| Luke 4:43 "Converted Disciples" |
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| Written by Rev. Denise Peckham | |
| Saturday, 17 February 2007 | |
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In his book, Manana, theologian Justo Gonzalez comments that God became incarnate in Jesus Christ so we could become divine. Perhaps for some of you that statement borders on the heretical, but let me explain some of what he meant. While he walked the earth Jesus was completely for others. The Gospels are loaded with stories of Jesus entering into relationships with the marginalized, reaching out to the needy and the wealthy, offering grace, forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. Who he was most critical of was the religious of the day; those who kept the letter of the law instead of the spirit, those who judged harshly and put burdens on believers at the expense of true joy that comes from a relationship with God. In his divinity he understood the need for the healing of the people and in his humanity he reached out and offered life. As human beings who claim to follow this Jesus, we have been given an example of what it means to be truly human. To be truly human we must reach into our hearts and call on the power of the divine that resides in us. Created in the image of God does not mean we are created as God, but we are given the capacity to tap into divine grace that allows us to be for others. But how do you do that and where do you find this divinity? This morning’s scripture reading begins with Jesus going to pray, and this is not an unusual occurrence; the Gospels tell us that Jesus lived a life of prayer. Often he would go alone, seeking inspiration and power, but there are times he would take some of his apostles with him, seeking perhaps to model a practice that would be necessary for them to continue to proclaim the kingdom of God. Jesus already knew that to proclaim the arrival of the kingdom of God was to proclaim the kingdoms of the world defeated and he also knew the consequences of that proclamation. In all the places the kingdom of God was being revealed, the need for prayer was made evident; at his baptism, Jesus was praying and received the Holy Spirit, which empowered him to begin his ministry in Galilee (Lk 3:21); as he prepared to preach in the synagogues Jesus first went to a deserted place (Lk 4.42); as he chose the disciples Jesus went to the mountain to pray (Lk 6:12); before asking the disciples if they knew who he was Jesus was praying alone, followed by Jesus own foretelling of his death and resurrection (Lk 9:18, 22); and finally here, in this morning’s text, we find Jesus with these three apostles, praying yet again. For this Hebrew prayer defined who he was. Great miracles, personal struggle and a sacrificial outpouring of grace that not even those closest to him could comprehend would follow these times of prayer. It was in prayer followed by practice that the purpose of Jesus was affirmed, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God…” (Lk 4:43). And perhaps that’s why it was important for Peter, James and John to have this mountaintop experience. These three apostles were called and they followed; they were given power to proclaim the good news and heal the people. They saw Jesus exorcise demons, raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead, heal multitudes and feed the 5,000! They heard him preach the good news and declare that the kingdom of God was at hand. Jesus had already asked the question, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter had already declared, “You are the Christ.” They had already been told that they were expected to take up their cross daily and that they would suffer as a result of it. But it was not enough. To endure the weight of the cross they had agreed to carry would take a power that they could not muster by watching Jesus perform miracles or listening to him preach. It would take the same power that Jesus relied on when he went to prayer; it would take the power of God’s spirit dwelling in them and guiding their lives. These apostles needed to be converted. Kingdom work is not easy work, and Jesus knew it. He had already been rejected in his hometown and John the Baptist was beheaded. Temptation to live like everyone else, to live in the status quo, must have been unbearable sometimes. How easy it would have been for Jesus to agree with the temple authorities that the leper was unclean, that grain should not be plucked on the Sabbath or that the woman with the issue of blood needed to be excluded from the community. But God’s kingdom cries out for justice as it reveals the worth of all persons. We cannot understand this unless we are willing to be confronted by the kingdom in our own lives, until we freely come under the power of the Spirit that reveals what lies in the broken places of our hearts and minds. You see, we might say that we believe, we might proclaim to be followers of Jesus Christ, we might even participate in some of the good works of the church, but until we are overshadowed by the holy and hear the voice that shouts – “this is my son, my chosen, listen to him!” we lack the power to bear the burden of the cross we have agreed to carry. What I find most interesting about this text is the cloud that appears. The idea of God appearing in a cloud is a common image in the Hebrew Bible. When Moses went up Mt. Sinai to receive the commandments the mountain was covered by a dense cloud; there was a cloud in the tent of meeting when God was there; the cloud protected the Hebrew people on their exodus from Egypt. God who came in the cloud overshadowed God’s people. There is only one other place in the New Testament that the verb “overshadow” appears, and that is in the pronouncement to Mary that she would bear the Son of God. When she asks how this could be, she is told that she would receive the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. The difference between these overshadowing events is the response. Mary receives this news with joy and responds with, “let it be according to your word.” I think in her humility Mary understood what it meant to be called, chosen and overshadowed by God. At the disappearance of the cloud the apostles are left there alone with Jesus. No Moses and Elijah, no voice, just Jesus the man. Like Mary they were left alone after experiencing the voice of God. Yet unlike Mary, there was no response. They walked down the mountain and said nothing of what they saw or experienced. Why? There was no command to keep silent. Fear perhaps? Inability to communicate clearly? Perhaps they didn’t want to upset anyone. Or maybe they had to think about what it meant to “listen to him!” Perhaps they really wanted to hear something so they remained silent. Perhaps their silence was an act of obedience. These disciples needed to be converted. And so it is with us. On the way home from Florida on the day of my grandmother’s death I wrote these words: Why is it we rush to death and take life for granted? The story of the transfiguration is sandwiched between the announcements by Jesus that he was going to his death in Jerusalem, that he was going to die. As we prepare for this season of Lent we are aware that what we prepare for, what we move toward, is death. How do you prepare to watch someone you love and who loves you, go to their death? How do you listen to someone who prepares to show you the way to die? How do you view life in the midst of the knowledge of the suffering that is to come? It will take more than our humanity to prepare for this event, and it will take more than our humanity to be able to walk the paths that have been prepared for us. You see the temptations that faced Jesus and the apostles are the same ones we face. It would be easy for us to agree with the religious right that persons with HIV are unclean; it would be easy to let someone go hungry because the law says food must be distributed only in certain places at certain times; it would be easy to agree with the national authorities who say it is perfectly humane to detain immigrants in detention centers for an unspecified time because those women and children pose a threat to our safety. God’s kingdom continues to cry out for justice as it reveals the worth of all persons. But until we are willing to be overshadowed by the power of the Holy One, we will be unable to bear the burden of the cross we have agreed to carry. The transfiguration of Jesus stands as a reminder to those of us inside the church that we need to be continually converted so that we might see the glory of the Lord and be amazed by the sight of it. We must be continually converted so that when we say we believe what we are really saying is that we are continually being transformed, from glory to glory, into the image of Christ. The Message bible paraphrases 2 Cor 3:18 this way: And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. And we do that when we humble ourselves in prayer under the power of the Most High, asking for our own divine nature to be revealed in the world so we too, may be completely for others. You see, God did not become incarnate because God had nothing better to do that day. God became incarnate so we could see our true potential, so we could all that we had been created for. So I suppose what I am saying is that at some level I agree with Justo Gonzalez, God did become incarnate so we could indeed become divine. |
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