“Eyewitnesses of His Majesty,” (1 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9)

1 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9

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Pastor Tom Johnson, February 23, 2020

"Transfiguration" by Carl Bloch (1834-1890)

Our reading from Peter’s letter is his own personal account of the Transfiguration—how he was an eyewitness of Jesus’ majesty. Jesus leads Peter, James, and John high up on a mountain. His appearance changes. He no longer appears merely human. He shows the blinding light and radiance of his divine nature. It is as if the mask of humanity comes off—just for a few moments—so that these few disciples can see the full truth and splendor of his identity. This majestic event does not just come through the eye but also through the ear. God the Father says, “This is my Son, my Beloved with whom I am well pleased.” Peter says, “I saw it with my own eyes. I heard it with my own ears. This is a vision that I was given,” he says. “It cannot be taken away from me. But it can and must be shared.”

What I so appreciate about Peter is that he does not talk about his experience in a braggadocios way or to elevate himself. Or to say, “Look at how special I am.” He shares his story to encourage us to also become eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty. Peter’s strategy is to convince us to first say that he did not make this stuff up. “I did not follow cleverly devised myths,” he says. Peter is not merely a creative teller of tall tales—a spinner of yarn. His message is not man-made religion. It is a divine revelation that Peter was blessed with. And now he wants to bless others.

A long time ago, I was an exchange student in Barcelona, Spain. One of my classmates asked me where I was from. He then complained: “Why does everything I buy say ‘Made in USA?’” I was surprised. I heard complaints growing up about how many things were made in Japan just was you will hear complaints today about how many things are made in China. If you turn the Christian faith over, it does not say made in the USA, Spain, or China. You could argue, “Made in Ancient Israel” or “Made in Jerusalem.” But Peter’s account gives us God the Father’s authentication: he is not made or created at all. He is eternally begotten of the Father—the eternal Son of Majesty and Glory.

There are so many cleverly devised human philosophies. There are so many myths that can inspire. But we should not be duped by things made by the intellectual prowess of human beings—no matter how impressive. What sets our faith apart it is that it is rooted in history. And, even more than that, rooted in timeless eternity. At one point in time and space Peter was on the mountain. He experienced for himself the blinding and deafening truth about Jesus. The transfiguration reminds us that Jesus Christ is uncreated, eternal. all-powerful, all-knowing. He is the Lord of Glory, the God of Majesty, the divine veiled in humanity. He is the bright, incarnate morning star (Rev 22:16). He is Alpha and Omega. His light and life have no beginning and will have no end. Peter takes from his own treasured experience on that Holy Mountain to enrich all of our lives. He says, “You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

This is a great vision of the journey of Lent to Easter. We bury our alleluias. We go through the wilderness and the dark valleys of our struggle with sin—just as Jesus was tempted in all things yet without sin. The light guides us through the betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus. We know that our alleluias will return. He will triumph over the deep darkness of our sin, evil, and death itself. Those who dwell in the shadow of death will see a great light! On the third day, early that Sunday morning the bright morning star will rise out of the black horizon. The twilight comes. And then the dawn of a new day—the day Jesus will make all things new.

But we do not need to wait until that day for the day to dawn and for Christ the Morning Star to rise in our hearts. Peter says that happens now. We are a people whose hearts are filled with the majesty and glory of the risen Christ! He was transfigured for the apostles Peter, James and John in the company of the great prophets Moses and Elijah. That was not the end of Christ’s audience of his majesty and glory. That was just the beginning. Now by that same Word and Holy Spirit—by that same Christ—we too are now eyewitnesses of his majesty. We have also seen his glory. What was for Peter and for us is a personal experience is now a universal encouragement. We can now encourage others to cultivate the light of Christ in their own hearts. “You will do well to be attentive to this,” Peter says. You will be blessed to seek your own revelation of the power and Sonship of Jesus. Our lives have also been transformed by the glory of Jesus. We are filled with the light of his forgiveness. We have a foretaste of our heavenly glory. And one day, we too will radiate Christ’s majesty more brightly than the midday sun.

And faithful hearts are raised on high
by this great vision’s majesty
For which in joyful strains we raise
The voice of prayer, the hymn of praise
          (“O Wondrous Type! O Vision Fair,” LSB 413, v. 4)

“Thought, Word, and Deed” (Psalm 119:11,18)

“I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you.” —Psalm 119.11

“Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” —Psalm 119.18

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Pastor Tom Johnson, February 16, 2020

Psalm 119 is a wisdom psalm. It’s the longest Psalm—175 verses. There are 22 stanzas—one stanza for each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each line begins with the same letter. This was a great way to learn the Hebrew ABCs. It is full of wisdom about the Word of God and what our relationship to God should be like. It is a prayer full of wisdom and joy. And it celebrates the power and wonder of Scripture.

“I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you.” We commit Scripture to memory. We hide it in our hearts. We wisely store it in our memory banks so that in our time of need we can draw the strength that we need. Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man finds and covers up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt 13:44).

John McCain, a veteran of the Vietnam War was shot down from his plane, nearly killed, and then a prisoner of war in Hanoi for 6 years. He was tortured. He and the other American prisoners were denied everything including Bibles. But McCain and the other prisoners were able to remember the liturgy and many Scriptures of their childhood. This treasure buried deep within their souls could not be taken away from them. In their time of trouble, they were encouraged by the treasure trove of God’s Word that they had buried there years before.

“I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you.” This meditation and pondering of the words of the Bible will direct and illuminate our paths. Another verse of this same psalm says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (v. 105). The power of God’s power prevents us from harming others and ourselves. It keeps us close to the heart of God in our words, thoughts, and lives to glorify him. That is the wisdom of Jesus’ teaching in our Gospel. That God’s commandments are not there just to give the outward appearance of right and godly living. It is not enough that have not physically murdered or committed adultery. God is concerned about our whole being—body, soul, and spirit. One rabbinical writer says of this verse, “Mere knowledge of Torah is not enough. It’s words must be meditated upon and kept in the fore of one’s mind. Only in this way will they produce the salutary effect of refining one’s character and conduct, and bringing us closer to God.” God wants our not just our actions to line up with his will. He wants our thoughts to be transformed. He wants our words to flow from hearts filled with the treasure of his Word. He wants us to hit the bull’s eye of his target which is obedience and loving God with our whole being and loving one another as Christ has loved us.

One of my Hebrew professors in seminary told all his students that we should commit Psalm 119 verse 18 to memory in Hebrew. That is how important he believed this verse to be for the student and preacher of God’s Word.

“Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” This is a beautiful reminder that there are wondrous things in the Bible. There are many marvels that will surprise us. There is a lifetime of discoveries waiting for us in the pages of Scripture that will leave us in awe and fill us with joy.

The 19th century London preacher Charles Spurgeon said there is no greater crime than for preachers to bore people with the Word of God. Our prayer as speakers and as hearers is for God to open our eyes—that he would unveil our hearts and minds so that we can see, hear, and taste that the Lord is good—and awesome. Just as the German Reformer Martin Luther reminds us in the catechism: we cannot by our own reason or strength come to him. We prayerfully receive the work of the Holy Spirit to help us understand, direct our paths, and lead us to wisdom and celebration.

After the disciples heard Jesus explain how the Old Testament Scripture is about himself on the road to Emmaus, they began to understand how much treasure there is about Christ in the stories and writings of the whole Bible. They said to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Lk 24:32). Jesus often opened his disciples minds to understand the Scriptures (Lk 24:45).

So we pray that he would open for us the treasure chest from Genesis to Revelation that our hearts would burn within our breasts each and every day as we journey through this life discovering the relevance of his death and resurrection for us. We will not just be more informed—more obedient—but true worshipers of God Almighty—filled with his wonder and awe—marveling at just how great our God is—pondering and treasuring in our hearts the gift of his Son is—receiving the strength to comprehend “the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:18,19).

Grant us grace to see Thee, Lord
Present in Thy holy Word
Grace to imitate Thee now
And be pure, as pure art Thou.
That we might become like Thee
At Thy great epiphany
And may praise Thee, ever blest,
God in men made manifest.
          (“Songs of Thankfulness and Praise,” LSB 394, v. 5)

“The Mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:1-16)

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

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Pastor Tom Johnson, February 9, 2020

The church in Corinth was a troubled church. Paul expresses his surprise and sadness that they are breaking apart. He writes them to encourage them to be a unified, growing, and healthy place. They are dividing from the inside out. Some choose their favorite Christian teachers and divided over the finer points of theology—or personality. They are dividing from the outside in. They have brought in worldly philosophy. It often conflicts with their new identity in Christ. Paul describes a healthier approach: “I did not come to you,” he says, “proclaiming the mystery of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

By all accounts, Paul was an excellent public speaker being trained in both Greek philosophy and rhetoric as well as the Hebrew Bible and rabbinical scholarship. He  says he does not try to impress people with his rhetoric, elocution, or speechcraft—or with his brilliant, academic mind. No, he stays at the heart of our faith and the heart of God’s love for the world—his Son Jesus Christ, the one who is God’s gift to everyone—who was crucified to break the power of sin, evil, and death itself. It is so easy to lose our focus—to slowly wander off the path of Scripture—to get caught up in all the stuff going on in the world around us and no longer fix our eyes and our ears upon Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

A few years ago, I was visiting my parents. My dad came out of the TV room all worked up. He was angry, confused, and anxious. He was watching one of the 24 hour news networks. He was all jacked up on politics. He told my mom, “I can’t believe one politician said this and did that. It makes me so angry the direction our country is going. I’m so upset because there is nothing I can do about it.” My mom said, “Yes, there is. Turn it off.” “What?” “Turn the TV off.” “Or watch a ball game or something else.”

Paul gives the believers in Corinth similar wisdom. Quit bringing worldly thinking into the Church. Stop using human reason and philosophy against one another. What was true for the Corinthians is true of the Chicagoans—is also true for any people anywhere and at any time. There are so many competing philosophies—so many theologies, schools of thought, and political points of view and contention.

We above all people should not allow those things in infiltrate the church. And the way we bring in this worldly infirmity is through our minds. We carry division and enmity in our hearts and minds like a virus. We may have been infected by it long ago. And now we put those at risk around us. We have the cure and antidote which Paul writes out like a prescription. We need to experience God’s love through the power of his Word and Holy Spirit. And this is not just a one-time inoculation. It is an ongoing cleansing and sanctification.

Faith in Jesus is not anti-intellectual. God does not ask us to check our brains at the door and take blind, flying leaps of faith. However, faith in Jesus does transcend intellectual understanding and worldly philosophy. Paul calls the Gospel “the mystery of God.” What a great word, mystery! It is a truth that only God reveals by his Word and Spirit. The truth of God’s love for us in Christ is so big—it is so beautiful that we cannot fully comprehend it. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” That’s a good problem! We believe in something we will spend a lifetime learning about. Paul says that to receive and understand the gifts of God only comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit uses God’s Word—not human words and philosophy to re-wire our brains. As we hear and read the truth of Scripture, the Holy Spirit creates newer, healthier, and better neural pathways in our minds.

Dr. Daniel Siegel is a neural biologist with a medical degree from Harvard, teaches clinical psychiatry at UCLA, and has studied brain scans and the health of the minds of his patients for a long time. He can show on brain scans how unhealthy thinking has feedback loops and unhealthy pathways. The unhealthy mind will manifest itself with addictions of all kinds, being prone to anger, being overwhelmed with anxiety, and many other unhealthy patterns. Dr. Siegel’s solution is for people to create new, neural pathways. The healthy mind gives executive function to the prefrontal cortex. This is the area of the brain where things are such as empathy, mindfulness, and self-regulation and control. He has live brain scans which show what happens when people are truly in synch with each other. Their brains light up! All those healthy neurons fire up and show clean and healthy pathways through the brain. He says that no where is this more evident than when people are singing in a choir! People are literally in harmony with one another. They are watching the director, listening to the instruments, one another, and creating a unified, beautiful sound.

We have the mind of Christ! His Word enters our eyes and our ears and floods our minds with the light of his truth and grace and love. And the Holy Spirit kindles a fire that burns in our hearts and minds. We are lit by God. And as Jesus says, we are now the light of the world bringing hope and illumination by that same Word and Spirit so that everyone will experience his love and that peace that transcends all human understanding.

From thy Cross Thy wisdom shining
Breaketh forth in conqu’ring might
From the cross forever beameth
All Thy bright redeeming light.
                    (“Thy Strong Word,” LSB 578, v. 4)

“Light in the Temple” (Luke 2:22-40)

Luke 2:22-40

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Pastor Tom Johnson, February 2, 2020

Last week, someone sent me an article about a congregation in Minnesota whose membership is getting smaller and older. They want to attract younger families in one of the fastest growing communities in Minnesota. The church will close for two years and restart with a younger pastor and more contemporary worship . Older members feel like they have been asked to leave to make way for the young. They feel unappreciated and discarded.

This is such stark contrast to what we see in our reading from Luke. We have one man, Simeon, who is holding onto a lifelong promise that he will one day meet the Messiah. And an 84 year old woman, Anna, who is in the Temple night and day. Luke says, “She never left the temple.” Both of these faithful worshipers welcomed Jesus into the Temple as the promised Messiah. Simeon says that this child is the light and glory for both Jews and Gentiles. Anna starts to praise God and prophesy—to preach—to those who were longing for Messiah to look to this small child as the one. What God is doing here is multigenerational and multiethnic. God shines his Light into the world through young and old, Jew and Gentile, male and female. Decades later, in the same Temple, Peter will preach from Joel chapter 2: “…I will pour our my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”

The temple did not have much furniture in it. What it did have were tables, altars, and lamps. These lamps were fueled by olive oil. They were to be set up to bring light to God’s gifts and blessings in his Temple. In the Temple, these lights shined on the altars of thanksgiving and the forgiveness of sins. The lamps illuminated the space so that all could enter in and see all the good and beautiful things God was doing in the lives of his people.

Anna and Simeon are God’s light and bearers of the Holy Spirit in his Temple. They are doing their part to bring the promised Messiah to light. God uses them so that the whole world will not let this Child King escape their attention. Both Anna and Simeon receive the Light of Christ into the Temple with praise, thanksgiving, and a celebratory and prophetic Word. They immediately shine their lights on the true Light that enlightens the whole world. What this story tells us is that Anna and Simeon received the Light of Christ not only into the Temple—that building made of stone, wood, and precious metals and fabrics. They received the Light of the Messiah into their hearts. They received Christ into the Temples of their bodies. And they prepared others to receive Christ’s light into their hearts and lives. The pointed to the One who brings God’s forgiveness, love, and eternal life most fully to light.

This text is about Christ’s Light coming to the world through unexpected people—a newborn infant and the elderly. It reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways. He does not want us to miss his gifts to us. He does not want us to underestimate the blessing of the very young nor the very old. God’s light shines brightly through those who are in the dawn and dusk of their lives—through those freshly beginning their lives and those who are well seasoned and mature. This account reminds us not underestimate God’s power in anyone’s lives—Jew or Gentile, young or old, male or female—no matter one’s ethnicity, age, or gender. That means we do not underestimate what God does through others. Nor do we underestimate what God can do through each one of us.

Today is candlemas. It is one of those Sundays we set out a few more candles and lamps to celebrate the coming of Messiah’s light. Today we even light the Christ Candle in anticipation of Holy Baptism. Like Anna and Simeon welcomed the young Child Jesus, so we welcome Margo into God’s family as our sister in Christ, a royal daughter of our heavenly King. We will light a candle from the Christ Candle. We will tell her what is true of all of us: “Receive this burning light. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life. Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

The Light of the World has come through the Child King. He bathed the world in the light of his teaching and healing. The world tried to snuff out his light on the Cross of Calvary. But three days later his light burst out of the empty tomb and illuminated his defeat of sin, all evil, and even death itself. He brought immortality to light. On Pentecost, the fire of his light entered the Temple by the Holy Spirit. And by Holy Baptism, we receive the light of Christ into the Temple of our bodies and hearts.

We are the light of Christ! We bear his light to one another. The young are here to warm our hearts of those who are older. The older are here to bring their wisdom, to model ardent and vibrant worship, and to sing their songs of praise. We bear the light in this world until that day we need neither sun nor moon because the Lord of glory returns to be our eternal light and our lamp will be the Lamb. And we will radiate his light for eternity—more brightly than the midday sun.