Transfigured

Psalm 50:1-6:

The mighty one, God the Lord,

   speaks and summons the earth

   from the rising of the sun to its setting. 

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

   God shines forth. 

Our God comes and does not keep silence,

   before him is a devouring fire,

   and a mighty tempest all around him. 

He calls to the heavens above

   and to the earth, that he may judge his people: 

‘Gather to me my faithful ones,

   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!’ 

The heavens declare his righteousness,

   for God himself is judge.

2 Corinthians 4:3-6:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This psalm is a wonderful assurance. God continually calls through creation to all people. God wants us to be near. God wants to share in our lives. God intends to be a part of our existence. 

What marvelous good news in light of all that we see and hear that counters all good news. Our government continues to lurch along like a zombie without a brain. People in power are falling like dominoes as the people they abused refuse to remain silent. The homeless continue to tramp the streets, a sure and certain sign we have lost our way, for we cannot say all is well when thousands have no place to rest their weary heads. Violence continues to tear through the hallways of schools as children lose their innocence. It is too much. Yet, God is with us. God calls. God gathers all the world before God. Always and forever. Never letting us go.

God understands our need for God even as we stubbornly profess our independence from God. Left to ourselves, we are lost. We follow self to our demise. We find all manner of way to be divided from one another. We find all manner of way to reject one another. Our dualism is our doom. 

This week saw the the silliness of launching a sports car into space to fly to Mars. It was a smile, but it seemed so much a revelation of human hubris. That is the same hubris that refuses to see an opponent as anything other than someone to silence, eradicate, and obliterate. We seek to rule our little worlds, oblivious to the wider cosmos. We are specks on a dust mote flying through infinity, yet we believe all centers on ourselves. We act like gods, but with no discernment. 

God knows that it is only in the way of God that we have hope. God is love. Therefore, love is the lifeblood of all creation. Love, though, is utterly contrary to our propensity to self. God refuses to allow us to fall completely to our own impulses. God will be with us to redeem us.

We know this truth intuitively. When do we feel most ourselves? When do we feel life is most full? When do we feel the presence of what might be joy? When we are connected to someone deeply and surely. It can be our life partner. It can be someone for whom we provide real and lasting help. It can be someone with whom we work and accomplish something we know will be meaningful. It can be as we sit wit friends and neighbors in the presence of the Living God. Ironically, it is when we live into our interdependence, interbeing, and other-centeredness that we find ourselves fed, full, and free.

It is only in this light that we can truly understand God’s judgment. Judgment is not pejorative. It is redemptive. God rejects all that separates us from God, while freeing us to be with God fully and without reservation. So, God condemns our self-centeredness, but shows us the way out through Christ. In other words, God remains true to God. God is love, therefore, judgment is an expression of that love. It serves only to bring us more fully into the life-giving presence of God. 

There is a general sense of angst around us most of the time. We feel itchy, irritable, and, at times, irate. We do not always know why. We just feel ill at ease. Perhaps that is the prod of God’s judgment. Perhaps our discomfort is God’s gentle reminder that things are not as they should be. Perhaps we should listen. Perhaps we should awaken.

Then, we can live into our purpose as the community of faith.

One day on a mountain, the glory of God shone through Jesus, dumbfounding Peter, James, and John. We called it the Transfiguration. I believe, though, that it was not a miracle reserved solely for Jesus. I believe it was a sign of what the church can be as the church lives into being the body of Christ on earth.

As we live our faith, becoming people defined by compassion, mercy, and grace, God shines through us. God is revealed to the world. As that happens, something remarkable also happens—who we are to be as human beings also shines through creation.

We discover more fully who we are to be and become the instruments through others become who they are to be.

What a marvelous work is before us.

And what an antidote for all that ails us. If we can live into this way of being, we can become the instruments through which God transforms and transcends the world as it is. We might even become the instruments and implements through which the kingdom of God can manifest on this earth. Remember the line from the Lord’s Prayer—Thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven—? That is our vocation as the church—bring the kingdom home.

So, God is near. God call through all creation. God gathers to God. 

God does so so that the world can change.

We can be the change.

Will we?