Sharing God's Love

Pop quiz. Question one. You are sitting at home one Sunday afternoon watching the game. It was a long week and now, for the first time you are enjoying some much deserved rest. Everything is calm, nearly perfect. Your eyes become heavy with sleep and you just start to doze off when the door bell rings. You aren’t expecting any guests and so you look out the peep hole and see two young men standing there with pamphlets. What do you do?

Question two. You are walking down a busy city street. You are in a hurry to meet some friends for lunch. Out of the corner of your eye you see a man sitting on the sidewalk. His clothes are dirty and worn. His hair is matted and hasn’t been washed in a long time. He sees you coming and stands up and starts walking over to you. What do you do?

Question three. You are coming out of yet another awesome and wonderful worship service and another member of the congregation approaches you and asks if you would be able to help. They are trying to put together a team of people who will go around to the neighbors of congregation and invite them to come to worship. What do you do?

Now, you don’t really have to answer these questions. But what kinds of thoughts and reactions did you have in thinking about these situations? Where you excited? Yeah, sign me up. Where you anxious or nervous? I would really rather not find myself in those kinds of situations. Where you kind of so-so? Oh. When did he start the sermon?

My hunch is that for most people these kinds of situations are ones of great anxiety and nervousness. These are the kinds of things that we think about when we think about evangelism. And for most people evangelism is not something that gets them real pumped up.

Why? We certainly don’t have an issue telling people when there is good news in our lives. Remember the first time you found out you were going to have a baby? Or the first time that you were going to become a grandparent? Or when you found out that you got into that school or got that job or promotion?

When there is good news, well, it is hard to keep it quite. We want to stand on the rooftops and shout it out. So why is it, that when we are talking about the best news in the world do we get nervous, anxious, our palms sweat, and our blood pressure goes up?

I think it is because we have convinced ourselves that evangelism or sharing our faith is like making a sales call. That means there is a lot of pressure involved. If we are going to get people to buy into our product we have to have lots of information and a sales pitch. We have to be able to anticipate every possible response and have a well thought out perfect response. And if we don’t, well, then we have to live with the guilt of not having done a good job and what may be a result of that.

It makes us uncomfortable. And it makes the people we are talking to uncomfortable too. They don’t want to have the conversations any more than we want to have it. And yet, because it is human nature to share good news, when there is good news to share, we also know that we are supposed to share our faith with others. So we end up with a lot of pressure and guilt and very little true motivation and that is why things like this video are funny.

Instead, of this, I think we need to think in terms of sharing God’s love with others. That is much more exciting than having to make a sales call and being prepared to have all the answers. Besides, it is the Holy Spirit that gives the gift of faith. Our job is to simply be faithful in bearing witness to that. Part of being faithful is also being genuine. We don’t have to pretend to be something we are not. We don’t have to act like we have all the answers and like we know everything if that is not really the case. We simply have to show people love. Sometimes it will be in doing something nice for them. Sometimes it will be in listening to them. Sometimes it will be telling them about who Jesus is and what he has done for you. Sometimes it will be standing with them, even when everyone else has given up. Whatever it is it is genuine, natural, makes sense and is something to get excited about.

Jesus tells a parable about a farmer who goes out into his field and sows some seed. He takes handful after handful and just scatters the seed without any thought of where it lands. His sowing of the seed is quite generous. Now, I do not know much about farming. If I were ever in a situation where I had to grow my own food, I would not survive. However, I do know that if you sow seed you don’t go around and throw it wherever.

No, you take the time to make sure that the seed has the best nutrients and soil depth and environment that you can provide for it. This helps to ensure that it will grow. After all seeds are not cheap and to throw them around into places where it won’t grow, is like throwing your money away.

But God is generous. He is not stingy. So the image that he gives us for sharing his love with others is not stingy either. All we have to do is share. All we have to do is throw the seed. All we have to do is show people love, and God will take care of the rest. He is the one who will make it grow. Because this God is the one who is so generous and gracious. He loves us with a generous and amazing love. He gives us life and forgiveness in Jesus. He allows us the privilege of sharing this good news with others also.

We see him in action in the story from the fourth chapter of John’s gospel. Here is Jesus. He is sitting down at a well and resting. Now he is in a Samaritan town. And as you may know, Samaritans and Jews do not get along very well. They don’t like each other and so they don’t talk to one another.

Jesus is at this well and a woman comes by to draw some water. Now, from a cultural perspective we know that she does not fit in Jesus’ culture, because she is a Samaritan. And for some reason, she does not fit into her own culture as well, because if she did, well she would probably be drawing water from the well when everyone else did it, and not waiting until there was no one at the well.

But Jesus does something amazing. He sees her. He acknowledges her and he does this by doing something that all of us are able to do. Talking. He doesn’t jump in with a sales pitch. He doesn’t say, “Have you accepted me as your personal Lord and Savior?” He asks for a drink. Now she is taken aback by this. But in something as simple as seeing her and talking with her she discovers who Jesus is and the gift that he gives. He gives living water that forms a spring. This water wells up in us and then flows out of us into the lives of others.

Or if you want to think of it in another way; God pours out his love, grace and mercy into our lives and fills us up so much that we are overflowing with them. We then go out into our world and those things flow through us into the lives of others.

You may not have all the answers for people’s questions. But you can love them. You can listen. You can even invite them to come with you and talk with people who would know the answer. As a congregation we are in this together. We bear witness to God together. Each one has a different job and different responsibility and different gifts. But all are used to build up the body of Christ. All are used to share his love and to make that love known.

God is the source. He fills us and cares for us. So that we can then care for others. We can care for the other people that God has placed into our lives, here in this congregation, in our homes, schools, places of work, neighborhoods, gas stations, restaurants. And sharing real, genuine good news, without any pressure, well that’s a lot of fun, and has a way of making life real exciting.

Remember the quiz? The first question was about the people knocking on your door. What if you took the pressure off yourself and decided to simply show them that not all Christians are mean people? You could say, “I am not feeling much like talking about religion at the moment, but I would be happy to offer you a glass of water and get to know you better.” See what happens.

The second question was about the man on the street. What if you invited him to join you and your friends for lunch? It could just be the most exciting lunch of your life.

The third question was about going door to door. What if you went, not to try to sell the church to the neighbors, but simply to be a good neighbor and to say, “Hi. You matter. You are important. Have a great day.”

These are simple things that we can easily do. It is being nice, respectful and showing people love. We saw Jesus set the example with the Samaritan woman at the well. We get to do it too. This is why we will take time, in a season like Lent, to empty ourselves so that God can fill us up and we can share that love and grace and mercy and forgiveness that comes because of and for the sake of Jesus.

And may this be a great joy and blessing to you, now and always. Amen.

Lifted Up

When I was in high school, my buddy and I were hanging out, bored, and didn’t really have a lot to do. So we decided to do a physics experiment. We wanted to determine how different velocities of mass impacted a stationary object. The Mass, was our bodies. The stationary object was the wall. Translation. We were literally running and bouncing off the walls. I was anyway, and I did it until the wall developed a nice big crack. Whoops. So what did I do? I told my dad that we were coming up the stairs and my buddy tripped on the dog and fell into the wall. I didn’t want to get in trouble. I didn’t want to get caught. So I did something stupid and wrong. My dad does know the truth, I told him about 12 months ago. But I think he figured it out a long time before that.

Sometimes, we just don’t get it. Sometimes things are just not what we were expecting them to be, or working in the way that we had wanted them to work. You can relate to that though can’t you? You know that feeling where you put two and two together? I don’t get it.

Our Gospel lesson for today tells that kind of a story. But you would never know from where it begins. Jesus is speaking here, and it picks up right in the middle of a conversation that he was having with a guy named Nicodemus. Does that name ring a bell? Do you know who Nicodemus was?

John’s gospel describes him as a man of the Pharisees and a leader of the Jews. In other words he was an important and probably rather intelligent kind of guy and he comes to Jesus one night looking for some answers. You see, Nicodemus knew his religious system and the Scriptures. He knew what he was supposed to do, and what God was going to do. He knew what to expect from God. And yet Jesus was not what he expected. And yet somehow, he also knew that there was something special about Jesus. So he comes to Jesus one night with some questions. And that is something that I think we can all relate to.

For Nicodemus it didn’t make sense. Jesus was not what people were expecting. A might warrior to ride in and save the day, and right all the wrongs, that they got. Someone who would come in and kick out all of their enemies; that made sense. Someone who would come along and restore the glory of their religion and relationship with God in the world. Yes, Come on, Lord, we have been waiting for far too long.

And yet, that is not what they got. Instead, what they got, was so much better than what they were looking for, that it was absolutely inconceivable. What they got was not only way better than what they were looking for, but it was way better than the best things they could dream up. They were looking for a superman and what they got was God himself. They were looking for freedom from tyranny and oppression, and what they got was the One who would bring about the forgiveness of sins and freedom from powers of death and the devil. They were looking for a glimmer of hope, and what they got was the light that shines in the darkness.

So here is Nicodemus and he is having this conversation with Jesus, and he says, “we know you are from God, because otherwise you could not do the things that we see you doing.” Jesus says, “Unless you are born from above, you can’t see the kingdom of heaven.” And Nicodemus kind of scratches his head and says, “What do you mean be born again? How can a person be born again?” By the way the word that is used here I the Greek is the same word. It can be either “from above” or “again” it all depends on the context. Jesus says, “I’m not talking about the flesh, but the Spirit.” And Nicodemus says, “I still don’t get it.” Jesus says, “How do you not get it? You are a teacher of Israel. You of all people should get it. But if you don’t believe me as I talk about earthly things, how will you believe me as I talk about heavenly things?”

So Jesus makes this reference to the story in the Old Testament about Moses and the serpent in the wilderness. And what a story this is. The Israelites find themselves plagued with fiery serpents in their camp. It really was something that they had brought upon themselves. They complained against what God was doing in saving them from Egypt. Now these kinds of stories are a little difficult for us to grasp and understand. But look at it like this. As the people were complaining, they were , in a sense, rejecting God’s salvation from slavery to Egypt. So he sends these snakes, not in a petty way, it is not like God is saying to them, “You hurt my feelings, so now I am going to hurt you back.” Because God does not work that way. Instead, see it as God’s way of bringing the people back to him, almost as a call to return to their senses and to repentance.

But the serpents and the sending of the serpents are not the point to this story. They are not the focus, although something like this easily captures our attention. The point is not the serpents but the life and healing that came from the bronze serpent that had been raised up on a pole. So that those who looked upon that serpent were saved and lived.

Jesus says, that just as Moses lifted that serpent up in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Now that is kind of strange isn’t it? What does it mean? Well, Jesus tells us. The Son of Man must be lifted up so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. So how is it that the Son of Man is lifted up so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life?

First, Jesus was lifted up where? On the cross. That is right. The sinless and perfect one. The one who is truly God and truly man, takes all of your sins. All of the junk and garbage that you and I have filled our lives with. All of the things that seek to destroy our lives and our relationships, he has taken those sins upon himself and he paid the price for them on the cross. Where he was lifted up. Jesus’ death on the cross paid the debt that was incurred from our sins.

Second, Jesus was also lifted up from the grave. Three days after his death, he rose victoriously over the grave. This means that death has no mastery over him. It means that he is more powerful than death. It means that death is only temporary, it does not have the final say. It does not win in the end.

Third, Jesus was lifted up as he ascended into heaven. Where he is seated at the right hand of God the Father. There he sustains all things in the universe. There he rules for the sake of his church, especially as she is about the work and mission that he has given her to do.

And so because Jesus was raised up, on the cross, from the dead and into heaven, this means that all who believe in him have life that is everlasting. And we don’t have it just after we die. It is not like we are sitting around waiting to die so that we can experience everlasting life. But it is a gift that we have, experience and enjoy right now. It is not just life after death, it is life before death as well.

And this gift is for you, and me, and for the whole world. It is the desire of our God that all would be saved that all would know of the eternal life that comes from the lifting up of his son. He didn’t send Jesus into the world so that the world would be doomed. He sent Jesus so that the world would know life. God’s love for you and me and the world is big and vast, that he sent his son to die, so that through him, that world would be able to know him.

This week in Outflow we spent time reading and talking about living life in relationship with this God who loves us so much in such an amazing way. It is a relationship that he began with us. It is a relationship that he strengthens through word and sacrament. It is a relationship that impacts and makes better the other relationships in our lives. For as God fills us in the relationship with him, his love, grace, mercy and power then flow through us into the lives of the people in our world.

There are a lot of things that go on in the world around us. And a lot of them don’t make sense. But in the midst of things that are just beyond our ability to grasp, we have a God who is faithful, who loves us more than we will ever know. Who saves us, not based on things that we done, but for the sake of his son. And who then sends us out to make that love known to others.

May God’s love be a source of comfort and strength for you, and may you be blessed in your sharing it with others. Now and always. Amen.

Faithful and Prevailed

I think Lent has unfairly been given a bad reputation. It seems to me that a lot of people think that Lent is simply about giving up something you love and being miserable for six weeks. One pastor once commented how the only things people are glad to give up for Lent are their New Year’s resolutions. Another would joke that Lent was the season where feeling bad feels oh, so good.

But I don’t think Lent is all that bad. This season is a time to empty ourselves. But not for the sake of feeling bad. Instead we empty ourselves so that God can fill us up again. It is a time to let go, get rid of, and to allow those things in us that need to be taken, removed, gotten rid of, and to do just that. Not so that we can be left empty, but so that we can be full of the love, mercy, hope and power that our God pours out into our lives. And not just full of those things, but overflowing with them. We do that together during this Lenten season by working together through the Outflow series.

This series is about outward-focused living in a self-focused world. So it is a concept that can fit well with the season of Lent. We will be talking about how God’s love fills our lives, but also flows through our lives and into the lives of the people that live under our roof; live next door; work in the next cubical; study at the next desk; and happen to be in all those places where we come into contact with and find other people.

Of course this may not always be as easy as it sounds. It fact, loving people and sharing God’s love with them can be quite difficult. It can even be scary because often love requires that we put the needs of others ahead of our own, and if we are busy taking care of their needs, then who will take care of us? Who is going to look out for me if I spend all my time looking out for others? Who will fill me up when I feel empty? Who will comfort me when I am sad? Who will encourage me when I feel week? Well, the answer is rather simple. I am even willing to bet that you already know the answer. It is none other than our God. Not only can he do these things, but he does. He is worthy of our trust and confidence, and when we place those things in him, we find that they are never misplaced. God always gives us everything we need to do the things he asks us, or sends us to do.

As we consider the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness we can see a parallel to the testing that Israel faced in the wilderness during the time between leaving Egypt and entering the promised land. Remember, that Jesus lived the perfect life that we are unable to live. And where Israel was faithless and failed, Jesus is faithful and prevailed.

The first temptation came while Jesus was hungry. If you have ever missed a meal, then you know how painful hunger can be. Can you imagine going forty days without eating? In the case of Israel, they were not going without food for forty days, they were simply hungry. And when their hunger got the best of them we see their faithlessness. They do not trust God. They do not believe that he is who he says he is or that he will do for them what he said he will do.

Contrast this with what we see from Jesus who has the power and ability to actually make bread for himself. So when the devil tempts him with making bread, and remember that he is really hungry, this is something that Jesus could actually do. But instead of giving in to what would be selfishness, and failing to trust God, he understands that human beings do not live by eating bread, but that we find and have life in our God, and that we live by his word, and his will. Jesus shows total dependence on God. He remained faithful. He prevailed.

Jesus successfully showed his trust in God. So the devil tests that next. This is a test of whether or not God is actually present. Throw yourself down and God will protect you. For the Israelites wandering in the wilderness this wasn’t an issue of jumping from a high place but that they were thirsty and wanted something to drink and so they complained. But in their complaints they were really putting God to the test. They were putting him on trial. If God were here like he is supposed to be, then we wouldn’t go thirsty. But Jesus reacts differently. He refuses to put God to the test. It is not that he doesn’t trust in God. He certainly does. But he is refusing to try to manipulate God and get him to do what he wants him to do.

The third temptation has to do with idolatry. Because that is what you get when you try to worship anything in the creation and put it in the place of the creator. Now in our day and age we may not see this in the same way that it would have been present for the people of Jesus’ day or for the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. For them the temptation was to literally go after other gods. Because in doing so they would find a better place or status in the world, or in the culture around them. The devil tempts Jesus with this as a way of attaining glory without having to go through the cross to do it. Instant success, instant glory, no pain, no suffering, no death, simply bow down and worship. Yet in spite of even this, Jesus remains faithful. He prevailed.

So how do we relate to this story? Where does it connect with us? What are the implications for our day to day lives? Well, it’s actually quite a bit. Now at first glance maybe you don’t see it. Maybe you think this only applies if you have a tendency to be visited by the devil while you are fasting in the wilderness and whisked away to differently locations around the world. But I am willing to bet that most of us do not have that kind of experience.

The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that we have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, who has been tempted in every respect that we are, yet without sin. And so, while we might not be tempted to turn rocks into bread or to jump from the bridge or idolatry, we do struggle with what is ultimately at the heart of these temptations, and that is to treat God as less than God.

We can spend so much time focusing on ourselves and wants and needs that we can even convince ourselves that God won’t or can’t do anything for us. Or that he won’t empower us to face our struggles or to stand up under temptation. Or that we question God’s helpfulness when things go south. Or that we find ourselves feeling compelled to compromise with the ways of the world that are so appealing, so seductive, and so contrary to what God has in mind for us.

You see it is easy for us to get so caught up in our own lives that we lose sight of the life that God calls us to live. We lose sight of all the wonderful and amazing and awesome ways that he works in our lives. Not only did Jesus successfully resist the temptations of the devil, but he gives us his Spirit and his strength that we too may do the same. Our God constantly demonstrates his faithfulness in our lives. We have in presence as he works through his word, through baptism, through communion. He is with us always. He forgives us and removes our sins. He gives to us life and salvation.

God is to be number one in our lives, not because he demands it, but because he is the only thing in our lives worthy of being in that position. His love and grace and mercy were all shown, long before we took our first breath. Yet they are still strong and constant in our lives today. This is something that we can be sure and certain of, because we have these because of and for the sake of Jesus.

One of the images that you will find throughout this outflow series is that of a fountain. God’s love, grace, and mercy are abundantly poured out into our lives, so much so that they not only fill us, but that they over fill us, so much so that they flow through us into the lives of others. They flow from us into the lives of our family and friends. They flow from us into the lives of our community. They flow from us into the lives of our world.

When we place God in any other spot than number one in our lives, we find that this clogs the fountain. It is not that God’s love and grace stop flowing into our lives, as much as it is that we get in the way of it flowing through us into the lives of those around us.

So then, this is a great study to do for Lent. Because as I said, Lent is about emptying ourselves, so that God can fill us. It is about us saying to those things that we place as more important than God, you are no longer going to be most important. May this Lenten season be a blessing to you. May you grow in your faith and relationship with God. May you be strengthened in your faith, especially as you see God working in and through your life. Now and always. Amen.

Motivation

Have you ever thought about what exactly it is that motivates us? What is it that drives us? What is it the drives people to do the kinds of things that they do? I think one of those things can be fear. Fear is an interesting thing, isn’t it? I mean talk about a motivator. Fear will either make us do something or will prevent us from doing something. Very few things influence people like fear. Now I can’t prove this, but I’m convinced that fear is what brought about superstitions. I would have never thought of this before I had kids, but now I understand. I can hear some poor mother, a long long time ago, who has spent all day trying desperately to get her kid away from the big expensive mirror. Finally she says, “If you break that you will have seven years of bad luck you know.” Fear motivates.

Love can also be quite the motivator. Think about all the stories that you have heard or maybe even experienced where love was the motivation. We hear stories of parents doing amazing feats out of love for their children. We hear of men and women going through outrageous lengths in order to be with someone they love.

Last year, in my own house there was a great quest we went on for the sake of love. A dearly loved member of our family went missing. It was probably a combination of fear and love that drove us, but we searched. And we searched high and low. We looked everywhere we could think of; under the couch, between the cushions, and finally the search ended at about 2:30 when Mindy found our beloved remote control under the sink in the upstairs bathroom. The reunion was beautiful. Now before you ask how it got there, just remember we had an 18 month old at the time. The point is that love can and does really motivate people to do some pretty amazing things.

Today is a good day to talk about motivation because today is Transfiguration Sunday. This is the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany. The season of Epiphany has been a time we were focused on the glory of God being revealed in Jesus, and Jesus in our lives, in our world and ultimately through God’s people through the church. We heard Jesus talk about this in the Sermon on the Mount. This is where we hear Jesus calling us to a new way of life. This life is truly blessed. It is life in the kingdom of God and better than anything we can imagine. So today is the perfect day to talk about love and fear. Because today we see both.

Our text begins with these words. “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James.” And maybe you were wondering to yourself, “six days after what?” This lesson is in Chapter 17 of Matthew’s gospel and there are a lot of important things that take place in the preceding chapter. First we see Jesus being tested by the religious leaders of the day and warning against them. Then we see Peter confessing Jesus as the Christ. Then Jesus predicts his death, and then he says that any who would come after him, must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. So our lesson for today begins with the words “and after six days …” So that those things Jesus said about who he is and what those who are to follow him are to do would echo in our minds as we witness the next scene.

Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him up a mountain to pray. Now imagine yourself in the story. Picture this in your mind. Here is Jesus praying. And as he is praying the appearance of his face is altered and his clothes become dazzling white. I love this because we tend to have this after-the-fact way of looking at things. And so we kind of picture Jesus and Peter and James and John standing there, looking all pious and holy. Praying and the transfiguration happens and they calmly and patiently stand there because that’s what holy people do when holy things happen, right?

But that’s not what happens here. No instead Luke tells us that Peter and James and John are heavy with sleep. So they don’t necessarily notice right away that Jesus has been transfigured, or that Moses and Elijah have shown up. Moses and Elijah are now speaking with Jesus about his departure which was about to be accomplished at Jerusalem. So this is all taking place and here are Peter, James and John heavy with sleep. But they, for some reason become fully awake and they see the glory of Jesus and Moses and Elijah and well… can you relate?

Have you ever had a moment where you spoke but didn’t know what you were saying? I believe it is what is known as foot in mouth disease. Peter comes down with a wicked case of it, and he says “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish I will make three tents here. One for you one for Moses and one for Elijah. And as Peter is speaking a cloud comes and overshadows them. A voice comes from the cloud and says, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” After that there is no one else but Jesus, Peter, James and John. And they fell on their faces terrified by what they had just witnessed.

And Jesus touches them and tells them to rise and have no fear. He doesn’t yell at them or get angry at them. But he doesn’t leave them where they are either. He touches them and in a sense restores them. And as they are going back down the mountain he tells them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the resurrection.

I think that it is easy for us to hear a story like this and our scientific minds begin going to work. What did Jesus look like exactly? How did the disciples know that Moses and Elijah were Moses and Elijah? Why were Moses and Elijah there and not other people? And while asking questions is never a bad thing to do, if we get too caught up in the questions we miss the point.

As I said before the season of Epiphany is a season where we see God revealing himself in Jesus. So in the transfiguration we see God’s glory revealed in Jesus. And so it culminates here is this story. The season of Epiphany is ultimately a season of love because in that time we focus on the work that God is doing to restore the creation back to himself. It is a season of mission and this mission is ultimately motivated by love.

The disciples didn’t get it at that point. They are probably relieved that Jesus told them not to say anything. I know I probably would have been. They wouldn’t understand until after Jesus is raised from the dead. And even then they don’t do much until the Holy Spirit comes on them with power at Pentecost. It is then that they boldly go out into the world that God loves so dearly in order to make that love known.

So what does this text then mean for us? What do we do with it today? Is it simply a cool story? Is it merely a text to convey theological truth? Now it is those things, but it is also more. Because in this text we not only see a glimpse of the glory of Jesus who is truly 100% God and truly 100% a human being. But we see the one who comes to us. We see Jesus who loves you and me so much that he gave up his life that our sins would be forgiven. We see Jesus who loves the people around us so much that he would send us to them to show that love to them. We see Jesus who is with us always and will never ever leave or forsake or give up on us. No matter what we have done. Because that is who he is. And how big his love for us.

This Jesus sends us his Holy Spirit and his Holy Spirit works to make us more and more like Jesus. This doesn’t mean that we will always be perfect, not on this side of the second coming anyway, but it means that we will always have what we need to do the things that God has given us to do. Even the hard things.

So when we consider where we are in our lives whether that is as individuals or together as a congregation, there are many things that can be motivating us right now. There are many things that can cause us to be afraid and scared. There are so many unknowns that if we tried to begin figuring out all of the possible situations that we begin to feel as if we were drowning in a sea of uncertainty. And when we do that we tend to focus more on ourselves and what we want and what we need to ensure our own survival.

Yet our God does not call us to ensure our own survival, but instead to make his love in Jesus known to the world. He is with us and he is worthy of our trust and hope. For me, I seen in the transfiguration the comfort hope and strength of knowing that no matter what comes our way, no matter what happens in our lives, that it is not too much for our God. I see in the transfiguration the comfort hope and strength of knowing that no matter how hard the things that God asks us to do seem, that they are not too much for our God. So that when our God tells us that those who would follow him must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him, that we can say, “Amen.” And get going.

His love, mercy and forgiveness in Jesus are overflowing in abundance for you and for me, and indeed for the whole world. He has chosen us to show that. Is it scary? Perhaps. But because we have our God, who is able to forgive our sins and defeat the powers of sin, death and the devil, we can be confident that nothing else is more powerful than our God.