Mar. 3, 2019                  Unveiled Faces                             

Every year, following Easter, the graduates of Eden Seminary gather for convocation. It is a glorious three days, where ministers gather to hear lectures by the leading theologians of our day, and then spend time discussing the ideas presented. It is a time for old classmates to catch up with one another, and a time for the seminary to celebrate those who have been in ministry for 25, 30, 40, and even 50 years.  It is a time for outstanding students to preach and to submit papers for discussion. And of course, there are daily worship serves, in a hall filled with hundreds of people.  Yes, convocation is a glorious event, and at the end of that event, we all return home to our congregations, to do the real work of ministry.

       I thought of Eden Convocation this week, first of all because I was looking over the speakers for this year and deciding whether to attend, and secondly, because convocation reminds me a bit of the story of Jesus transfiguration. In our story of the transfiguration, Jesus leads Peter, James, and John, up the mountain, and there he is transformed before their eyes. And in addition to this, Moses and Elijah, appear with him, discussing perhaps the path of suffering that Jesus will take towards Jerusalem.

       To the disciples, this is a glorious sight, and Peter seeking to make this moment last, suggests they build booths and make shrines on the side of the mountain, so that people may come to the mountain top, and having shared the glory of the moment, might then go down the mountain revived and renewed to be followers of Jesus. But fortunately, Jesus knows better than that. Jesus knows that no matter how wonderful and glorious the vision on the mountaintop may be, that his disciples will need to descend again to the plains and the valleys, and carry out the ministry associated with that vision. Just as Jesus knows, that he must descend the mountain, to realize the vision of God’s glory, through the hard road to the cross that he must walk.

     Brothers and Sisters, about a year ago, a colleague sent me a vision of what the world could look like through faith in Jesus Christ. In a world filled with racial bias and division, faith in Jesus Christ leads us to acts of unity and solidarity with people of all different races. In a world that divides and oppresses people based on race, gender, ethnicity, and economic classes, faith in Jesus Christ leads us to take a stand against those who exploit women, stereotype and slander people of different economic backgrounds, and to seek ways to lift those who are poor, out of poverty. In a world that calls for us to consider those of other nations to be inferior to ourselves, and seeks to treat immigrants as less than fully human, faith in Jesus Christ calls us to recognize both foreigners and immigrants as fully human, deserving of the most basic of human rights. In a world that seeks to destroy truth by repeatedly lying, and offering alternative facts, faith in Jesus calls us to speak truth to one another, to actively refute falsehoods, and to hold people accountable when they lie. In a world that tells us that the only way to change people’s lives is to rule over them, faith in Jesus Christ calls us to be servants to one another, finding ways to change lives through compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.

      This is a wonderful vision, but the bottom line is, this vision will not, and cannot be realized without the daily acts of faith in Jesus Christ, by those who believe in him. The same thing goes for the vision given to those who attend Convocation at Eden Seminary. It is indeed a glorious event, but it all comes to nothing, without that vision being taken to the churches, and the work of each church and it’s members, through their faith in Jesus Christ. As Walter Brueggeman noted in one of his sermons, the glory of God is not just on the mountain top, but is present when a stranger is welcomed, when a hungry person is fed, when someone who is sick is cared for, when someone who is grieving is comforted, when people in trouble are prayed for, when the handicapped are helped, and etc. 

        In short, whenever those who believe in God, suffer themselves to minister to others, as the members of this congregation do regularly, and congregations across this nation do regularly. There in the work of those who believe in Jesus Christ, and listen to him as a guide for their lives, there is the presence of God’s glory in our lives. So take heart, those of you who wonder where God is present, where God’s glory is hiding, it lives and dwells in the acts of faithfulness and love in your lives, not on some mountaintop far, far away. And that’s the good news of Jesus Christ.