The Transfiguration
of Reality
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 99
Philippians 3:7-14
Matthew 17:1-9
Tim
Christoffersen
St. PaulŐs Episcopal Church
February 10,
2002
Two
Sundays ago, as most of you know, was my first Eucharist as the celebrant.
I was totally surprised by what part of the service touched me most deeply.
For those of you who are regulars at the 10 am service, I am not referring
to my challenge in hitting the right note in the sung part of the service!
I was deeply touched by giving blessings to the little children. I did not
know their names so I asked the parent. I then squatted down so I was eye
level with them and no more than 12 inches away. As adults, most of us have
a persona or an outer shell that insulates us from direct and totally open
contact with another person. Our eyes in some mysterious way shield part of
who we are, our inner selves.
It is not so with the little children. Their eyes are open and trusting. They
may be a little shy or embarrassed but for the most part they look right at
you. I do not sense any curtain or reserve on their part. The last words I
said were "may God’s love for you fill your heart" and I could
say it with all my heart.
I think of Jesus’ words about little children in two different places
in the gospels. In Matthew 18, the disciples ask Jesus ,
"Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" [Jesus] called a
little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the
truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "And whoever welcomes a little
child like this in my name welcomes me."
And in all three gospels, we have the story where people are bringing infants
and little children to be touched by Jesus.
…and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them
to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them;
for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does
not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."
Children are our hope for a better future. Most parents have the hope that
the lives of their children will be more secure or better in some important
way than their own. Words written over two hundred years ago by John Adams,
the second President of our country, capture that vision:
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study
mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy,
geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and
agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry,
music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
We are here this morning to celebrate a new birth, a new life and a new beginning.
"And the Word became flesh and lived among us"
I suspect most if not all of us know the nativity story and the birth of Jesus
in a manager. But God taking human form is a paradox that our rational mind
struggles with understanding.
C.S. Lewis, who wrote Screwtape Letters, The Tales of Narnja, and a number
of easy to read books on Christianity, once said: "Reality, in fact,
is always something you couldn’t have guessed. That’s one of
the reasons I believe in Christianity. It’s a religion you could not
have guessed."
You could not guess that the baby Jesus, born to the peasant woman Mary is,
in the words from the reading in Hebrews, "the Son… the radiance
of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." This is
a reality simply outside the limits of our rational mind.
For me, God is mysteriously and directly present in the eyes of the little
children. And I think it has something to do with why Jesus told us we had
to receive the Kingdom of God like a little child to enter it. I believe that
is why we have such hopes for our children and a better future for them and
the world in which they will live.
The definition of faith in Hebrews seems to capture our hope. "Faith
is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
We have our hopes for our children and our grandchildren. But the new birth
we celebrate this morning holds out the hope of a new birth and a new beginning
for us as well. If you had to write your own obituary this morning, what would
you say about yourself? What changes would you have liked to have made in
your life?
It is not too late. Jesus offers us a new beginning and a realistic ground
on which to hope. We are locked into the patterns of our life only if we insist
on being completely in charge and not open to Christ’s transforming presence
in our lives.
It is easy to forget, especially this morning, that Christ was born of Mary
as a human among us because we are unable to transform our own capacity for
selfish behavior and turning a blind eye to the evils and injustice that we
allow to exist around us. I love Reinhold Niebuhr’s way of describing
our human condition: "Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy
possible; man’s capacity for injustice makes democracy necessary."
We don’t want to acknowledge or face the fact that "God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son; that all who believe in him, will not
perish but have life everlasting."
When we truly accept this truth, when we accept Christ into our heart, then
we come alive with genuine hope. And we will have a glimpse of the connection
between the trusting eyes of little children and the Kingdom of Heaven.
AMEN.
