May 23, 2010 Sermon
"Church as Icon"
Easter 7, Yr. C Acts 16; 16-34
May 23, 2010 Revelation 22: 12-14, 16-17, 20-21
Church as Icon John 17: 20-26
Five or six years ago, I went to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art to immerse myself in the Byzantine
exhibit entitled Faith and Power. Icons that hang for centuries
high above cathedral floors are right in front of the viewer.
I could examine the brushstrokes of rare icons that have spent
hundreds of years in churches where they are venerated in worship.
It was too much beauty, too much glory to absorb in one afternoon.
"The glory which thou hast given
me, I have given to them, that they may be one as we are one."
The word 'glory' which Jesus refers to is the Greek word doxa.
It can be translated as: glory, splendor, and holiness. Have
you ever seen God's glory? Look at Jesus. Jesus says in this
passage that he has received God's glory. More amazingly, he
has given this glory to his believers. The glory of God fills
us when we are joined to Christ in baptism - from that moment,
we are ONE with God and one another, just as God, Christ and
the Spirit are ONE.
As the evening of the Last Supper was
drawing to a close, Jesus asks God for the magnificent glory
to be given, in Jesus own words, " to those who believe
in me," We learn that the giving of Glory has a purpose.
Listen again to Jesus' words: "The glory which thou hast
given me, I have given to them, that they may be one as we are
one so that the world may believe that you sent me." He
prays for our unity so that the world will know that Jesus, whose
life was LOVE, was sent by God to reveal God's true nature to
the suffering, the broken, the hopeless, all those who long for
love, and desire wholeness.
The body of Christ is not divided. Neither
is the Anglican Communion. This is a spiritual truth not a reality
that we can observe for more than a few miraculous moments at
a time. In this less than perfect world, we have a long way to
go before the Spiritual fact of our unity is actualized. Count
on this however, all efforts of the Spirit will be efforts to
bring us together not to create further division.
Our growth in the Spirit is toward unity
enriched by great diversity not sameness. Unity that has room
for difference is unity that is vibrant and healthy.
The Christian church was intended to
be a living icon written by God's own hand, a living picture
radiating God's glory. The many icons that I saw at the Museum,
told picture stories of God, of Jesus, and of the saints and
martyrs. The stories are written with brushes and egg tempra
on wood boards and sometimes in plaster and sometimes in mosaic.
The iconographers writing the image would pray for months before
making the first brush stroke. As the image took shape, the artist
would continually be in prayer, awed by the nearly impossible
task of showing God's glory emanating through a two dimensional
painting. These images often have gold painted in them, as a
way to communicate holiness and light. The gold reveals glory
shining from within, a light of the Spirit seeping through clothing,
shining through faces. Without words, something glorious, eternal
and hauntingly beautiful is revealed - something beyond words
and paint.
Look at an icon and notice the layers
of gold leaf that illumine this work of prayer. Interestingly,
however, it is not gold or the rich beautiful colors of the Byzantine
icons that best reveal the glory of God. Jesus was trying to
tell the disciples that the most glorious masterpiece of God's
glory is the people of God living in unity with one another.
Where are Christians today in our journey
toward realizing Jesus' desire for unity among God's people?
Can we see the glory of one who is not of our own Christian tradition?
Can we see the OTHER as an icon that also reveals God's glory?
When this miracle occurs, one person at a time, our differences
will not define us, neither will they separate us. When we see
one another as an icon of the one Holy God, the people of God
will be debating less and feeding the hungry more, visiting the
sick and those in prison, clothing the naked and soothing the
dying.
St. John Chrysostom in the 3rd century
wrote: "The church exists not to divide those who come together,
but to bring together those who are divided." The church
unified exists as an icon that some days only God can see. Some
day, we will all see. That day will come more quickly when we
see the Glory of God in each other, here and way beyond our doors.
Look around and, with the eyes of your spirit, see God's glory.
