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When someone asks me why do they call the Bible the Living Word of God—All I can say is that it IS indeed living! It is made alive fully when it is truly incorporated internally THEN lived. This is the journey of the Christian life which we understand as to have begun at first as justification, then sanctification but what about a third aspect? Is it fair to say not everything comes in threes such as the supposed third use of the Law to be LOVE and its incorporation and extrapolation (SHARED)?
There
was a discussion the other day that I sat in upon talking about the business of
ministry. Who needs to gather votes and
budgets and enforced new policies as well as what filing cabinet should we look
for our collection of sermons on this particular Sunday since we’re too busy to
reflect on the Word of God this week....
That
mountain of fire in the Book of Exodus as well as the book’s title itself, illumined
for a moment our significant retreat from being and truly living into WITNESS,
from being able to even remotely understand our role as spiritual shepherds
guiding through servant leadership, others in their spiritual formation—transformation
into “fully developed”/ perfected disciples!
The
third aspect to our understanding Jesus’ powerful message of inward spiritual
formation and transformation is glorification.
Yikes, probably right off the bat that has opened a Pandora’s box of
misunderstanding since we have used and abused the notion of Glory especially
when it relates to God.
St.
Paul however, deeply understood the inward process of justification, sanctification
and glorification in his powerful letter to the Romans: (8:27-30) “27And
God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the
Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28We
know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are
called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he
also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might
be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he
predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and
those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Today’s
Gospel has us see the culminating explosive moment of Jesus Beatitudes’
treatise to us enacted as he literally reveals himself—God enfleshed transfiguring
right in front of his disciples eyes! Alongside Jesus on that mountain top were
Moses and Elijah two great servants to God—two great prophets of covenantal
living and change for the Glory of God.
To think for a moment, this is the last Sunday before we begin our
descent into Lent... The mountain of
life, a treatise/ challenge of New Life exampling profound change before our
eyes will soon give way for us to see the mountain of the skull and Jesus’
crucifixion!
We hear
the beginning of the Lenten journey as well as we are spiritually taught the
beginning of the theology of the cross in these living Words: “5While
he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the
cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased;
listen to him!” 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the
ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them,
saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up,
they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9As they were coming
down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until
after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
The
Sermon on the Mount first gave us the New Creation’s treatise of living
beginning by spiritual formation and obedience to a New set of commandments or
challenges for us to consider—the Beatitudes.
The sermon however continued, with being salt and light and the whole
gamut of moving upon the regenerate self to be lights on a hill. From the inner sanctuary of the heart—the tabernacle
of the Holy Spirit— we are motivated to then use our minds to then enact upon transformation
which IS reformation! When our
reformation as fully living into Christ takes place, we will greatly come to
realize and profoundly understand with a humbled heart the Glory of God for we
will have shaped our will perfectly to BE of God’s and His purposes!
To be
a freely responsible servant of Christ Jesus is to seek to know the magnitude
of GRACE and its manifestation—faith shaped by a spiritually transformed heart
willingly obedient, alive with the Word for the Glory of God! The Glory of God is the victory of the Cross
activated within us to strive to LOVE with all of our gifts nurtured and
developed by faith.
St.
Peter basically illumines this for us: “16For we did not follow
cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For
he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to
him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am
well pleased.” 18We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven,
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
19So we have the prophetic message
more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp
shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your
hearts.”
That
last verse is our challenge—how do we remain attentive to keeping the Glory of
God a devouring fire within our hearts? Well, it certainly isn’t realized in
thinking of terms as business, rules and regulations, money or political
agendas... Is it? I’m sure we all pray to NOT be darkening our hearts with the
valleys of earthly or worldly “perfection,” obedience to tyranny! For their cross upon Golgotha is empty... not
resurrected but death. We are not
chaplains to the worldly culture for Christ, we are His WITNESSES covenanted to
live into the Lifestyle of GRACE by His Living—transforming Word! We are to
preach it, teach it and LIVE it for the Glory of God.
Gerhard
Forde in his book about being a theologian of the Cross marks our dilemma: “The
most common overarching story we tell about ourselves is what we call the glory
story. We came from glory and are bound
for glory. Of course, in between we seem
somehow to have gotten derailed... The basic
scheme is what Paul Ricoeur has called the myth of the exiled soul. The soul is exiled from its home. It is slumbering or has forgotten its way. Its true destiny is to return. The way of return is by knowledge, gnosis,
the awakening of the soul to its immortal destiny.”
As
St. Paul says in Galatians (2:20): “20and it is no longer I who
live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The destiny for us to realize is Christ Jesus
and His Cross—it’s morning star shining brightly—eternally and INTERNALLY transfiguring,
transforming as a devouring fire in our hearts—in our lives!
AMEN
March 2nd, 2014
Transfiguration of Our Lord; Year A; SOLA Lectionary
Psalm 2; Exodus 24:8-18; 2 Peter
1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9 Nicole
Collins
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