Transfiguration [Matthew 17:1-9] (9-Feb-2014)

This sermon was preached at a parish service at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am), and at St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Matthew 17:1-9)

And [Jesus] was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

In our Gospel reading today, there are two things that are very important: the things that the disciples see, and the things that the disciples hear.

The things that the disciples see are told to us like this:

[Jesus] was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

At the end, Jesus says to them: Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.

But the things that the disciples hear are told to us like this:

Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

So, what exactly did the disciples see?

Well, in the Christian church, we believe that Jesus our Lord has two natures: he has a human nature and a divine nature. He is a 100% man, and also 100% God at the same time. He had a human mother, and a divine Father: The Virgin Mary who was a true human being was his mother, and also God the Father was his Father, and he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

So, you can see, that Christ, in one way, is just like us, because he is a true human being, just like us. But also, in another way, he is nothing like us, because he is also true God. None of us are gods!

In the bible, we have various passages that say that we worship one God. For example, in Deuteronomy 6, we read: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. So Christians believe that there is one true God, which is different to Hinduism, or Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, who believe in many gods. We are also different from many indigenous religions, which believe in different animal gods, like the traditional religions of the Australian Aborigines or in Africa. We also don’t believe in two gods: a good god and an evil god. God and the devil are not equal. We only believe in one God.

But also, we believe that God has revealed himself in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Already in the Old Testament, we have passages which point ahead to this. Right at the beginning of Genesis, God says: Let us make man in our image. He doesn’t say: Let there be man in my image, but let us make man in our image. So it says: God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. You can see, right from the beginning of the bible, that even though there is one God, he speaks about himself as more than one. Also, in Numbers 6, where we get the blessing, the word “Lord” is repeated three times: The LORD bless you and keep you. The LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The LORD look upon you with favour, and give you peace. And also in Isaiah 6, where Isaiah sees the great vision of heaven, the angels (the seraphim) sing: Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts. There’s a very good reason why we say this blessing, and sing the Holy, holy, holy every Sunday.

But then also in the New Testament, Jesus says for us to baptise in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Also, in 2 Corinthians 13, St Paul finishes his letter by saying: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And then there’s the baptism of Jesus: the Father speaking from heaven, the Son in the water, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.

So you can see that even though we believe in one God, we also believe that there are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In the early church, this belief which we confess was called the Holy Trinity, which means that there is three in one and one in three.

In the Athanasian Creed, we read a wonderful description of this: The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and yet they are not three Gods but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord, and yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.

So, when we see this wonderful light shining from Jesus in our reading today, what do we see? Where does this light come from?

First of all, this wonderful light comes from the Father. James, who was there at the transfiguration, in his letter in the New Testament, calls God the Father the Father of lights. John, who was also there, says in his letter, that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

But also, it’s not as if Jesus is shining someone else’s light. He is shining the light that is his, and which belongs to him. John, who was there, in his gospel (the Gospel of John), says that Jesus is the light that enlightens everyone. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

But also, Jesus shines the light of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Hebrews, it says that says that the people who have shared in the Holy Spirit have been enlightened. In so many songs and hymns of the church, we often call the Holy Spirit God’s “light”.

So the light that shines brightly through Jesus’ face and through his clothes is the light of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At the same time, the light of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit shines only through the face of Jesus. Jesus says: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And also on the night of Easter, Jesus comes and breathes out the Holy Spirit on his disciples.

So we have three persons of the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But only the Son has taken on human flesh. Only the Son has a human mother, Mary. The Father and the Holy Spirit don’t have human bodies. Only the Son, Jesus Christ, has a human body.

Now, if we believe that Jesus is both true God and true man at the same time, how do we describe these two natures in Jesus? How do they come together? Are they like two pieces of cardboard stuck together? Does Jesus have some human moments sometimes and some divine moments sometimes? No. He’s 100% God and 100% man 100% of the time. Otherwise, it would be like having two Jesuses. There’s only one Jesus.

Is he like two liquids mixed together to make a new liquid? No—otherwise he wouldn’t be truly human or truly God anymore—he’d be something different altogether.

The best picture of this is one that Christians in the early church used all the time, and that is the picture of iron and fire. When a blacksmith puts iron in fire, what happens? The iron becomes red-hot. The fire is contained in the iron, but the iron is still iron. Also, the fire is still fire. But they are joined together.

If you wanted to brand something, like a cow or put a pattern on a belt, and you used a cold piece of iron, nothing would happen. If you got out a blowtorch and used just fire, you’d get roast-beef and a burnt belt. You have to use both: iron and fire. Fire so that it will burn, and iron so that you can put the right mark in the right place.

Jesus is very much like this. When he touches a person, just like he comes and touches the disciples in our reading today, it’s not simply a human touch, but it’s the touch of God. It’s like iron and fire together—God and man in one person, Jesus. When Jesus speaks, just like when he tells the three disciples, Rise and have no fear, it’s not simply human words, but it’s the word of God. Those words spoken with Jesus’ human tongue are words that are caught on fire with God’s power. When Jesus does human things, it is God who does them. When Jesus does divine things, it is a man who does them.

And so, we can see in our reading, that Jesus glows with this wonderful light. Most of the time, people see him just as a man, but here we see both clearly: we see the iron and the fire glowing in the iron. We see the human body of Jesus glowing and shining with pure divine light.

The miracle here is not that Jesus shines with this light—he could shine like this all the time if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus hides this light for our benefit. He says: Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. Here Jesus prophesies that he will rise from the dead. And the Transfiguration means nothing if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. Why would anyone care about this happening to a man if he’s now dead? But Jesus is actually risen from the dead, and when we will finally meet him, he will radiate with the kind of light that shines here in front of Peter, James and John.

So the miracle isn’t that Jesus shines with light—the miracle is that the disciples are allowed to see it. And Jesus didn’t show this light to everyone when he was giving the Sermon on the Mount, for example. He only showed this light to Peter, James and John. Later, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter, James and John were the same three disciples who were allowed to see Jesus in his profound suffering and agony, when Jesus said: My soul is deeply sorrowful, even to death.

But also, Peter, James and John each wrote books of the New Testament. Peter wrote two letters: 1 Peter and 2 Peter. James wrote the book of James (the letter of James). And John wrote the Gospel of John, the three letters of John, and the Revelation of John. At the beginning of the Gospel of John, John writes about this event in our reading today. He says: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John says that he had seen the glory of Jesus. And also, that it is the glory as of the only Son from the Father. On this occasion, God the Father says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

But also, in 2 Peter, Peter writes: we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

So you can see that the disciples wanted to write about what is written in our reading today. It was a wonderful thing and they wanted to tell people about it.

But this wonderful vision is not the most important thing. The most important thing about our reading is not what the disciples saw, but what they heard. God the Father said: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. We read: When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. Weren’t they already terrified? No—they were quite excited. Peter wanted to build three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. But when they heard God’s voice they were terrified. It’s a dangerous temptation for us to want to see Jesus, but rejecting his words.

So here God reveals the glory of Jesus for what it is, the glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. But then he says: Listen to him.

Many of us would love to see something magnificent from Jesus, something special, some great display, but we need to be reminded that the great power of Jesus comes through the word that he speaks. Listen to him. The water of baptism saves people not because it is water, or because it is a powerful water, but because of the word of Jesus. Listen to him: I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The words of the forgiveness of sin spoken by pastors in the church actually forgive people not because of the pastor, or because they are more holy people that know better than everyone else, but because the words they speak are the words of Jesus. The Lord’s Supper becomes the body and blood of Christ for us to eat and drink, not because of some special power that drops down from heaven, but because of the words of Jesus: Take and eat, this is my body, take and drink, this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

It’s the words of Jesus that make the water of baptism catch on fire with God’s saving power like fiery iron, it’s the words of Jesus that make the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper catch on fire with Christ’s body and blood like fiery iron. It’s the words of this glorious Saviour, Jesus of Christ, who give the power. And so God the Father says: Listen to him.

Even in 2 Peter, where Peter tells about the vision on the mountain, he says: We were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. He points us to the word of God. And also John in his first letter says: That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. John says: We proclaim it to you. We want to preach it to you. We are telling you this as the word of God, so that you will hear it and join with us in the fellowship with the Father and the Son. This is the fellowship that St Paul calls the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

What a wonderful joy and privilege it is to listen to the words of Jesus! What a wonderful joy it is to come and hear Jesus speak his grace, his comfort, his forgiveness, his life, his salvation! What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus comes and speaks his words to us, and shares his light with us!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for this wonderful vision that you showed to Peter and James and John. Through your great promises, make us partakers of your divine nature, and strengthen us with your word in our journey to our heavenly home. Amen.

Presentation [Luke 2:22-40] (2-Feb-2014)

The following sermon was preached on this Sunday:

http://stephenvdh.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/presentation-candlemas-luke-222-40-2.html

Epiphany 3: Audio Sermon (26-Jan-2014)

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Epiphany 3 [Matthew 8:1-13] (26-Jan-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am, lay reading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram (2pm) and St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Matthew 8:1-13)

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean!”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Today, in our Gospel, Jesus heals a leper.

We read: When [Jesus] came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. Our reading today is at the beginning of Matthew chapter 8, and in the three chapters before—Matthew 5, 6 & 7—we read about where Jesus preaches his wonderful “Sermon on the Mount”. There are so many well-known passages of Jesus in that sermon: Blessed are the poor in Spirit… You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world…If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away… Let what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”…If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also…Love your enemies…Jesus also teaches us the Lord’s prayer…Also: You cannot serve God and money…Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened to you…Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them…And right at the end, we read about the wise man building his house upon the rock.

There are so many passages that are well-known to all kinds of people even outside the church. How often do people talk about turning the other cheek? Or how often do people say on TV or on the radio, “I’m not religious, but I believe that we should do unto others as you would have them do unto you”? (They don’t realise that these words were taught to them by Jesus!) Or sometimes, I have seen it on the window of an op-shop or a second-hand shop: Seek and you will find!

At the end of this sermon we read: When Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. Can you imagine being there, hearing this sermon the first time? The crowds were astonished at his teaching, it says. He was teaching them as one who had authority, power, divine strength, divine wisdom. I would encourage each of you to take a bible sometime, maybe even this week, and read Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7 in one sitting—it would be a wonderful blessing.

And now, after Jesus has preached this wonderful sermon, what happens? We read: And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

What a wonderful example this leper gives us! He comes to Jesus and kneels before him and submits himself completely to his will. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

You see, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had revealed his divine will. He had given a lengthy sermon telling the people—and us!—how He thinks, what goes through His perfect, divine mind! And a wonderful powerful will this is! Psalm 12 says: The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. Luther summarises in the Small Catechism: The good and gracious will of God is done when he breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let his kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is his good and gracious will.

So, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reveals to us God’s holy will—his strict punishing law and his sweet, comforting gospel. And also, Jesus shows to all the people that his will isn’t simply a whole lot of talk—mere, empty words—but that his will acts and does things. When Jesus speaks, things happen. His words are powerful, just as at the beginning of the world, he said: Let there be light, and there was light.

Now, most of the time, people like a good show, and people are impressed by power! We like a good fireworks display, a parade, an acrobat, or whatever. And since we also know that God is powerful, we look for displays of power in the church. And sometimes when we come home from church, we might say, “I feel really energised today!” or “I really felt uplifted by the singing today!” or “The pastor got really fired up today!”

But then there’s a trap: instead of longing to hear God’s word, we simply look for the power. Instead of seeking God’s word as if were seeking for the last drop of the water of life left on this earth, we come simply treating God’s word as if it were a “coffee shot” to keep us going.

You see, God’s word is actually a life-giving divine power. Sometimes God allows us to feel and sense this power, but sometimes he speaks his words to us while we are wrestling with the most profound weaknesses and problems. We see no power at work in us and in our lives. God’s word doesn’t have the “caffeinating” effect that we want it to have!

And so, we start to grumble. Think about the Israelites: God gave them his holy perfect law on Mt Sinai, and then what did they do? They grumbled and complained! So we start to get bored with God’s word, we look to other ways of getting our “coffee shot”, maybe from self-help books from the local book shop, from exercise, from diets, from healthy food, or whatever else the world has to offer—maybe even quite harmful things: booze, drugs, pornography, gambling, or sometimes people just try to escape through work and hard slog. So what happens to God’s word? We start to think that it just doesn’t do the job anymore, it just doesn’t work. We become spiritual lepers. We become infected with a disease, which we can only see on our skin, but which penetrates through the whole body. We can’t feel anything anymore.

Isn’t it strange that after one of Jesus’ most powerful and wonderful sermons, the first person to speak to him is a leper? And leprosy is such a terrible thing: a disease which shows itself in the skin, but also effects the nerves, and causes a person not to feel anything. Lepers could have bad accidents when they bump into things or cut and scratch themselves, but can’t feel it.

And what does this leper do? He comes to Jesus, kneels before him and submits himself to his will with all his disease, all his problems, and all his needs. Jesus’ words really are the water of life, the bread of life, living food, living medicine, life-giving power and nourishment for body and soul. He is the one who works his word in us—not by allowing us constantly to feel its power—but through our weakness. St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12: To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Jesus’ word is powerful and sufficient even in this leper, who feels nothing or very little with his hands and fingers, but perceives that the living power of God comes from the mouth of Jesus. And Jesus is happy and willing to heal him.

And even in each and every one of our weaknesses and diseases and sicknesses, Jesus calls us to come and kneel before him just like this leper and submit ourselves humbly to his good and gracious will. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. St Peter says: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. And he will make you clean. Sometimes, we want to be made clean now, and we want to be clean in this life. But Jesus will only do this if it serves to our eternal benefit and to his eternal glory. Instead, he may wish to increase in us the desire for eternal life. Whatever happens, we need to know that Jesus’ will is good and gracious. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Jesus himself knows this power in weakness full well since he died for us on the cross and made full atonement for the sins of the whole world, not as a leper who felt nothing, but as one who outwardly felt every whip-lash, every nail, and also inwardly, every insult, every mockery.

We read in our Gospel reading: Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Because of the death of Jesus, death for Christians will not be a time when leprosy is increased. Many people today think that when we die, that’s it!—nothing happens. And then we simply get put in the ground, let the worms do their work, or simply get burnt in an oven. People believe that death is the ultimate leprosy when we don’t feel anything anymore: no more pain, no more sorrow, but also no more joy and no more happiness.

This is not the Christian faith. This is a counterfeit hope, a fake hope. This is a hope that forgets that we are made up of both a body and a soul. In fact, St Paul even talks of three things: May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. He speaks here of spirit and soul and body. Joy, sorrow, pain, happiness—these things are not simply chemical, hormonal reactions, as if our human bodies are no better than robots. They involve our spirit and soul and body. Mary says: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.

When we die, our Christian faith is that, like the poor man Lazarus, we would be carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. Our faith is that on that day, we will be with Jesus in Paradise, as he says to the thief on the cross. Our faith is that like St Stephen, that Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of God, will come and receive our spirit.

Even when we are dead in the grave, our souls and spirits will be kept safe by Jesus in his hands. And even after that, we believe that one day there will be a resurrection from the dead, when both body and soul will be reunited in a glorious way. We read in 1 Corinthians 15: Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

We shall be changed—and we shall realise just what lepers we have been all along. We shall realise just what it is to feel the power and love of God, when he calls us up from the graves, and from all the dust of the earth. We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, just as this man in our reading was immediately healed of his leprosy. So even today in the church, when we come to hear God’s word, we come to be healed of our leprosy, not in sight, but by faith. God gives us this healing through his word as a down-payment, and our souls won’t feel the power of this word as they should. Only when we die will we be free for the first time from our leprosy. 

Jesus tells him: See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them. Jesus wanted this man to be restored into the Jewish nation in the proper way and through the proper means, through the priests in the temple.

We no longer have a temple and priests, but Jesus is our temple—he is the place where we come and worship. We come and gather not around a building, but around Jesus’ own life-giving flesh, as he speaks to us his life-giving word and gives us his body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. And so that we can appear before God’s throne—both in the future and as we pray before God each day—Jesus himself has offered to God the Father the most perfect gift of all: his own body and blood, his spirit and soul, as the payment for all our sin and weakness. And this sacrifice that Jesus made on Good Friday, Jesus actually gives to us through baptism and washes us with that blood, and unites us to his body, as a proof. So whenever the devil wants to undermine your faith and plant doubts in your mind and corrode your faith into leprosy, you can say: I have proof! Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead for me. And he baptised me with water and with his own words. There’s the proof! I don’t need to show the devil power at work in me—in fact, I don’t need to show the devil anything at all! But Jesus saves me, his word is powerful, his promise is true, and he cleanses our hearts from all attacks of the devil, and gives to us and shares with us his perfect purity and cleanness and holiness.

So let’s also come to Jesus, thank him for his word—his powerful word—which works great wonders in us, even when we don’t see it, even in our most profound weaknesses. Let’s also thank him for his good and gracious will, where he desires to purify us and make us clean from all sin, weakness, and all our problems each day. But most importantly, he will do this on that day in the future when we will become perfect clean from all sin, in the next life. The purity doesn’t come from us, it comes from Jesus. Jesus is the one who died and rose again for us, to cover us over completely with his blood, and forgive each and every single one of our sins.

Amen.

Come Lord Jesus, and cleanse us from our leprosy. Forgive us all our sin, and create in us new and clean hearts. Work in us powerfully through your word, despite our weakness, and fill us with your Holy Spirit. Amen.