Transfiguration Sunday

Fr. Lovett, evangelist Our Redeemer Lutheran Congregation Transfiguration Sunday February 10, 2019  Matthew 17:1-9  In the name of the Father and of the  Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, when His divine majesty shown brightly through His body of flesh, showed this Man to be God in the flesh, the God who dwells in perfect light and in whom there is no shadow due to change. Jesus is very God of very God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. And He came down from heaven for our salvation. The Transfiguration is a holy moment when God reveals Himself to men. And that is why we wish that there would be a Transfiguration-like event for us…at least one. But the apostle Peter, who was an eyewitness to the Transfiguration, reminds you that you have the prophetic word to which you do well to listen to as a lamp that shines in a dark room. Notice the language: the prophet word shines, so too did the Lord Jesus at the Transfiguration. The prophetic word is the word of the Lord Jesus who is Himself the Word of God made flesh. And this prophetic word has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire (2 Peter 1:3-4). But here, like Peter, we balk and think, No, a theophany like the Transfiguration would be better than a mere word. If Jesus would just show Himself to us! That would be something and then we would have proof and we would be believed and people would repent! And our faith would be strengthened. But the premise is wrong. We think that a theophany – an appearing of God – like the Transfiguration would be better than a mere word but we are wrong because the Transfiguration is the word – the Word made flesh. When you hear the prophetic word, which is the will of God, you see with eyes of faith the Transfiguration. I know it’s less than satisfactory because in the flesh we walk by sight. But in the Spirit we walk by faith and the eyes of faith are far sharper than the eyes of flesh. So, for example, the eyes of flesh see before us only bread and wine, but the eyes of faith, enlivened by the prophetic word, see the Lord Jesus who is giving us His Body and Blood. The eyes of flesh see a man preaching words that are not his own, but the eyes of faith see a messenger of the Lord, who by the grace given him, is training us in righteousness. The eyes of flesh see fellow parishioners in their flesh, as through a dirty window, but the eyes of faith see the sons and daughters of God, beloved of the Father and co-heirs to the eternal kingdom of Christ our Lord. Now the devil and his tempters will want you to believe that this eyes of flesh vs. the eyes of faith thing is just a point of view, just a change of perspective. Like seeing a glass either half full or half empty. But guard your ears and your eyes with the word of Truth, who is Jesus. A glass half full is also half empty no matter how you look at it, perception changes nothing. A man falling from a great height can think, “I’m not falling, I’m flying!” but his perspective, optimistic as it may be, will receive a rude jolt of reality when gravity finishes its pull. The devil and his tempting army want you to think its all a matter of perception and point of view because then what may be right for you isn’t right for someone else and what may be right for someone else isn’t necessarily right for you. Such trickery threatens to send you on a journey trying to find what’s right for you. But here you have the prophetic word before you that tells you plain and simple what’s right for you. You are not the judge of good and evil. You are not the decider of right and wrong. The Lord God is. That is why we must walk in His ways, because then and only then are we walking in the path of life and light. And we know the way He is going, as He said to Thomas: “You know the way I am going…I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:4-6). It is the way of the cross; for if we suffer like Him we will also be glorified like Him. Which means our suffering is because of sin and for the sake of others. Our suffering is rejection by those who promise to never leave us. Our suffering is rejection of so-called brothers and sisters who followed in the Way with us for a time but who have rejected it because of their own imaginations and desires. Our suffering is being spat upon by the world and mocked and ridiculed because we follow the Way. But take heart! By such suffering you will be given the crown of life and the glory of God! Our suffering is also, and even more significantly, the suffering we suffer because of our own sin. And you think, Jesus had no sin by which to suffer. But the suffering doesn’t come because of sin but because of temptation to sin. So we pray: Lead us not into temptation. Not that God tempts us, God tempts no one, but that we would be spared the death that comes through temptation when sin is so powerfully calling us. So it is written: “Tempted like us in every way yet was without sin.” Therefore, though He was tempted and so suffered, death did not dwell in His body. But death dwells in our flesh, as it is written, “Who will save me from this body of death?” so that we must put off the perishable and don the imperishable. Thanks be to God, then, that in Holy Baptism we are clothed with Christ and have put on His life so that even if we die, yet shall we live. And thanks be to God, then, that He feeds us the Bread of Heaven in this desolate land so that we are sustained not by our own works but by His desire to sustain us and feed us and nourish us with the Bread that last forever, which is His flesh (John 6). Thanks be to God that we have the most certain prophetic word that shines as a lamp in a dark room, illuminating the Way to the Father. The Way is Christ and here you are found in Him. Here He says to you what He said to His disciples, “Peace be with you.” Here you are with God and He is with you. Behold, the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world. In Nomine Iesu  Amen 