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Ayr: St. Columba Church
Pentecost
Acts 2:1-21, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

To the Glory of God

I have a friend who finds the signs and plaques of the presbyterian church problematic. At my presbyterian seminary in Atlanta, there’s a beautiful quadrangle with a lush field in the center. Paths run between the four buildings–administration, classrooms, library, and refectory–but not over the central grassy area students just call “the quad.” And at the edge of the quad, a brass plaque reads, “The Oldenberg Quadrangle, dedicated to the glory of God in gratitude for the service of Douglas Oldenberg, President of Columbia Theological Seminary, 1987-2000.”

And if you’re standing above the plaque and look around, you’ll see many wooden benches lining the paths. On each bench is another plaque bearing the name of a generous donor to the work of the seminary and at the top of each plaque, above the name and the date, they all say, “To the glory of God.”

To this friend of mine, these plaques seem a bit showy, maybe over the top, and he questions the authenticity of the words, “To the glory of God.” He thinks writing “To the glory of God” toots one’s own horn rather than God’s.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just too presbyterian, or not cynical enough, but most of me wants to believe folk really are giving To the Glory of God. We at St. Columba know this well, look on the plaques below the stained glass windows when you leave. Or choir, look at the two plaques on the organ. At the top of each, in bold script, you’ll read, “To the glory of God.”

I’m not certain where the phrase originated, but it echoes the famous first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, adopted by the Scottish General Assembly in 1647. “What is our chief end?” the first question asks, “To give glory to God, and enjoy God forever.”

Now Peter, in the book of Acts, was around long before Columbia Seminary existed, years before the church in Scotland, but Peter, in today’s reading, lives and breathes the mantra “To the glory of God.”

Picture the very strange scene. The apostles were all hanging out in Jerusalem, flummoxed, trying to develop a marketing strategy for God who allows God’s own son to be crucified, and suddenly, from heaven comes a sound like the rush of wind and they were filled with Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues.

Now if I were Peter at this point, I think I’d be pretty angry at God. As if worshiping a crucified savior weren’t enough, now they’re supposed to go around speaking foreign languages sounding like they’re crazy!

But God knew what God was doing, because the Jews from all over Jerusalem began to take notice. Now Jerusalem was a center of commerce, so folks from all over the world were in town, and when they heard the apostles speaking in tongues, they all understood each other in their native language.

The crowd tries to explain away this strange work of Holy Spirit, figuring all the apostles must be drunk. Which, if we’re being honest, sounds like a pretty logical conclusion.

But Peter stands up and sets the record straight. As he speaks to the crowds, he does not try to explain away the oddities, he does not apologize, he does not say, “let me think about this, and I’ll get back to you.” He stands up and yells, “This was spoken to the prophet Joel” and he goes on to quote scripture off the top of his head. Then Peter quotes the psalms of King David.

Peter says this miracle of interpretation of tongues was all about God. He ends his preaching with the climax, Therefore, let the the whole world know that God has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah.

If I witnessed a ragtag cultish group of strangers start spouting-off in foreign languages, I’m pretty sure my first response would be to hightail it out of there, not to quote the Bible. But when the apostles were speaking in strange tongues, Peter immediately looks to scripture and explains how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together to the glory of God.

Peter lived out that first response in the Westminster catechism: to glorify God and enjoy God forever.

We’re called to live life through this same lens of glory to God. It’s a lens that doesn’t always lead to comfortable situations, nor to easy ones, but it’s the holy path.

For my Church History class in seminary, we wrote a weekly report on a historical text, the first paragraph of which, always stated through what lens one read the history text. So you’d read an ancient theologian through the lens of doctrine; or an early nun through the lens of gender. Similarly, when we live our lives, always seeking to peer through the lens of giving glory to God, we follow the gospel in its truest sense.

Hear me clearly now, always seeking to give glory to God is not a way of looking at the world that explains that all occurrences in the world are God’s direct doing, or God’s will. It doesn’t saying everything gives glory to God. Not God, but the Burmese government and military dictators stand the blame for not alerting its people of the cyclone heading its way, for not mobilizing relief workers, and for the hubris of not accepting foreign disaster relief.

Sometimes giving glory to God is crying with your neighbor in grief, or shouting your troubles at the Lord in prayer, or putting your hands to work in the wake of natural disaster.

A life giving glory to God is not somehow simple or straightforward, it’s just faithful.

In fact, if you view your life through the lens of giving glory to God, people will call you crazy. The crowd thought Peter and the apostles were drunk; they sneered and said, ‘They must be filled with new wine.’” And, indeed, giving glory to God in all things might get folks thinking you’re under the influence. Funny thing is, Peter and the apostles in Acts are under the influence, they’re under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and that leads to some amazing experiences.

Our reading this morning stopped at verse 21, but we really cut Peter off in mid-sermon. If we keep reading, we find that Peter continues preaching, quoting scripture, explaining the world through the lens of God’s glory, and at the end of his sermon the crowd was baffled, taken aback, or as one translation puts it, “cut to the heart.”

They believed, and wanted to know what to do, so Peter instructed the apostles to baptize them. And on that morning about 3,000 were baptized. That’s why we celebrate Pentecost as the birthday of the church.

But they newly baptized didn’t stop there, they didn’t go back to their normal lives with the same lens for living they held before. Acts tells us that an awe came upon them, and all who believed held all things in common, sold their goods and possessions, and distributed the proceeds to the needy. This is crazy stuff.

It’s almost like they were drunk, making what seemed like irrational decisions–selling their possessions and giving the proceeds away. Funny thing that giving glory to God. If you do it, truly do it, people will call you crazy.

One of these crazies told his story on American radio a few weeks ago. Each week on Story Corps, an everyday citizen tells a life story, and it’s broadcast on National Public Radio.

The Story Corps interview I’m remembering is of a New Yorker commuting home from work on the subway.

[much of the wording that follows comes from Thomas at Everyday Liturgy, "Give Your Coat Also."]

Long story short, every day the man would leave the subway to eat at his favorite diner. A couple of months ago the man got off the train and had a knife pointed at him by a young man, who demanded his money. The man calmly gave the boy his wallet, then as the boy was leaving called out to him, “Wait up!” The assailant turned around and the man offered him his jacket as well. Shocked, the boy asked why and the man said, “if you need money so badly, I figured you might need my jacket as well.” The two struck up a conversation, and then the man suggested to the boy that he should join him at his favorite diner, so they walked out of the subway and went to grab a bite to eat. After the meal was over, the young man shared his astonishment at the whole ordeal, to which the man replied, “you have to pay for this meal, because you took my wallet—I’m broke!” The would-be robber paid for the meal and gave the wallet back.

Once outside the diner, the man took a $20 out of his wallet and offered it to the young man, not as a gift, but as a purchase. “I know you need money,” said the man, “so I want to buy your knife from you.” So the young man handed his knife over and took the money.

Crazy! You know the man was probably drunk and just wasn’t thinking straight. Or…this man with the soft heart just put to action, the old phrase, To the glory of God.

We will all give glory to God in our own particular ways. We can’t all fly to Burma, we can’t all have the gall to offer an assailant our jacket as well. But we could give to Christian Aid, and we all can, in our own ways, live to the glory of God.

As Paul explains to the Corinthians, “Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are a variety of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.”

May you find your spiritual gifts. May you discern your way to serve God, even if folks think it’s crazy. And however it may be for you, may it all be to God’s glory, now and forever. Amen.