Fading Glory

Two weeks ago today I had my last chemotherapy infusion for Round 3. By all accounts, my recovery from its negative effects has been unusually quick and thorough, much more so than Round 2. I am hiking at least two miles a day now to build up my strength and to regain cardio-pulmonary endurance for surgery March 3. God has been very good to squash any queasiness or sleepiness I had in previous rounds, and it is nice to say life is getting back to normal. The drugs continue to create an extremely inhospitable environment for the Beast in my body, if there is any life in it yet, which I doubt.

There is one drug in my infusion protocol that is a mixed bag, so to speak. It is a steroid designed to amp up the effectiveness of the anti-nausea drugs. Its side effects include one of the more frustrating (weight gain) and a serendipitously therapeutic condition (joint pain relief). Just about now, two weeks out, I am feeling my normal joint discomforts come back, a signal that the steroid is finally wearing off. I must pay attention once again to body mechanics and stretching exercises, along with my walking/hiking routine, to maintain physical comfort, especially in that pesky right shoulder. Even though I have a love-hate relationship with the drug, right now I’m sorry to see this one positive side-effect fade.

There is a similar spiritual effect that the people of God experience, simply because of the limitations of our human existence. On this side of Eden, human beings are touched with the healing power of God’s presence and power, but the effects of these close encounters often fade over time. Our eyes grow dim to the glory of God, we slip into bad habits, we come down off the mountain only to trip over something in the valley. It is safe to say that every stellar Bible character, with the possible exception of Joseph (Genesis 37ff) experiences the come-down in one way or another. It is as if we are subject to a spiritual force of gravity that pulls us earthward, away from the freeing effects of God’s love and power.

Moses had his moments of spiritual ecstasy, face-to-face encounters with the living God in the Tent of Meeting. He would go in to meet YHWH on a regular basis, and come out with such a extraordinary glow in his face that he wore a veil to keep from blinding the Israelites (Exodus 34:33f). What the people didn’t know was that the veil also covered up the fading of that glorious light. Moses was enamored with the status symbol that accompanied his special access to the Almighty, so he kept the veil on long after the glory had faded to create the lasting impression that elevated his reputation among the people.  All he was hiding was his humanness, which limits one’s capacity to hold on to the blessings of God. [Paul tells the story in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18.] It’s as if we leak: there are holes in us, making it impossible to stay filled with the glory of God.

The fading glory and the leaking of blessing are evident in my tribe, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). I am sorry to say it, but the data are clear: the glory days of the PC(USA) are over. Its membership is declining, its missionary movement is shrinking, morale is sinking, and its very identity is forgotten (as in the loss of confessional, constitutional, and connectional focus). In its effort to “always reform”—interpreted to mean “keep up with the culture”— the denomination has lost sight of the true meaning of Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (“The church reformed and always to be reformed”) and strained its connection to secundum verbum Dei, “according to the Word of God” (PCUSA Book of Order, F-2.02). The church’s various presbyteries are attempting to retain the impression of glory by filling their coffers with “exit fees” lobbied against those congregations leaving the denomination over issues of biblical interpretation and mission. A case in point, San Francisco Presbytery’s extortion of $8.9M from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, which will have the nice effect of filling the presbytery’s coffers for a very long time while members disperse to other places preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ, leaving a cash-rich but people-poor shell of an organization. As a member of San Francisco Presbytery, I say this with great sadness and shame. The glory has left the temple.

For the day-to-day Christian, the only answer to this problem of spiritual leakage is to continue to trust and rely upon the infilling of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. What would otherwise fade in us (the faith, hope, and love of our Savior and the glory of Almighty God) is renewed everyday by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the Word of God. Appropriating God’s Spirit keeps us on the path, and his Word is a light unto our feet (Psalm 119:105). Abandoning either one, Word or Spirit, puts us in a perilous position, though it might take a long time to see the full effect of faded glory. Rather, how important it is for us to pay attention to the dynamics of spiritual discipline and daily-manna nourishment in order to retain our strength and spiritual health in the days to come. For all those congregations that strive to foster these spiritual habits, I offer encouragement and prayers for your continued faithfulness to Jesus Christ and the fullness of his Spirit.  For those that do not, the discipline will be painful in the short term, but later will yield “the peaceful fruit of righteousness,” which I urge upon you, for the sake of your own spiritual health and that of the church-at-large.