glory redefined

The seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany celebrate the good news of the birth, baptism and ministry of Jesus. At the crucial turning point from the story of Jesus’ birth and beginnings to the story of his journey to a cross stands Transfiguration Sunday. It is, at once, the culmination of what has gone before and a glimpse of what lies ahead.

The story of the transfiguration of Jesus is dramatic, fantastic, spectacular. In a word, it is glorious. There is Jesus radiating divine energy on the mountain top while speaking with Israel’s most famous prophets – Moses and Elijah. Then comes the cloud of God’s presence and the voice of God adding three words to the ones spoken from heaven at Jesus baptismal anointing: “Listen to him.” And then, in a flash, it is over. No more radiance, no more prophets, no more cloud of presence or voice from heaven. Just Jesus and his trio of apprentices, climbing down, with instructions to say nothing of this “until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead” (Matt. 17:9).

in a riddle

"through a glass darkly" by craig brewer

I Corinthians 12:31b- 13:13 You have to pay attention. In the midst of this beloved ode to love there is a riddle. These verses seem so clear, so straight forward. No wonder they are chosen by so many brides and grooms. The poem seems anything but puzzling: “Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude”. It sounds like accessible greeting card theology. You can almost picture the image of the honeymoon couple walking into the sunset.

the glory of god in the face of jesus christ

A sermon preached at a shared service of five United Church congregations on the west-side of Vancouver on Transfiguration Sunday, February 19, 2012.

Mark 9:2-9; II Corinthians 4:3-6

“Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart”. This is how the story of the Transfiguration begins. “Six days later”. It begins in the middle of the story. Six days earlier the gospel has reached a climax. It is the dramatic conclusion of the opening act. Jesus asks his disciples who people say he is. To which they reply: “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets”. When Jesus asks them who they say he is Peter eagerly raises his hand and says: “You are the Messiah.” Jesus responds by “sternly” ordering them to keep quiet about this. Then he begins to talk in ways that they do not expect, in ways that they have never heard him speak before. Jesus predicts that great suffering lies ahead. He says that he will be “rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” He says it openly. They all hear him. There is no mistake. Peter is the one who takes Jesus aside and tells him that he is crazy to talk this way. Peter rebukes Jesus. He yells at Jesus. At which point Jesus turns to the congregation of disciples and rebukes Peter, calling him Satan to his face. It is the first recorded church fight. Not the last, but then we know that! Note that Jesus does not hold his temper. What would Jesus do if told the gospel does not lead to suffering and death? Apparently he would be as mad as hell. Peter is saying that a Messiah who suffers and dies will never gain a following. Jesus replies that Peter is setting his mind “not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus goes on to say that “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, will save it.” It is the first mention of a cross in the gospel. Take up a cross - take up a burden of pain and grief and illness, take up a death of hopes and dreams, take up the weight of injustice that leaves too many hungry and homeless. It is not only a cross for the Messiah. It is a cross for each disciple who says “yes” to Jesus. Then the curtain comes down. Act one ends. The audience is left abuzz.

what is this - part two

Mark 1:14-39

What is this? That is the question that confronts anyone who opens the New Testament at the Gospel of Mark and begins to read. What is this? For one thing the text comes at you like rapid gun-fire speech. Mark is like a boxer whose sentences are a left and then a right, first a jab followed by an uppercut and then a hard body blow. His Greek is the language of the streets. Rough around the edges. Not the refined cadences of the academy. It is “and this” followed by “and that”. It seems that every second sentence includes the word “immediately”. Mark writes as if he is out of breath with excitement at the news he has to share. Which, of course, he is. It is Mark who invents the genre of the “gospel”. This is not a biography of the life of Jesus nor is it a historical account of Jesus’ ministry. It is, says Mark, “the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk 1:1). The word for good news in Greek is “evangelium” from which we get “evangelical”. It is such new news that in English we invented a new word for it: “godspell”. Yes “gospel”. Mark comes rushing in the door, out of breath, with extraordinary good news that he can not wait to share. Imagine a church that sounds like Mark in our day and age - a church full of energy that cannot wait to share the message. Imagine a church so full of urgency that others wonder aloud: “What is this?”

what is this - part one

This coming Sunday we will read the gospel lessons set in the lectionary for three Sundays (Jan 22, 29 & Feb 5). Last Sunday we missed reading the gospel so that we could read all of Jonah. On February 5th I will be preaching from Isaiah 40:21-31 (such an awesome text). That leaves this Sunday to read all the way from Mark 1:14 to Mark 1:39. It will give us a chance to enter into the hectic pace of Jesus in Mark's gospel. We will hear Jesus preach his first sermon (a direct quote from John the Baptist now that John has been incarcerated for this same message); see Jesus begin to recruit/draft a movement of followers who will recruit/draft more followers; watch as he astounds the congregation on the synagogue with his powerful teaching that is accompanied by an extraordinary exorcism; then see as he heals and exorcises all manner of illness and demonic possession; seek him out with his disciples who find him away from the crowd in a deserted place in prayer; and then follow as he continues to travel throughout Galilee "proclaiming the message and casting out demons".

an open ending

Jonah 1:1-4:11

Jonah is a prophet who begins by saying no to God. He is not alone in saying no to God’s call. God regularly calls to a place and a life that is not what we plan or want or expect. That is how it is with Jonah. God sends him to Nineveh. It is the last place on earth that Jonah wants to go. He will have nothing to do with a ministry there. So he says no to God and heads in the other direction, to Tarshish. Tarshish is a much more attractive destination than Nineveh. Tarshish is exotic, adventurous, a distant paradise. It is a much more promising location for ministry than Nineveh. God calls Jonah to go. He goes. But not to the place where God sends him.

preaching jonah

This coming Sunday is the one time in the three year cycle of the lectionary when a reading from the Book of Jonah is included. Alas, it is a short reading from the middle of the book - Jonah 3:1-5,10. This highlights the strength and the weakness of the lectionary. On the one hand, left to themselves how many preachers would get around to preaching Jonah once in three years? On the other hand, given the wonderful narrative in this short book (it takes up all of two pages in my Bible) this particular passage is underwhelming at best. So this coming Sunday we are going to read the book of Jonah in its entirety. A group of students are preparing a reading of Jonah that will include Jonah 2:2-9 as the responsive psalm for the day. It is not often that we have the opportunity to read an entire book of the Bible in worship on Sunday. Here is the book of Jonah from Eugene Peterson's paraphrase The Message.

the heavens torn apart

Genesis 1:1-5; Mark 1:4-11

The good news begins with trouble. The texts are clear: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.” “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God ... John the baptizer appeared ... and people from the whole Judea countryside and all the people of Jerusalem ... were baptized by him on the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” Before there is a creative Word from God, before there is any sign of a Saviour there is void and darkness and everyone knows that the trouble - the sin - is deep and unavoidable. It is possible to read too quickly and to miss the deep trouble that precedes the good news. But not today. Not here. Not this week. There is too much trouble for it to be ignored. Yes, we have been to the manger and sung the carols and greeted the child. Yes, we have celebrated his Epiphany. Yes, we have done all of this. But, somehow, it feels like we are still waiting ... waiting for the promised arrival in our midst. That longing text that began our year back on the first Sunday of Advent seems, in spite of our celebrations, to go unanswered: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64:1).

the people of the epiphany

Ephesians 3:1-12

Today we celebrate the great festival of the Epiphany. Epiphany. What is the big deal about Epiphany? Well we, who have worshiped this past quarter century in the Chapel of the Epiphany should surely know by now. But just in case our memory fails we stop once each year to be reminded. What is the reason, we wonder? To which the lector responds by reading from the letter to the Ephesians:“This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.” (vs. 1) Epiphany has to do with Jesus Christ. It has to do with being a prisoner. It has to do with Gentiles. Paul is the apostle of the Epiphany. Which is to say that he is the messenger of the great insight, the holy “aha”, the incredible revelation that is the mighty good news called the Epiphany.

beginning at the end

The gospel always begins with an ending. It is easy to forget this. We are tempted to imagine otherwise. We are eager for a fresh, new beginning - a clean slate. The new year with its unblemished calendar holds a brief promise of newness. The Christmas story retelling of the birth of the Christ child can be like this for us. It can lead us to imagine that the gospel begins like a baby - with birth and newness and innocence and promise.

But then comes the Sunday after Epiphany when the church celebrates the baptism of Jesus. In the early days of the Christian church the celebration of Jesus’ baptism was one of the three large Christian festivals that marked out the Christian year: Easter, Pentecost and Epiphany. In those days Epiphany was a celebration not of the arrival of the Magi but, instead, marked Jesus’ baptism with the solemn blessing of the congregation’s baptismal water. Christmas was a later addition to the festivals of the Christian year, though it has since grown to dwarf all of them in our culture.

earth's manifest

Given the priority of Christmas on our mid-winter calendars it is not surprising that Epiphany is muted. Advent is well rehearsed as a four candle journey to the manger. The need to rediscover the “true meaning” of Christmas is proclaimed in a multitude of sermons. But the ancient holiday of Epiphany barely registers, submerged as it is in the New Year’s festivities of the surrounding culture. We are intrigued to learn that Epiphany predates Christmas as a Christian festival. Yet we too easily surmise that Epiphany lingers as a quaint liturgical artifact when, instead, it occupies a central location on the map of our communal pilgrimage.

Since the sale of its church building in 1985 University Hill Congregation has worshiped in the Chapel of the Epiphany at the Vancouver School of Theology. This is akin to a congregation worshiping in the Christmas Church or the Easter Sanctuary. Perhaps only Pentecostal churches are accustomed to worshiping in a sanctuary named for an event on the Christian calendar. In a sense every Sunday is Epiphany Sunday for University Hill Congregation. This weekly marking of Epiphany is, over time, teaching us three vital habits of the heart.