2013
The Theology in the Stained Glass: An Overview
Dr. John H. Aukerman
Anderson University School of Theology
1/22/2013
The Theology in the Stained Glass: The Window Overview:
The Willhardt Memorial Window
Dr. John Aukerman, professor of Christian education
January 22, 2013
Processional into Adam Miller Chapel (singing)
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name †
In order to facilitate the flow of the worship, I ask that you follow the printed order of worship,
and that you always have your hymnal open to the next hymn, ready to begin singing as soon as I
indicate.
This semester, our chapel sermons will follow the theological themes depicted in the Edward and
Norma Willhardt Memorial Window. Who, you ask, are Edward and Norma Willhardt? Let that
question be answered by three of their close friends, Duane Hoak and Bill and Marcia Thompson.
Norma Willhardt grew up in the Church of God in Toledo, Ohio. Ed Willhardt started coming
through a church softball league. Ed began attending the church as he and Norma started dating.
They were married in 1958.
Upon completing high school, Ed began working for a large mechanical contractor. He learned
the business quickly, and after a few years he and a co-worker set out on their own with $5,000
cash to start their own mechanical contracting business. This venture became very successful and
the business grew to become one of the largest in Toledo by the mid-1970’s.
Following their marriage, Ed and Norma set out to be a strong Christian couple in the North Cove
Church of God, providing leadership in the Christian education and youth programs. Ed sang in
the choir and in a men’s quartet and continued to be active in the church sports programs. Later,
Ed would serve as the Sunday School Superintendent and Board of Trustees chair.
Norma became involved as a Sunday school teacher, in the Women’s Missionary Circle, and in
visitation of newcomers, the ill, and the elderly. In many ways, she was the congregational care
lay leader. Often, she would be seen shopping for food for a needy family that had come to her
attention.
About the time Miller Chapel was built, Anderson College President Robert Reardon set up a
meeting with Ed and Norma during the Church of God Camp Meeting. When a friend asked Ed
what the meeting was going to be about, he said something like, “I suppose President Reardon
wants some of my money.”
And yes, that’s what it was about. Dr. Reardon presented the need for a stained glad window for
the new Seminary Chapel, and the Willhardts graciously donated the money to design and build
this marvelous work of art.
Dr. John Aukerman, Window Overview
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Ed was a pilot and owned his own airplane. It was on a flight in October 1975 that Ed and Norma
met an untimely death when their plane crashed during a severe storm. News of this tragedy was
devastating to the church in Toledo. And they are now forever memorialized in this magnificent
stained glass window, which was designed by Dean Barry Callen in 1974, and represents the
theological concepts held by the faculty 40 years ago.
Much of what I’m going to share about the window itself is taken from the document that was
written by Barry Callen, and is hanging in a frame just outside the Chapel.
The window seeks to portray a UNIVERSAL expression of Christian faith, with its theological
symbols being particularly sensitive to the experiences and teachings of the Church of God
movement.
The message of the window begins at its highest point. Here you see the Holy Spirit symbolized
as a dove descending from heaven. The initial and primary facts of our faith are thus proclaimed –
God is – and our knowledge of God begins only as He chooses to reveal Himself to us. God has
indeed come to us, and by the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit, we come to know God’s
very character and purpose among us.
Music selection: Spirit Holy, 267, vv. 1, 2
Looking now to the top left, we see three great truths about God which we have come to know
through the divine self-revelation. First, God is CREATOR and we see that He continues to hold
the creation firmly in His hands.
Music Selection: What a Mighty God we Serve, 46, vv. 1, 3
Even though that creation has chosen sinful disobedience, resulting in a broken relationship
between the Creator God and the human race, God has demonstrated Himself to be a
REDEEMER. We see the sacrificial lamb, telling us that God constantly comes to us, fully
prepared to take the penalty and forgive the wrong.
Music Selection: Redeeming Love, 230, vv. 1, 2
It’s important to note that the creating and redeeming love of God is not mere sentimentalism. We
also know God to be JUDGE, a God whose word is law and whose judgments are definite and
final. There is no higher court.
When a person becomes aware of the gracious presence of the creating, redeeming, and judging
God, that person has the opportunity to respond appropriately. Accordingly, the window next
depicts a sequence of events that are characteristic of a person’s range of responses.
Looking now to the top right of the window, we see a symbol of the daily possibility of knowing
this creating, redeeming, and judging God in the open pages of the BIBLE.
Music Selection: By Your Blessed Word Obeying, 348, v. 1
When we have studied this book and have been convicted by its truths, we are able to enter into a
life of HOLINESS. We can experience the full extent of what it means to be new creatures in
Christ. It’s like an ever-burning bush that sanctifies our lives and empowers us to do God’s will.
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Music Selection: Consecration, 475, vv. 1, 4
When we are fully consecrated to the Triune God, we live a unique life of Christian SERVICE –
a basin and towel experience which is really a privilege – partners with God in serving the world.
Music Selection: Every Hour for Jesus, 528, vv. 1, 2
When God is known and responded to appropriately, we begin to experience newness in many
areas of our lives. The lower portion of the window seeks to express, through the use of human
hands, two very important emphases in the heritage of the Church of God – the themes of
HEALING and FELLOWSHIP. To the left is a solitary human hand reaching out to touch the
hem of Jesus’ garment, reminiscent of the day when “a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve
years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: for she said within herself, If I but
touch his garment, I shall be made whole” (Matt. 9:20-21).
Music Selection: He is Just the Same Today, 442, vv. 1, 3
On the right are two hands clasped together in the bond of unity which should characterize the
people of God. The actual word on the window is FELLOWSHIP, which is our attempt to
translate the Greek word koinonia, a word so rich in meaning that we have no English equivalent.
We can come close when we think of things like “community, communion, joint participation,
sharing and intimacy” (Wikipedia). The first century church thought of it in terms of “an inner
goodness toward virtue, and an outer goodness toward social relationships” (Wikipedia). The
Church of God recognizes and celebrates this as the Bond of Perfectness.
Music Selection: The Bond of Perfectness, 330, vv. 1,2
Central to the window is the PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. Although we know many things
about God, the primary truth is not contained in doctrines or traditions or books or practices, but
in the person of God’s Self-Revelation – the only begotten Son of the Father, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
One of the deeper realities of Christian theology is portrayed in the Person of Jesus Christ. That
is, he is fully God and fully human. How do you show this in stained glass? The designers
certainly did not want to show an imperfect Jesus, for he was fully God. So, in order to indicate
the divine-human nature of our Savior, a few panels of his robe are slightly off color, reminding
us that although he was perfect – divine – he was also human.
Within just a few decades of his miraculous birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, his
followers sang a song about him. The melody has long since been forgotten, but the words remain
in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Stand and join in unison reading number 490, “Imitating
Christ.”
Unison Scripture Reading
Imitating Christ, 490 (Phil 2:6-11)
This is the great kenosis passage – Jesus emptied himself, made himself nothing, divested himself
of all divine privileges and prerogatives so that He might be completely open, receptive, and
obedient to the Father’s will.
Jesus: the Eternal Word, Lamb of God, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Lilly
of the Valley, Bright and Morning Star, the Christ, the Son of God, the Beginning and the End,
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the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Wisdom and Power of God, the Son of David,
the Seed of Abraham, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, the Bridegroom, the Lamb Slain
from the Foundation of the world, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Good Shepherd, the Rock of
Ages, the Just and Mighty One – Jesus emptied himself of all of that, voluntarily set it all aside,
made himself nothing, gave up everything, and took upon himself the nature of a slave.
Let’s unpack this just a little.
V. 5 says that Jesus, “being in very nature God.” The Greek word for being expresses on ongoing
existence, the continuation of a previous state, something that has been, is now, and always will
be. One writer tells us that “it describes the very essence of a person. That which is true of a
person that can’t be changed. That which a person possesses inalienably and in such a manner
that it can never be taken away from him.”
And when this ancient song says “in very nature God,” it uses a special Greek word, morphe. The
other word it might have used would be schema. What’s the difference? Morphe is the essential
nature of something, that which cannot be changed, while schema means the outer shape – that
which changes.
V. 5 says that Jesus’ morphe – His essential form – is God. He is unalterably God – His morphe,
His essence, His unchangeable being is divine. He never was and never will be anything other
than God.
To be sure, His outward schema changed. He was a fetus in his mother’s womb. He was a
baby. He became a child. He became a teen. He was a young man. He was an
adult. His schema changed, but His morphe never changed – and never will.
This song is saying that Christ Jesus possesses the being and nature of God. This is to say without
question that Jesus is and always has been God. He is equal with God because He is God. He
Himself said, “I and the Father are one,” and, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” He is
the logos in John chapter 1, who created the world. He is the exact representation of the nature of
God.
And in verse 7 it says that “He emptied Himself.” Rather keeping a tight grip on His divine
privileges, Jesus laid them all down – He emptied Himself. He voluntarily laid aside the rights of
royalty, the prerogatives of Almightiness, the privileges that had been His since before the
foundation of the world in one divine act of self-denunciation – refusing to hold onto what
rightfully was His.
Today people are demanding their rights. Not Jesus – He did not demand – or even hold onto –
His rights. He emptied Himself of all the divine prerogatives and took upon Himself the very
nature – the morphe – of a slave. Not a servant, as many translations say. But a slave, as the
Greek says.
What do we know about slaves? Well, they have no rights. They own no property. They, in fact,
ARE property who are owned – bought and sold by their masters. The entire concept of slavery is
repugnant to us – perhaps that’s why so many English translations prefer to use the less messy
word, “servant.” But kenosis says that Jesus, who was God, emptied Himself and became a slave!
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And being found in schema – in appearance – as a human, He humbled Himself and became
obedient unto death. Even death on a cross.
Do you know what that means? We have become all too comfortable with the cross. It’s a smooth
and shiny decoration that we wear around our necks and that we adorn our worship spaces with.
But in first century Palestine, the cross was a scandal. The cross was where criminals were
brutally tortured and executed. The cross was rough hewn and cruel. And Jesus became obedient
unto death on a cross.
Therefore – therefore God highly exalted Him 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!
Music Selection: Jesus Christ is the Lord, 72
I direct your attention back to the window. Notice that the cross is there, but that it’s in the
background. Our Lord is not hanging on the cross. He is freed from its grip through the power of
the resurrection. And because the cross was and is an essential part of the salvation history, we
pause now to reflect and survey the wondrous cross.
Music Selection: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, 201, vv. 1,3
Notice that the Jesus we see is the victorious, resurrected Christ. He wears royal robes. To the
right and left of His head, He is identified by the Greek letters Alpha and Omega. He is the Alpha
and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.
From His body there emerges a living and growing vine, which moves outward and encircles the
basic truths we have come to know about God and humanity. And the vine produces fruit.
Notice the clouds under His feet, depicting that He will return on the clouds. That’s when every
eye shall see and every tongue confess. And see the semi-circle on the very bottom of the
Window, symbolizing the physical world and showing that Messiah Jesus is exalted high above
all kingdoms, powers, and principalities.
All praise to Him Who reigns above in majesty supreme. Who gave His Son from heaven to die,
that He might all redeem!
Music Selection: Blessed Be the Name, 56
† The worshipers were asked to participate in this sharing about the overall meaning of the window and
not be hearers only. Aukerman asked congregants to sing when indicated as a way of experiencing the
meaning of the symbols within the stained glass. They hymnal used was: Arlo F. Newell and Randall W.
Vader, Editorial Directors. Worship the Lord: Hymnal of the Church of God. Anderson, Indiana: Warner
Press, Inc., 1989.
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