Surprising Light in the Dark Luke 9:28-43

Tranfiguration/ Last Sunday of Epiphany: Year C

Our Gospel reading today, Luke 9:28-43, is an invitation to take a moment for awe and wonder. This is a great story; if you have a chance just sit back and read it a couple of times. Luke tells it pretty plainly with 3 plot twists.

The first surprise: Jesus and his friends headed up to a mountain top to pray. Luke tells us the crowds around Jesus were getting bigger. Jesus and 3 friends, Peter, James, and John went away to pray. An atheist might scoff at prayer to God. Prayer, to an atheist, is talking to yourself or your imaginary friend; but for believers praying is reaching out in hope to the God you've never seen but know by faith.

Jesus and his friends were going to pray. People who pray know its tough when your tired. Jesus' companions were heavy with sleep. Somehow they managed to keep awake. Thankfully, Luke tells us, they did because they saw extraordinary things. In a flash Jesus appearance changed. He was dazzling white. Suddenly Moses and Elijah were there on the mountaintop with Jesus. Peter told Jesus that he would like to build 3 booths for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. And then a voice called out from a cloud, “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him.

The second surprise: Jesus and his friends and everything else was back to normal just as quickly as Jesus had been transformed before them. Moses and Elijah were gone. All that glory and wonder just vanished. Luke includes one more important detail. Jesus' friends were silent about what they'd seen in those days.

The third surprise. The next day Jesus and his friends were back in the crowds. A man came begging Jesus to help. His son was seized by a spirit that caused him to convulse. The boy's father was desperate. He'd asked Jesus followers to help the boy; but they couldn't cast the spirit out. And Jesus answered him first with words of rebuke for the people and then by setting the boy free from the unclean spirit.

Maybe you want to see God on the mountain top and you're living in a deep valley. When you get low its easy to doubt that God cares about you or any individual. Our lives are full of twists and turns; we are surprised by joy and confronted by suffering. May God reveal himself in our lives showing his light and helping us overcome our weaknesses and shames.

Fishing for People: Luke 5:1-11

Epiphany 5C February 7, 2010
It had been a long hard night out on the water. And Simon hadn't caught any fish while he and the others were out in the boat on Lake Galilee.

Fishing wasn't a recreational sport for Simon, his partners, or for just about anybody else in Galilee. Fishing wasn't about story telling or communing with nature. Fishing was work. You didn't fish to get away from it all with the guys at the traditional place to play cards and reminisce around the fire. People in Galilee needed to catch fish to make a living. It was a basic part of the social fabric and economy of Galilee 2000 years ago. The fisherman had to pay their bills for their boats and nets. They had their share of taxes to pay to their overlords in Judea and in Rome.¹ Simon, and the others he was fishing with, just needed to catch a break and they couldn't .

They just needed to catch something. And Peter hadn't caught a thing. He needed something; but he didn't have a thing in hand.

Its frustrating to go fishing and end up empty handed; even if you don't need a catch to survive. Simon and his friends desperately needed a catch. They didn't go out just to be on the water because its fun to be out on the water. They went out because they needed to make a living. And they had nothing in hand after a night out on the water. And in that moment of deep frustration Jesus showed up. A crowd had gathered around on the shore to hear him preach the word of God.

Simon and the other folks who just come back from fishing were pretty tired by now. But he was also probably curious. Here on the lake shore a charismatic man attracted a crowd who just wanted to listen to him. Soon enough this very same charismatic man stepped into his boat asking him to put out a little from shore.

The lake must have been pretty still that morning as he spoke to the crowd gathered on the shore. Jesus' words that morning weren't recorded, except for the few sentences that Jesus spoke to Simon we heard have here in Luke there's no other record of what was said.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” ²

Simon was tired. It's hard work to be out fishing when there no catch. It takes so much hope to go out and search for a catch. And Simon was divided. His body and brain told him it was time to give up he'd been at it all night. But his hope was strong. He wasn't totally ready to give up. He responded to Jesus invitation in hope, “...because you say so. I will let down the nets.” Luke explains that Simon's hope didn't return empty. After an exhausting night Simon and his partners hauled in an enormous catch.

⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

Simon was caught by Jesus at the very moment. He and his partners caught all these fish and hauling them all in shock him to the very core. God has a way of surprising his people with joy. He has the audacity to meet us in surprising ways in the everyday things of creation. It's God will to work in the ordinary and even the difficult times to surprise us with joy and hope.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Experiencing the living God who made heaven and earth is fearful and intense. The writer of Hebrews 10:31 explains it this way. He says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” ³ Simon and his friends were regular guys and now they realized they were in the presence of the almighty. Peter wasn't a professional religious person who worked in the temple or in the courts of the high priest. He wasn't the best educated man or even the member of a prestigious family. Jesus knew all that. Jesus knew Simon and he knows who you and I really are too. Our sins, our shame, our guilt, our griefs. We stand naked before God.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” ¹¹ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

God's plan for Simon and for us is revealed in surprising ways. The God who catches us and surprises us with joy and forgiveness intends to send us out. Jesus sent his friends out to catch people with the Good News. God is going to send all of us out too.

We are sent out to catch others. And God will go with you to share the same surprising joy that he used to catch you. Simon was afraid; he knew he had nothing to offer God. And that's exactly why Jesus wanted him. God wants to use us in our weakness and in our feebleness. He wants us to catch others by spreading the Good News that the kingdom of God has come near.

1K.C. Hanson “The Galilean Fishing Economy and the Jesus Tradition.” Originally published in Biblical Theology Bulletin 27 (1997) 99-111 http://www.kchanson.com/ARTICLES/fishing.html

2The Holy Bible : New International Version, (electronic ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984), Lk 5:4-11.
3The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version, ( Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Heb 10:31.

Love is the greatest 1 Corinthians 13:1-13:13

Paul wrote to the church about gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 telling the early believer how critical each gift and individual was to the whole body of Christ. In chapter 13 he explained that all the gifts combined allow us to live together in faith, hope, and love.
Many couples pick this chapter, most especially, as their wedding reading. How many times have couples heard these words believing them to be instructions about how to live,

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NRSV

Young lovers believe Paul was writing about them. They believe in the power of their love to bear all things and endure all things. This is the kind of gift any human would like to offer a spouse. Saddy no human love can overcome all challenges and sustain us human lovers in all circumstances. We might deny our limits; but denial doesn't mean they are any less real. A wise teacher explained this so plainly it left a class of future pastors and church workers stunned. Years later I think back to those words every time I meet with a couple in any stage of marriage

As parents we dream and pray that we can promise our children love without condition. George Strait even sang about a father's love as a Love Without End, Amen. As wonderful as the promise of a parents to always love and care for a child sounds we have no power to keep it.
We humans are often romantics in love with love; and we are often cynics who believe there is no love. What we are finding are the limits of human love: mortality and falability. We might promise to love unconditionally, but we can't fulfill the promise. Only God can love without end. Only God's love known to those who believe in the risen Son gives hope of knowing life and love that has no end. Only in Christ risen from the dead is there love without end, AMEN.

New posts resume next week

Good Evening
A reader stopped me and asked about a new post. I have none to offer this week.
Last week my beloved and our youngest were in Tampa you can read about it in my other blog. The almost toddler and I checked out the town while my beloved attended a conference.
This week my beloved had surgery and I am just getting back to full speed and trying to help out around the house.
thanks to God for good travels and my beloved's healing.
Pax
John, aka unlikely

Fear not: God's made a promise Isaiah 43:1-7

What good is a promise?
I've been thinking some about promises this week. We make all kinds of promises. We make little promises, you know the ones that you can fulfill in a day or in a week. And then we make big ones that can only be kept over a whole lifetime.

One time in church a mother turned to her fidgeting son in the middle of a long sermon and told him, “I promise you that if you keep on making so much noise you'll distract the pastor and he'll have to start this whole thing over from the beginning.” It worked, the boy was very still and very quiet for the rest of the time in worship.

Our society, from top to bottom, functions on layers of promises. Not every promise that we make is completely kept; but in general promises and the trust in those promises are part of what keep us and our culture working. People often missed part of the story when talking about promises. Sometimes we act like we people are the only one's in the universe who make promises. When you and I start thinking and talking that way we are missing something big. We aren't talking just about promises we have made for ourselves or on behalf of others.

Are God's Promises any good?
Sometimes when you and I think about promises we are thinking, sadly about the promises that were made to us and for us, that have been broken. But when we listen to the prophet Isaiah its clear that human beings aren't the only ones to make promises and that God has a plan to keep every promise that has been made to his people. Isaiah declared these words on Gods behalf,

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1)

Isaiah's announcing something big about us. God has made a promise that we belong to him for all time. We always have and we always will be God's.
He is the one who created you and who formed you.
We don't need to be afraid because God is the one who has redeemed us. God the father sent his only begotten son into the world to save us. God the Father sent the one he was pleased with into the world to redeem us.

He knows you by name. He knows your faults and your successes. God's well acquainted with all the things that you would rather are hidden from sight. There's no dark alley he won't follow you through. There's no disease and no suffering so great that he can't meet you in the middle of it all. He calls to you and me through the prophets of old, through his Word revealed in scripture, through his church, and through his people. He is calling out to you today, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.”

God says don't be afraid. You're mine. Don't be afraid. God says it over and over to the people he claims to be his own. We don't need to worry or fear at all. God, the maker of heaven and earth is in control

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you. Isaiah 43:2 NRSV

As good as this promise sounds, you are God's, there's a part of you and me that bristles at these very same words of comfort. “God's in charge.” There's comfort when you are sick or in danger and you know that God's the one to set the direction and to make the plans.

But when you want to call all the shots its hard to accept that the maker of all things seen is in charge, not you. There's a part of us that bristles against God's sure and strong hands. We want to be in charge. We human beings demand to be in control, we fight hard against God because we believe that we have better plans than the maker of heaven and earth has for us. We resist because we want the control. We want to be in charge. We sin. And into our world and our sin God sends a savior to remake heaven and earth and all things including us.