(Note: In the 1 year series, which we follow here, normally Transfiguration is four Sundays prior to Ash Wednesday, not the Sunday prior. However, with the way saints days fell this year, I elected to omit pre-lent and continue with Epiphany readings, as we hadn't had any normal Epiphany Sundays)
Transfiguration Sunday – February 15th, 2015 -
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
Transfiguration Sunday – February 15th, 2015 -
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 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 just
stops going to church, who even basically stops believing. 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/Zion, gathered around the Word of God, we
heard from Exodus, written by Moses, we hear the Spirit Inspired words of Peter
recorded for us in His epistle, we hear 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 utter 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 +
No comments:
Post a Comment