They come, those moments of magnificence. Fabergé Eggs, Rolls-Royces, Sistine chapel (only one of those). They set a standard, invite comparisons and provide rankings in our society about our taste and discrimination.
In John’s Gospel we read ‘… we saw his glory, such glory as befits the Father’s only son’ and in Paul’s letter to the Philippians we read ‘… he emptied himself’ (2.7 RSV). It was a vanishing thing, this majesty, this excellence, this glory. It was his but he renounced it. It briefly appeared at Jesus’ disclosure of his identity (Mark 9. 8). You will remember that Matthew pointed to John the Baptist, who repudiated fine apparel. (It is a curious happening that the word ‘magnificence’ occurs only once in the N.T., is applied to Diana and caused a riot. – Acts 19.27)
We do our best to ensure that the Christian faith lays claim to the best as far as its buildings, music, artwork and scripts are concerned. The Hermitage Museum at St Petersburg glitters at the top of the league. The worship of the Orthodox churches has a special regard for magnificence in its music, vesture and architecture.
We like to think that when we worship God, we offer the best of which we are capable. Sometimes that intention is betrayed by a pattern that invites popular approval or benefit on the part of the worshippers.
Magnificence is also contaminated when it becomes the possession of the eminent, e.g. by Diana. Poetry has been sadly afflicted by this process. Great poetry that was familiar to generations as a vehicle of narrative became taken over and turned into an allusive exercise, rather like cross-word puzzles for a favoured few.
If worship becomes divorced from magnificence, it ceases to elicit the awe and dread that are an inescapable part of that homage which Oswald Chambers called ‘my utmost for his highest’.
LORENZO
Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492) was the outstanding man of the Italian Renaissance. Gifted himself, he was the patron of Michelangelo.
CHRISTIAN SONGSTER
Among the best of this generation’s hymns or worship-songs are those by Stuart Townend. They include ‘In Christ Alone’, ‘How deep the father’s love’ and an arrangement of the 23rd Psalm. Stuart read English at Sussex, is married with three grown-up children and in 2017 received from the Archbishop of Canterbury the Cranmer Award for his outstanding contribution to contemporary worship music.’
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