Lent 3

Lent 3 (John 4:5-42) The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

Jesus frequently shocked people in his words and actions. His meeting with the Samaritan woman broke two very powerful taboos in his society.

The first taboo is that a man does not speak to a woman who is not a close relative. This is true in many parts of North Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia today. It is a very ancient custom and it was ancient even in Jesus’ day.

The second taboo is that a Jew has nothing to do with a Samaritan.
There was a long history of animosity conflict and war between the Samaritans and the Jews. The Samaritans were descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel that had seceded from the Unified Kingdom after Solomon’s reign.

The Ten Northern tribes re formed the Kingdom of Israel under a new dynasty. The Tribe of Judah, the Jews, held on to the old capital Jerusalem and its Temple. Only the tribes of Benjamin and Judah remained loyal to the Dynasty founded by King David.
The Northern Kingdom realized that if their citizens continued to travel to worship God in the Temple in Jerusalem they might also pledge loyalty to the kings of Judah. Under King Jeroboam, the Northern Kingdom built its own shrines and temples. While this was politically advantageous for the kings it was also contrary to the Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.

The call of Moses and the prophets was the call to loyalty to the One God. The Northern Kingdom compromised this loyalty and fell into the sin of syncretism. They mixed and matched the religion of Moses with the surrounding pagan religions. Eventually, they formed political alliances with the pagan kingdoms through intermarriage.

The Northern Kingdom abandoned their religion and lost their national identity. Over the course of time they lacked the dedication to God that would preserve their nation. A series of invasions from foreign nations destroyed the Northern Kingdom and either killed or deported the majority of the population.

The remaining people no longer called themselves Israelites. They called themselves Samaritans. They counted Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their ancestors. They believed that they inherited the promises God made to the patriarchs. But, they abandoned the religion and their unique national identity.

The Jews of the Southern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah, viewed the Samaritans as traitors to Abraham, Moses, David and above all traitors to God. Jews considered Samaritans unclean. They would not speak with a Samaritan let alone eat with them or even travel through their territory. The Samaritans likewise hated their brethren from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

The people of the Northern Kingdom are sometimes called the Ten Lost Tribes. They were not lost in the sense that they wandered off and disappeared. They were lost in their self will and pride.

Jesus came to seek the lost. He said: I have not come to call the righteous but the unrighteous. The woman at the well lived with three levels of sin: spiritual, national, and moral.

On all three levels she had abandoned the very clear and direct commandments God had given to Moses. She participated in a culture of compromise. It is important to note that Jesus did not excuse her sin. In fact, Jesus identifies her sin as she attempts to avoid recognizing it.

The woman attempts to engage Jesus in a futile debate on matters of faith and morals. Jesus simply affirms the Law of Moses. But, he does not condemn the woman or her culture. Jesus knows they are lost. He has come to seek the lost, find the lost and to save the lost.

Of course the Lost will sin. Of course the lost will rebel against the Law of God. The lost are the righteous and the unrighteous. All too often, the righteous cannot acknowledge their condition. They believe their right action and right belief earn them a special reward from God.

Jesus corrects but does not condemn the righteous. Jesus confronts but does condemn the unrighteous.

In his conversation with the woman at the well Jesus breaks two very powerful taboos. He does this because he has come to find, seek and save the lost.
The religion of Israel taught that salvation was a matter of rewards for right action and right belief. Jesus came to show that salvation is right relationship. Right action and right belief have a place but cannot bring salvation.

Jesus identifies the root of the problem confronting the woman, the Samaritans and all people. The root of the problem is relationship. The Samaritans chose distortions in three levels of relationship: their relationship with God, their relationship to the Nation and in their personal relationships.

The fundamental distortion is in worship. The woman attempts to direct the conversation about worship into religious and cultural categories. Jesus redirects the conversation into the category of relationship.

Worship is the way human beings offer love to God and experience the love of God. Worship immerses the mind, heart and will in the infinite and eternal love of the One God in three persons. This is why Jesus says: it is the Father who seeks us and invites us to worship. It is the Father who sends the Spirit, the Holy Spirit , to invite us to worship him in truth. Truth is not a statement of fact. Truth is the fundamental pattern, plan and purpose of the Creation. Truth is a person, Jesus Christ.

True worship is Trinitarian worship. True worship is the human response to the invitation of the Holy Spirit into the total immersion of the Love the Father has for the Son and the Son has for each of us.

The woman heard Jesus with astonishment. She had expected either condemnation or indulgence. She experienced Truth. She looked at Jesus Christ and discerned he is the perfect mirror of the Divine. He recognized her sin, called it by name, then offered to transform that sin by his own unconditional love and holiness.

The woman said: I know that the Messiah is coming. In that statement she express a secret hope. Jesus recognized that hope and very simply and directly said: I am He. I am the Messiah in whom you have placed your hope.

The woman believed. The other Samaritans in her town believed. And the disciples were astonished. How could this be? How could reprobate Samaritans receive the Messiah when so many of the Chosen had rejected him?

The invitation to reunification with God is universal. Human response is personal. Salvation is a gift God offers to all people everywhere. The gift is not a place or a possession or a power. The gift of God is a person: the co-eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The Samaritans rejoiced when the Messiah came to seek them out and to find them. They received the gift, much to the astonishment and confusion of the disciples.
Jesus seeks all people everywhere. He offers all people the gift of unconditional love and the gift of transforming holiness. Jesus is the Great Bridge, the Pontifex Maximus, between the Divine and the human. Jesus is the Great Physician who makes house calls to every person on this planet. Jesus actively and ceaselessly seeks the lost. He finds the lost in whatever condition of fear, self will and pride that the lost have created for ourselves. And, Jesus offers salvation to the lost by offering himself to be our one true forever friend.

Worship is the highest form of love human beings can experience. True worship reunites the lost soul to God. True worship transforms the lost soul in God. God wants all people everywhere to experience that love.

That is why Jesus told the Samaritan woman who was outside the community of Israel: The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

Lent 2

Lent 2 (John 3:1-17) You must be born again.

If you are born once you die twice. If you are born twice you die once.

Jesus came to Earth to give a species lost in separation, sin and death a new life. The new life starts with a new birth. The new birth can be described as being born again. The new life is a gift.

It is no coincidence that Jesus first chose to reveal this amazing gift to one of the preeminent religious teachers of the day. Nicodemus was a teacher of the Law. He was a member of a ruling authority called the Sanhedrin. He was an officially recognized and honored theologian. And, he was a legal authority with the power to judge whether or not other people kept the law.

As with all people who exercise power Nicodemus lived with fear. If he showed any weakness, any compromise, any hesitation in upholding the law and defending the religion then others on the Sanhedrin would turn against him, convict him and condemn him. In the worst case scenario he could be found guilty of blasphemy and be executed.

Law based religion is fear based religion. There is no fear in the person of Jesus Christ. There is only the perfect love of God. Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love transforms fear into faith.

Nicodemus built his life and his career within the structures of law based religion. He knew the rewards and the punishments. He lived with the fear. The deepest fear is that no matter how hard I try and how dedicated I am I can never be perfect. The Law is always subject to interpretation and enforcement by people as imperfect as I am.
Since I cannot be perfect I need to be clever. I need to cultivate alliances within the power structure. And, I need to inspire fear to make sure my allies keep their promises.

Law based religion is fear based religion.

Nicodemus could not just come to Jesus in broad daylight to ask his questions. They were very logical questions, very good questions. As a religious ruler Nicodemus could not afford to be seen as indecisive. He had to project confidence and certainty that he knew exactly what God wanted and how human beings could obligate God to give us what we want.

Law based religion does not invite questions. Law based religion rejects discussion. Law based religion dominates.

Nicodemus appears to have understood the weakness in his approach to religion. He seems to have come to that wonderful place where he asked himself: is that all there is? Is religion all about imposing rigid rules on myself and other people? Is religion about rewards and punishments? Is there fundamentally only condemnation in religion, in God?

Nicodemus recognized he had a problem. It was a beautiful problem because it led him to ask questions. It led him to Jesus Christ.

So, Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of darkness. He came with his questions. He came with his fear, and shame and guilt that he, a religious expert and judge, lacked something. He came with fear that Jesus would not have an answer. He came with hope that Jesus just might have an answer. He discovered that Jesus just doesn’t have an answer Nicodemus could weigh against other religious teachings and graft into his own system. Jesus is the answer.

Nicodemus introduces his question with a statement. He intends the statement to flatter Jesus. He acknowledges that “we”, the religious elite, consider you, Jesus, to be a teacher.

From Nicodemus’ position this was a major concession. After all, Jesus had no seal of approval from any school. He had no degree, no preaching license, no human authority.

Nicodemus he even explains why the religious elite have come to this conclusion. It is the miracles. The miracles are evidence that God is working out some purpose in Jesus.

Nicodemus is not quite ready to ask his question. Jesus perceives this. So, Jesus makes a statement designed specifically to provoke a response and a question from Nicodemus. This is important to ponder.

Jesus had never met Nicodemus but he knew him. He knew him better than Nicodemus knew himself. Jesus knew Nicodemus because God the Father had created Nicodemus by, through and for God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit. God the Father had created Nicodemus according to the plan, the pattern and the purpose of God the Son. Jesus saw his own image in Nicodemus. That image manifested in a unique personality filled with talents and gifts and potential.

Jesus also saw where Original Separation had distorted that image. Jesus perceived how sin had eroded and corrupted that image. And, Jesus observed how fear, self will and pride had led Nicodemus to create a false self that had nothing in common with the Image and Likeness of God imprinted on his soul. Nicodemus used his false self to defend against the demands of the Law, other people, and the false image of God Nicodemus had embraced. There is no law or religious ritual Jesus could give Nicodemus to restore what Nicodemus had lost.

There is in fact no solution to the problem Nicodemus had become and was experiencing short of a total transformation. That transformation is exactly what Jesus announced to Nicodemus.

You must be born again.

A soul lost in separation creates a personality grounded in fear. A soul lost in separation defends itself from self discovery through pride. A soul lost in separation is a soul already experiencing the consequence of separation: death.
Nicodemus just didn’t need some new ideas. He needed a new life. In modern slang Jesus might have said just that. Get a life, Nicodemus. What you have now is not life. As busy as you are, as rich and powerful as you are, you are dead in the inward recess of your soul.

You exist, Nicodemus, but you don’t live. Get a life. Here, take mine.
I have come from the Father in the fullness of life, eternal life. Take my life, Nicodemus. All you need to do is experience a new birth. You have been born of the flesh Nicodemus. Now you need to be born of the Spirit.

What Jesus told Nicodemus was beyond comprehension. It was outside the parameters of religion and culture and experience. It was in fact a solution to a problem Nicodemus did not want to accept, let alone understand.

And so, Nicodemus challenged Jesus. At least he did it with a question. A question is the first step into the new life of God’s Kingdom.

How can this be? Nicodemus asks. He is confused and frustrated. He had praised Jesus and expected some courtesy and some compliment in return. He wanted an interesting insight or a comment he could store away and repeat at dinner parties. Jesus read the deeper longing of his soul. Nicodemus wanted meaning and purpose.

That meaning and purpose is not Law or religion. It is not a clever comment or new teaching. It is a new life and a new way of living.

Nicodemus struggled with his own resistance. He was lost and did not want to be found. Yet, God the Father had created Nicodemus in the image and likeness of God the Son. The Son stood before him. The Son offered him the deepest desire of his soul. Jesus offered him a personal relationship with the Divine.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh. It is born into a species lost in separation and distorted by sin. That which is born of the flesh will die.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The Spirit of God is the co-eternal third person of the Holy Trinity who unites us to God the Father through a personal relationship with God the Son. That relationship is eternal, it is unconditional love, it is holiness and it is life. In Jesus Christ, there is eternal life because Jesus is the co-eternal Son of the Eternal Father.

If you are born once you are born of the flesh. You die physically as the body of flesh wears out. You die physically because you have already died spiritually as you participate in the choice our species made to separate from God.

If you are born twice you die once. Your body still experiences physical death. But your soul is now united to God in Christ and filled with the Holy Life Giving Spirit. Those who are born twice only die physically. They already have eternal life.

Eternal life is the new life in Christ and the new way of living in the Holy Spirit.
Have you been born again?

The gift of God in Christ is a new birth into the eternal life, love and holiness of the Blessed and eternal Trinity.

Do not marvel when Jesus says you must be born again. It is his gift to give. He offers the gift to all people everywhere. It is our choice to receive or reject the gift. It isn’t religion or law. It isn’t culture or power or pride or prestige. It is life. Abundant life. Eternal life. Amen.

Lent 1

Lent I (Matthew 4:1-11) It is written.

Jesus quoted scripture.

It is important to understand that as a child Jesus learned the scriptures in the exact same way we learn the scriptures. Jesus was fully human. He experienced life as we experience life.

St. Paul tells us that when the co-eternal Son of God the Father came to earth and became a particular human being, he emptied himself of his divine knowledge and power. He did this precisely in order to be able to experience human existence with all of its limitations and temptations.

As a child, Jesus spent many hours in the ancient equivalent of Hebrew School in order to learn the Biblical stories and in order to memorize scripture. He learned by repetition. He practiced. His mother, Mary, and step father, Joseph, helped him and from time to time tested him.

Most importantly, Jesus memorized scripture so that at the moment of temptation he could use the resources God makes available to all of us to resist the temptation.
There are three sources of temptation: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The world is the surrounding culture with all of its values and institutions. The world derives its values and creates its institutions from the place of separation that now defines human nature. That separation produces in all people a deeply seated prevalent spiritual pain. Modern philosophers call that pain existential angst. It is the feeling that something is wrong and something is missing. It is the tendency to ask the question about life: is that all there is?

It is the way we who live in a state of separation from God, nature, other people and our own true nature experience the creation and our place in our society.
The values and institutions humanity creates are a defense against this deeply rooted spiritual pain. The various cultures human beings have created are designed to distract us from this pain and to suppress our conscious awareness of this pain. The world creates a false image about God, nature and human life in order to block our the reality of the Original Pain we inherit along with Original Sin.

We don’t need to take the Biblical assertions about human nature at face value. We can read the observations of human behavior and human culture recorded in the many varied books of the Bible. We can look around us and ask the question: what is happening in the world? We can examine our own lives and pay attention to our own reactions to life and to other people.

We can ask the important questions: where I am living defensively? How do I try to distract myself and avoid paying attention to the world as it is? What is this unease I feel about myself, other people, God?

The flesh is the body of distorted desires we carry with us. Original Sin is the choice we made to separate from God. That choice produces Original Pain. The pain distorts the way we think, the way we experience our emotions and the way we make choices. When the Bible speaks of “the flesh” as a source of temptation it is referring to these distortions.

The desires of our heart are rooted in the Original Blessing of our creation but distorted by the Original pain of our choice to separate from God. The Seven Deadly sins are all corrupted virtues that result from these distortions.

Our culture seeks to distract us from our pain. That distraction only results in suffering. Suffering is recycled unconscious pain.

The flesh is the body of distorted desires that leads us to corrupt virtue into sin.
The devil scarcely needs to do any more. The role he has chosen for himself is to keep us in a state of confusion. If we are religious he uses religion to create false images of God. If we are reading the Bible, the devil wants to focus our thoughts on apparent inconsistencies and contradictions rather than the central truth the Bible teaches.

If we have not accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, the devil devises bait and switch tactics to redefine the problem confronting the human race.
If we are in Christ, the devil seeks to steal the joy of our salvation by encouraging conflict and controversy within the Church.

In Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness we see the pattern of temptation the devil brings.

First, the devil attempts to convince us to meet a legitimate human need by wrongful means. So, the devil recognizes Jesus’ hunger and tempts him to use his divine power to turn stones into bread. This is the corruption of miracle into magic through an appeal to power.

Jesus meets this temptation by quoting scripture. So, the devil switches tactics and quotes scripture. He misquotes it, to be sure. But, the fact that the devil quotes scripture at all can be very confusing to people, especially religious people.

Jesus fights fire with fire and uses scripture to correct the misuse of scripture. That is why it is important not just to read the Bible but to study the Bible and to memorize the Bible. The devil will use false teachers to misquote the Bible in order to confuse the faithful and scandalize unbelievers. Jesus sets the pattern for us to counteract this temptation by his careful and insightful use of scripture.

The third temptation is the same appeal Lucifer made to the angels. It is the appeal he made to our first parents Adam and Eve. It is the distortion of worship.
That is why the first commandment God revealed to Moses deals with worship. The devil always seeks to redefine worship and to confuse the meaning and purpose of worship. In a very simple and crude manner he appeals to the human will to power. He encourages us to approach worship with the question: what’s in it for me?

The devil only needs a tiny foothold in our conscious awareness of the call to worship. He only needs to intrude a small deceit to produce ever expanding levels of frustration.

Jesus once again quotes scripture in its proper context and with its proper perspective.

The great gift Jesus offers all of us to combat and resist temptation is the proper use of Scripture. At the Last Supper Jesus promised to send a Counselor, a teacher, to help us. That Counselor is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit speaks definitively in the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Church. The summary statement of the Councils is the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed.
On a personal and individual level, the Holy Spirit is with us as we read, mark learn and inwardly digest the scripture. It is important to read the Scripture in its proper context and with its proper perspective. The meaning of Scripture emerges most fully in the context of the broader life of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The world, the flesh and the devil would prefer we not read scripture. But, if we do, then the world, the flesh and the devil will tempt us to read scripture alone, apart from the insights of the wider church, and out of its proper historical and spiritual context.

The Holy Spirit wants us to be able to follow Jesus’ example as he combats temptation with the words: it is written. We can only do this as we make a firm resolve to read the Bible, study the Bible, and to memorize the Bible. If you only memorize one verse a month, the memory verse in the monthly newsletter and the Sunday bulletin, you will have implanted twelve verses into your mind and heart in the course of a year. You will have twelve more opportunities to meet temptation with the words: it is written.

Ash Wednesday 2011

Ash Wednesday 2011 (Matthew 6:1-6;16-21) Beware of practicing your piety before men.

Jesus assumed that people would practice piety. Piety is a duty we owe God to act with compassion, respect and reverence. It encompasses loyalty and devotion to God, family and the poor.

Ancient people valued piety highly. Homer refers to Odysseus as “pious Odysseus” in the great poetic work The Odyssey. Modern translations of the Odyssey delete the word “pious”. Modern readers no longer understand or value piety.
Modern secular culture has rejected, devalued and corrupted the concept and the practice of piety. In secular culture piety is almost always linked with arrogance and hypocrisy.

In the ancient world and throughout much of human history piety was linked to humility and contrasted with hubris, fatal pride.

Acts of piety included attending worship at the Temple, reading and studying and memorizing scripture, making offerings to the synagogue, taking care of widows and orphans, giving alms to the poor. A man who did not honor God, support his family and help the poor was considered vain and prideful.

Piety acknowledges that God is the Creator. All things come from God. All creatures owe God a duty to live in accord with the principles of divine love and holiness. Ancient peoples did not trust those who failed to perform the basic acts of piety.
The prophets condemned those who used their time and wealth solely for their own narrow self interest. The prophetic call to repentance focused on the rejection of the call to worship and the tendency of the wealthy to steal from and oppress the poor.

Since piety was such a universal virtue and expectation, many people attempted to cheat. They wanted to perform the minimum requirements for the maximum personal and selfish benefit.

And so, the wealthy might hire a herald and a trumpeter to announce the intent of a wealthy man to go to the Temple to make an offering. Such behavior was a gross violation of a pious duty. It was an outward and prideful form of piety that lacked the inward disposition of humility and reverence.

Giving alms to the Temple or to the poor, fasting and praying all all good things, all acts of piety. The attitude from which people perform these acts determine the extent to which the act is an expression of piety or hubris (fatal pride.)
Jesus expected people to perform acts of piety. He warns that the sin nature we each struggle with as a result of the distortions in our mind, hear and will can easily distort the acts of piety our Heavenly Father encourages us to perform.

Jesus upholds the standard. He describes the way we can corrupt the fulfillment of the standard. Then, he gives us the solution. The solution is to focus on God.
Piety in all of its many forms is the way we show love for God and the way we offer love to God. If we diminish or remove God from the act we lose the meaning and purpose.

The secular world saw the abuse of piety and concluded the solution was to reject piety altogether. Jesus acknowledges the abuse but has a different solution. The solution Jesus offers is for us to make a real choice to live and move and have our being in communion with God.

Jesus offers us reunification with God the Father and then transformation in God the Holy Spirit.

From the place of communion piety recaptures its original purpose and restores the original blessing of divine love and holiness.

Practice piety. Offer your good works to God the Father in union with God the Son by the transforming presence of God the Holy Spirit. The reward is the original blessing of eternal holy unconditional love that makes all things new here and now in this life and in the life of the world to come. Amen.

Last Sunday After Epiphany

The Last Sunday of Epiphany (Matthew 17:1-8)
They were overcome by fear.

Peter, James and John ascended the mountain with Jesus to meet Moses and Elijah and to hear the voice of God.

It was six days after Peter’s astonishing confession of faith that Jesus is the Messiah and Peter’s even more astonishing failure of faith in rejecting the very plan and purpose for the Messiah.

Jesus had preached to the nation and hundreds had become his disciples. Jesus chose twelve of his disciples for more intense training to become apostles. Then, Jesus chose three of the apostles to be the leadership team of the future church.
Jesus had spoken in parables and performed amazing miracles in very understated ways. During the three years of his public ministry he avoided the dramatic expression of divine power so many people wanted from him. Now, he selected his leadership team to receive what so many religious people claim we want. Jesus took them to the mountaintop to see a clear vision of the Plan of Salvation and an even clearer experience of the divine.

Peter, James and John could deal with the special effects miracle of Jesus radiating a bright dazzling white. They could even deal with the miraculous appearance of Moses, who represented the Law, and Elijah, who represented the Prophets. They stood their ground but were clearly out of their comfort zone.

Peter incongruously asks Jesus if he should build some booths. This was a reference to the Feast of Tabernacles which commemorated the wandering of the people in the desert during the time of Moses. It was a religious act to be sure. But, it was irrelevant at that moment. Something greater than religious acts stood before them.
Moses and Elijah, the Law and the prophets of the Old Covenant, define who Jesus is. Jesus completes, perfects and re presents the reality of the Law and the prophets in a new context for a New Covenant.

It is the Triune God who presents the new context for the New Covenant. The bright cloud that over shadows them is the same reality that over shadowed Mary and brought forth the incarnation. The bright cloud is the presence and the power of God the Holy Spirit.

The voice is the voice of God the Father. The voice proclaims that Jesus is the Beloved. Not “a” beloved. Not just even “my” beloved. “The” beloved. The co-eternal Son of God.

Peter, James and John were doing fine until the Holy Spirit descended. They were managing, however weakly, to take this amazing and miraculous experience and place it within their very limited and distorted religious context. They had the situation under control. Until the Holy and Eternal Trinity manifested Himself in all of his fullness before them.

They lost it at that point. They lost all illusion of control. They lost all grasp of the comforting limitations of human created religion. They thought they were looking for God and now God had found them. The scripture says: it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Peter, James and John did not understand that scripture until they experienced its reality personally.

Law books and prophets and Succoth booths are one thing. The real presence of the living God is something else entirely. They discovered a principle they only vaguely considered possible. Human sin converts divine holiness into wrath.

People throughout history have spoken of humanity’s search for God. As though it is God who is lost. As though it is God who plays hide and seek with the human race. Moses and the prophets tell a very different story.

The story Moses and the Prophets tell is that humanity is lost and does not want to be found. Humanity wants to define God and put God in his place: a Temple, a statue, a book of laws, a set of rituals. What people don’t want is to be found by the Living God who is who He is.

Suddenly, the reality of the eternal breaks into the realm of time. The Infinite has made itself known fully and completely available on the holy mountain. Jesus reveals his divine glory. It is an eternal glory he shares with His Heavenly Father and the co-eternal Spirit.

It is what Peter, James and John thought they wanted. It was the last thing they had expected would ever happen. It was the one thing that inspired sheer terror. They fell to the ground. They not only experienced fear, they were overcome by fear.
God does not want to frighten us. That is why he came to earth as a very ordinary and unassuming human being. That is why he lived in quiet obscurity for thirty years. That is why he did not summon angelic armies to destroy the enemies of Israel. That is why he did not authorize his followers to bring a reign of terror to Jerusalem to punish the corrupt religious and political leaders.

Jesus Christ is the Beloved of God. He is that co-eternal Beloved whom God the Father has always loved and will always love in union with God the Holy Spirit, the very spirit of love.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the infinite and eternal unconditional holy love of God.

At that moment on that mountain, Peter, James and John experienced what all religious people and even many atheists claim and demand from God. They experienced God upfront and personal.

It was too much. Too much God. Too much love. Too much holiness.

They fell to the ground overcome by fear. They hid their faces from God. They trembled. The cowered. By their actions they revealed the essential problem that defines the human race. We have chosen to separate from God. In that separation we are lost and do not want to be found. As we are lost we distort our minds, hearts and wills through sin. That sin converts divine holiness into wrath.

At the last judgment all people will experience the reality of God in much the same way Peter, James and John experienced God on the holy mountain. On that day many will cry out in fear. They will say to the mountains: fall on us and protect us. They will say to the oceans: cover us and keep us separate. They will run into the darkest caves and say: embrace us with your darkness and hold back the light.
This is why God comes to us meek and mild. He comes at Christmas as the helpless child. He comes as the wise and gentle rabbi. He comes with healing. He comes with humility. He comes during holy week as the innocent victim of the collective human will to power. He comes at Easter as the one who has transformed sin into love, death into life.

He comes meek and mild in utter humility in the bread and the wine of the Blessed Sacrament. He comes in the real presence of love and compassion.

He comes and people say: why him? Where is the God of our ancestors? Where is the God who drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea and thundered from Mt. Sinai? Show us this God and we will believe.

Peter, James and John believed this. Their experience on the mount of Transfiguration changed their minds. The transfiguration not only revealed the awesome majesty of the infinite and eternal God it also revealed the depth of sin that enslaves the human race.

For a moment, the real presence of the Living God broke the foolish and very mundane belief structures of human contrived religion and human contrived images of God.
God is who is he. He spoke to Moses and said: I am. I am who I am. I am nothing like your philosophies, religions or science.

God is real. God is personal. God is love. God is Jesus Christ. The prophets saw this from afar and preached: repent and prepare.

When he comes…when God reveals his glory to us…there is no way we can ever prepare for the reality of Who he is apart from Jesus Christ.

And so, Jesus walks to Peter, James and John. He kneels down. He touches them one by one. He comforts them. He reassures them he is not the wrathful deity that the sinful imagination of their sinful hearts experience. He is Jesus… himself… alone… on the mountain… with his friends.

Moses and Elijah are gone. The Father and the Holy Spirit have withdrawn. The Industrial light and magic special effects have vanished. There is only Jesus, alone, on the cool wind swept mountain reaching down to lift up his friends still paralyzed by fear. Hugging them as they rise. Reassuring them they are safe. Manifesting to them the love and compassion of the Lord of the Universe in a simple hug from a simple carpenter wearing a simple working man’s robe.

And then, in a strong quiet voice Jesus says: do not fear.

Human sin converts divine holiness into wrath. Jesus Christ converts human fear into faith. Jesus Christ transforms human pride and human sin into love.
In the Presence of the Living God they were overcome by fear. Then, the perfect love of God in Jesus Christ transformed that fear into faith, into hope, into love.