Doxologies Great and Small

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-- to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

These are the last words of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Many believe that someone other than Paul wrote them and added them to the end of the letter, but regardless of who wrote them, they are an important statement by the early church.

Does anyone know what this kind of statement is called?


It is called a doxology. There are a couple of doxologies which you probably know much better. One is an old hymn. Feel free to join me if you know it.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

When I was growing up, we sang this each and every Sunday in church.

Can anyone think of another doxology that we use here in church?


Glory to God,
whose power, working in us,
can do infinitely more
than we can ask or imagine.
Glory to God from generation to generation,
in the Church and in Christ Jesus,
for ever and ever. Amen.

We say these words every time we share the Holy Eucharist according to the Book of Alternative Services.

All three of these doxologies share one key point. All of them direct our praise to God. All of them say that it is God’s glory, not ours.

In some ways, though, they are all quite different. In my opinion, the doxology from Romans is the strongest and the one we say regularly is the weakest. Ours lets us almost entirely off the hook.


That’s right. I said that I believe that the Anglican Church doesn’t always make the right choice. As a denomination we make mistakes. I’m also sure that many Anglicans would not agree with me that this choice of doxology is a mistake.

Would you like to know why I think our doxology is weak?


Of the three doxologies, ours is the only one that is passive on our part. We don’t have to do anything.

Glory to God, whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

God’s glory is there. God works in us. We don’t have to do anything. We don’t even have to ask or imagine because we couldn’t ask or imagine anything good enough.

Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.

God’s glory is still there. It is passed down to us in every generation. We still don’t have to do anything.

This is a recipe for a failing, passive church. This is a plan for stagnation and decline. This is what we, as Anglicans, have been doing for far too long.


Let’s try another one. “Praise God, from whom all creatures flow ….” This doxology fixed one thing. It is active. If we follow this doxology we must actively praise God. This is a good thing, but it is very limited. Praise God and the rest will just happen. This is the doxology that I grew up with in the Presbyterian Church. They haven’t done so well either.

That leaves us with the doxology from Romans. How is this doxology different? Well, first off, it is longer. It isn’t particularly poetic. It is harder to remember. And it isn’t particularly well written.

If we can get past all of that, it is a much stronger statement. I’m going to read you a paraphrase of the doxology from Romans by a theologian from Montreal named Dr. Chris Haslam. He is a retired engineer who turned to a study of theology after retiring.


God has commanded my preaching of the good news, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ in order that the mystery that was long kept secret might be revealed to all people through the Scriptures, and that by this revelation God might streng¬then you in faith and thus in obedience to him. To the only wise God be the glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.


It has the same bits as the other doxologies. The glory belongs to God. God is working in us. It doesn’t really talk about worship. Instead it talks about obedience, proclamation and preaching the good news. These are not the duties of God, they are our duties. God does not do them through us. Instead, God strengthens us so that we can do them. There is absolutely nothing passive about this doxology.


Each and every one of us is called to preach the Gospel … not just the priest.

Each and every one of us is called to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

Each and every one of us is called to reveal the mystery of God living as one of us, walking beside us as a brother, sharing our pain as a friend, nursing at the breast as our son, dying a horrible death because of our weaknesses.

Refusing to let death stop him from doing all of the rest over and over again.

This is the good news or Gospel that the doxology from Romans commands us to shout aloud.

This is the ministry that every baptized member of the Christian Church has promised before God that we will do.

Praise and Glory be to God that God has promised to strengthen us for this work.