|
|
This Sunday
February 26, 2017
Sermon Title:
"Transformers: More than Meets the Eye"
Scripture:
Matthew 17:1-9
|
|
|
|
 February 23, 2017
Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:
"After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light" (Matthew 17:1-2).
When I was a kid I loved the Transformers cartoons
(Hasbro, 2003) and the toys that turned from trucks into robots, back into trucks again. I was obsessed with "Optimus Prime," and wanted to become him when I grew up (although I was neither a truck nor a robot).
When we read from the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus was transfigured (the Greek word, μετεμορφώθη is more closely translated as "to transform." It is the word from which we get our word "metamorphosis" in English) before his disciples' eyes, we are confirmed in our traditional faith that Jesus is in fact both Son of God and Son of Man, and that Jesus' glorification is the central motif of the Christian life. We begin with the glorification of our Lord, and then move on to the other secondary and tertiary elements of the passage. But like Peter, we oftentimes get distracted by common custom (for Peter, it involved creating little 'booths' for Jesus and his Old Testament guests to sit and recline on the ground). Certainly, Peter's intent was most likely hospitality, but sometimes in our desire to do the common and decent thing, we miss the more important and transformative thing. Eventually, when Peter realized what was actually going on (to be fair, Peter may in fact have been in shock), he fell to his face in worship, unable to bear the weight of the magnitude concerning his experience of who Jesus actually was.
When Jesus was up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, he also hosted Moses and Elijah (two significant figures in this Sunday's sermon). Of interest to us now is that when Moses used to go up to Mt. Horeb to interact with YHWH, he would return with his face aglow ("Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him,"Exodus 34:29). Jesus' transformation upon what was traditionally considered to be Mt. Tabor, simply showed Jesus' true colors:  that he was and is as much God as he is human. But exposure to the glory of God has a transformative effect on us as well. Something about God's glory is able to rub off on us too. In other words, we are transformed through our shared experience with Jesus. As Jesus reveals more about Himself to us, we are changed. As we recognize and accept Jesus for who He is in our lives (Lord, and God incarnate), we are changed. As we fall to our knees in worship before Jesus,
we are changed. And people notice this change. We begin to glow in the
light of Christ's glory, and our minds are changed, as the Apostle writes: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing, and perfect will" (Romans 12:2). As our minds change, so does our view of the church, the world, and our behavior changes as well. We begin to prioritize our time spent with the Father, in praying that His will would be done in our lives. We begin to view other people we interact with the same way Jesus did. We begin to serve the way Jesus did, lead the way Jesus did, and love the way Jesus did.
This kind of transformation--the transformation of our own selves into the image of Christ, is an amazing thing. It begins to spread across the Body of Christ, the church. The church begins its metamorphosis into all that Jesus has intended it to be: one, holy, catholic, apostolic, rightly preaching the Word of God, rightly administering the sacraments, rightly proclaiming the good news of Jesus in both word and deed, rightly serving the poor, the weak, and the downtrodden, rightly not doing things out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, and seeking not our own interests only, but also the interests of others (Philippians 2:4). Exposure to the glory of Jesus Christ is also exposure to the God who wants to change us from the inside out.
Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 am and 11:15 am as we discuss this Matthew passage in more detail, and discuss the God who keeps promises, and the God who heals our anxieties. Also, please join us this coming Wednesday, March 1st, at 7:00 PM after the Family Fusion dinner, as we celebrate worship and holy communion through our Ash Wednesday service: The Journey to the Cross. Not only will we be gathering in worship together, hearing a brief meditation, and partaking in the sacrament of communion, but we will also be engaging in five 'stations' that engage us spiritually, in tactile, visual, and auditory ways as we begin our Lenten journey (the word "Lent" means "Spring" in English, as the springtime is when we begin our journey toward Holy Week, and deeper into our relationship with Christ).
Communicating what we're up to as Church Leaders:
We as your church leaders are committed to being as transparent as possible regarding what we're up to. Please pray for the session as we continue in servant-leadership in the following areas, beyond the ministry team leadership:
Welcoming Rev. Dr. Nate Devlin (Associate Pastor at Beverly Heights EPC) as our temporary moderator. Your pastors and elders are responsible for the content of our agenda, but Pastor Nate has been gracious in assisting us to moderate the session meetings.
Receiving a report from the Interim Pastor Search Team.
Establishing a small team of elders to field your questions and concerns concerning the transition more directly, in addition to communication from the pulpit and in these written forms.
Review of our plan for preaching for the month of March. We are pleased and extremely blessed to have our theologian-in-residence, Rev. Dr. Bruce Bickel preaching for the month of March.
Review and evaluation of our Mission Possible mission for this summer.
Continuation of our Vision Casting work as a session, namely defining what our identity is, and what demographic focus is for ministry and outreach.
Review of our Family Fusion program and the success of the Small Groups we have implemented.
Thank you all for your prayers, your faithfulness to Jesus, and your commitment to supporting and loving one another as Christ has loved us,
~Pastor Steve
|
|
Having Trouble Viewing the Clip Art?
If you are having trouble viewing the clip art on this Pastoral E-Letter, please go to the top of the page and click where it reads "Click Here." If you have Outlook, please right click in the image block and "download pictures."
|
|
|
