James T. Cleland - "Glory to God" (December 16, 1962)

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-	Let us pray.	0:07
	Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts	0:11
	be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord our strength and	0:17
	our Redeemer.	0:21
	Amen.	0:25
	If you will turn with me to this morning's order of worship.	0:31
	We're noticed together that one ectatic note	0:36
	is repeated at least five times,	0:42
	following the violin and the organ preludes.	0:46
	The choir sang a fanfare for Christmas day and you see the	0:51
	words Gloria in Excelsis Deo,	0:57
	glory to God in the highest,	1:02
	the first hymn picks up the same words.	1:05
	They were repeated six times.	1:10
	Gloria in Excelsis Deo.	1:12
	First Anthem is entitled To God on High be Glory.	1:16
	And then the Lector read as the first part to the	1:23
	scripture lesson;	1:26
	the story of the Bethlehem shepherds who heard the angel	1:28
	choir chant exultantly, "Glory to God in the highest,	1:32
	and on earth peace goodwill toward men."	1:38
	And then the central line of the second hymn is;	1:41
	Glory to God, all glory in the highest.	1:46
	Now the last time I preached here, I complained	1:53
	that the hymns I wanted were taken away from me.	1:55
	Sorry. They have returned them to me this morning,	1:59
	pressed down and running over.	2:01
	Because my subject is glory to God	2:04
	and they certainly surrounded it for me.	2:07
	My problem is just to live up to what they did,	2:10
	now brother, this is not vain repetition	2:14
	such as the heathen use.	2:17
	This is the properly recurring emphasis	2:19
	of any service of corporate worship.	2:23
	Particularly at Christmas and Easter.	2:27
	Let's look together at this idea of glory to God	2:30
	and try to discover what it says to us.	2:34
	Holy scripture is permeated with shouts	2:39
	and acts of glory to God.	2:44
	Which is at its simplest, a willing and enthusiastic	2:47
	recognition of the primacy of God.	2:53
	One of the Psalmists wrote;	2:58
	ascribe to the Lord Oh heavenly beings.	3:00
	Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.	3:04
	Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name.	3:09
	Worship the Lord in holy array.	3:12
	And Saint Paul repeats the emphasis in the new Testament	3:17
	over and over again. For example;	3:20
	to our God and Father be glory forever and ever, Amen.	3:22
	Glory for both old and new testaments is in one of its	3:31
	aspects, the joyous recognition of the majesty,	3:35
	the pre-eminence and the excellence,	3:39
	which belong to the transcendent God,	3:44
	the God high and lifted up,	3:47
	who is our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer.	3:51
	And yet	3:57
	an unusual fact about the Christmas season,	4:00
	is that this glory,	4:06
	rightly reserved for God alone,	4:09
	is offered not only for a child, but to a child.	4:14
	Born into a humble family and cradled in a cattle stall.	4:23
	The wise man fell down and worshiped him.	4:31
	And when they opened their treasures,	4:36
	they presented under him gifts;	4:38
	gold, frankincense, and myrrh.	4:40
	The shepherds praised God,	4:44
	but notice what they praised Him for,	4:45
	the song of the angels and the sight of the child.	4:48
	The angels were heralding the transcendence of God,	4:54
	glory to God in the highest.	4:58
	The wise man and the shepherds	5:03
	were acclaiming the imminence of God,	5:05
	the indwelling presence of God in His world.	5:10
	This baby was no ordinary child.	5:15
	He was,	5:18
	dare we say it?	5:21
	God incarnate.	5:24
	The very word God had become flesh	5:28
	and tabernacled among us.	5:33
	That's how the fourth gospel puts it.	5:35
	Christmas, the first Christmas and all Christmases	5:39
	transfers to the child of Mary,	5:43
	the adoration rightly reserved for God on high.	5:48
	It's quite a breakthrough theologically,	5:56
	that God is uniquely revealed in Jesus.	6:02
	That's the central message of Christmas.	6:06
	Because of Jesus, we know better the character	6:10
	and will of God.	6:13
	That is a joyous fact.	6:15
	That's why Christmas is praise, glory, hallelujah.	6:17
	Some words of Shakespeare quoted here, clean out of context,	6:23
	speak what should be our attitude.	6:29
	"Oh, wonderful,	6:32
	wonderful,	6:36
	and most wonderful.	6:38
	And yet again, wonderful."	6:42
	This is the refrain,	6:47
	which catches the mood of this happy, merry season.	6:48
	Now the Presbyterian church,	6:56
	of which I am a member.	6:58
	Recognizes this in theory,	7:01
	but doesn't manage to catch it in practice.	7:04
	Do you know the first question and answer	7:09
	in the shorter catechism,	7:11
	that abbreviated digest of Christian doctrine,	7:13
	according to one reform tradition.	7:18
	First question in the shorter catechism is;	7:22
	What is man's chief end?	7:25
	What is the important purpose,	7:29
	goal in the life of any human being?	7:33
	And the answer is very concisely;	7:38
	man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.	7:41
	Now we learn the shorter catechism in day school,	7:52
	not Sunday school.	7:55
	And my sister startled the teacher once	7:58
	by her answer to the primary question.	8:00
	At the age of seven, without a moment's hesitation,	8:04
	my sister replied;	8:07
	man's chief end is to glorify God and to endure Him forever.	8:12
	She knew Presbyterianism existentially.	8:23
	No one in his right mind will deny that	8:29
	Presbyterianism glorifies God. It does.	8:32
	The service is marked by awe, by reverence,	8:37
	but Scottish Presbyterianism too regularly	8:41
	endured rather than enjoyed.	8:44
	So it missed the heart of the Christian faith.	8:50
	The gospel is good news it isn't even good advice.	8:53
	It's God as Father, rather than as judge.	8:58
	It's sin forgiven, not punishment threatened.	9:02
	It's life everlasting, not eternal damnation.	9:08
	Unless we choose to warp and twist the message of it.	9:12
	Glory to God in the highest is the shouted thank you,	9:18
	of man to God for letting us know what He's really like.	9:22
	Oh, that hallelujah may be said with tears,	9:28
	but they're tears of gratitude.	9:33
	There should be a thrill in our adoration.	9:36
	What do we do about this?	9:40
	Just what we're doing at this service,	9:42
	and what I hope many of us will do tonight,	9:45
	again here at eight o'clock.	9:47
	In the service of Christmas, in word and in music.	9:50
	We listen to the choir sing not to us, no.	9:55
	But for us.	10:00
	Theirs is the ministry of music for the whole congregation.	10:04
	We listen to the Lector read and the minister expound	10:08
	for us, the old, old Christmas story, which is ever new.	10:14
	This is the ministry of the Word for all of us.	10:18
	We listened to the presiding minister,	10:22
	pray to God for us and with us,	10:24
	our adorations, confessions, intersessions	10:28
	and especially our thanksgivings.	10:32
	For we're all priests,	10:35
	that's why we use the verse of; the Lord be with you	10:38
	and with thy spirit.	10:41
	And the musicians send to heaven	10:43
	our joy and gratitude and love.	10:47
	Do you know the accompaniment for the praise of God,	10:50
	according to the hundred and fiftieth Psalm?	10:53
	Trumpet, psaltery, harp, timbrel, stringed instruments,	10:55
	organs and symbols.	10:59
	Boy, I wish we had them all here this morning.	11:04
	We normally glorify Him, I think we'd enjoy Him.	11:06
	You know the Salvation Army is so resonantly right	11:10
	to have a band, yep.	11:15
	Christmas would be gloriously vibrant.	11:17
	Gloria in Excelsis Deo.	11:22
	Now there's one other thing to be said about this,	11:30
	glory to God.	11:33
	Just one other thing.	11:35
	And the way to come to it I think is by a story.	11:37
	Once upon a time,	11:42
	all the best stories start that way.	11:46
	Once upon a time, there was a church in Scotland I reckon,	11:51
	which had a stained glass window, over the incarnation	12:00
	with the text lettered below for all to read;	12:05
	glory to God in the highest.	12:08
	But a small boy,	12:14
	a naughty boy,	12:17
	threw a stone at the window.	12:19
	And neatly nicked out,	12:23
	eliminated the E in highest.	12:27
	So that the text now read;	12:34
	glory to God in the H I G H blank S T	12:36
	that is in the high street.	12:45
	Glory to God in the high street.	12:48
	Now my best critic, and my poorest judge,	12:54
	tells me that I should explain to you,	12:58
	that the high street in any Scottish town,	13:01
	corresponds to the main street	13:04
	in American urban communities.	13:07
	So remember to think of the main street	13:12
	when I talk of the high street.	13:14
	And about Glory to God in the high street.	13:18
	What do we think of this accidental,	13:27
	stoney, textual emendation?	13:30
	Is it a Word of God, an act of revelation?	13:34
	I think so.	13:40
	Why?	13:42
	Because it is hardly contrary to the nativity narrative.	13:44
	The wise men thought they would find the child	13:51
	in a palace in Jerusalem.	13:55
	Instead they knelt before a cattle stall	13:58
	near an inn in the marketplace in Bethlehem,	14:03
	It was probably a smelly hole.	14:11
	Quite, quite unlike the centrally heated creche	14:15
	in Radio City.	14:19
	The baby grew up as the son of a journeyman carpenter in	14:23
	Nazareth, Nazareth, a village of very dubious reputation.	14:27
	In his first sermon as an itinerant preacher,	14:35
	he laid down his platform.	14:39
	As it was heard in the second part of this morning's lesson,	14:41
	"The spirit of the Lord is upon me	14:46
	because he hath anointed me to preach	14:52
	good news to the poor."	14:55
	Many of us would get in on the congregation.	15:01
	"He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives,	15:07
	recovery of sight to the blind,	15:14
	to set at liberty those who are oppressed,	15:19
	to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."	15:23
	Now that shouldn't have upset anybody	15:29
	because general principles from the pulpit seldom do.	15:32
	But Jesus went on to apply the proposition	15:38
	to Nazareth	15:43
	and the congregation threw him out.	15:46
	In fact, they tried to murder him	15:50
	and he spent his earthly ministry walking the high streets	15:53
	and the main streets and the country roads	15:57
	and when he died he wasn't crucified	16:01
	between two candles on an embroidered altar.	16:06
	He was crucified between two criminals	16:12
	at a place called Golgotha,	16:16
	which means the place of a skull	16:19
	outside the city walls.	16:23
	And there must have been glory to God in all this because	16:25
	God placed his seal of approval upon him	16:29
	by raising him from the dead.	16:33
	In fact, his disciples gave him this information	16:37
	a week before he was judicially murdered.	16:43
	When he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday,	16:47
	his followers shouted , "Blessed be the King	16:50
	who comes in the name of the Lord."	16:53
	And one more sentence,	17:00
	"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest."	17:02
	That's almost the angel's song repeated word for word	17:06
	on the first Palm Sunday,	17:09
	I think that text was accidentally, but worthily amended.	17:16
	It is a word of God.	17:22
	A word about the real meaning of the incarnation.	17:27
	One of the heresies perpetrated by a too facile reading of	17:30
	Browning's Pippa Passes is that God's in His heaven,	17:34
	all's right with the world.	17:39
	If God is only in His heaven,	17:41
	all is not right with the world.	17:43
	The transcendence of God is an all important truth,	17:47
	that keeps man humble.	17:50
	And therefore ready for high religion.	17:52
	But Christmas points out to the fact that God Himself saw	17:55
	that transcendence is not the last word about deity.	18:01
	That if God is only in His heaven,	18:05
	all is not right with the world.	18:07
	That it is essential that God be known	18:11
	in what He created	18:15
	and the Christmas messages that God of His own free will	18:18
	came to earth in the form of a man and dwelt among us.	18:24
	You know what's one interesting thing,	18:28
	that all the great titles were claimed by Jesus	18:30
	and each one was given a new twist.	18:36
	For example, he is the Messiah,	18:39
	highest title that Judaism could give.	18:41
	Claims to be the Messiah,	18:45
	but he's going to be a Messiah who suffers.	18:49
	He is King, yes, King of kings,	18:54
	but he's a King who serves.	18:59
	He has no palace.	19:03
	In fact, he said once that he had nowhere to lay his head,	19:05
	he's surrounded by courtiers, but what a following;	19:10
	fishermen, tax collectors, women of the street.	19:13
	He walks the common ways of ordinary men, men in the street,	19:19
	common five eights.	19:24
	He was puzzled by man's inhumanity to man	19:29
	and angered by the stubborn selfishness	19:32
	of those who would maintain the status quo.	19:35
	But he blessed the poor.	19:40
	He forgave penitent sinners.	19:44
	He healed the sick.	19:48
	No wonder that a very prominent English Divine once said	19:52
	these shocking words.	19:56
	The incarnation has something to do with drains,	19:58
	drains. D R A I N S.	20:07
	Now that is God imminent with a vengeance.	20:12
	That's right underneath the high street.	20:15
	Listen to two contemporary ministers;	20:19
	one of whom has preached in the Duke Chapel	20:21
	and the other of whom ought to preach here.	20:23
	Bishop Bain has written, and this is shocking;	20:26
	"God does not spend most of His time in church."	20:30
	That should be an eye opener to us who have so many	20:38
	services around here.	20:40
	President once asked me if we should have a religious	20:42
	emphasis, we could do it, and I said, oh sir, God forbid.	20:44
	I said, that would be like having a support baseball week	20:48
	during the World Series.	20:50
	So many religious services	20:53
	and chapels and the sacrament all over the place.	20:55
	I'd like a, well now I shouldn't say this, but I'm going to,	20:59
	I'd like a suppressed religion week for one week.	21:02
	Just one week.	21:04
	Not suppressed private religion, but public religion.	21:06
	God does not spend most of His time in church.	21:09
	As is said by a high ranking Bishop who may be known.	21:14
	Any worship which is not organically related	21:19
	to life in the world	21:23
	is not true worship.	21:25
	And David H.C. Reed,	21:29
	whom you can hear at 10 o'clock on Sunday mornings,	21:31
	has said this;	21:34
	"the Christian life is worked out at the typewriter,	21:35
	the store counter,	21:39
	the desk,	21:42
	and the kitchen sink."	21:45
	You ask me, where is the glory in all this?	21:46
	Well, let me refer you to Gerard Manley Hopkins	21:50
	an English Roman Catholic Priest and Poet	21:55
	at the end of last century.	21:59
	In an address on St. Ignatius spiritual exercises,	22:03
	beautiful piece of writing.	22:07
	Let me read part of it to you.	22:09
	When a man is in God's grace and free from mortal sin,	22:12
	then everything that he does	22:19
	so long as there's no sin in it,	22:22
	it gives God glory.	22:25
	And what does not give Him glory has some,	22:27
	however little, sin in it.	22:31
	It's not only prayer that gives God glory, but we're	22:34
	smiting on an anvil,	22:39
	sawing a beam,	22:42
	whitewashing a wall,	22:44
	driving horses,	22:47
	sweeping, scouring.	22:48
	Everything gives God some glory, if being in grace,	22:51
	you do it as your duty.	22:58
	To go to communion worthily gives God great glory,	22:59
	but to take food in thankfulness	23:03
	and temperance gives Him glory too.	23:06
	To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory,	23:10
	but a man with a dung fork in his hand,	23:17
	a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory too.	23:21
	So then my brethren, live.	23:26
	A kind of place where God worked in Jesus Christ	23:31
	is where we work too.	23:35
	Therefore glory to God in the high street.	23:38
	And in the wee houses off the high street	23:42
	and in the shops at five points	23:44
	and in the jungle, which is the dormitories on west campus.	23:48
	Is there any need to apply this to ourselves?	23:55
	Oh, I know we'll write Christmas checks	23:58
	for our favorite charities	24:01
	and entertain underprivileged kids from Edgemont	24:02
	and the right refuge and sing coddles in the hospital wards,	24:06
	and God will be pleased.	24:10
	Oh yes, it will give Him glory.	24:13
	But how shall we write or grade that cursed term paper,	24:16
	how should we behave to gas station attendants	24:25
	and other cars on the highway as we drive home.	24:27
	How should we respond if our maid or our janitor	24:33
	or our waitress loses a home by fire on Christmas day.	24:38
	A corollary to Gloria in Excelsis	24:44
	is glory to God in our daily life,	24:48
	without which there is little joy in heaven.	24:52
	It was the very Reverend Sir George McCloud	24:58
	holder of the Military Cross for valor in World War One	25:03
	honorary Doctor of Divinity,	25:07
	ex-moderator of the Church of Scotland,	25:10
	Chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,	25:12
	founder of the Iona community,	25:16
	gadfly of Presbyterianism.	25:19
	It was he who told that story about the naughty boy who	25:21
	threw a brick through the stained glass window	25:25
	and being George McCloud, he didn't leave the matter there.	25:29
	He suggested a unique repair of the window.	25:33
	The new piece of glass should have the missing E on one side	25:37
	and be plain in the other.	25:45
	It should then be mounted in the window on a swivel.	25:48
	And then in a high wind, it would revolve.	25:56
	And the text could be read both ways.	26:00
	For if God had the courage to become man,	26:05
	then be assured there is no	26:10
	adequate glory to God in the highest,	26:12
	unless there is also glory to God in the high street.	26:17
	Let us pray.	26:26
	May the blessing of the Lord come upon you abundantly,	26:33
	may it keep you strong and tranquil in the truth	26:38
	of His promises through Jesus Christ.	26:43
	Our Lord.	26:48
	Amen.	26:53

Item Info

Title:

James T. Cleland - "Glory to God" (December 16, 1962)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4125vb18

Date:

December 16, 1962

Speaker:

Cleland, James T. (James Tough), 1903-1974

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0211
ref5626_sob
uachapelsermaud
duke:628228
dcrau002219
ark:/87924/r4125vb18
90809185-2a5a-47a9-8667-19be82063140

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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James T. Cleland - "Glory to God" (December 16, 1962)

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James T. Cleland - "Glory to God" (December 16, 1962)

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