This sermon was presented at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the First Sunday in Lent, February 25, 2007.
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 8b-13
Luke 4:1-13
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Written in 1951, The Last Temptation, or as it is more commonly known in America, The Last Temptation of Christ, is a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. The central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. By facing and conquering all human weaknesses, Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface, Christ became the perfect model for our lives; he sacrificed not only on the cross, but throughout his life. He struggled to do God's will, without ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh.[1] This book places a great emphasis on the humanity of Jesus dueling with the divinity of the Christ. As you can imagine, it has been on many banned book lists since its publication.
You may be more familiar with the cinematic version made by Martin Scorsese in 1988 starring Willem Defoe as Jesus. The movie version tried to address the controversial subject matter by beginning with a disclaimer explaining that, “[the movie] departs from the commonly-accepted Biblical portrayal of Jesus’ life, and that it is not intended to be an exact recreation of the events detailed in the Gospels.” [2]
This version was so controversial that it was originally banned in many cities and picketed almost everywhere. Even two years after its theatrical release, when it made its cable debut on the Cinemax premium cable channel, many systems, including the one I subscribed to back in Colorado, chose to black it out. I don’t think you would find it surprising that while doing research for this sermon I was unable to find a copy at WalMart or Movie Gallery.
The idea that Jesus was tempted is controversial. People asked, what does it mean if Jesus can be tempted? The simplest answer to this question is that if Jesus could be tempted by the spoils of this world then he is fully human. And Jesus is so fully human that he is perfectly human, more human than we could ever be.
So filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus is in the wilderness fasting, eating nothing for forty days and forty nights. Verse two tells us that during the entire fast Jesus was being tempted by the devil.
One of the elements of fasting is that while the body abstains from food, the soul is fed. The fast becomes a period of general readjustment, of renovation from the outer sphere of life down to the roots of its innermost fibers.[3] Through the fast, prayer is reinforced and penance is paid.[4] The fast is more than the deprivation of our bodies; it is a means of spiritual preparation. But let’s face it, forty days and forty nights of temptation would be ruthless. Jesus perseveres this time of trial, preparing himself spiritually for his life to come.
So after forty days and forty nights, the devil needs to bring his best material if he is going to tempt Jesus.
Luke writes about three specific temptations. The scene begins with the devil saying, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” When looking at original text, there are two ways to interpret hunger. Jesus could have been hungry for bread or he could have been hungry for spiritual truth.
It kind of leaves this open for us, doesn’t it? The original text could go either way. But all translation involves interpretation, and our text says Jesus was famished. This translation implies Jesus could use a good meal.
Jesus’ response turns this interpretation on its ear. While the devil may have hoped Jesus would fall for bread alone, invoking the words of Deuteronomy 8:3, Jesus reminds us “One does not live by bread alone.” Jesus hungers for spiritual food.
The Devil offers the most human of needs, nourishment. But Jesus turns away from earthly satisfaction in favor of something more substantial. Recorded in the Gospel, Luke is teaching the readers that the need for bread is secondary to the fact that it is God alone who gives bread.[5]
Jesus teaches that the one who gives the gift is more important than the gift itself.
The devil isn’t out of temptations yet, there is more up his sleeve. So the second temptation is offered, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.”
There is some hinky stuff in this passage. First, with this offer, we are reminded that the devil has power in the world, power that can be delegated and allocated as he sees fit. The devil offers this power to Jesus. Imagine if you will the power to do anything you desire. For Jesus, there is a lot of good that can be done with that kind of power.
But this power is given with a catch, “If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
A catch doesn’t get catchier than this. Fly paper wishes it was this sticky.
But Jesus does not get trapped by political intrigue. He denies the devil his worship using the words of Deuteronomy 6:13, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” The devil offers power over this world, a world that is temporary, a world that is limited. Jesus knows that there is a greater power than the political domain of the devil and the price of the devil’s power is too high.
Jesus rejects the devil’s demand of worship insisting that the only real power comes from God.[6]
Jesus acknowledges that the source of power is more important than power itself.
So the devil has offered Jesus something to eat and all of the power in the world. What’s left?
The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. They are on the highest place of the high places of the Holy Land. And from there, the devil goads Jesus. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
This time, it is the devil’s turn to invoke scripture, Psalm 91:11-12. Now this is a good temptation. The devil uses something good to suit his own bad intentions.
In this case, the devil literally offers the oldest trick in the book. The devil asks Jesus to doubt the Lord’s sincerity. Paraphrasing Genesis 3:1-4, the serpent tests Eve saying, “Go ahead, eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. Sure, God said you will die, but do you seriously think that God will take your life?” In Luke the devil invites Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple because, after all, “God has promised to protect you. Do you doubt it?” In both, Eve and Jesus are tempted to wonder if God is serious. Eve falls victim to the temptation, Jesus does not.
Jesus responds in kind to temptation shrouded in scripture. Quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, Jesus tells the devil to shove off reminding him “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” The Old Testament reminds us that Israel tested the Lord time and time again, and in every case the Lord is faithful. It is said that scripture is best interpreted by scripture, and this is a shining example.
Jesus is invited to test the sincerity of the Lord; Jesus reminds us the Lord is not to be tested.
These first recorded temptations of Jesus, physical satisfaction, political power, and testing God’s sincerity, these are the things the devil puts on the table. Jesus passes these tests. Jesus does this by knowing what is important. Bread is not as important as the one who makes it.
Power is not as important as the one who creates and gives it. Testing God’s sincerity is not as important as knowing God is earnest and faithful.
But there is more at stake than this.
The devil prefaces the first and last temptations with this phrase, “If you are the Son of God…” So while it is easy to say that the temptations are about bread and sincerity, there is something more sinister happening. The greater, more subtle temptation the devil tries to place in Jesus’ mind is the doubt that he is the Son of God. Yes, on one level the devil asks if God will do what God has promised for the Son. But it is far more devastating if Jesus doubts whether he is the Son or not. If the devil can plant this seed of doubt, then everything else is lost.
But this seed has no purchase. Jesus will not allow the devil to define what being the Son of God means. The devil will not define what kind of Messiah Jesus will be, that is between Father and Son.
And as soon as we doubt that we are the children of God we are lost.
Jesus reminds us that being children of God is more important than anything else.
The very thought that Jesus could be tempted by fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust put people in a rage. But in the past twenty years, some have begun to rethink their opinion of the movie, and of the temptations Jesus faced. In light of the movie, The Last Temptation of Christ, some have begun to examine what it might have been like for Christ to be fully human, subject to all human weaknesses, while fully God, perfect and omnipotent. Some groups that originally condemned the film have even revised their opinions. Promise Keepers is the most notable conservative Christian group to come out and defended Kazantzakis and Scorsese’s interpretation of Christ’s temptation. Acceptance seems to be growing as many people begin to examine the difficulty of bearing the two natures of Jesus and how difficult it must have been for him to be faithful to the will of the Father with this world raging around him.[7]
The idea that Jesus was tempted is controversial. The thought that Jesus could be tempted is horrifying. Even more horrifying would be the prospect that Jesus would fall to temptation. To resist temptation, Jesus relies on scripture and his relationship with the one who gives us scripture. As we approach the cross through Lent, we need to be intentional about growing in relationship with the Lord our God, just as Jesus shows us how.
[1] The Last Temptation of Christ- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_last_temptation_of_christ, accessed February 19, 2007
[2] The Last Temptation of Christ-Film, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Temptation_of_Christ_%28film%29, accessed February 19, 2007
[3] Wesseling, Theodore, “The Cleansing of the Temple.” London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1945.
[4] Jungmann, Josef A, S.J., “Public Worship: A Survey.” Howell, Clinton, translator. The Liturgical Press: Collegeville
[5] Cousar, Charles B., Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, page 197.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, The Last Temptation of Christ-Film.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Here's Your Sign
This sermon was delivered on Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday, February 18, 2007 at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
The January 2007 issue of Esquire Magazine was its “The Meaning of Life” issue. The cover says the issue includes “wisdom and good advice.”[1] The series of articles that shares this wisdom is called “What I’ve Learned.” The way the interview looked, it was a basic question and answer session, but the way it was written it was impossible to get a feel for the exact questions.
The interview that got my attention was the last name on the cover and what it said about him: “James Watson, who helped discover DNA and still can’t find God.” Hey, I’m a Christian, this gets my attention.
In his interview, Dr. Watson[2] says, “I’ve seen no evidence of a god, so I’m not going to think about one. Being raised nonreligious made you free. You could look at the evidence. Whether being nonreligious or a democrat was more important, I can’t tell you.”[3] Watson finds no evidence of God, but there are those who have seen evidence of God, and on this Transfiguration Sunday we read about their witness.
Transfiguration, what a fancy word. The term comes from the Latin, so it sounds very impressive. It’s really a pretty simple word though when it’s taken apart. “Trans-” is a prefix meaning change. “Figure” refers to the appearance of the individual. So transfiguration means, “A marked change in form or appearance.”[4] But in this case, it means so much more. It means the marked change in appearance is supernatural, a glorified change.[5] This change of appearance isn’t like me shaving my beard, even though that would surely qualify as a marked change. No, this is something more.
The book of Exodus makes it clear that we are unable to look upon the face of the Lord. Moses is said to be in the presence of the Lord, but scripture never tells us they had a face to face. According to today’s reading, Moses leaves the presence of the Lord with the Ten Commandments, the two tablets of the covenant. Upon his return to the camp, the people noticed that there was a change in Moses’ appearance. The skin of his face shone, it shone because he had been talking with God.
So how do the people respond? Scripture tells us they were afraid to come near him. Everyone, even Moses’ brother Aaron was afraid to come near him. Regardless of the reason Moses was calling them to him, they were afraid to come near. Really, can you blame them? Nothing like this had ever happened before; at least scripture had never reported anything like this before. We know why Moses’ face shone, they did not.
The people deserved to be leery of Moses glowing like the dial on my watch.
So Moses called to them, Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation. And they came to him. Moses called them together to share the Good News of the Lord. But imagine the looks on their faces when he was talking. Distracted would describe the look, but I think it would only begin to describe how they looked and felt.
Moses discerned that the change in his appearance was so disturbing to the Israelites that he chose to cover his face while with the assembly. When Moses was with the Lord or when Moses was telling the assembly what the Lord had said, he dropped the veil. Otherwise, this became the only way that Moses could be with the people and appear like a normal man, not the one who had been anointed by the glow of the Lord.
As verse 32 tells us, Moses gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. But the message almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger. This is the first time this sort of thing was reported in scripture, but it wasn’t the last. Today we are privy to the greatest example of the glow of the Lord, the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
This is a miraculous occasion, a time of glory and majesty. This is the perfect time to rest and reflect upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ. These three men, Jesus’ closest earthly confidants; what are they doing? The New Revised Standard Version says they were fighting off sleep. According to other translations, sleep had won.
But this sight, whether they were fully asleep or not, made them fully awake. Here is their master with Moses, the bearer of the law; and Elijah, the one who would return preceding the Messiah. This is a glorious sight.
Peter responds as only Peter knows how: he wants to do something now! Let’s build dwellings, or shelters or tabernacles or memorials again depending on your translation, one apiece!
Can’t you just see the looks on the faces of John and James? “Huh? What?”[6]
But we can’t really blame Peter; he was so thrilled he had no idea what he was saying. This is Peter’s way. Peter’s response shows again that the message of the transfiguration almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger.
The people of Israel received a sign in the shining face of Moses. Peter, John, and James received a sign when they were allowed to see Jesus transfigured in glory and majesty. And in both cases, with the glow, the listeners received the word of the Lord. Moses shared the word the Lord gave him with the people. Peter, James, and John got one better—they heard the voice of God, words echoed from Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, my Chosen,” followed by the command, “listen to him!”
Futurama is a television show produced by the creator of “The Simpson’s.” It’s about a man, Philip J. Frye, who was accidentally frozen in a cryogenic lab at midnight on December 31, 1999 and thawed 1,000 years later. In the episode titled “Godfellas,” Frye’s best friend and roommate, a robot named Bender, is accidentally shot from a space ship’s torpedo tube while it’s traveling at maximum velocity. Since Bender is moving faster than the ship’s top speed, there is no way to catch up and rescue him. Bender floats through space until he passes through an asteroid field and accidentally accumulates a microscopic civilization on his stomach (or what passes for a stomach on a robot), which declares him God, and worships him despite his constant inability to provide for their needs.[7]
After the civilization that lived on Bender destroyed itself, he was distraught. Then he found an eternal omnipotent presence, the cartoon equivalent of the god of the universe. Bender shares his lament with the greater power. He says that no matter what he did, he could not help them. He did something, it didn’t work. He did nothing, and that didn’t work either. Then Bender learned the lesson of quality miracles from the being, “When you’ve done something right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”
Dr. Watson, the DNA guy, says that he has seen no evidence of god, so he isn’t willing to even think about God. But I like this idea from Futurama. When a miracle is done right, we may not be sure God did anything at all.
We live in a complex and complicated world, we are a busy people. There is always something to take our minds from a restful place and engage us in something new. It’s not that there is no evidence of God, it’s just that in a society of adrenaline junkies that insists on dramatic experiences, we can easily miss the subtle evidence God provides. This could be by design, like the god in Futurama; the discreet signs now seem so obvious to us that we take them for granted.
Peter, John, and James got a sign, didn’t they? They were witness to a miracle that could have made Dr. Watson acknowledge the presence of God. But as Dr. Watson might point out, it has been a long, long time since a moment like this one, and we aren’t likely to see one like it any time soon. Where’s our sign?
Look around…in our prayers we give thanks for the sun and the rain. We offer thanks for mercies received. We thank God for the world around us and a place to worship. We pray for the sick and infirm, many of whom we don’t know individually and thanks be to God that as the church we do know them. We give thanks for the waters of our baptism and the sacramental meal which nourishes the Body of Christ. We give thanks to God for our daily bread. We give thanks for the small miracles around us every day. And even though they are common and ordinary, they are still miracles. The message gets lost again in the appearance of the messenger. Only this time, the appearance is too ordinary to get our attention.
So what should we do? We should do as the Israelites did. We should listen to the word of God all around us. And the word of God comes in wonderful and mysterious ways. It comes in the first light of the sunrise and the last light of the sunset. It comes in the face of those we love, and those who love us. It comes in words of encouragement, words we hear and words we share. It comes to us in the word of God recorded for us to read. It comes to us in the living word of Jesus Christ. We need to listen to the word of God around us. Be still, and listen for the word of the Lord. The voice from the cloud tells Peter, John, and James “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Listen to the voice, this is the first step. Listen; resting and reflecting upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ in the arms of the loving God.
As our Psalm teaches, the Lord is great; he is high over all the peoples. Let us confess his great and awesome name for he is the Holy One. The Sovereign God loves justice and establishes equity; executing justice and righteousness. And as God calls Moses and Aaron and Samuel, God calls each of us. God speaks to us. We have our signs, let us follow them. We must now listen for the word of the Lord and answer in word and in deed.
[1] The cover actually says “wisdom and damn good advice,” but I chose to edit my reading for delicate ears.
[2] Ph.D., Indiana University, Zoology, 1950.
[3] Richardson, John H., “What I’ve Learned, James Watson,” Esquire. January 2007, vol. 147, no. 1.
[4] transfiguration. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transfiguration (accessed: February 17, 2007).
[5] Ibid.
[6] Read with puzzled facial expression.
[7] Keeler, Ken, “Godfellas,” Futurama. episode 52, taken from TV.com, http://www.tv.com/futurama/godfellas/episode/125571/summary.html, February 17, 2007.
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
The January 2007 issue of Esquire Magazine was its “The Meaning of Life” issue. The cover says the issue includes “wisdom and good advice.”[1] The series of articles that shares this wisdom is called “What I’ve Learned.” The way the interview looked, it was a basic question and answer session, but the way it was written it was impossible to get a feel for the exact questions.
The interview that got my attention was the last name on the cover and what it said about him: “James Watson, who helped discover DNA and still can’t find God.” Hey, I’m a Christian, this gets my attention.
In his interview, Dr. Watson[2] says, “I’ve seen no evidence of a god, so I’m not going to think about one. Being raised nonreligious made you free. You could look at the evidence. Whether being nonreligious or a democrat was more important, I can’t tell you.”[3] Watson finds no evidence of God, but there are those who have seen evidence of God, and on this Transfiguration Sunday we read about their witness.
Transfiguration, what a fancy word. The term comes from the Latin, so it sounds very impressive. It’s really a pretty simple word though when it’s taken apart. “Trans-” is a prefix meaning change. “Figure” refers to the appearance of the individual. So transfiguration means, “A marked change in form or appearance.”[4] But in this case, it means so much more. It means the marked change in appearance is supernatural, a glorified change.[5] This change of appearance isn’t like me shaving my beard, even though that would surely qualify as a marked change. No, this is something more.
The book of Exodus makes it clear that we are unable to look upon the face of the Lord. Moses is said to be in the presence of the Lord, but scripture never tells us they had a face to face. According to today’s reading, Moses leaves the presence of the Lord with the Ten Commandments, the two tablets of the covenant. Upon his return to the camp, the people noticed that there was a change in Moses’ appearance. The skin of his face shone, it shone because he had been talking with God.
So how do the people respond? Scripture tells us they were afraid to come near him. Everyone, even Moses’ brother Aaron was afraid to come near him. Regardless of the reason Moses was calling them to him, they were afraid to come near. Really, can you blame them? Nothing like this had ever happened before; at least scripture had never reported anything like this before. We know why Moses’ face shone, they did not.
The people deserved to be leery of Moses glowing like the dial on my watch.
So Moses called to them, Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation. And they came to him. Moses called them together to share the Good News of the Lord. But imagine the looks on their faces when he was talking. Distracted would describe the look, but I think it would only begin to describe how they looked and felt.
Moses discerned that the change in his appearance was so disturbing to the Israelites that he chose to cover his face while with the assembly. When Moses was with the Lord or when Moses was telling the assembly what the Lord had said, he dropped the veil. Otherwise, this became the only way that Moses could be with the people and appear like a normal man, not the one who had been anointed by the glow of the Lord.
As verse 32 tells us, Moses gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. But the message almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger. This is the first time this sort of thing was reported in scripture, but it wasn’t the last. Today we are privy to the greatest example of the glow of the Lord, the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
This is a miraculous occasion, a time of glory and majesty. This is the perfect time to rest and reflect upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ. These three men, Jesus’ closest earthly confidants; what are they doing? The New Revised Standard Version says they were fighting off sleep. According to other translations, sleep had won.
But this sight, whether they were fully asleep or not, made them fully awake. Here is their master with Moses, the bearer of the law; and Elijah, the one who would return preceding the Messiah. This is a glorious sight.
Peter responds as only Peter knows how: he wants to do something now! Let’s build dwellings, or shelters or tabernacles or memorials again depending on your translation, one apiece!
Can’t you just see the looks on the faces of John and James? “Huh? What?”[6]
But we can’t really blame Peter; he was so thrilled he had no idea what he was saying. This is Peter’s way. Peter’s response shows again that the message of the transfiguration almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger.
The people of Israel received a sign in the shining face of Moses. Peter, John, and James received a sign when they were allowed to see Jesus transfigured in glory and majesty. And in both cases, with the glow, the listeners received the word of the Lord. Moses shared the word the Lord gave him with the people. Peter, James, and John got one better—they heard the voice of God, words echoed from Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, my Chosen,” followed by the command, “listen to him!”
Futurama is a television show produced by the creator of “The Simpson’s.” It’s about a man, Philip J. Frye, who was accidentally frozen in a cryogenic lab at midnight on December 31, 1999 and thawed 1,000 years later. In the episode titled “Godfellas,” Frye’s best friend and roommate, a robot named Bender, is accidentally shot from a space ship’s torpedo tube while it’s traveling at maximum velocity. Since Bender is moving faster than the ship’s top speed, there is no way to catch up and rescue him. Bender floats through space until he passes through an asteroid field and accidentally accumulates a microscopic civilization on his stomach (or what passes for a stomach on a robot), which declares him God, and worships him despite his constant inability to provide for their needs.[7]
After the civilization that lived on Bender destroyed itself, he was distraught. Then he found an eternal omnipotent presence, the cartoon equivalent of the god of the universe. Bender shares his lament with the greater power. He says that no matter what he did, he could not help them. He did something, it didn’t work. He did nothing, and that didn’t work either. Then Bender learned the lesson of quality miracles from the being, “When you’ve done something right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”
Dr. Watson, the DNA guy, says that he has seen no evidence of god, so he isn’t willing to even think about God. But I like this idea from Futurama. When a miracle is done right, we may not be sure God did anything at all.
We live in a complex and complicated world, we are a busy people. There is always something to take our minds from a restful place and engage us in something new. It’s not that there is no evidence of God, it’s just that in a society of adrenaline junkies that insists on dramatic experiences, we can easily miss the subtle evidence God provides. This could be by design, like the god in Futurama; the discreet signs now seem so obvious to us that we take them for granted.
Peter, John, and James got a sign, didn’t they? They were witness to a miracle that could have made Dr. Watson acknowledge the presence of God. But as Dr. Watson might point out, it has been a long, long time since a moment like this one, and we aren’t likely to see one like it any time soon. Where’s our sign?
Look around…in our prayers we give thanks for the sun and the rain. We offer thanks for mercies received. We thank God for the world around us and a place to worship. We pray for the sick and infirm, many of whom we don’t know individually and thanks be to God that as the church we do know them. We give thanks for the waters of our baptism and the sacramental meal which nourishes the Body of Christ. We give thanks to God for our daily bread. We give thanks for the small miracles around us every day. And even though they are common and ordinary, they are still miracles. The message gets lost again in the appearance of the messenger. Only this time, the appearance is too ordinary to get our attention.
So what should we do? We should do as the Israelites did. We should listen to the word of God all around us. And the word of God comes in wonderful and mysterious ways. It comes in the first light of the sunrise and the last light of the sunset. It comes in the face of those we love, and those who love us. It comes in words of encouragement, words we hear and words we share. It comes to us in the word of God recorded for us to read. It comes to us in the living word of Jesus Christ. We need to listen to the word of God around us. Be still, and listen for the word of the Lord. The voice from the cloud tells Peter, John, and James “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Listen to the voice, this is the first step. Listen; resting and reflecting upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ in the arms of the loving God.
As our Psalm teaches, the Lord is great; he is high over all the peoples. Let us confess his great and awesome name for he is the Holy One. The Sovereign God loves justice and establishes equity; executing justice and righteousness. And as God calls Moses and Aaron and Samuel, God calls each of us. God speaks to us. We have our signs, let us follow them. We must now listen for the word of the Lord and answer in word and in deed.
[1] The cover actually says “wisdom and damn good advice,” but I chose to edit my reading for delicate ears.
[2] Ph.D., Indiana University, Zoology, 1950.
[3] Richardson, John H., “What I’ve Learned, James Watson,” Esquire. January 2007, vol. 147, no. 1.
[4] transfiguration. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transfiguration (accessed: February 17, 2007).
[5] Ibid.
[6] Read with puzzled facial expression.
[7] Keeler, Ken, “Godfellas,” Futurama. episode 52, taken from TV.com, http://www.tv.com/futurama/godfellas/episode/125571/summary.html, February 17, 2007.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)