January 5: Every Tongue Will Glorify Your Name
♫ Music:
Day 39 - Wednesday, January 5
Title: EVERY TONGUE WILL GLORIFY YOUR NAME
Scripture: Revelation 15:4a (NKJV); Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV, 1982)
“Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy.”
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Poetry:
Descending Theology: Christ Human
by Mary Karr
Such a short voyage for a god,
and you arrived in animal form so as not
to scorch us with your glory.
Your mask was an infant’s head on a limp stalk,
sticky eyes smeared blind,
limbs rendered useless in swaddle.
You came among beasts
as one, came into our care or its lack, came crying
as we all do, because the human frame
is a crucifix, each skeletos borne a lifetime.
Any wanting soul lain
prostrate on a floor to receive a pouring of sunlight
might–if still enough,
feel your cross buried in the flesh.
One has only to surrender,
you preached, open both arms to the inner,
the ever-present hold,
out-reaching every want. It’s in the form
embedded, love adamant as bone.
In a breath, we can bloom and almost be you.
THE GRAVITY OF CHRIST: EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW
In day-to-day life, we don't kneel or bow much. Situations with enough gravity to require us to kneel or bow don’t come around that often, like concluding a stage performance, receiving a knighthood, or meeting royalty. Certainly there are regular occurrences where we kneel to pray in sacred spaces or contexts where bowing to greet someone is common. But still, we walk the road, stand by water coolers, sit at dinner tables, and lie in our beds much more often with no thought either of an underlying sacredness, or of how in all of this, we are held to the earth by gravity.
The pervasiveness of gravity that makes bowing and bending a physical effort or that holds us to our seats invites me to think of spiritual gravity. As the sun pulls planets in their orbits, the whole of creation is centered around, arises from, finds its source in, and is sustained by Christ: “He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” So with this in mind during the Christmas season, I have been pondering this idea: that the singularity of the incarnate Christ came with an emptiness.
As I think about Christ emptying Himself to take on flesh, I wonder if in that act perhaps He removed a kind of spiritual gravity. Like a burning sun dimmed for us to bear, when He limited his limitless to a baby/man, He must have also somehow limited His spiritual weight and gravity. As Mary Karr muses in her beautiful and profound poem Descending Theology: Christ Human, Jesus arrived in such a way, in such a form “so as not to scorch us” with His glory.
I wonder if the Son had not “made Himself nothing,” but instead had condensed His fullest fullness at the incarnation, would He have stopped the world by His mere presence (this He “who fills everything in every way”)? If Jesus would have been fully and all-gloriously manifest as God and man, would He have been such a great spiritual singularity, as if a black hole, that everything around Him would have had no choice but to bend and bow to the spiritual weight of His presence?
We find the realm of heaven breaking into earth at so rich, laden, and heavy a moment as the birth of Jesus, where the angels met the shepherds; but not so in the baby himself, the man who “had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” But just as the reality of gravity is ultimately inescapable, so too is Christ’s all-powerful God-ness. There are then some who have encountered His glory, “the Glory of the One and Only,” and have been compelled to draw close. It is the weight of His glory that compels us to praise, to respond in word and action. We as the Church, “the fullness of Him,” are then called to spread out His power, glory, and spiritual gravity around the earth. Andrew Peterson and Ben Shive touch on these things through their litany of questions and responses. “Is anyone worthy?” progresses and deepens to “Is He worthy?” And the compelling weight of spiritual reality causes a chorus of affirmation, “He is!”
We find Paul writing about this spiritual gravity in his hymn as it concludes that “every knee shall bow, in heaven, and earth, and under the earth.” When all is summed up and comes into the full and glorified presence of Christ, all will bow in reverence and awe, all will feel the pervasive gravity of the exalted Jesus. His name is above all names, that name which is as foundational as gravity.
Prayer:
Jesus, who in very nature God, emptied Yourself and became nothing for us as man, You permeate all creation. Let us become empty so that we can be filled with You, with Your humility and humanity. Let us be aware of Your pervasive spiritual gravity that calls us to respond to who You are and what You do. May we sit, stand, walk, and lie down every day in Your presence, turning everyday actions into foretastes of our kneeling and bowing that are to come when we are fully with You in Your fullest fullness.
Amen
Devotion Author:
Steven Homestead
Artist, Musician, and Composer
President of the American Composers Forum of Los Angeles (ACF-LA)
For more information about the artwork, music, poetry, and devotional writer selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Every Knee Shall Bow (detail and overall images)
J. Kirk Richards
2008
Oil on canvas
About the Artist:
J. Kirk Richards is a favorite among admirers of contemporary spiritual artwork. His love of the textural, the poetic, and the mysterious has translated into a unique take on traditional Judeo-Christian themes. Richards attributes much of his love for the arts to an early emphasis on musical training in his parents’ home. Turning then from music to visual arts, Kirk studied with painters Clayton Williams, Patrick Devonas, Gary and Jennifer Barton, James Christensen, Joe Ostraff, and others. Two years in Rome influenced Richards’ palette, which often consists of subdued browns and rusts. Kirk is best known for his contributions to the BYU Museum of Art exhibit Beholding Salvation: The Life of Christ in Word and Image; for the cover image of Jeffrey R. Holland’s book, Broken Things to Mend; and for his imagery on the cover of BYU Studies Magazine. Kirk and his wife, Amy, have four creative children. They split their time between their home in Woodland Hills, California, and their country studio in the small town of Redmond, Utah. Richards’ work is mostly found in private collections throughout the country.
http://www.jkirkrichards.com/
About the Music:
“Is He Worthy?” from the album Holy Roar
Lyrics:
Do you feel the world is broken? (We do.)
Do you feel the shadows deepen? (We do.)
But do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through? (We do.)
Do you wish that you could see it all made new? (We do.)
Is all creation groaning? (It is.)
Is a new creation coming? (It is.)
Is the glory of the Lord to be the light within our midst? (It is.)
Is it good that we remind ourselves of this? (It is.)
Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole?
Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll?
The Lion of Judah who conquered the grave
He is David's root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave.
Is He worthy? Is He worthy
Of all blessing and honor and glory?
Is He worthy of this?
He is.
Does the Father truly love us? (He does.)
Does the Spirit move among us? (He does.)
And does Jesus, our Messiah hold forever those He loves? (He does.)
Does our God intend to dwell again with us? (He does.)
Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole?
Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll?
The Lion of Judah who conquered the grave,
He is David's root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave
From every people and tribe
Every nation and tongue.
He has made us a kingdom and priests to God
To reign with the Son.
Is He worthy? Is He worthy?
Of all blessing and honor and glory
Is He worthy? Is He worthy?
Is He worthy of this?
He is!
Is He worthy? Is He worthy?
He is!
He is!
About the Performer:
Chris Tomlin (b. 1972) is an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, and worship leader. Some of his most well-known songs are "How Great Is Our God," "Our God," "Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)," and his cover of "Good Good Father." Tomlin has been awarded twenty-three GMA Dove Awards, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for his 2012 album. Because of his songs' popularity in many contemporary churches, Time magazine stated he may be the "most often sung artist anywhere." Tomlin wrote his first worship song at age fourteen. During high school, he learned to lead worship in his youth group. After graduating high school, he entered Tyler Junior College (TJC), planning for a medical career. Tomlin graduated and enrolled in Texas A&M University to study medicine. Tomlin participated in a Bible study led by then Choice Ministries founder Louie Giglio and, in 1997, Tomlin partnered with Giglio to found Passion Conferences. In 2000, Tomlin signed onto newly founded sixstepsrecords, a subsidiary of Passion Conferences, and has released nine full-length studio albums. Tomlin has toured with many contemporary Christian artists, such as Delirious?, Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, and MercyMe. Tomlin has headlined several tours, and has also joined Passion Conferences for national and global tours and events. In 2008, Tomlin started a new church with Louie Giglio in Atlanta, Georgia. The Passion City Church held its first service in 2009, and features Tomlin as one of its worship leaders. In 2019, Tomlin and his wife Lauren started Angel Armies, a nonprofit organization that works to bring people and ministry organizations together to attempt to solve issues related to vulnerable youth in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Tomlin
https://www.christomlin.com/
About the Composers/Lyricists:
Andrew Peterson and Ben Shive
Andrew Peterson (b. 1974) is an American Christian musician and author who plays folk rock and country gospel music. Peterson is a founding member of the Square Peg Alliance, a group of Christian songwriters. He has toured with Caedmon's Call, Fernando Ortega, Michael Card, Sara Groves, Bebo Norman, Nichole Nordeman, Jill Phillips, Andy Gullahorn, Ben Shive, Eric Peters, and other members of the Square Peg Alliance. His poetic and theologically rich music has always been honest, sometimes painful, but ever hopeful. He is the rare artist who clearly views his talent not as a reason for pride and self-promotion, but as something he has been given to steward in the service of others.
https://www.andrew-peterson.com/
Benjamin Aaron Shive (b. 1979) is an American Christian musician, keyboardist, arranger, and music producer, who mainly plays acoustic Christian pop and folk-rock music. He has released two studio albums, The Ill-Tempered Klavier (2008) and The Cymbal Crashing Clouds (2011). He is a GMA Dove Award-winning music producer, for his production on Christmas Is Here from Brandon Heath. He released The Cymbal Crashing Clouds in 2011 and Christianity Today rated the album with four stars, saying, "His lyrics are wildly creative; attentive listeners will pick up some clear nods to the biblical prophets, lending gravity to a transporting collection of songs." He was awarded the GMA Dove Award for Christmas Album of the Year in 2014 for his production on the 2013 album Christmas Is Here by Brandon Heath. Talking about his musical journey, he is quoted as saying, “When I was sixteen, I sat at my dad’s PC and listened to Rich Mullins’ A Liturgy, A Legacy, and A Ragamuffin Band for the first time. When he sang ‘And the Holy King of Israel loves me here in America,’ something changed in me. Rich’s songs opened windows that looked out over the vast landscape of the gospel. He made a case for the beauty of God and it won me over. I make music to serve the person who needs to know that the Holy King of Israel loves them wherever they are. That’s everybody.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Shive
http://www.benshive.com/about
About the Poet:
Mary Karr (b. 1955) is an American poet, essayist, and memoirist from Texas. She rose to fame in 1995 with the publication of her bestselling memoir The Liars’ Club. She is the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University in Lima, New York. Her memoir The Liars’ Club, which delves vividly into her deeply troubled childhood, was followed by two additional memoirs, Cherry and Lit: A Memoir, which details her “...journey from blackbelt sinner and lifelong agnostic to unlikely Catholic.” Karr won the 1989 Whiting Award for her poetry, was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry in 2005, and has won Pushcart Prizes for both her poetry and essays. Her poems have appeared in major literary magazines such as Poetry, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly.
https://www.marykarr.com/
About the Devotion Author:
Steven Homestead
Artist, Musician, and Composer
Steven Homestead is an artist, composer, writer, curator, and speaker who brings genre-spanning creativity to life, whether by composing music, leading community art projects, writing and speaking on creativity and faith, or curating generative events and programs. Overall, Steven works to promote honor, champion voice, share wonder, and develop unity. Recent musical performances include premieres at CSUF’s New Music Festival, with Newgate Orchestra, conductor Christian Guebert, and soprano Linda Jackson. Steven earned his M.M. from CSUF and B.A. from UCLA, both in music composition. As the President of the American Composers Forum of Los Angeles (ACF-LA) from 2013–2021, he supported the development and appreciation of new music, including helping to launch the city of Los Angeles' month-long Compose LA festival in 2019. In the visual arts, Steven is the force behind multiple interactive installations, including work at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts, Fuller Theological Seminary, and TEDxMission Viejo. In addition, he has led numerous community art projects for Saddleback Visual Arts over the past decade, along with recent collaborations with Mariners Church and the Western Conference of the Church of the Brethren. In 2020, he developed and hosted a virtual poetry reading series and was guest curator in 2021 for the Boca De Oro festival, Orange County’s literary arts and culture festival. As an active member of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA), he helped develop the organization’s Heart to Heart program with Kent Larson and Barb Lidfors and in 2021 was invited to serve on CIVA’s inaugural advisory board.