A Short Sunday Sermon

 

Our Gospel text this morning was John's Prologue, In the beginning was the Word... read it, it's not long and, for me, the most majestic passage of Scripture. Such unfathomable depth expressed with such simplicity. John's Prologue alone is a testimony to the Apostle's holiness and sanctified vision.

That said, it's a fearsome text for the preacher to approach, how to do it any kind of justice. So I marched up to Doctor X at Mission #2 who writes books like I like to buy firearms, which is often, and asked, "Herr Doktor, would you like to preach this morning on John 1?" He looked me straight in the eye, grinned, and said with professorial candor, "No." 

So it was up to me and I gave it a safe shot, asking the people why and to what end did the Word become Flesh. Answer? To reconcile us to God, demonstrate divine love, provide a model of holiness and make us partakers of the Divine Nature. That said, here's Chrysostom, and with it a sermon:

What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infants bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.

For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit that He may save me.

Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been planted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.

Why is this? Because God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle. He became Flesh. He did not become God. He was God. Wherefore He became flesh, so that He Whom heaven did not contain, a manger would this day receive. He was placed in a manger, so that He, by whom all things are nourished, may receive an infants food from His Virgin Mother. So, the Father of all ages, as an infant at the breast, nestles in the virginal arms, that the Magi may more easily see Him. Since this day the Magi too have come, and made a beginning of withstanding tyranny; and the heavens give glory, as the Lord is revealed by a star.

To Him, then, Who out of confusion has wrought a clear path, to Christ, to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, we offer all praise, now and forever. Amen.

Merry Christmas,

LSP 

A Short Sunday Sermon - Transfigured

 

If you follow the new-fangled ABC, tripartite Lectionary you'll have heard St. Mark's account of Our Lord's transfiguration this morning. Here:

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

 

Next we see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, he is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and Peter speaks out, "Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."

It seems a strange thing to say and Mark admits as much, "For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid." But hold on. Some days earlier Peter had made his confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And now, before his eyes, Christ was transfigured; the Messianic age had arrived with supernatural glory and power. What were God's people to do? The Psalmist tells us, exalt "in the tents of the righteous."

Again, look to the Feast of Tabernacles, during which faithful Jews set up tents in memory of their journey in the Exodus wilderness, all the while looking forward to the time God would tabernacle with men in the person of the Messiah. It must have seemed to Peter that the time had come, there was Christ, transfigured, the Majestic Glory. 

Seen in this light, Peter's outburst makes a kind of sense, but no, the time had not yet come. Return to Moses and Elijah, conversing with Jesus, what did they talk about? St. Luke tells us, of our Lord's "imminent departure" in Jerusalem, of his exodus through the Red Sea of the Passion and Cross to the promised land, the glory of the Resurrection.

Our Lord's transfiguration signifies and foreshadows this, but the time had not yet come, first the Cross. Accordingly, Jesus does not answer Peter but the Father does, the cloud of glory descends upon Tabor and the Father speaks, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." And so we must, he is the living Law, the Torah Incarnate.

Peter, in his Epistle, is adamant that this happened, "we do not follow cunningly devised myths" but beheld the Majestic Glory on the holy mountain. The vision was real and it's real for us, we too are invited to climb the mountain.

For Peter, James and John the ascent was physical. For us it's mostly spiritual, an ascent which begins in the foothills of humility and repentance, blessed are the poor in spirit and those who mourn, and climbs upwards through righteousness and its enactment, mercy, to purity of heart and the vision of God.

What do we see there? Christ, who shone in the darkness from the beginning, the light of the world in whom there is no darkness at all, who was light on Tabor. Seeing Him, we too become light and will shine like the sun in the kingdom of heaven.

God give us grace to climb the mountain,

LSP