Transfiguration - A February 3rd, AD 2006
Meadowvale Lutheran Church, Mississauga
Pastor Peter Lisinski
"WHAT
KIND OF GOD IS GOD?"
(Gospel:
St. Matthew 11:1-9)
As Michael Garcia was planning to read our
second lesson today, he wanted to talk with me about how we know that the Bible
is the word of God. As coincidence
-- or providence -- would have it, I had read the following story from Rabbi
Harold Kushner's book, "Living A Life That Matters", that very
morning.
Some
years ago, one of Great Britain’s leading Jewish intellectuals was being
considered for the position of Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth.
An extremely conservative member of the selection committee called him
in, opened the Bible to Samuel 15, and read Samuel's words to King Saul:
"Thus said the Lord of Hosts:
“Attack
the enemy, kill men and women, infants and children, sparing no one."
The committee member then said to the candidate, "That's in the
Bible. Do you believe God said that
to Samuel?" The candidate answered, "I believe that Samuel heard it,
but I don't believe that God said it."
The candidate did not get the position…. (Kushner, 2001, p. 96).
Rabbi Kushner's story addresses the question
Michael Garcia is beginning to wrestle with:
What kind of God is God? How
can we know it is God speaking to us, and not just our own inner voice? And how
can we know we are serving God's will and not simply our own wishful thinking?
As the religious conflicts raging in our world today remind us, these are
profoundly important questions; and they are far more difficult to answer than
the bumper-sticker quoted in a recent conversation I had with a member from one
of the other congregations of our Meadowvale West Church Centre claims:
"The Bible says it. I
believe it. That settles it."
It's not that easy to understand God's word
and God's will! Humanity's quest to know God; to hear God's word, and do God's
will does begin with the Bible, but it does not end with the Bible.
And in today's Gospel, God's voice personally points us beyond the pages
of scripture: "This is my Son," God says. “Listen to him”!
In the transfigured Jesus Christ our vision -- our knowledge
understanding -- of God is transfigured! In
Jesus' divine humanity we see what kind of God God is -- with reference to Rabbi
Kushner’s example we see God as a God willing to die for his enemies, but not
to kill them! In the preaching and
teaching of Jesus we hear God's saving word and learn God's serving will!
As today's bulletin's "Word From Martin Luther" says:
"The
Word of God is the gospel concerning his Son, who was made flesh, suffered
death, rose from the dead, and sets free from sin and saves from death those who
believe the gospel."
"The
Freedom of a Christian”
Pastor Luther taught that the Bible is the
word of God because it contains the gospel of God's grace, just as the manger in
Bethlehem contained the newborn baby Jesus! The Lutheran Church does not use words like
infallible, or inerrant to describe God's word in the Bible.
Instead, we speak of the Bible as the inspired word of God.
Lutherans read, study, and interpret the words of the Bible through the
filter of Jesus' mission and ministry, sifting through the scriptures to find
the good news of God's love. Jesus
Christ is God's living, and life-giving word, speaking to us today -- calling us
in the here and now, to conform our mission and ministry according to God's
promise to save, and God's will to serve the here and now needs for peace and
justice, freedom and prosperity of today's people living in today's world.
In the Holy Communion of worship we catch a glimpse of the world's needs fulfilled -- a world, now divided by the darkness of sin, transformed -- transfigured -- by God's eternally spoken, historically incarnate, personally present word, Jesus Christ, into one, united holy communion of love. The Christian church is called to hear and proclaim God's word that all people -- family and friends, neighbours, strangers, and even enemies -- are welcome to share God's divine, eternal glory together with God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and with all who listen, hear and trust, the living, life-giving word God has spoken and continues to speak in and through him!