Imagine: “the glory to be revealed”
Christ Church, 25th
February 2001
Luke 9: 28-36, 2 Corinthians
3:12-4:2
One year in a mythical
kingdom the entire stock of grain became poisoned. Anyone who ate it would
become insane. Grain had been stored from years past, but only a small amount.
The king fell into a quandary. Should people eat and become crazy? Or starve to
death? Finally the king decided to feed the people the contaminated grain. But
he reserved a little of the unpoisoned grain for a handful of people so, the
king said, someone will know the rest of us are crazy.
So, which are we? The sane or the insane? When we read stories about people getting
shining faces because they have come face-to-face with God, or a saviour who
becomes miraculously transformed into a shining light standing on a hill with
people who have been dead for years, then perhaps many would think that we are
on the edge of reason. Perhaps we ought
to have a sign on our door saying "you don't have to be mad to worship
here, but it helps."
This account of Jesus’ transformation -it's called his transfiguration
in theological speak-does drive us to the edge of reason-things like this don't
happen in our normal natural lives. But
aren't we here because we believe in a reality that we can't see? Don’t we gather together because we believe
that there is part of life, in fact the most fundamental part of life, which is
about things we can't understand just with our reason, with our brain? We can't see God, but we can feel him, we
can sense him, something in us drives us to our knees.
Sherlock Holmes turned to
Or Watson and announced: "The murderer lives
in the house with the yellow door." "Good grief, Holmes," said
Watson. "How on earth did you deduce that?" "It's a lemon entry,
my dear Watson."
Poor old Watson. He never saw what was going on did he? He would see all the same events as Holmes
and meet the same people, but it wasn’t until Holmes has shown him how to look
at all these things that the reality of what was going on suddenly fell into
place. I think that what Peter James
and John experienced on the mountain was a moment when things started to fall
into place about who Jesus really was.
I believe that what they saw on the mountain wasn't a departure from
reality, but was a moment when they suddenly realised what reality actually
is. When they saw Jesus shining and
talking to Moses and Elijah they saw the truth about him, they
understood who he really was at last-suddenly the human being who had
done miracles here and there but nevertheless remained very solidly a mortal
human being, was revealed as something much more glorious, much more
vital. In the days leading up to this
moment on the mountain everybody had been asking who he was, and now they
finally knew. The next time Peter James
and John would see Jesus on a hill he would be between two thieves in
agony. When God told them to listen to
him, he wanted them to understand the reality of how Jesus’ real glory would
come. They needed this glimpse of his
true Majesty to be able to cope with the path of Easter. They needed to know who he really was before
they saw him stripped of all his humanity by the cross. But this transformation wasn't something
that was added to Jesus for their benefit, but it was as if they had had
cataracts which had finally being removed.
It was as if they had discovered a grand master that had been covered
over for centuries by a chintzy landscape.
So we shouldn't be
surprised at this account, or feel obliged to find a way to make it fit in with
a more materialistic view of existence.
We wouldn't be here if we thought that what we see now is all there is
to be seen.
G. K. Chesterton said,
"Most likely we are still in Eden-only our eyesight has changed." Imagine if we could find the eyesight to see
in the reality of God in our midst, like Peter James and John suddenly
saw. We are here because we believe
Jesus is still alive. Imagine if we
could see him in all his glory here in this building. We are here because we believe the holy spirit is working in the
lives of all those around us-if we could really see the rich tapestry of all
God’s dealings with our lives in this congregation. Imagine if we could see the glory of God our father’s love-how closely
he embraces us and guards us. Imagine
if the veil could be taken off our eyes and we could see the reality of God’s
glory filling his creation. How would
our lives change? And how would our
worship change?
And imagine if we could suddenly see the glory in each other. I read in the newspaper recently that a
Brazilian woman named Priscilla Davanzo has pledged to fight "human
mediocrity" by turning herself into a cow. She has visited a tattoo parlour three times a week for nine
months to be covered in black and white patches. "What I am trying to say to people is that I want to be a
cow," she says. "Cows are the
only animals which can digest the same food twice. That's something that human beings, who consider themselves so
superior, are unable to do." Let’s
just hope she doesn't get foot and mouth disease. But imagine if instead of having such a low opinion of other
human beings, we started to see the glory of God in each other. I think it was Gandhi who said that if you
can't see God in the first person you meet then stop looking. Someone else has said that the glory of God
is a human being fully alive. We are
all the made in the image of God.
But more than that-as
Christians the veil has been taken from our eyes so that we know what it should
mean to be fully alive. What God
has created us to be. Being fully
alive, Paul says is this: all of us, seeing the glory of the Lord as though
reflected in the mirror, are being transformed into the same image from
one degree of glory to another. The
potential we have throughout our life is to be people who are becoming more and
more like Jesus. People who have untold
potential to be like him. Can we
believe that for our neighbours? That
they may contain the potential to be like him?
Can we believe that that is what God wants for ourselves? That is our ultimate destiny. To be fully alive. To become Christ like.
And imagine if we could
see the glory in Christ Church. Imagine
just for a moment what God can do among a group of people on a hill who want to
see him at work. Imagine the glory that
can be released if a group of people start to see God in each other, start to
seek his glory in their life together.
At night this church often seems to reenact what happened on that
hill. The dark old building is suddenly
lit up from outside and everyone can see it from miles around. If you hadn't noticed it before you do
now. Of course, you can't see the
stained-glass windows from outside. You
can't catch the colour, read the stories, see the vision. If you are an insider the outside lights
suddenly make those windows all the more vibrant. But it doesn't help those outside. But imagine if at night this church was lit up from inside. Suddenly all of the windows would blaze with
colour to those outside. They would see
Jesus, Old Town would see his story in technicolour, because of the light and
glory from inside the building. And
imagine if the light came from a group of people and their commitment to one
another in Christ.
A
young man asked an old rich man how he made his money. The old guy fingered his worsted wool vest
and said, "Well, son, it was 1932.
The depth of the Great Depression. I was down to my last nickel. I invested
that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple and, at the
end of the day, I sold the apple for ten cents. The next morning, I invested
those ten cents in two apples. I spent the entire day polishing them and sold
them at 5:00 pm for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end
of which I'd accumulated a fortune of $1.37.
Then, my wife's father died and left us two million dollars."
It seems to me that as
people we can suffer from very low self esteem. And correspondingly we can have fairly low expectations of what
God wants to do in our lives. We might
think it's a case of polishing up a bit here and there so we can add a nickel
or so to our value. Whereas he wants us
to inherit 2 million dollars. We don't
realise how much glory he sees in us.
It also seems to me that
we can have very low expectations of others.
Thomas Edison story. “Too Stupid
to learn”, Cavanaugh, p69. He was too
stupid to learn, too shy to worship, too unskilled to serve, too inexperienced
to pray, too incompetent to lead. But
other Christians may be able to give to us, Minister to us, transform our lives
in ways we have not anticipated.
And finally, it seems to
me that we can have low expectations about the glory to be revealed in God's
Church. We can live as if we expect
things to be pretty much the same five years on from now. Yes we can tweak the worship here and there,
we can make our buildings viable, but that is about it. But what happens if God doesn't see
us as being the same in five years?
What happens if he sees the grand master under the landscape? If he sees the building more lit up from
inside and out?
If it's true that there
is still untold glory to be seen and to be revealed-in our own lives as we
follow our destiny of becoming like Christ, and in this community of faith as
we discover God's grace to us, then there is simply no way we can be the same
people five years from now. There is
simply no way we can reach the end of the road, get stuck in a spiritual rut,
or worst of all be satisfied with what God has done so far. Next week, we are going to be looking as a
church at setting up a system of home groups into the way we function as a
body. I believe, and it's my
experience, that committed belonging to a group of people within the church can
only be a step in the direction towards being transformed. It is a step which can help us to see God's
glory in each other, God's glory in the church, God's glory in ourselves, and
God's glory in those who come to us as seekers. If we believe that there is still so much more we need to
see, many groups will help us see it.
If you would be so kind I would like you just to spend two minutes
filling in the two boxes on the questionnaire about community life you have
been given. This will help me in
getting a broader picture of where we are as a church community, and held me to
be more informed about what our needs are as we think about how to be a church
where home groups foster life and vitality and enable us to be transformed into
the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another.