“Thine is the glory.”

Is this a statement of fact? Or is this a statement of attribution?

What I mean is, is “Thine is the glory” a descriptive statement – one that describes who God is? Or is this a statement of attribution – a statement of faith?

You see, when you take the CEO of a multi-national corporation and strip him of his/her fancy suits and designer clothes and put them in regular clothes, when you strip them of their fancy titles and their office and leave them on a busy street corner in any downtown, there is no way anyone would notice anything different about them. That’s because what makes someone glorious is their power, fancy suits and clothes, and their titles. Without them, there is no inherent glory in and of themselves.

Not so with God.

Where as a person is deemed glorious by their attributes, there is no glory apart from God. God, in his very being is glory. In fact, we can say, there would be no glory apart from God. Glory exists because God is glorious. You don’t make the sky blue, it is blue. You can’t make water wet, it is wet. You can’t make the sun light, it is light. In the same way the glory is who God is.

“Thine is the glory,” is a shout of victory. Because Christ has already won the victory over sin and death, we share in Christ’s victory. It is the church’s triumphant shout that death does not get the last word, that our past sins no longer define us, that those who have been saved by the blood of Christ share in his glory.

“Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory!”

Amen!

We know nothing of power. The power we think we have is an illusion. Our education, bank accounts, titles, social standing are all illusions of power.

• When the doctor tells you it’s stage four cancer, ALS, the onset of Alzheimers…
• As you sit with a loved one dying at the hospital bed…

In such moments we come to the cold realization that we are powerless.

We know nothing of power.

When we pray, “Thine is the power,” we confess that the power we know pales in comparison to the power of God.

The Greek word for power is dunamis. This is where we get the word, “dynamite.”

When we pray, “Thine is the power,” we are saying that only God has power to create, heal, redeem, save, and to give life. God’s power is explosive and transformative. God’s power brings peace in the midst of chaos, joy in sorrow, life in hopeless situations.

“Thine is the power.”

But that’s the thing. This is not our power. This is God’s power. We don’t control God’s power. We don’t dictate how or when God’s power manifests itself.

This is the recognition that God is God and we are not. Because this is God’s power, we trust our loving Father, the giver of daily bread, the forgiver of all sins.

Even in the moments when God’s power seems distant, we continue to believe and trust because God’s power changed us from sinners into God’s sons and daughters. We have already experienced and tasted of God’s power. So we trust, we hope, we believe.

“Thine is the power.”

We pray this not because God needs to know this, but we need to be reminded of this reality. Whether we acknowledge this or not, it doesn’t change one tiny thing about who God is. God is already God. God already created everything. God already knows all things belong to him.

But when we come to grasp this reality, we are changed. This changes our puny lives from mere existence for a few decades here on earth to being God’s children who get to participate in God’s plan to restore and redeem God’s creation for all of eternity.

It’s so easy to forget. We don’t even have to try to forget. We just forget even without trying. And when we forget, we make life all about us. That’s our autopilot: what we want, what we think, what we feel, what we desire…

When we pray, “For Thine is the Kingdom,” we are reminding ourselves that life is all about God.

Most of the people living on planet earth have no clue about this reality. And the thing is, every soul who has ever taken a breath here on planet earth will come to realize the truth of this reality whether they acknowledge it or not. The only hope that our world has is for those who know this truth to live this truth out in such a way that they too come to grips with this reality.

When we watch the impeachment trial taking place in DC, as we watch the forecast of snow for this weekend, as we watch the roller coaster of the stock market, it’s so stinking easy to forget that “Thine is the kingdom.” It’s so easy to forget that God is in control. That history is not mere chance. That all of time and all of history is moving toward one moment in his-story when all living creatures will bend their knee before the Creator of all things.

We take ourselves and our lives much too seriously when we confuse ourselves to think that life is about us. That we get to participate and be a part of God’s kingdom plan is a privilege and an honor.

“Thine is the kingdom.”

God, thank you for this daily reminder. We need a daily re-orientation to kingdom reality. We need a daily recalibration of our bearing.

“Thine is the kingdom.”