Praise towards the Supper [Transfiguration; St. Matthew 17:1-9]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Jesus speaks to us today saying,

“But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’”

Up to this point in the Divine Service, we have been fine. There has been plenty that we have been able to hang on to. Plenty that has made physical sense to us, plenty that we have accomplished with our own faculties. 

Confessing our sins? Easy, human work and normal and natural. We can acknowledge that sin means someone has been wronged, in this case God, and amends must be made. So we say we’re sorry in confession and absolution and, in a very human way, become reconciled.

We’ve processed, moved towards God, in normal human fashion, by walking, standing, and bowing. All the while using feet, legs, and joints we are all accustomed to. We’ve chanted our psalm-prayer with our vocal chords while moving in the Introit, begged for mercy from the Lord, and made our confession with the angels in the Gloria. We’ve acknowledged that the Lord is with us in the Salutation and have heard His Word to us, with ears, in the three readings of the Service.

We have even allowed one of us humans to stand up and expand God’s Word for us, demanding that he preach the Lord’s forgiveness, in our pastor. All of these things being finished thus far in the Divine Service, we dig into our human works bag of tricks that has up to this point not failed us and find it empty. We have come to a point in the Service, after the Offering, in which it appears we have nothing left that we can do to show God we mean business. We have run out of human things to do. We open our hands for the next part of Service and find they are empty.

This produces real fear in us. To this point, the trail of God has been easy to follow as it has been done on earth, with earthly things, and human actions, as Jesus did. The trail has followed the Lord’s path and we have been able to keep our eyes on Him as He moves with us through these human actions of worship. But suddenly, He disappears. Suddenly we lose sight of Him and we are left blinking with a bright light in our eyes and a cliff before our feet.

Moses and the disciples reach a similar place of fear and terror, heard in the Old Testament and Gospel readings today. Moses as you know, has run away from Egypt and his family, having murdered a man. For years he has lived in fear of being found out and now, the God Who sees all and knows all stands before him in the Burning Bush.

Peter, James, and John, have been with Jesus for two years now, but none of the miracles have prepared them for such a sight as the transfiguration. So much so, that St. Peter attempts to make things better than God has, in suggesting that we go back doing things in a physical way, and build tabernacles or portable temples.

As Jesus points out, we and Moses and the disciples are afraid and fear is the one thing that we are not to have, as is said in multiple places throughout the Bible. 

So do not fear, for I am with you” ~ Isaiah 41:10

 Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified” ~ Joshua 1:9

 But Jesus spoke up: “It is I; do not be afraid.” (John 6:20)

 Fear is a tool of the devil and it is how the world controls us. Flip on any television set and you will hear nothing but fear out of the mouths of your betters. The Impeachment trial will have no witnesses! My team might not win the Superbowl. The corona virus is getting closer. Its flu season. Iran has nukes. They’re coming to take my guns. Fossil fuels are running out. Will the groundhog see his shadow?

But, most important of all is the attack fear has on faith. It says that there is nothing after the cliff of the first part of the Divine Service. It says that no thing can exist that we can not see and measure and interact with. It says that God is far away. It says that there is no hope for a bag of flesh like you in the spiritual world of heaven.

So what do we do now? Now that there is no human way beyond the human world?

It turns out, the answer is simple. So simple that it is passed over just as the widow’s mites were passed over by all who were putting their offering into the Temple treasury. So simple, even we take it for granted each and every time God brings us to this point in the Divine Service. 

The bright light shining in our faces at the edge of this cliff is none other than Jesus. It is not the infinite-ness of God alone, but the infinite-ness of God wrapped in human flesh. The Transfiguration, first and foremost, is made known to us to remind us that God’s glory and Jesus are not two separate things. In Jesus, God and man become one Christ.

But it is not as if Jesus came just to be a stepping stone. He did not tip His hand by showing us which stones He stepped on when He walked on water. He does not just give us a little shove and tell us “good luck with the cliff”.

Our answer lies within the Preface, the Sanctus, and the Lord’s Prayer. This is because these are words and songs of angels and heaven itself. When the physical is exhausted, the spiritual takes over. Just as Elijah was whisked away on a fiery chariot, so too do the words and hymns of eternity solidify for us and carry us beyond the face of the cliff of fear and uncertainty towards God.

It is simply the Word of God that declares our arrival into the Kingdom of Light from the Kingdom of darkness. In the Preface we are reminded that the Lord is with us and that up to this point has done amazing things for us. Why would He stop?

In the Sanctus, we hear the Hosanna of “Lord save us”, which the Church has cried out for all time. Jesus has saved others and has saved Himself. Why would He not save us, who have been baptized into His death and resurrection?

In the Lord’s Prayer, the truth is shown that we, the congregation, and the Lord have truly become one. Here, not only do we sing His praises with the angels and archangels, but we are praying with Him at the same time, with the same words. It is God’s own prayer!

This togetherness that the Lord has worked in us through His sacraments, now is shouted out by us to remind God and to remind us that we are the believers who, in Christ, deserve to be brought to the heights of heaven and feast at the Table of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not be left hanging when human works fail.

Secure in this Faith, we move once more towards God. This time it is towards the place and the things that are the closest to Him, which turn out to be things on earth and not things far away. Our fears are put away by God’s own presence, not because we finally see, but because God was made man as is as close to us as our own flesh.

This is the sacramental view of the world that Christmas gives us. That God is not far, but close, in His Word and Sacrament. That God’s demands are small and normal, because they have been completed in Christ. Now that God works in the world, through physical things, working heavenly truths, there is nothing to be afraid of.

God has arrived. The One we have been waiting for to reassure us, to give us courage, to prove that our faith is true. He has arrived and is on the same battlefield we are and waving His rally flag. His bugler has sounded the call, “Rally round the Lamb!” God’s Word is true. The fight has ended. The Lord hands out victory in Word and Sacrament.

Week after week, then, Jesus comes to us and touches us and tells us to not fear. He speaks these words Himself, in His Word. He sends His called, and ordained servant to touch us with hand-shakes and to live with us, in His pastor. He shines His Transfiguration light upon His Supper and says “Don’t be afraid. It really is God’s Body and Blood and it really is just for you!” And the Divine Service makes it impossible to believe otherwise.

St. John says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 Jn. 4:18). Jesus is the perfect love that is Crucified. He casts out fear. There is no fear in Christ. Since we are in Christ, there is no fear in us either, not because we are never afraid, but because Jesus is fearless. He suffers and dies for us in order to set His Table in the presence of His enemies, not far away from them, and we call Him Immanuel!