Last Epiphany+A+2014 2
March 2014 Fr. Robert RM Bagwell+ Exodus 24:12-18 Psalm 99
An antique dealer was speaking with one of his clients and remarking
that he had found an old Bible printed by some guy, Gutten… something. The client exclaimed Guttenberg! that's the first
Bible ever printed! One just sold for a million
dollars! Oh, I don't think that one would
have such a value. It was written all over
the margins by some guy named Martin Luther……
Perhaps we don't realize what we have until it's gone. Surely the disciples today could express such sentiment!
Today we experience the disciples of Jesus as they experience such an
event. Why is this event so important
that it has been celebrated in the church for centuries? It is a day that draws a clear line in the
sand.
The
transfiguration says clearly that Jesus is the Messiah; that no matter how
seemingly good, or meritorious other religions may seem, this Jesus is the Areal thing@.
Jesus, in a profound act of love for the inner circle of disciples, Peter,
James and John, includes them on the final. check, the final Ago
ahead@ for the
mission. He includes them as God gives
his blessing to the mission and they see for a moment the glory of God shining
out from within the very person of Jesus.
This glory of God, the Hebrew word, Ashekinah is what God wants to place in the
souls of the human race. That glory that
was lost to us by the sins of our first parents; that restoration of the
wholeness and completeness of that image of God that he has bestowed upon each
of us.
I.
Websters
dictionary defines transfiguration as an
exalting glorifying or spiritual change.
A.
A church growth consultant that I read a few
years ago spoke about what it is that the church is selling. What is the product
if you will that we offer to the world?
B.
We offer an exalting glorifying and spiritual and
life change.
1.
Life change!
If our lives are not beginning to change to be conformed more and more
to the image of Christ, then we are missing something.
2.
That is partially why we live together in this
body that Jesus both established and paid for with his own blood, this body he
calls the Church.
That was
it about Paul=s
experience, the experience of the other disciples and all of those who so
freely abandoned Judaism and other religions in those early years and caused
them to follow Christ. It was the power
of transfiguration.
a) St. Francis de Sales once said. We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love.@ It has been an experience over the ages that as people come to really fall in love with Jesus the Son of the living God, they change.
II.
Today the disciples experienced a transfiguration
experience. It is this reading today from which we get the colloquial
expression, a
mountain top experience.
A.
What is the Transfiguration? It is an event which nothing else in the
Gospels even remotely resembles. It is
both inward and outward for the disciples.
1.
It is the "epiphany" that closes our
season of Epiphany. The manifestation of God in the person of Jesus.
1.
Perhaps you heard the word in biology
class? Probably our most familiar use is
with the caterpillar who after the cocoon becomes the magnificent
butterfly! It refers to the real essence
of a thing.
2.
We sometimes say "God sees our hearts"
and indeed he does. Our hearts are the
REAL person that we are.
C.
When Jesus was "transfigured" before
the disciples, the glory that is God was manifest. . The
transfiguration says clearly that Jesus is the Messiah; that no matter how
seemingly good, or meritorious other religions may seem, this Jesus is the Areal thing.
1.
This glory of God, is the Hebrew word, Ashekinah
is what God wants to place in the souls of the human race. That glory that was lost to us by the sins of
our first parents; that restoration of the wholeness and
completeness of that image of God that he has
bestowed upon each of us.
D.
Perhaps you've heard of the "shekinah" the Kabod, the glory of God. It
is the glory of God manifested in the Testament whenever the Spirit of God
appeared or through those whom God acted.
It is the essence of God manifested to humanity. It is like someone with cataracts having them
removed or John Newton writing Amazing Grace: "was blind but now I
see!"
1.
John speaks of Jesus as the Light in John
chapter one. The angels announced his birth with shekinah to the shepherds.
It signifies, it means "the
dwelling" as in God dwelling among humanity.
a.
It means to reveal the true nature of a person;
who they really are. It is like one
having cataracts removed they
suddenly see clearly.
E.
The Transfiguration is a view behind the scenes
of God=s
productions.
1.
But this is not an illusion or special effects.
a.
Moses, who gave the Laws given to him by God and
Elijah, greatest of the prophets supporting all that Jesus is doing and about
to do.
b.
It prefigures the second coming of Christ in
glory
(1)
The glory of God is present in the cloud just as at Mt. Sinai when Moses
received the Law.
2.
Today we see Jesus as the creed says Light from Light.
III.
In the Jewish Law and in both testaments it is
written and here quoting the words of
Jesus, " every matter may be established by the testimony of two or
three witnesses." (Matt
18)’ At the Transfiguration are
Peter and James and John: the law fulfilled!
This is why Peter could later write: "we did not follow cleverly
devised myths". He had witnessed
the miraculous signs from the catch of fish when he met Jesus, to the Ascension
when Jesus was received into heaven.
A.
The voice of the Father is heard almost sharply
saying: This
is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.
Listen to Him!
1.
Were there any more doubts about just who this
was? It was this experience that the disciples would cling to as they say the
Son of God crucified. It was this
experience that perhaps gave them the courage to face what lay ahead during the
first Holy Week.
2.
"Listen to Him"! And in our age when there are thousands of
voices clamoring for us to listen, let us make time to LISTEN to the voice of
God's Spirit in our hearts.
B.
The Transfiguration is a reminder that our faith
claims Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. It proclaims Him as the
fulfillment of Judaism. The transfiguration is a defining moment for us if we
would enter into the heart of God through Jesus the Messiah.
I.
What was God doing in this event?
A.
I believe He was galvanizing the faith of the
inner three. Have you ever seen those
previews in movie theaters before our
featured presentations? They give you a peek of what is yet to come!
1.
After this event, that shows IHS to be superior
to Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets. Can you imagine their doubting
His mission, even if outward circumstances seem to deny who he was?
a.
So that later they would not lose hope or faith
when the time of testing came.
2.
God=s
Epiphanies are all around us, yet most of the time we don't see them. Life goes
on, God is around us, but most of the
time we take him for granted. We forget the light, the transfiguration, the power and glory of Jesus
Christ. We seldom see God's glory in the
world because we do not look or expect it.
a.
Each Sunday God is transfigured in this Holy Eucharist,
this Holy Communion..
B.
Each Sunday God gives us the opportunity to see
Christ in the person in the pew beside us as they are transfigured by his
grace.
1.
It has been said that if we could see the
reality of Jesus Christ in those other brothers and sisters in Christ around us
that we would be tempted to fall down in awe and worship before the reality
that is.
2.
One of my favorite Bible verses it found in
2 Corinthians 4:6 It reads: "For God you said 'let light shine out of darkness'
has caused his Light to shine in our hearts to give the knowledge of his glory I
the face of Christ.
In
this country, people are desperate to find love at its core. People are desperate for meaning. And Jesus
Christ is meaning itself. Once that
intimate, loving, passionate and accepting, forgiving and long-suffering Savior
has taken root in our souls, we will begin that wonderful process, that painful
process, that long process of becoming transfigured in His light. But then, that Divine Light will shine
through us to others and they may see Jesus Christ and be drawn to him as in
our hymn "I want to walk as a child of the Light"
In
the collect today, we prayed: "O God, who before the passion of your only
begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we,
beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear
our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
forever and ever. Amen. Let this be the prayer of our lives each and every
moment of every day.
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