FESTIVAL OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
Text: Exodus 3: 1 - 10
1 Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-priest of Midian;
he led the flock beyond the wilderness
and arrived at the mountain of God, Horeb.
2 The Messenger Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire, the middle of a bush.
Moses saw the bush was on fire,
but the bush was not consumed.
3 Moses said
"I will make a detour to see this extraordinary phenomenon:
why bush is not burnt does not it? "
4 The Lord saw that he had a detour to see;
then God called him out of the bush: "Moses, Moses!"
He replied: "I'm here!"
5 God said
"Do not come; put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
because of where you stand is holy ground. "
6 He added:
" I am the God of your father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. "
Moses turned,
because he was afraid to direct his gaze toward God.
7 The Lord said
"I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt,
and have heard their cry because they grow their tyrants;
I know their pain.
8 I am down to free the hand of the Egyptians
and to bring them up in this country towards a good and spacious land,
a land flowing with milk and honey,
live where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites,
Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
9 Now, the cries of the Israelites came up to me,
and saw the oppression that the Egyptians do to them.
10 Now go, I'm sending with the Pharaoh;
do my people out of Egypt, the Israelites! "
Dear friends,
who have met "Messenger of the Lord " !
This text was chosen for the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ because he brings one of the many appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament as "the angel of the Lord" !
Remember! The word "angel" means "messenger" , "bearer of news" . In the Bible, God often sent an angel to someone.
In our story, however, God does not send an angel any and sends "the angel of the Lord" which here is called "God" ; that it is the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Our text is therefore a text of Epiphany, a story where "Christ the Lord, " (Lk 2.11) appears in his divine majesty, a story where he" s'épiphanie "where he manifests his divinity with a bang.
the time of Moses, Jesus was not yet "true man, born of the Virgin Mary" . At the time, it was only "true God, begotten of the Father from eternity" (Martin Luther, Small Catechism ).
"The Messenger of the Lord " - or "Angel of the Lord" - "appeared to [Moses]" and presented himself in these terms: "I am the God of your father, God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. "
No doubt here " The Messenger of God appears " as" true God " , here Christ is Messiah's epiphany is manifested vividly as God in person!
The question arises: Why? Why the Son of God appears to Moses he?
God does nothing out of boredom or for fun, or to be interesting. When it turns out, when it occurs, is it a project. This is also true of the epiphany of the Messiah in our history.
CHRIST was transfigured before U.S.
- 1 -
because of the struggle of our faith,
- 2 -
because of the alliance he made with us,
- 3 -
because of the far more glorious transfiguration
still ahead.
CHRIST was transfigured before U.S.
- 1 -
because of the struggle of our faith
"Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-priest of Midian. He led the flock beyond the wilderness and arrived at the mountain of God, Horeb. "
What is he doing in the desert of Midian, who has grown up with Egyptian Pharaoh in the palace? Why he seeks to find "Beyond the Desert" a grassy field for sheep, which he was surrounded by an army of slaves in Egypt? What will happen to find "Horeb" - which means "dry" - he who lived in the lush Nile Valley?
Life has not been spared. It fell from above. He had to flee the soldiers of Pharaoh who wanted to kill him (Exodus 2.15). His faith in God was severely tested. Raised in the highest spheres of society, it is among the poorest. Its safety and luxury, he had to exchange them against insecurity and the dangers of the desert. Previously prince, he's busy with work that would qualify today painful.
This social meltdown, he did not have to digest it overnight. He has known fear, flight, wandering, loneliness, poverty, but also disillusionment, disappointment, discouragement. Certainly, God had mercy on him and made him find a wife and family in this foreign land, but it is still felt like an outsider. His first son, he called "Gershom" , "Immigrant" (Ex 2.22). Like what "There is nothing new under the sun" (Ec 1:9), not even immigration and difficulties.
Our faith in God is it not also sometimes put to the test? We live and inhabit not all in the country or region where we grew up. Some of us are away from their families. Others must work in harsh conditions or are struggling to make ends meet. Still others are struggling with health problems.
Keep faith in God, goodness and rightness of his decisions, the way we drive, is not easy for everyone. Have we ever done up to him these words of "Little Catechism" , but then as a sigh, a cry for help: "I can not, by my reason and my own strength to believe in Jesus Christ! " ?
But the Lord hears his people. There is not remote. This is the wonderful experience that Moses could do there in the desert. "The Messenger of Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire, the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but the bush was not consumed. "
" The Messenger of the Lord " , " the angel of the Lord appears in the middle of a bush " . He has not found better. The fertile Egypt culture so bright like a majestic palm. Life in the desert is symbolized by a "bush" . It also gives the image that sometimes the Church midst of the world a "bush" amidst a lush forest.
The community of believers, has problems, sometimes as hard as the life of Moses in the wilderness, financial problems (how to find enough donations to better announce Christ among and around us?) Cure problems soul (we are all human, torn by the problems and temptations of this world and our nature can be so low), problems also with other churches who try to circumvent the biblical revelation to better please the people, for give the Church more aspect of the majestic palm tree.
Yet, God manifests himself with grace in "the bush" , not in the palm grove in the Church, not the world. The Lord , " do not mind being lowered to meet us. Later, "Messenger of the Lord " will be born in a barn up and die on a cross so as not to miss the appointment with us.
In our text, he comes to meet Moses and through Moses, to meet the people of Israel enslaved in Egypt. He noted he wants his distress, save for his misfortune. "The Lord said:" I saw the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry because they grow their tyrants, and I know his pain. I'm down to deliver them ... "
God is not a distant God, inattentive, insensitive to the problems of its own. What did he say? "I saw [...] I heard [...] I know [...]. " Dear child of God, your heavenly Father " knows " your problems, he knows what you endure. But "knows" also what contributes to your good, if you lean on him and trust him (cf. Rom 8.28).
God does "sees" and "hear" not only our groans then go his way as some did in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37). When God sees us suffer, he intervenes. Faced with the misery of the people of Israel in Egypt, he said to Moses: "I am down to free the hand of the Egyptians. " 's best to rid your home, a look later in the book " Exodus ", to see how God went about " deliver " the people of Israel "from the hand of the Egyptians" .
This interventionist stance in the interests of his family is still the attitude of God. Oh! it has not provided the Israelites heaven on earth. Their issue led them through other tests. And he came to grumble against the way God led them to freedom: it was not going fast enough or it was not good enough for their taste.
Dear friends, one despairs of God when we want to dictate how they should intervene - and obviously it happens otherwise. Make it confidence! In his wisdom, he knows better than us what is to our good and His goodness, he can not play with us.
Look, this was not the game when he sent his Son: his manger was not at stake, and his cross, much less. It "knows" our needs, it "knows" the struggle of our faith: that is why he is transfigured before us in his Gospel, that is why he invites us to his table sacred to pick ourselves up. That is also why it has ally to us in Baptism.
This will be our second point:
CHRIST was transfigured before U.S.
- 2 -
because THAT'S ALLIANCE HE CONCLUDED WITH U.S..
"The Messenger of the Lord " , "Angel of the Lord " , that " appears " by Moses, is none other than the God of the Alliance! It's like as it appears: "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. "
Our God is not a God far away, distant, but a God who binds, which is allied to his own. In presenting as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" , he recalled that he joined with the patriarchs, promising to send them a Messiah-Savior.
By presenting themselves as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" , he said he is a God who makes promises and keeps its word, a God who has a contract, who has contracted an alliance.
An alliance also surprising: On one hand, the alloy is God, on the other hand, the alloy is "the people" . The contract says that God is the liberator ally and ally the human issued; divine ally give a new country and ally receive the human, "a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey " . This is not what is called "tit for tat. Here could shape the expression of "giving-receiving."
"What alliance wobbly! "We are tempted to exclaim. Indeed, it is enough. But has he not done the same with us, and we do not carry us well? Has he not bound to "promises" (Ac2.38-39) even more amazing to the baptismal covenant in which we received for the love of His Son?
This alliance is also completely out of balance: on one side, the best acting is God (as he has "regenerated" in Baptism (Titus 3.5-7), on the other side, the allies who profit, we, the believers on one side giver is God (he gave us his love, his forgiveness, his life, hello), on the other side those who receive without deserving it, it's still us.
And if the Land of Canaan, which God would offer the people of Israel would be a fertile country, the heavenly Canaan Christ the Savior that we got it and who is promised to the baptized is infinitely more radiant, beautiful and relaxing .
is how Jesus reveals his glory to his family in his Word. And now why he does it: first, to help us effectively in the fight of our faith, then, because he is a God of the Covenant, and finally, this will be our last point:
CHRIST was transfigured before U.S.
- 3 -
DUE TO TRANSFIGURATION
MORE GLORIOUS
AHEAD STILL
Early in our history, "Moses [...] came to the mountain of God, Horeb. "Why " Horeb " is it called " the mountain of God " ? Why this sad and desolate place it is called "the mountain of God" ?
You see, before to this story written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses had done on this same mountain experience even more overwhelming: God had given him the "Ten Commandments" (Ex 19.10 - 20:21).
This mountain is sometimes called "Horeb" sometimes "Sinai" . The manifestations of God on Mount "Sinai" or "Horeb" were awesome, supernatural, to the point where it is difficult to get an accurate picture. Since then, it has been called "the mountain of God" , the mountain where God has manifested his glory and power, but also his concern for his people.
For the moment, God tells Moses he is going "raise" Israel - "my people! " he said - "of this country towards a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. " Slavery will give way to freedom, forced labor in paid work, the prohibition of worshiping God in the freedom to do so. They no longer suffer from bullying, bans, a kind of straitjacket in which they are nestled in Egypt, but they shall dwell "a vast country" where they can spread.
But Canaan should also be a step on the road toward the great Epiphany of Christ, to the impressive final Transfiguration "the angel of the Lord" .
The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us : " [the Israelites] obtained the realization of promises, [...] a resurrection top [...] God in fact, had to something higher " for them, as indeed " for us [...]. " (Heb 11.33-40)
Transfiguration of " Messenger of the Lord " had to show Moses that God was concerned about the fate of " his people " , he had a plan for him to clear a path through the vicissitudes of life to eternal happiness.
"The Messenger of the Lord " would not only liberate the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, he would even deliver all mankind from its sins in the explant itself.
What Christ transfigured told Moses joined what Pierre, Jacques and Jean were heard on the Mount of Transfiguration: Christ or Messiah would free us to lead us to a glory unparalleled in eternal bliss. With the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, God wanted to show that God is a Savior able to keep its promises.
And as he led the Israelites through the desert to test the Land of Canaan, he leads us, with us, encourages us and helps us through the trials of this life to the heavenly Canaan, for "our citizenship is in heaven we" (Ph 3.20).
is the message of Christ transfigured. And all this we owe him alone and he would do and which he met with "Moses and Elijah" on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9.30 -31).
Praise be to transform it and before our eyes in the Gospel, waiting to share with us his transfiguration in heaven! (Phil 3.21)
Amen.
Jean Thiébaut Haessig
songs available:
Deign in this hour, O loving Father LIS 1:1-3
O Jesus, Son of the Father, LIS 67:1 4-6
Lord directs my steps LIS 305:1-3
Jerusalem, lets your King, LIS 162:1-3
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