Scripture: Romans 8:28-30; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 10:38-42 Series: The Way of Salvation

Glorification, the final aspect of salvation, is God’s completed work of transforming us into Christ’s image to behold and praise God forever—a future reality whose joyful worship we can begin practicing here and now because the Kingdom is already present and grace is greater than our sin.

Illustrations: bernard-williams-immortality-essay, hamlet-undiscovered-country, lifeboat-theology, mary-and-martha, youth-perfectionism-pressure

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Glorification

February 23

Romans 8:28-30

Mark 9:2-8

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. - Romans 8:28-30

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling bright, such as no one on earth could brighten them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us set up three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. - Mark 9:2-8

Is there life after death? For many people, this is the heart of religion. They believe in God or in Jesus in order to get a handle on the after-death stuff. I think eternity is lovely and important, but there is a sense that by focusing too much on eternity, we miss out on the here and now. And what this does ironically is to make the here and now eternal, not bring eternity into the here and now. The philosopher, Bernard Williams, wrote an essay years ago about eternity from a philosophical vantage. He was not a Christian, but I find his insights helpful. Williams wrote about how dreadful it would be if life just continued as is after death. You may not get sick or injured but daily routines, even ones you like, would seem hellish after 100 years or a 1000. This is what I mean about a fixation on the eternal making the here and now eternal. This is not what Jesus does.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus is seeking to offer eternity here and now. This is what he means when he says that the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of heaven has arrived. It is here. The structures of eternity are in place and you can live into them, but they’re going to look different from the structures of the world.

I want to flesh this out a little bit more. Another problem is that when religions and Christianity especially fixate too much on the eternal, we miss out on what we do day to day in our life, in the decisions we make, in the mistakes we make.

In bad cases, we practice lifeboat theology. This is what I call theologies where believing in Jesus is about getting a lifeboat out of hell and nothing more. I think Jesus offers salvation. I’ve been preaching on this for three weeks, but it’s not just a future thing, it is a present thing.

It is to live into that kingdom now and realize that the line needs to be blurred between the future and the present.

It is easy to have a fixed line about our future, about afterlife because death is such a fixed point. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

This was written in the middle of the age of exploration when continents were being discovered. And Shakespeare names how death is another such location that has yet to be fully mapped.

Instead of keeping these lines calcified, what would it look to blur those lines? Over the past few weeks, I have been teaching on salvation. I started with original sin, then talked about justification, then talked about sanctification. And today I’m talking about an aspect of salvation that is sometimes missed, which is glorification.

And why I think it’s important is that death does not put us into a pristine state of wholeness. There is a misreading of the Bible which makes death save us because all our problems become solved. What Christianity claims is that death is no longer the great problem. As Paul says, where o death is thy victory? Where o death is thy sting?

Instead, we are offered an opportunity to see the beatific vision. To see God as God is, to not be limited by our mortal bodies and souls and to praise God continually, to glorify God and be glorified in the presence of God. Glorification is language around our future in the life eternal that Jesus offers over and over again. But it is not just in the future.

We see glimpses of it throughout the Bible. At the transfiguration, in the gospel passage for today. Jesus goes up on the mountaintop. There is a vision, a beautiful vision, and he is revealed in his glory and yet says that his time has not fully come, but the message is still there. And the purpose and the structure is still there. He is Lord of this earth, king of the cosmos.

Glorification is about God continually transforming our hearts in contemplation and worship of the presence of God, of who God is. We are glorified as we glorify God.

In the Bible, we are not given an architecture of heaven or the presence of God. We are not given a contract. Jesus does not offer a contract of salvation. We are given images, glimpses, images in Isaiah and Ezekiel, in each of the gospels, in the letters of Paul, in Hebrews, in Revelation, glimpses of the presence of God and that the presence is filled with joy and worship, where there is no more weeping or crying or gnashing of teeth.

But this is what I want us to hold onto: we can practice joyful praise of God here and now and it will carry on to eternity. This is what I mean by having an emphasis on the here and now that lets the eternal enter the here and now. Because things we can do now carry over eternally. And if we don’t feel comfortable praying or worshipping God now, why do we think we would like to do it eternally? Will our disposition just magically change? Is prayer and worship in your life something to do when there’s nothing else better to do? This is a challenge that only you can answer for yourself. Only I can answer for myself. Sanctification leads us to this place and glorification leads us beyond.

Mary and Martha

Mary and Martha can help us with this. Mary and Martha, those famous sisters whom Jesus visits. As Luke recounts it.

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her, then, to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Now, like most humans, the first time I read it, I thought Jesus was being really judgy about Martha. We need some Marthas. We need stuff to get done. If everybody’s sitting around at Jesus’s feet then who’s doing the dishes? Who’s doing the laundry? Who’s putting food on the table? But this is not how the fathers and mothers of the church read the passage. They read Martha as the life of service and Mary as the life of contemplation. And we need both. Both are necessary. In Greek, Jesus doesn’t say that Mary has chosen the better part, but the good part. A very different meaning. The comparative term ‘better’ is a little zero-sum. Good in the language of Jesus, is not zero-sum. If I am good, that doesn’t mean that you are bad. Goodness is not portioned out of a limited supply.

Another way medievals looked at Mary and Martha was as Martha as the life now, and Mary as our life in the future; our heavenly life with God. The neat thing is that we can live a life like Mary now, maybe not 24-7, but having portions where we are satisfied sitting at the foot of Jesus.

And that is where glorification starts: when we are glorifying God with our lives, offering our time and attention to God and being transformed. This leads, in the Methodist tradition, to language of perfection.

Perfection is a challenging word today. Perfection in modern English mostly means like mistake free. It can be a challenging burden on our youth to be perfect, to get perfect scores, to play perfectly in their sports team, to go to the perfect high school, the perfect college, get the perfect job, find the perfect spouse, have the perfect number of grandchildren. That’s not what it means in Greek.

The term Jesus and Paul use for perfection is teleios, the cognate of teleology. It means completed or finished. This language is throughout the Bible, so to take the Bible seriously is to come to grips with this language. And when we talk about perfection, the point for me as a pastor is that believing in Christian perfection is not about believing that I am so awesome, but that God is greater than my sin. God is greater than your sin.

This is a powerful word of grace to all of us, even if we suffer from what the world calls perfectionism. Even if we crumble when everything doesn’t line up. Even if we collapse if it doesn’t work. There is grace here that God’s love is bigger than our mistakes or sins in the future and in the present.

To believe that sanctification has a stopping point in this life is to believe that sin is greater than grace. That what we have seen is all that is possible and what we have not seen impossible. To talk of Christian perfection or entire sanctification is not to claim it for yourself but to claim that God has the power to do it.

Paul has this lovely litany in the middle of Romans 8. Romans 8 ends with one of the most powerful and heartwarming faith claims in Scripture: nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. But before that, Paul writes:

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

This is where the language of glorification comes from. As for the language of predestination, I am comfortable with it concerning the language of prevenience. The Spirit has already come to people’s lives. There is no exclusivity in Romans 8. Reformed thinkers have to imbed exclusivity into Paul in order to handle what is going on here.

But the focus should be on what happens next. and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Glorified. A completed action. God has done it. This is the completion of the all things working together for good for those who love God.

God will take care of our bodies. Even when they feel infirm. God will take care of our souls. God will take care of our loved ones.

We don’t need to wait. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is here. May it not be a metaphor. You are already loved. You can glorify God now. You can be free of sin now. And you are not alone. We are here for each other. God has put us together. Even if your best friends are here or every one feels like a stranger, we are here because Christ is risen.

In two weeks, we will begin the Season of Lent. It is a perfect opportunity to try a new practice. A new prayer. A new moment of praise, to receive Christ’s glory on the mountaintop, and then take it down the mountain wherever you are.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.