“…do everything for the glory of God…”

“…whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”

--1 Corinthians 10:31

“My son, give glory to the Lord, God of Israel,

and confess…” –Joshua 7:19

This past Sunday we heard the story of the leper who said to Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” (Mk 1:40b) After the Lord heals him, this man goes about telling everyone about the miracle and the man who “made him clean.” He is understandably excited, but it is interesting –and always troubled me that as soon as this man leaves Jesus, he does exactly what the Lord has told him not to do. Jesus tells him:

See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed… (Mk 1:44)

So, why isn’t the leper called on the carpet? He received a miracle, was given a pretty simple directive (basically for a leper to be declared clean required a priest to sign off that the sores were gone) but instead of obeying it, he does the opposite. You’d think that if this was a fable or morality tale or something like that, there would be some kind of consequences for this vociferous leper; even if it just meant Jesus wagging a miraculous finger at him.        But, instead we get only the lovely detail that this man sang the Lord’s glory so successfully that Jesus couldn’t make it into the towns because people kept streaming out to Him. All because of this “disobedient” leper. That’s interesting to me.  He does explicitly what the Lord tells him not to do, but clearly he does it for the glory of the Lord, and thus becomes an early and highly successful evangelist.  Whatever you do, do it for the glory of the Lord!

Another twist on this might be found in the Old Testament reading from Leviticus which shows how a leper was supposed to behave:

“The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent, his head bare… and shall cry out: unclean, unclean… He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.”  (Leviticus 13:44-46)

To submit to this treatment must have been devastating to a person and to a family. But, to endure it with anything more than resignation and growing despair or resentment requires a deep, a profound trust in God. But how?

Reading Joshua the other morning, I came across the idea of giving Glory to the Lord in a very different context.  It is in the story of Achan who is to be put to death for stealing loot that had been put under the ban. When Joshua discovers what Achan has done and how it has brought a curse upon the Israelites, he goes to him and says:

My son, give glory to the Lord, God of Israel, and

confess what you have done, hide it not…

And Achan does confess. Directly he takes Joshua and shows him the items. And immediately Joshua has him (and his family and livestock) lead out of the village and stoned to death.  That’s pretty brutal, that swift shift from the tender sounding, “My son, give glory to God, confess what you have done…” to:  Take him out of the camp and kill him. And his family! And while you’re at it, let’s kill and burn his livestock, too![1]

            That is a hard shift and a hard bit of glory to be asked to give to the Lord.  But if we take Paul seriously (and please tell me if this sounds too Calvinistic), we must do everything for the glory of God. When we are healed let it be for the glory of God, and when we feel cursed, let that too be for the glory of God. St. Therese reminds us that even our tiniest acts --to stoop and pick up a dropped pin—we should do for love of God. 

Do everything for the glory of God!  That in itself is the greatest witness we can offer. And, like Bernanos’ Country Priest said:  All is grace… Yes, even the stones they throw at us.

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[1] (Of course there is a lot more to be said for the story of Achan. And there is some scholarly debate about whether the original words mean the family is stoned or merely forced to witness his stoning. Read Joshua. I dare you.)