Hear Him: A Meditation on Matthew 17 for Transfiguration Sunday

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, 

and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 

and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, 

and his raiment was white as the light.  

And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, 

Lord, it is good for us to be here: 

if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; 

one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: 

and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, 

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.  

And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.  

And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.  

And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, 

Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

There are many winsome voices in the world, and many wondrous sights to behold, as countless wanderers and travelers have testified.  Within our nation alone there are majestic peaks and grand canyons, paradise like beaches and painted deserts, rich fields filled with diverse crops and mighty rivers filled with commerce.  We have some of the most innovative and driven scientists and technologists, engineers and architects, professors and researchers.  Our military is among the noblest and most respected of associations on earth, our space and exploration programs as eager fonts of human knowledge, our industrial and economic base of legendary proportions.  We have writers and speakers, thespians and poets, artists and musicians, philosophers and theologians.  In our nation, like in much of the world, there are tremendous wonders to meet every eye and engaging words to meet every ear.

While it may be tempting to believe that our time and place is unique in this regard, it is worth remembering that as long as people have been walking this earth, they have put their hands to building wonders and their minds to building ideas.  As far back into recorded history as we can peer there have been majestic empires, with their giants of industry, philosophy, art, and war.  We read of great walls, great cities, and great adventures, the remnants and echoes of some still with us today even thousands of years since their people brought them forth.  This world has always been full of the thoughts and works of people, because God made His people to be like Him as He planted us here to tend His good creation.  We are a peculiar species whose lives are marked by thought and action, and of reflection upon the meaning of our lives both individually and communally.  We are a people made to sing in harmony with God and His creation, our individuality to be woven perfectly into the infinite complexity of the fabric of existence.

And yet, the cacophony of our voices and actions bear witness to a world that is more often confused, deluded, and suffering.  With all our wonders and works, thoughts and rhetoric, we are like every generation before us plagued by the blights of evil, manipulation, dishonesty, abuse, tyranny, corruption, and death.  To reflect upon ourselves and our world is to see both the beautiful heights for which we were created, and the tragic depths to which we have fallen.  Our race has turned its minds and hands to bring forth the darkness and despair of confusion, oppression, avarice, and pride.  Even our greatest works of civilization are tainted with the wicked ambitions of those who would exploit them, and so distrust and skepticism permeates our view of history, community, and even ourselves.  We are left disoriented by the constantly contradictory voices filling our ears, the discord between beauty and perversity which fills our eyes, and know that even within ourselves the corruption of our fallen divine image leaves us tragically unable to find our way out of the morass we have made.

Into this chaotic darkness, our Lord Jesus Christ brings His Light.  Our Gospel lesson recounts the vision Peter, James, and John saw when Jesus was transfigured before them high upon that mountain, when they could finally see a shrouded glimpse of the glory which the Son has shared with the Father and the Spirit since before the world was brought forth.  Jesus is shown to be the source, the continuity, and the completion of all that God had revealed through Moses and Elijah, all that He had spoken through His Law and the Prophets.  Since the fall of mankind to Satan's temptation in the Garden, God had been at work to pierce the darkness of man's folly and bring us all back into living fellowship with Himself.  While the vision of Jesus' transfiguration was magnificent to behold, it would not be complete until He ascended Mount Calvary and gave Himself as the only redeeming sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  Thus He commanded His disciples to keep the vision to themselves until He was risen again, the darkness forever pierced, and the devil forever overcome.  Jesus had come to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, rescuing us from our sin, death, hell, and tyranny under the evil one by His atonement for us upon His Cross.  As He fulfilled His Father's loving will to reconcile the world to Himself through His life, death, and resurrection, His Holy Spirit would then go out into that same world bearing witness to the saving Word and Work of Jesus.  His Apostles would take His great commission to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Triune God, and teaching those new disciples everything Jesus had taught them, so that they all may live forever by the same grace through the same faith in the same Jesus Christ alone.

This is the Light which pierces the darkness of ages past, just as it will pierce the darkness of every age to come.  It is the Light which comes to pierce your darkness, rescue you from confusion and despair, and lead you into the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.  It is the Light of the only Son of God, the Eternal Word of the Father, who moves you by His Spirit to faith and repentance that you might be lost and chained no more.  Lift up your eyes to see Him, and open your ears to hear Him, that you might be transformed by His love, mercy, grace, and peace.  Let the empty vanities of our day recede from your sight, that you may see and hear your Savior who calls you to repent, believe, and live forever.  Amen.

Of Builders and Fire: A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 3

For we are labourers together with God: 

ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, 

I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. 

But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now if any man build upon this foundation 

gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

Every man's work shall be made manifest: 

for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; 

and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: 

but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, 

and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; 

for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

St. Paul's letter to the church at Corinth is full of instructions and insights that make any reader uncomfortable, and the selection for this week is no exception.  As with all Scripture, the first thing the reader must do is seek the plain meaning of the words (a process formally called exegesis) rather than trying to pour meanings into the words the reader thinks should be there (a theological process called eisegesis which has long been fodder for turning many private opinions into heresies).  St. Paul was trying to communicate with the church at Corinth when he wrote these words, and when they were gathered into the canon of Prophetic and Apostolic Scripture, the Church throughout the world was pretty convinced that what St. Paul was saying to Corinth needed to be said to everyone.  Let us begin by assuming that St. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, was able to do just that, so that we might listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches.

First off, it is important to identify who the "we" and "ye/you" are in the passage.  Paul is continuing a teaching on the relative value of preachers and teachers in the Church of Christ, and so the "we" they are referring to is themselves (Apostles, preachers, teachers, pastors, and so forth) who are, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through Jesus' Word of Law and Gospel,  laborers with Christ in building His Church.  The "ye/you" are the building, the believers, the house of living stones, who stand by grace through faith on the foundation of Jesus Christ alone.  At this point, Paul begins to mix his metaphor a bit (while grammatically unsettling to modern readers, not uncommon in the ancient world) and note that the builders cannot lay any other foundation than the doctrine of Jesus Christ, but they can build upon that foundation doctrines of greater and lesser worth (the gold, silver, hay, stubble, etc.,) all of which will be tried by fire on the Last Day.  Without the foundational doctrine of Jesus Christ (all of what the Scriptures teach about Him, who He is, what He has commanded, what He has done to save mankind from sin, death, and hell, what He will do when He comes again, etc.,) there is no Church at all, since the only Christian Church that can exist is the one founded by and upon Jesus Christ.  The first and most reliable testimony to this sure foundation, is the Word Jesus gave to His Prophets and Apostles, which is why the Word of God is the first and highest rule of faith (the old word is canon, as in the canon of Scripture) and the infallible source of truth that we have from God Himself.  Beyond this, we have thousands of years of commentary and teaching on those Scriptures which are built up like theological edifices across history-- from the Rabbinical traditions of the Talmud written during the Babylonian captivity hundreds of years before Jesus, to the writings of the Church Fathers for a thousand years after Him, to the Scholastics and Reformation theologians of the 16th century, to the teachers and preachers of our own day.  Much of the argument which emerges between Christian fellowships is related to how they have judged the variety of traditions and teachings received across our long history.

Given the diversity and sheer quantity of the writings over all these centuries and across various continents, how does one make heads or tails of them?  How does one discern the relative value of the contributions of Chrysostom versus Augustine, Anselm versus Ambrose, Luther versus Calvin?  With St. Paul, we measure them and every teacher in the Church according to how they fit and comport with the Scriptural Word of God which establishes our foundation on Jesus Christ.  Some Church Fathers do a better job than others in keeping with their Scriptural foundations, and within the writings of each we find better and worse examples.  No one should try to live by every word that proceeded from the pen of St. Augustine, anymore than they should from the pen of Luther.  What we humbly receive from them as confessors of Christ in their own time and place, we measure against the sure foundation of Christ's Word in Scripture, treasuring that which is good and faithful, and setting aside that which is not.  Thus we receive the ancient Creeds not because of who wrote them or when, but because what they teach is in conformance with the sure foundation of Scripture.  Likewise we receive the reflections of the early Church Councils, various Doctors, Professors, teachers and proclaimers of Christ, but always in light of the Word of Christ.  This allows us to revere our elders in the faith without idolizing them, just as we would the elders of our family or our community, since they will be judged according to the same standard by which we will be judged.

And what is that judgment?  Fire.  Whatever anyone builds upon the foundation of Christ and His Word, will be judged by the living fire of Christ and His Word.  If such work is found to be in conformance with Him, it will be refined and perfected in that purging fire, leaving that person with the reward of his remaining good works.  If such work is found to be out conformance with Him, it will be burned away entirely, leaving that person to suffered the loss of his works, but himself being saved even through that same fire.  Lastly, if such work is found to be attacking the very foundation of Christ and His Word, defiling the temple of God which is the people for whom Christ suffered and died to save, that person will be destroyed by God as they are cast into the eternal fires of hell.  Whatever works of man they may be, they will eventually meet the fiery judgment of God, either to be refined, purged, or consumed.

This should help us add some humility and perspective to the works and teachings we pursue in our lives.  No one is so perfect that all their thoughts, words, and deeds, all the things they've done and left undone, will encounter that purging fire of God's judgment without the pain of recognizing how far short we have fallen from His goodness, love, justice, and holiness.  If we meet that judgment in the humility of faith and repentance, clinging to our Savior Jesus Christ as our foundation and salvation, we will receive His grace and mercy unto everlasting life, purged of all our sin and selfishness forever.  If we meet that judgment without faith and repentance, His fire will consume us.  Let no one be deceived-- the testimony of Scripture is that our God is a consuming fire.

While we can find nowhere in this passage a complicated system of penalties and merits, indulgences and penances, or some quasi-hellish place of torment where people suffer for thousands of years until their escape price is paid to the Vatican's Treasury, we do see the clear teaching that everyone will meet their Maker and be judged according to His Word.  Regardless of the life you have led and what you have believed, today the Word of Christ calls you to Himself.  His Law calls you to see your sin and error for the horror it is, and to repent by turning back to His path of righteousness and holiness.  His Gospel calls you to seek your salvation from the fires of your just judgment, in the love, compassion, forgiveness, and grace of Jesus Christ alone.  Jesus and His Word alone are the truth which have created, sustained, and will judge all things; just as Jesus and His Word alone are the salvation of all who will repent and put their trust in Him.  Wherever you are in your life today, let your eyes be opened to the imminence of your fiery encounter with God, and to Jesus who has come to save you from that fiery trial.  Hear Him, turn to Him, believe in Him, and live.  Amen.

Who then is Paul? A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 3

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos,

but ministers by whom ye believed,

even as the Lord gave to every man?

I have planted, Apollos watered;

but God gave the increase.

So then neither is he that planteth anything,

Neither he that watereth;

but God that giveth the increase.

It is easy to observe the general ways of the world, and conclude that charisma and power are the way things get done in nearly every sphere of life.  Political parties solicit spokespeople who can convincingly promote their platforms, and motivate people to support them.  Businesses seek out polished chief executive officers and chairmen of their boards who can influence others to help them achieve their goals.  Governments often appoint individuals to head departments and offices who have the persuasive or coercive skills of moving people toward governmental objectives.  When most human institutions measure their success in terms of revenue, influence, power, and membership, the leaders of these institutions or movements can take on a certain mystique in the minds of those who follow them.  This certainly is not new to our age, as those who lived with Alexander the Great, Julius Cesar, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, or any other charismatic and effective world leader might attest.  Charisma, power, and wealth appear to drive human institutions, and those who lead them, for better or worse, are often chosen for their embodiment of those traits.

The Church of Jesus Christ, however, was not instituted to follow this model.  As St. Paul reflects above while writing to the Church at Corinth, the honor or prestige of those leading the churches is practically insignificant.  Paul, as an Apostle, makes himself equal to Apollos, another preacher or pastor, and by extension to every other pastor or preacher in the Church, by pointing out that nothing he does actually grows the church at all.  Paul was exceptionally well educated, capable of grand and soaring rhetoric, given the power to work miracles and see prophetically into the future, and yet he is emphatic that no matter what he does in the Name of Jesus, it is only God who gives the increase.  The same, he says, is true of Apollos, and everyone else who plants the seed of God’s Word and waters it by their preaching, teaching, and practice among the people.  While every one of those preachers and pastors will be held to an excruciatingly high bar of judgment by Christ for what they have believed, taught, and confessed (a point made later in the same chapter,) Paul is adamant that it is not the leaders of the Church who grow it or maintain it or give it birth; rather, it is God alone who brings the Church into existence, grows it, and sustains it until the Last Day.

Despite how clear St. Paul, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, is on this point, modern churches far too often forget, ignore, or disregard him, and that to their own peril.  Our Roman friends have been enamored of electing Bishops of Rome for all sorts of political purposes over the last 1500 years or so, sometimes with devastating effect.  What good is a Pope who tries to rule every diocese of the Church and every kingdom of the world like an Italian mob boss in drag, even if he manages to unite the whole world under the brutality and heresy of his rule?  Thanks be to God that our Roman friends have elected better Popes in the last 100 years than they did in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but the tendencies of the Roman Papacy toward a Theology of Glory needs constant watch and resistance.  Of course, the Reformation churches are glass houses from which rocks ought not be thrown—how many Protestant churches have yielded to the heresies and abuses of charismatic leaders they have elected just to grow their membership, their coffers, and their social influence?  Be they Lutheran, or Calvinist, or Anglican, or Methodist, or Baptist, or Pentecostal, or whatever flavor of sect is born in between, Reformation churches are rife with false teachers and petty kings who would make themselves popes of their own fiefdoms, or mobs ruling according to their own passions and avarice.  Each is guilty of failing to hear the clear words of St. Paul written nearly 2000 years ago, which reflect the clear teaching of Christ in the Gospels, and the witness of the Hebrew people of God before them:  it is only God who gives increase in the Church.

But if the Church is not born, grown, and sustained by the works of man, how is it that this is done?  Paul is clear in this regard, too—by God’s Word and Spirit.  It may be easy to forget, but the earth on which we stand was born, formed, and sustained by the Word and Spirit of God, just as is the air that we breathe, the sky above us, and the universe in all its extravagant expanse.  There is nothing in creation which came to be of its own power, gave itself form and meaning by its own power, sustains itself by its own power, or will judge itself on the Last Day by its own power.  The illusion of the rise and fall of kingdoms, businesses, and even civilizations by the efforts of men distracts from another central reality given to us by the Word of God:  that the whole of history is moving toward the ends for which God created it.  To be sure, we as individuals and even as whole societies may be found more or less faithful, more or less culpable for the judgment which comes upon us, more or less obedient to our God who desires to bless us, but the true underlying reality of the universe has always been and shall always be the Word and Spirit of God.  It is to this deep and inescapable reality that the Church of Jesus Christ continues to bear witness by its very existence, adorned by the scorn and derision of men for its simplicity and humility, but always born, grown, and sustained by the living Word and Spirit of God.

To those in the church who have lost sight of this truth, and made a mess of themselves and their witness to the world, repent and be of good cheer:  Christ, the Eternal Word of God, as has died and risen again to forgive you.  To those in the world who have lost hope in their ability to move the cosmos toward the ends they thought they could achieve by charisma, power, or influence, repent and be of good cheer:  Christ, the Eternal Word of God has come to seek and to save you.  To those who inhabit the small and disdained churches of the world, scattered and battered and derided by those whose gods have become money, power, and influence, whose faith hangs by a thread and wonder if God will really save them from their surrounding enemies, remember and be of good cheer:  Christ, the Eternal Word of God continues to be your eternal birth, your eternal growth, your eternal sustenance, and your eternal blessing forevermore.  There is no pastor, no preacher, no consultant, no businessman, no potentate, no politician, no committee, no commission, nor any other human being who will be your hope and victory.  Let the shadows of man’s prideful manipulations and machinations recede from your mind, that your eyes might see the Eternal Word which has always been given and shed for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Hear Him call to you today.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

Knowing Christ: A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 2

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, 

declaring unto you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know any thing among you, 

save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, 

but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, 

but in the power of God.

The city of Corinth, to whom St. Paul is writing and a place he had previously visited in his missionary journeys, was as cosmopolitan as any of the great cities of antiquity, and would find kinship with modern seaside cities like New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle, where the confluence of travel, politics, education, and trade made them known for prosperity and sophistication.  Corinth was a wealthy city with prestigious citizenry who had been exposed to much of what transited the Mediterranean Sea, and were accustomed to the eloquence of those who brought their philosophies and theologies from far and wide.

The church in Corinth was having problems, not least of which were divisions driven by different political factions whose charismatic and articulate leaders wooed people into rival camps.  Rather than descending into endless debate with all these emerging sectarians on the basis of human philosophy, Paul chooses instead to stand on the Word and witness of Christ.  This witness, without the pomp and heraldry of soaring rhetoric or clever sophistry, is what converted and transformed the hearts of the Corinthian Christians in the beginning, and it is what Paul returns to in order to reach them again.  Paul was certainly well educated, and from his references elsewhere in the New Testament, we know that he was quite knowledgeable of Greek and Roman writings, methods, and practices.  If anyone was qualified to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ and turn it into a sophisticated systematic theology full of philosophical rigors and references, it was St. Paul.

But that's not what he did.  Unlike so many church growth gurus and self important academics in our age (and perhaps the Scholastics and Rationalists of every age) who hock endless programs and books meant to reach the latest target demographics, Paul was determined to know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified for the sins of the world.  There would be no complicated surveys and analyses of what the seekers were seeking, or what programs the pagans were interested in; no paid consultants sent in to borrow the church's watch so as to tell it the time; no complicated or expensive materials to buy from some particular publishing house, sure to pack the pews and offering plates.  Paul didn't mess with any of that crap which modern denominations and hierarchies spend countless resources on today, and we should take notice-- the greatest missionary in the history of the world was determined to know nothing but Christ crucified.

But of course, this points to the faith of St. Paul which is so terribly lacking in our day, even among those who dress in churchy clothes and prance about doing churchy things.  Paul knew that the Word of God is what made and sustains the world, until that same Word comes to end the world in fiery judgment.  He knew that the omnipotent and eternal Word of God was made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and that this Jesus died and rose again so that everyone might live in Him forever.  He knew the Word of God had overcome sin, death, hell, and the devil, and promised the fruits of that victory to everyone who would abide in Him by grace through faith.  He knew that when Jesus as the very Word of God was preached to dead and dying sinners, God's Spirit used that Gospel Word to give them faith, forgive them, and raise them up unto eternal life.  He knew that the promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation which the Word of Christ bound to the earthly elements of people preaching and teaching, Baptismal water, Eucharistic bread and wine, and proclaimed Absolution, were as powerful to accomplish their ends as the Word of Christ was when it established the universe.  Paul knew that the way to know Christ was by the Word of Christ, so that all who might hear, repent, believe, and abide in His Word would also abide in Him forever.

That's the kind of confidence no human philosophy, program, or systematic theology can give, no matter how complex, sophisticated, or popular it may be.  Where human knowledge always fails at the limits of its fallen capacities, the Word of Christ endures steadfast and sure.  Have you been deluded by the endless machinations of those who sell the latest fads and systems for revival of the church and the world?  Have you finally seen the vapid ends of hoping in politics and consultants to save your nation, your community, your family, or yourself?  Have you finally wearied of endless studies and surveys which would somehow teach you the perfect way to manipulate your neighbor toward your ends?  Be of good cheer, dear Christian, for Christ did not come to torment you with any of these things.  Like the people in the Church at Corinth, it was never their business, or politics, or education, or pleasurable diversions which raised them from the dead and gave them eternal life-- only the Word of Christ can do that, and only the Word of Christ continues to do that.  The saving power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not found in the works or thoughts or swelling words of men, but in the living Word of Christ crucified for you.  Hear Him calling to you today.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.