Seeing God in Action: Transfigurartion C Luke 9:28-43

Mysteries surrounded Jesus' ministry. Mysterious power gave way to mysterious visions for Jesus' friends. Unexplained actions and wonders happened right before their noses.

Today we are invited into two mystery shrouded high-points in Jesus' ministry in this one short section of scripture Luke 9:28-43.

The first highpoint happened up on a mountain and the second one took place in a deep valley of suffering where the daemonic was at work and God's power in the world was unseen.

The first highpoint must have been something to see. Jesus went up to the top of a mountain with his friends. On top of the mountain Jesus' appearance changed. He was there shining in his glory up on top of the mountain. Two of the ancient prophets, Moses and Elijah, were there up on top of the mountain too.

What a sight. Jesus dazzling white revealing the glory of God not for all the world to see but just for three of Jesus friends to witness. Peter, James, and John were in awe. Their friend dazzling bright like no earthly person could have made him. They were seeing the glory of God revealed in him in their presence. Peter babbled, not knowing what he was saying about booths for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah but the moment of glory was gone as fast as it came. They couldn't hold onto the moment for even a flash of time.

They came down the mountain and kept silent about the whole experience. People living on this side of the resurrection wonder why they didn't tell about what they saw happen to Jesus. Perhaps they'd seen a mystery that defied explanation. Whatever the case, we know they they didn't stay hushed about the experience for the rest of their days.

The second highpoint didn't look so great on first sight. A father met them in the town at the bottom of the hill begging Jesus for help. His son had a daemon and no one could help. Not even the disciples could help. Jesus named his frustrations and the faithlessness of the people but he did not walk away. He heard the father's plea. Mark 9:24 tells how the father even asked Jesus to help him in his unbelief.

Jesus healed the boy ordering the daemon to stop and restoring him to his father.

The mystery of what the disciples saw stands out. We like to solve mysteries, not live with them, but walking with Jesus means living in and with mysteries. We'll see high points and we'll see low points. And along the way we might catch a glimpse of God in glory or in suffering.

Who told you? Epiphany 5C 1 Corinthians 15

Churches have a message that's meant to be told. Its a message about the cross that's never made sense to the whole world but that holds onto those who believe even if they can't make sense of it on their own. Let's face it, the thought of God coming to earth is enough to get believers hearts moving but unbelievers are apathetic about the whole experience. But for believers the experience of God coming to earth changes everything.

Some believers are moved by the fear of meeting God face to face.
Some believers are moved by hope that they might meet God face to face.

Faith, hope, and fear are all steps along the journey to loving God. Paul wrote with a clear understanding of the grace that God had shown for him

Finally, he appeared to me, even though I am like someone who was born at the wrong time. ⁹I am the least important of all the apostles. In fact, I caused so much trouble for God's church that I don't even deserve to be called an apostle. ¹⁰But God was kind! He made me what I am, and his wonderful kindness wasn't wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God's kindness at work and not me. ¹¹But it doesn't matter if I preached or if they preached. All of you believed the message just the same. 1 Corinthians 15 : 8-11 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

It seems like we believers, who Martin Luther said are simultaneously saints and sinners, need to meet Jesus as we are right now both in the cross and in the empty tomb. Paul's language seems a little self-deprecating at first glance, but on closer look he speaks for all of us. Christ came for me and it doesn't matter who told me, what matters is that somebody did.

God's pick: the fishermen: Epiphany 5C Luke 5

Looking at the way Jesus chose his first followers gives us a glimpse of the mind of God at work. Luke says that Jesus was walking along the lake shore. There he met some frustrated fishermen with nothing in their nets. He told them to go out again. They did as he asked and the catch stunned them. They knew they were meeting someone with great authority. And he asked them to come with him and catch people.

God's choices often stun and even offend us.

Jesus could have chosen richer or wiser men. Instead he chose the surprisingly ordinary people who he met out working along the shores of Lake Galilee. None of them had perfect faith, but they believed. None of them was always ready to do exactly as the Master asked them, but they were surprisingly bold despite their fears and doubts.

He ignored the religious establishment. Instead he went with the best and worst choices of all, the ones that we wouldn't have chosen because they were too imperfect or too unpolished.

Jesus unapproved choices for followers didn't stop on the shores of the lake. Look at the 12 and you can see the sinners. Look at the women who followed along side and you can see people with tough histories who chose to walk with the one who set them free from daemons or who remembered their dignity even if they were sinners.

Now look at the church today. Look at the sinners who are following him today. Look at the people who struggle with all kinds of challenges but who follow God through it all. It is clear that we are all called by the same God who called his first followers from the shore of Lake Galilee. God to bring the Good News to this real world. Look hard enough and you can see that the same God who could work through fishermen is still doing it today by working through all of us.

Love: the More Excellent Way Epiphany 4C

The wonderful and awful thing about consumerism are the mountains of stuff that we can buy, sell, trade, swap and throwaway. But all of our stuff, even the most prized and valuable physical treasures, can in the flash of a fire or whoosh of a tornado be swept away.

Ask anyone who has been through a disaster just how fragile our material existence really is. Ask anyone who's lost everything if they've yet to find any easy way of getting it all back. Even the things we prize the most can and do simply disappear.

But there is something priceless that can survive disasters.

Love.

Love is fragile and easily damaged by human actions but love can endure even in the worst that this world and the Devil can throw at it. Paul's word's about Faith, Hope, and Love in First Corinthians 13 have been quoted for centuries in weddings. Even Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn's characters in Wedding Crashersknew to expect that Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians would be part of the day.



Couples in love with one another love these words. But Paul wasn't talking about only one romantic dimension of love. He was inviting us into a discussion about every dimension of love. This kind of love starts in the smallest unit of community, the relationship of two people in marriage, but it doesn't stop there. Love between spouses is the starting point but not the ending point. Love only begins there bringing into the world beyond ourselves.

Want to see some fire works? Epiphany 4C Luke 4

If you really want to see some fireworks claim that you're the Son of God.

Or Maybe,
live like you believe the promises that the Son of God made, especially all the one's about the arrival of the Kingdom of God right now in our time.

Humans have limits both in their communication with God and for God (some of us don't want to admit this, but we do), but just read Luke 4 and you'll see Jesus in action and the limit between the sacred and the human blur rapidly out of existence. Jesus the preacher was the one sent with the message of hope for the world. Everybody likes hope. But it really upsets the order of this world when hope is fulfilled and the hungry are full and the rich sent away empty. He was the one bold enough to even say,

"Today this word has been fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4:21

That one statement demanded a form a credibility that no human but Jesus could produce. God's Spirit was upon him. He was moved and guided like none other. Who would dare say such a thing but the man who could slip through the mob that would kill him for such audacious words. Who would dare but the one who didn't fear the mob or the cross.

No comfortable Jesus here...Epiphany 3C Luke 4

In the early 20th century Finley Peter Dunn, a newspaper man from Chicago said it was a papers job to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

In this era when Time says you can supposedly choose to hear the news that we want to hear and ignore the rest it gets increasingly important that somebody tell us things that we don't want to hear. The trouble is that we can get so comfortable in our limited conversations.

Even churches can fall into the trap of telling people what they want to hear. Instead of the challenging Word of truth they get the comfortable word of complacency. Jesus first preaching gig worked out really badly in no small part because he spoke a word that many people didn't want him to say. He was in his home congregation and he read words of promise straight out of Isaiah that pleased everyone, at first.

God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly Isaiah 58:6
and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness.” Isaiah 61:2 Holy Bible: New Century Version

But then his words got more particular and everyone got excited. He told them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4:21

The people who knew Jesus, and his family, demanded to know who he thought he was. The charge was blasphemy, the same one that would end his ministry on a cross. But this time he escaped just like he would again.