Good morning…
Yesterday the annual email came in, announcing the beginning of Northside Church’s Advent devotional. Exquisitely written and creatively shared, the talent of Dr. James Johnson and his new wife, Elisabeth Shabbi Johnson, are on full display. I invite you to come along on the daily journey with us, beginning with yesterday’s introductory email.
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Introduction to The Birth of Glory by Dr. James Johnson
For our honeymoon earlier this year Elisabeth and I flew to the island of Antigua. We landed on a Saturday, hopped in a cab and made our way to the resort and settled in. Looking out over the ocean and listening to the waves crash against the sand, we started to plan the week ahead. What all did we want to do on this impossibly magical island in the Caribbean? What did we want to do with our first week as a married couple?
The next day was a Sunday — and we both had the same thought: We should go to church. What better way to seal our marriage in our faith than to spend our first Sunday together at church?
Then we discovered that within just a couple miles of where we were staying there was a First Church of the Nazarene in the city of St. John’s. My grandparents had been Nazarene missionaries in the Caribbean, and I had grown up in this tradition, so we made our decision and booked a cab for the next morning.
Our taxi driver dropped us off at ten in the morning, just as the service was beginning, and I told him he could pick us up in about an hour — because that’s how long worship services last, right? An hour?
Almost three hours later Elisabeth and I walked out of the church and our diver was there waiting with this knowing smile on his face, almost laughing at us.
But we just laughed along with him, because we had just heard maybe the best sermon ever preached and we had been transformed in some real and not small way. We spent the rest of the week dancing into the night and eating the most incredible food, swimming and snorkeling in the clearest waters — and talking about that sermon.
Our devotional books for the seasons of Advent and Lent this church year are the result of that conversation, which has continued ever since we left the island.
The name of the lay-woman who preached that Sunday is Nathalie Samuel. I hope that she won’t mind that we’ve taken her message and expanded it for our people here at Northside Church. Something tells me she would say: ‘No, no! To God is the glory!’
Because that’s what she preached about, the glory of God, and it’s not something I had ever put much thought into beyond the context of praise and worship.
What is glory, after all?
If you asked the world around us, you’d receive answers like: Glory is magnificent beauty, great honor earned or won through achievements, high praise that leads to pride for who we are and what we’ve done. And there’s something to be said for all of that.
But what is the glory of God?
The Hebrew word of glory that we find in the Old Testament is kavod, which translated literally means weight or heaviness. It turns out the ancient Israelites didn’t have a word for the inexpressible glory of God, so they turned to metaphor, and it’s heavy is the best they could do.
specifically, the glory of God is the weight of God’s heavy presence, particularly as it’s felt by God’s people. When the people of God are holy, righteous, and just, this heavy presence of God is the anchor of hope, peace, joy, and love.
But when they are not…
Well, then it is replaced with the unbearable weight of shame, guilt, darkness, and sin.
What do you do when the glory of God has departed? Where else can you turn? Who can survive such a hopeless condition?
For Advent this year we will turn our attention to such a moment in Israel’s history: the birth of a baby boy named Ichabod — which means, ‘no glory,’ or in this context, ‘God’s glory has departed.’
We’ve all had that feeling and experienced that absence, when we have felt that God’s presence is no longer in our midst and we are totally lost without him. It’s how Ichabod’s mother felt when she gave him such a name — and it’s how her people felt when the Israelites had lost a great battle to their most vicious enemy, the Philistines, who had also taken the Ark of the Covenant.
Again, what do you do in such a dark and hopeless situation?
It turns out, you wait. You wait for God to do what God does: Remember, rescue, and redeem.
Ichabod wasn’t the last baby boy born to God’s people. There was another yet to come, who has already arrived, and is on his way back: Immanuel, God with us.
God with us — that is, God’s glory has returned and is with us in the birth of glory himself, Jesus Christ. This is the story and the hope of Advent.
My hope is that you will join us for this journey from Ichabod to Immanuel and the Birth of Glory that has come, is coming, and will come again this Advent season!
Dr. James Johnson
Director of Adult Discipleship Northside Church
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Today is the dawn of Advent 2025. The first video message from James just came into my inbox at 7:00 am. I will share the link with you, and, if you would like to subscribe yourself to receive these messages each morning in Advent, please visit www.NorthsideUMC.org/email and choose “Advent and Lent Devotionals”, adding your contact information.
Happy season of hopeful waiting.
…Sue…
