Transfiguration
– February 4th
and 5th, 2017 -
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
We can
be so busy. It seems as though we always have something to do,
somewhere to go, full calendars, schedules packed. In fact, it seems
as though work dominates our life, our identity. When you meet
someone, you generally get asked, “So, what do you do?” We
define ourselves by our action. Now, this isn’t a completely bad
thing – work is good, being productive is good. As Christians we
are called to show love to our neighbor, and that means doing things
for our neighbor. We have been given the various vocations in our
life by God – so indeed, going and working is a good thing… but
what we must remember is that it is not the only thing, or even the
most important thing. Our life, our existence, when it boils down to
it, isn’t defined by our work, by what we do. We are defined by
Christ Jesus and what He does, by the fact that we have been Baptized
into His Name and redeemed by His Blood shed upon the Cross. What
truly shapes you and me is the fact that we are those who have
received salvation from Christ through the gift of faith which He
gave and worked in us through His Word.
We can
forget this. And when I say “we”, I’m not talking about the
crass person who basically stops believing or even just stops going
to church . No, I am referring to us here today – we who would
be diligent and sincere Christians, who would be faithful – we can
let our desire for busyness overshadow the simple reception of God’s
gifts that truly shapes and defines our lives and faith. We get an
example of this trap in our Gospel lesson. “And
after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his
brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was
transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His
clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them
Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.”
This is what we call the transfiguration – where the figure, the
appearance of Christ Jesus is transformed – where the Light of the
World begins to shine forth with His own light. What this is, dear
friends, is a picture of the life of the world to come. What are
things going to be like for eternity? Well, Christ Jesus, shining
forth perfection from His own Body, and the people of God gathered
around Him and His Word. We see a picture of salvation, of eternal
life – this is Jesus revealing Himself as God almighty, perfect and
holy – the Savior whom Moses and Elijah and all the patriarchs and
prophets foretold, the God whom they worship. Really awesome and
profound stuff.
And
Peter understands that this is a wondrous thing – “Lord,
it is good that we are here.” Great
observation – it is good, it is a wondrous thing – to see the
glory of the Lord be revealed – this is what every pious Jew in the
world had been waiting to see. Peter’s words here even inspire
hymns – Tis good Lord to be here – great hymn! But, there is a
problem. Peter doesn’t just stop there, Peter isn’t content
simply to be there, to behold Christ in His glory, to listen to Jesus
and Moses and Elijah chatting back and forth. Nope, like so many of
us, Peter starts worrying about getting to work. “If
You wish, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses
and one for Elijah.” Peter doesn’t
want to just sit and listen, Peter wants to get to work. And what
Peter suggests is very reasonable – they were around Sukkoth –
the festival of booths where the Children of Israel would basically
go camp out in order to remember their time in the wilderness – so
Peter asks a very reasonable thing – shall I fix up a couple of
tents so Moses and Elijah can observe this festival with us? There’s
only one problem – by offering to work, by wanting to snap to it
and get to work, what would Peter miss? Oh, yeah Jesus, You are
shining forth in glory, and Moses and Elijah are there with you…
um, how about I go over there and pitch a few tents. Jesus, Moses,
Elijah… I could listen to their conversation… nah, I’ll go get
some work done. When Christ Jesus is talking, when Moses and the
Prophets are there speaking to and about Christ, that’s not the
time to go get the chores done!
But
the point here is not that Peter is lousy, but we are so much better.
We’re just as bad. Here we are, gathered together in Trinity,
gathered around the Word of God, we heard from Exodus, written by
Moses, we heard the Spirit Inspired words of Peter recorded for us in
His epistle, we heard the Gospel of Christ Jesus – yet I’m
willing to bet that every one of us has had our thoughts drift off
this morning onto worrying about getting something or other done.
And this isn’t Pastor Brown picking on you either, I’ll catch
myself at least a dozen times a service worrying about what comes
next, do I have this or that set up; I’ll let you in on a secret –
when I mess up what I’m supposed to say or read, it’s normally
because I’m worried about something else to come in the service.
We can get so focused on doing stuff that simply coming here, being
here, simply hearing the Word of God can be so hard for us.
Americans are a hyper-active people, we value hard work, that is what
we train ourselves to do… and sadly, we don’t really train
ourselves to be simple hearers of the Word, not as much.
Well,
Peter doesn’t get to build his tents. “He
was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them,
and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom
I am well pleased; listen to Him.’”
The Father cuts Peter off. It’s not about putting up a tent,
Peter. It’s not about what you are going to do for Jesus – it’s
about Jesus and what He does for you. Jesus is the One who pleases
the Father by living the perfect life, by going to the Cross, by
wining salvation for all mankind. Likewise, dear friends, whenever
we want the focus in Church to shift on to what we do, how wonderful
we are – we need to pause and listen to Christ, listen to His Word,
hear what He has to say to us.
Now,
hearing the voice of the Father utterly freaks out the disciples.
“When the disciples heard this, they fell
on their faces and were terrified.”
And you would be too. Why? Because as much as we like to hide
behind our works, as much as we like to tell ourselves that we are
good people and focus on all the nice things we do… not all of our
works are good. In fact, when it boils down to it, none of them are,
not really. All are tainted with sin. We are sinners through and
through, and everything, even the nicest, most wonderful thing you’ve
ever done – tainted with sin. Not one of us is perfect, not one of
us is righteous – Peter, James, and John know that. And there is
the voice of the Father, there is the presence of God Almighty –
and sinners in the presence of God die. Get blotted out. Bad
things. And so they hit the deck – and you know what, if the voice
of the Father suddenly thundered forth in here, we all would be
hitting the deck too. Sinners do not stand brashly in the presence
of God almighty.
We do
not stand, but there is One who stands for us. “But
Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’”
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful and profound. Christ Jesus, True
God and True Man, the One whom pleases the Father comes to you, and
He touches you, He joins Himself to you in the Waters of Baptism,
gives Himself to You in His Holy Supper and says to you, “Rise,
have no fear.” This is forgiveness talk. This is last day, the
trumpet of God sounding forth and the Lord calling us forth from our
graves saying, “Rise, have no fear” sort of talk. Of our own
strength, we cannot stand before the Father… and so the Father says
listen to Jesus. And what does Jesus say, what do we hear our Lord
proclaim to us – the same thing we always hear from Him whenever we
stop running around like chickens with our heads cut off, worrying
about getting this or that done. We hear Christ say, “You are
forgiven. I have done it all for you, I have even faced down death,
and I have risen. Now, you too rise, you too live, you too have life
everlasting that the world and death and sin cannot take away from
you.”
“And
when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.”
The Christian life isn’t defined by what you do, by what you give.
Do you do things – well, sure, of course, Christ Jesus is the
vine, we are the branches, we’re gonna end up bearing good fruit.
When its time to work, let us strive to work well. But that’s not
the heart, that’s not the center, that’s not what defines you as
a Christian. Rather this – Christ Jesus comes to you through His
Word, physically touches you in Baptism, in His Supper, calls you
away from sin, away from vain delight in your own action, and fixes
your eyes upon Himself, so that you might pause, that you might be
still and know the Lord, Christ Jesus; that you might know and see
that because of Him your sin is forgiven, that because of Him Hell
and death are overthrown and have no more hold upon you, that because
of Him and His righteousness you are rescued from Satan. This is
what He does to you in your life through His Word, this is what He
makes you to see and understand and remember once again whenever He
pulls you away from the troubles and burdens and busyness of the
world here in His Church. And here He always speaks to you, for you
are His beloved for whom He died and rose again – Your sin is
forgiven, rise and have no fear. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the
Light of the World +
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