Glory to glory

 I was originally going to call this post “One out of two” but that didn’t really address the sermon but more my morning. So first the actual preaching bit and later I’ll talk about the morning.

Today was Transfiguration Sunday or the Sunday where we celebrate The Transfiguration of Our Lord, depending on where you encounter it. This isn’t the easiest Sunday to preach. Oh you can take the easy way out and use St. Peter as a homiletical punching bag but let’s not forget this same person, who I have heard described as a “buffoon,” is the one on whom the Christ said he would build his church.

This year the Lectionary’s Transfiguration texts are:

• Moses and his fading radiance in Exodus (Exodus 24:29–35)
• Luke’s account of the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28–36)
• Paul talking about old and new covenants and glory in 2 Corinthians (2 Corinthians 3:12—4:2)

I was reading Bruggemann, who has become a go to commentator for me lately, and something he said pushed me to look primarily at the Epistle lesson. I hoped to communicate the profound difference the new covenant makes in us. We are blessed with a glory even beyond Moses because ours doesn’t fade. In fact, the glory we have is transformed into more glory and more glory until our ultimate end in the unmediated presence of God. How cool is that!

“Servant” St. Mark’s Presbyterian (to download, right click and select “Save Link As . . .”)

Blessings,

 

 

So why one sermon. Sometimes I post one sermon because there was a joint service and both congregations get together so I preach to both at once. I don’t recall it happening but if there was a technical difficulty with one of the recordings that might mean only one. What happened this Sunday is there was one other person at Knox and we agreed to give it a miss. I’m not sure about it, to be completely honest but it felt like the thing to do. I’ll resist the temptation to be twice as long next Sunday.