Clouds of Glory
The young man was fresh out of Harvard Law School. He took a job as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. “Everybody talked about church,” he testified years later (and here I paraphrase), “so I resolved to go myself. It was the first time I had ever been in church.”
He remembers where he sat and what the stranger next to him said. He remembers the text of the sermon, from the first chapter of first Samuel, the story of Hannah praying for a child. He remembers the title of the sermon, the Audacity of Hope. It propelled him to worship, to commitment, to faith, and to baptism.
The church in question is Trinity United Church of Christ. The pastor in question was Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. The convert in question was, you know, Barak Hussain Obama. He took the title of that memorable sermon and put it on the book that I read a decade. He took the theme of that sermon and let it inspire his campaign slogan, “Yes We Can!”
He was about your age, Solomon Todd, when all of this went down. Who knows what you will remember about this day: the weather, your family, the music, the water, the prayer we will pray over you, or, perhaps, this sermon.
People remembered this sermon of Jesus.
Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded the theme, the illustrations, and the outline in their gospel accounts. It made a different to those who heard it and it is making a difference in the world today.
Our text today is a word of hope. After all the warnings and dire predictions, Jesus speaks a word of hope, audacious hope, unbelievable hope, transformative hope. It is the word we need today. Let us pray that our mediation upon this powerful text will leave us basking in the hope of the gospel. We are, after all, people who sing for joy and live with hope.
Pray for me now and for your neighbor that these moments of the word of God might turn somebody’s life in a fresh and faithful direction: toward God, toward life, toward hope.
I.
Like many good preachers, Jesus had three points he wanted to make in his sermon. We call it, Jesus’ Prophetic Sermon.
First, he described the troubles of the world, troubles of the world, troubles of the world. Mahalia Jackson made that song famous. “Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world.” She was talking about death as the final escape from the troubles of the world. But Jesus was talking about how it is hard to get away from the troubles of the world. Wars and rumors of wars; nation against nation; brother against sister.
This is the way it is: everywhere, for everybody, all the time.
We testify to that. Life is hard, and then you die, one wag put it. Giving birth is hard; making a living is hard; keeping friends is hard; knowing yourself is hard; avoiding trauma is hard; coping with illness, depression, and disappointment is hard. You know it and I know it and Jesus knows it.
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody knows my sorrow.”
We sang a few minutes ago, “In every high and storm gale, my anchor holds.” Some of you are in a gale right now. It is blowing this way and that. It is testing your resolve and your staying power. Life is tough and sometimes we think we won’t make it. Jesus said so.
Second, on top of that, Jesus said a really bad time is coming. The ongoing stress of “these days” will be compounded by the overwhelming challenge of “those days.” He was predicting the destruction of Jerusalem. He said, “When you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be… flee to the mountains.” Jesus saw into the soul of the nation. He knew. He understood. Jewish nationalism was rampant. It would lead to rebellion and war. Rome would send in the legions. The Jews stood no chance.
Sometimes we know in advance when really bad things are coming. We had advance warning for our home on St. Simons Island and all along the coast. Some people had it really bad. Many of you called and inquired about our situation. Thank you. Hurricanes these days come with warnings. Israel is giving Gaza advance warning of their intent to kill and destroy. Jerusalem had advance warning.
Are you living with an advance warning? A layoff, a buyout, a surgery, a court hearing? “I am going to divorce you,” is the advance warning some receive.
Jesus warned his people of big trouble. You’ve got trouble, big, big trouble; and when you see it, run for your life.
But after these this double-sided message of trouble, Jesus turns to the good news. He speaks about “The day.” He said, “You will see the ‘son of man’ coming in clouds of glory. He will gather all of you, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”
Jesus was a hopeful prophet. He lived with hope and he died in hope. He looked forward to the intervention of God in earthly affairs. He lived as if that would happen; he died as if that would happen. His faith, his Jewish-Christian faith, is just this: God is coming to do something big. God is coming to make a scene. God is coming to do what only God can do: transform everything, lift everything, redeem everything, save everybody.
These are the three parts of this sermon of Jesus: trouble, big trouble, and God, in clouds of glory!
II.
Christians understand his hopeful message in two ways. I am decidedly in one camp and not the other, just as I am about baptism: a lot of water, all the way under and up dripping wet, as a public declaration of your resolve to follow the footsteps of Jesus. We will sing about that in just a few minutes.
Some think this coming of God will happen like this: When the world is at its worst, Jesus will appear and gather all of “his special people” and take them away to safety, to heaven, to be in the presence of God forever. They call that the Rapture. They preach about it, write books about it, make movies about it, and talk about it. Some of them think it is very near. We are living in the last days, I heard a TikTok preacher say just last might!
Some of you believe this and have believed it for a long time. But I want to say nicely and sweetly, it is a crazy idea! I do not think picking some people in the world to take out of all the trouble and leave the others to Great Tribulation is good news. It is not hopeful news. It is not gospel. It is, to be depressing and alarming. It does not sound like the Father of Mercy and God of all comfort.
Some of us think this coming of God will happen like this: When the world is troubled and times are awful, God comes in power and in glory to do good things, to infuse love and justice and hope into the mess we have made. God comes in power and glory to do something good: to push back the wicked and lift up the fallen.
Sometimes this coming of God in power and glory is plain for all to see; and sometimes it is plain for just you to see. Sometimes it changes the course of nations, and sometimes it strengthens you for what you are facing. Sometimes it is for everyone and sometimes it is for you.
Somebody here today will see the coming of God soon and very soon. You need direction and you will receive it. You need strength and you will receive it. You need a friend, and a friend will appear. You need a job and a job will come your way. Every day, everywhere, for everybody, God is coming, sometimes quietly, sometimes with a lot of fanfare. But always with power and glory.
III.
Some of you are saying: that doesn’t sound like the end of the world.
You are right. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t the end of the world when Jesus appears.
In the Hebrew prophetic tradition, the Day of the Lord was not always the end of things. It was the time when God intervened in dramatic ways. Sometimes it was a day of salvation and glory, and sometimes it was a day of judgment and doom. Sometimes a day of light and sometimes a day of darkness.
The great prophet Amos proclaimed this: “Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light, gloom with no brightness in it.”
This is why the prophets used poetic language. What they foresaw and predicted could not fit into normal categories. The Day of the Lord is an episode of God’s free intervention in human and world affairs. God is going to do something glorious, something powerful, something unique, and no ordinary language will do.
‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven and the powers in the sky will be shaken.” That is the language Jesus put out there to describe the Day of the Lord.
It is not the Day Jesus escapes with the people we think are like us, leaving the people of the world to spin into destruction and death. How is that hopeful? How is that good news? How is that the gospel?
It is not the salvation of the few and the damnation of the many. That is the failure of God and creation. God promises a future and a promise, a hope of all that can be. It is the flourishing of the human soul and also the human race.
Coming on clouds of glory is the way Jesus will bless the whole world. It is the good news of God’s power to establish justice and overturn evil. It is the way God will gather all the people of the world, what the Bible calls the Elect of God, and pull them into righteousness and peace. It is the diversion of danger and the advent of victory. It is the surprising disappearance of cancer and the shocking death of an evil one. It is the tornado that skips over town and touches no one; it is the convoy of trucks delivering water, and food, and medicine.
Coming on clouds of glory takes many forms. It is the phone call of friendship in the middle of a desperate night; it is also the public proclamation of freedom to the plantation slaves and also release to the captives of Auschwitz. It might be the discovery of a cure or the defeat of a candidate.
The closing scene of the biblical witness helps us see with the eyes of faith.
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth passed away. I say the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It was like a beautiful bride presented to her husband. Then I heard a voice, saying, ‘The home of God is with his people. God will dwell with them as their God, and they will be his people. God will wipe away every tear. Death will be no more.’… An angel showed me the river of life bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God. It ran down the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river were trees of life, with twelve kinds of fruit…. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of all the nations.”
That, my friends, was one of the great visions of those clouds of glory. Not sweeping a few away while the many suffered, but the coming of God to bless and not curse, to help and not hinder, to lift up rather than tear down, to gather into one community rather than scatter into many clans. And to this vision of hope and healing, we say, Come, Lord Jesus, come on clouds of glory, and we will follow in your steps.
