towards these abominations and desecrations and the anger of the Lord was therefore roused and he would judge his people for their sin – and the glory would withdraw from the temple.
It is at this time that the Prophet Ezekiel was on the scene and he has his great vision, which is recorded for you in Ezekiel 10.
Ezekiel’s vision in the 10th chapter of his book records that unforgettable departure of the glory of God from the Temple. Here is what Ezekiel saw:
4 awesome cherubim (angels of God’s presence) assembled on the south side of the temple
each had 4 faces and 4 wings, so they could move in any direction – they could see in any direction without turning
beneath each angel there was a turning wheel completely filled with eyes
these were called the whirling wheels
in the expanse above the angels was something that looked like a throne of sapphire
as the cherubim took their places on the temple’s south side, the Sekinah glory filled the inner court of the Temple, then rose above the cherubim engulfing the sapphire throne
then the glory moved to the door of the temple’s threshold, filling everything with “the brightness of the glory of the Lord”
the roar of the cherubim’s wings was “like the voice of Almighty God when he speaks” (Ez 10.5)
Then, as Ezekiel tells it:
Then the glory of the LORD went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. (Ezek 10:18-19)
As Ezekiel’s eyes moved upward, he saw the 4 spinning wheels rotating ominously, and over them the 4-winged cherubim suspended, their wings drumming the air like colossal hummingbirds, and above them floated the dazzling glory of God, which until that time had been manifest within the holy of holies …
The glory was slowing moving away – it was moving upward and to the east away from the city – lingering above the Mount of Olives ….
…. And then it was gone
[…]
The glory had departed.
For the next 600 years, though the temple was destroyed and rebuilt and rebuilt again, and though godly men and women came and went – what was always missing?
The glory of the presence of God was not once seen!
And that is the stage (if you will) on which the next act in this great drama opens – with the coming of John the Baptist, sent to announce that the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus: Immanuel, God with us, was on the scene.
It was in the darkness of the night when he came: born by the Blessed Virgin Mary and then picked up in the trembling hands of a carpenter, a helpless and humble child, wet with the blood of birth, held there in the light of the stars, in Bethlehem.
Luke writes of his arrival:
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. (Luke 2:8-9)
What, my dear friends had happened?
The glory had returned.
The glory had returned in the Person of Jesus Christ – as announced by the angel.
As the shepherds cowered under the dazzling radiance, a vast company of magnificent angels in festal array outshone the winter constellations.
They were praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest …”
No longer were the people to say: “The glory has departed” but rather, as in the words of St. John: “glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” was here, among us.
For the 1st time in 600 years – the Shekinah glory had returned to dwell among the people of God.
But in rather a new way.
No longer are we led by a pillar of cloud by day or fire by night.
No longer do prophets climb sacred mountain to commune in the luminous presence of God as did Moses and a few others.
No longer is there a holy of holies containing a manifestation of the presence of God into which only one man, once a year may enter.
For now – the fullness of the presence of God has become incarnate in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is the glory of God, but not remote and removed – but send into the world so as to redeem the world.
Sent into the world, so as to redeem you and me.
For where is it that we now look to see the manifestation of God’s glory to us and for us?
It is upon the Holy Cross, where he humbled himself and atoned for our sin, in our place.
It is in his Holy Death, where is so gloriously paid the price for our sin.
And it is in his Glorious Resurrection and Ascension in which he leads the way in which we may now follow – as we put our faith in him, and follow him even into the waters of baptism through which we are incorporated into his everlasting family.