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Luke 9:28-36 "An Encouraging Glimpse" A sermon by the Rev Roland Kubke February 14, 2010
Transfiguration Sunday: Deuteronomy 34:1-12; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Luke 9:28-36
In the middle of a night in the mountains of Peru, in 1987, Ian Shelton, then a 29 year old Canadian astronomer, was developing pictures he had taken of a part of the night sky he had photographed many times. He was sleepy, and when he noticed a bright blotch on a developed picture, he first thought he had done sloppy work or the film had been flawed. Then he had a second thought and he stepped outside and looked up. Outside he saw that there really was something out there. It looked like a star had exploded. The astronomer knew something important had happened, but he didn't know just how important that discovery was. When other astronomers examined that bright spot in the sky, they decided it was the closest super nova ever to be seen from earth by the naked eye, and it was shining with the brightest light known to us. It was also the first one seen in over 400 years that originated in our own Milky Way galaxy. It was close enough to be measured and studied with great accuracy, and opened up a whole new way of studying the stars because of the stream of neutrinos that was flowing from it. Even today, it is still the most studied star in the sky. The Canadian graduate student had made the most important astronomical discovery in many years. It was totally unexpected. Late one evening a long time ago Peter, James and John went up onto a mountain to pray with Jesus. They had prayed with Jesus many times before and they were used to evenings such as this. They began to get sleepy. Suddenly, unexpectedly, they saw something. The appearance of our Lord changed. Jesus became surrounded with the brightest light the Apostles had ever seen. The Apostles were seeing the Lord in His glory! The Apostles knew that something important had happened but they didn't realize just how important that event was. This was the Transfiguration of our Lord. This event was important because it showed us the glory of Jesus, the Son of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. It was important for another reason, too! It was important because it gave a glimpse of the glory that Jesus promises to share with you! Jesus has promised to share His glory with you so that He can encourage you to live the life God has called you to in Christ!
Glory is a pretty cool thing. The Greeks used the word, “doxa”, to describe glory. We use words like “radiance” or “splendour” to describe the idea, and the image of a star giving off its light may come to mind. For the Greeks, that radiance is more than just a bright, shining light. They understood glory to be a peek at the brightness of heaven itself. For them, the stars themselves shone with this heavenly brightness, that gave them a splendour beyond anything of this earth. For them, the stars were really just openings in the blackness that allowed the light of heaven behind them to shine through. Paul referred to this idea of glory when he spoke about what it would be like for us when our bodies are raised again from the dead and we stand beside Jesus just as Moses and Elijah once stood beside Him in their own bodies of glory. Our new bodies will shine with the light of heaven. They will possess a strength as great as our present bodies are weak, and a wholesomeness as profound as our bodies are currently flawed with the inevitability of death itself. Paul tells us that our resurrection bodies will be as superior to our present bodies as the stars in the skies are superior in their glory to the earth. There will be no comparing the new bodies with the old because the new bodies will shine with the glory of Christ Himself! (1 Corinthians 15:43) Paul shines an even brighter light on the concept of glory in Philippians 3:20-21. He says, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.” Do you see what that means in the context of our Gospel lesson for this morning? The disciples were on the mountain, and things went pretty bright for them. They went gloriously bright as these sinful, mortal men caught a glimpse of the future. It was a glimpse not just of the future Jesus, risen from the dead and ascending to the Father in heaven on a glorious, post-Easter morning. It was a glimpse of Moses and Elijah, two men who had once been just like them. It was a glimpse of two men, one, Elijah, who had been raised up to heaven in a fiery chariot without tasting death; the other, Moses, who died and was buried. The disciples caught a glimpse that reached beyond time and beyond the Day of Resurrection. They caught a glimpse of Moses in his gloriously transformed body, who had stepped out of our own future into that very moment of time when the disciples were dumbfounded on the mountain. They caught a glimpse of magnificence and honour and exalted renown and every other meaning that the word, “glory”, stirs up in us. They saw it all, right there in that awesome place and experienced a fear that we can’t even imagine. How can you stand in front of such glory and not feel very, very sinful and dirty and small? That feeling of being so tiny in the face of such great majesty is not a bad thing at all. It can be a good thing, because that feeling also has something to teach a person about glory. Moses once asked God, "Show me Your glory." God did show Moses His glory. God’s glory actually swept past Moses. It proclaimed the name of the living God, speaking with the same voice that spoke to the disciples in our Gospel lesson this morning. At that time, the voice of God’s glory said, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." (Ex 34:6) God's glory is the very love and power and might of God. It is the love that would look down at us in all of our unglory. It is the love that sees the mess that you have made of your life and that we have all made in our struggle with sin. It is the love that realizes that we are so fully glued to our sinful nature that nothing we can do can separate us from the things that spoil the glory God intended for us when we were first made in the image of God. God’s glory is the love that sees us filled with fear and overwhelmed by sorrow and disappointment and simply points Jesus Christ out to us. God’s glory answers all of our questions and all of our doubts with the words, “This is My Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.” Listen to God’s Son, because through Jesus, God has chosen to be compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. In Jesus, God has chosen to maintain love and to forgive wickedness, rebellion and sin! The glory that the Apostles saw was the full glory of God shining through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It was the sign that Jesus Christ has all the power and strength of the Father despite the fact He is also a man. It was a sign that there is nothing that Jesus asks us to do that He will not help us to do with His full power and might. This was the lesson that the Apostles learned from their unexpected discovery on the mountain. They learned that, through Jesus, they had God on their side! The Transfiguration happened at a time when the Apostles were in great need of encouragement. The ministry of our Lord had been building up to a climax. Jesus performed many miracles, feeding many people and healing many others. He spoke with great authority and it became very clear that this Jesus was a great man and the greatest who had ever lived. Peter and the rest of the disciples watched with great joy as the number of Jesus' followers swelled and the Master's popularity spread. They saw that God was at work and they were moved to make that great confession, "You are the Christ of God." (Luke 9:20) In the midst of all of this, though, Jesus dropped a bombshell. He told His disciples that He would have to suffer and die to save the world. The disciples were crushed by this news and many of them left Jesus. Even the disciples who were closest to Jesus could not understand what Jesus would have to do. When they went up the mountain they were filled with worry and doubt. Peter, James and John saw the glory of our Lord on that mountain and everything changed for them. Suddenly they realized that the power of our Lord Jesus was beyond anything that any person could do to Jesus. They saw that our Lord had the power that could conquer doubt and despair, and even His own death on the Cross. They saw that Jesus is capable of many more things than we ourselves can even imagine. Peter wrote about the event on the mountain many years later, he said, "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For Jesus received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him saying, "This is my Son whom I love" and we have the word of the prophets made more certain and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place." (2 Peter 1:16) We certainly will do well to pay attention to those words because we often forget what it means to be shown the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the glory shown to us through faith so that we can see our reason for being children of God. It is the glory shown to give us hope, just as it gave the Apostles hope at their time of hopelessness. When potatoes were first introduced to Germany as food some of the peasants tried cooking and eating the greens. They became ill because they did not think of looking underneath the plant where the potatoes are. Often we are so concerned about God's will for us in our daily lives and in all the things that we do that we do not think to look into that spot where God’s glory is found. We don’t stop to look underneath the feelings and the experiences of faith and the sense of God’s presence to the root, which is God’s Word. Those are the times we become ill in our faith because we have not looked to see where the real source and life of our faith actually is. That source is the glory that Jesus has revealed to us. The source is the glory revealed by the Word of God Himself, Jesus Christ. We are not just a collection of people who have been called to be different in what we do. We have been called to be different in who we are. Paul wrote, "Now if we are children of God, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory." Through faith we are different. We are different because we share in Christ's glory. That means we have the means and the strength to live our lives for God. We have the way to make it through the challenges of the moment, the week, the year and our lives, because we have seen the glory of the Lord through God's Word and our faith in Him. The Lord encourages us with a show of His glory. He encourages us by actually giving us some of that glory through faith. He gives us a glory that makes us more than just creatures of God. This glory makes us His own special children and brings us closer to God. Jesus said, "I have given you the glory that the Father has given Me, that we may be one." (John 17:11) Jesus gives you a share in His glory as you are drawn to God. He gives you that share of glory that brings you so close to God that you can know that the Lord is near to you and you can know how much His love is meant for you. As you grow in the faith and grow in God's love, the Lord's glory grows with you. Paul wrote, "We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18) Each time you commit yourself to the Lord through the gift of your baptism, and earnestly seek His forgiveness, you grow in the Lord's glory. Each time God's Word speaks to you and causes you live a life pleasing to God that glory shines more clearly within you. Each act of faith and of love is a sign that that glory grows in you and will continue to grow until you are with God in heaven. What a wonderful encouragement this is! The Lord encourages us with His glory in another way. He encourages us through the Lord's Supper. This Sacrament is a time of sharing. It is a time when you share before God your sorrow for you sin and your willingness to change your ways. It is a time when you share with each other the faith that we all profess in our living and glorious God. It is also a time when we share in Jesus Himself. Christ speaks to us, and this is a paraphrase: "My Body is given into death for you. My Blood was shed for you for the remission of your sins. I gave My Body and shed My Blood to free you from the punishment of sin." Jesus says much with those words. He is saying, "I here give Myself to you with all I am and have. I become a part of you and you become part of Me. We become partners and share everything. All I did is yours and even my glory is yours. There is nothing to prevent you from praising and magnifying our Lord's glorious name, because He has given you so much through your faith and the sacrament. The Lord encourages us with a show of His glory. Even at times when we forget to seek His glory, Jesus stays patiently beside us and shares that glory with us. What a comforting truth God tells us in His Word! The Lord is with you. He stays with you to lead you, guide you, and strengthen you with the knowledge of His love. He stays by you to remind you of the glory He has shown to you through His Word. The Apostles saw the glory of our Lord and shared in it. That gave them the encouragement they needed to live as holy men of God. That gave them the strength of faith to triumph in God's love even through the sorrow of Calvary. May God's glory be revealed to you in your walk through life. May that glory encourage you always! |
