Last Sunday I preached on the Transfiguration of Jesus. But the lectionary reading this year couples the story of the mountaintop Transfiguration of Jesus with the healing of a young boy down in the valley. The common interpretive wisdom on this passage (Luke 9:28-42) is that you have to leave the spiritual high of the mountain to go down to the valley where the real work of ministry is done. But, I think these two stories say something different. Could it be that the Light of Transfiguration on the mountaintop changes everything in the valley, too? Here’s the podcast. Let me know what you think.
Tag: light
Here’s the sermon I’m preaching tomorrow titled, From Darkness to Light, based on Colossians 1:11-20.
From Darkness Into Light
Colossians 1:(9-10), 11-20 NIV
(9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,)
11 …being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Christ The King Sunday
We have come to the end of the lectionary cycle on this Sunday. And, appropriately, this Sunday is called Christ the King Sunday; or, more recently it is referred to as The Reign of Christ Sunday. Personally, I like “Christ the King” because it not only encompasses the reign of Christ, but leaves little doubt about the fact that Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords.
This is the sermon I’m preaching tomorrow, Sunday, February 22, 2009, on Transfiguration Sunday.
Let Light Shine Out of Darkness
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 (NIV)
ChuckWarnock.com 