"Striving Together in Christ Alone"
March 2, 2014
The 8th Sunday of the Christian Season of Epiphany
Exodus 24: 12 – 18/Psalm
99/Philippians 3: 7 – 14/Matthew 17: 1 - 9
His Excellency
The Most Reverend Ariel Cornelio P. Santos D.D.
Auxiliary Bishop and Locum Tenens
of the
Archdiocese of Manila
the
National Church in the Philippines
and the
Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
On this eight and last
Sunday of Epiphany and in preparation for Lent, I would like you to know
something: you have eternal life. 1John 5 says, “I am writing these
things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Eternal life is
not that which comes after we die on earth and then we go to heaven. This is
not eternal life but the future part of it. The present part is also
called eternal life. God does not want us to waste it and look to
the sweet “by and by” and think that only that is eternal life.
In Philippians 3:12, Paul
says, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but
I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold
of by Christ Jesus.” That phrase “lay hold of” means secure;
hold; locked in; contained or grasp; apprehend. “That” in that verse is
eternal life. It has been secured for us by Christ. Not by our own
doing, but by Christ. What do we do with that for which purpose Christ
has laid hold of us? We take advantage of that eternal life that we may have it
more abundantly.
In the gospel today about
Transfiguration, it talks about this experience of the disciples where they
witnessed Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah and the glory of the Lord
appeared and overshadowed all of them. There are two things that I saw in
the Transfiguration. One,
the New Covenant; two, our mission as children of God, as Christians. Read these verses: Hebrews 8:7-13;
Jeremiah 31:31-34.
One aspect of a covenant
is the stipulations or conditions. Marriage is a covenant. What do
the bride and the groom say to each other? “I will love you. I will hold
you. I will be with you in sickness and in health; for richer or for poorer
till death do us part.” These are the stipulations. We don’t
hear them say, “Otherwise, you can kill me or divorce me,” because they mean to
fulfill the conditions. They promised each other. The New Covenant
is different from the Old Covenant in that its stipulations, which are the law,
are no longer written on stone or on paper. The New Covenant has the same
stipulations, the same laws and nothing has changed. Now, God writes the
stipulations on our hearts instead of tables of stone. This is to say that it
is no longer legal but spiritual. We did not do away with the Law
when we entered into a New Covenant or when God initiated on our behalf the New
Covenant. Jesus is not the abolition of the Law; He is the fulfillment of
it. This is why Jesus put it in our hearts. The very Word of God
incarnate, now in our hearts, so that the Law will be written on our hearts,
not on stone. We follow the Spirit of the Law, not the letter.
2Corinthian3:6 says that
the Old Covenant was based on the letter of the Law and it kills because no one
could legally fulfill the requirements of that Law. All had sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God by transgressing the stipulations of the
covenant, the commandments of the Law. The New Covenant is based on the
Spirit of the Law and gives life because God initiated it by His grace, His
mercy, and His zeal. By His doing, by His initiative, we are in
Christ Jesus whole blood was shed to effect the New Covenant. The
New Covenant makes us the beneficiaries of it. It makes us the people of
God, and Him, our God. By putting Christ in our hearts and His
Spirit in us, He makes us know Him. To know is loving Him; loving Him is
obeying Him. He causes His Spirit to reside in us to cause us to obey and
love Him.
When Jesus shared the
chalice at the Last Supper, He said, "Take this and drink from
it. This is My blood of the New Covenant which is shed for you and for
many for the forgiveness of sin." Jesus was the sacrifice to effect
the New Covenant on our behalf. In Hebrews 8:13, the first covenant is
obsolete, growing old, and ready to disappear. 2 Corinthians 3: 7-11
says, "But if the
ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory,…how shall
the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the
ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of
righteousness abound in glory. For indeed, what had glory, in this case
has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which
fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.”
On the Mount of Transfiguration,
there was Moses and Elijah with Jesus. What did they represent? Moses
wrote the Law, the first five Books of the Old Testament. Elijah
represented the prophets, thus, the Law and the prophets of the Old
Covenant. After a while, only Jesus remained on the Mount. The
disciples saw no one else, but Jesus. He, the symbol of the New Covenant
remained and the New Covenant is everlasting. Jesus remaining on the
mountain signified what we were reading in Hebrews 8 and 2Corinthians 3.
The Old Covenant is passing away because it was based on legalism. The
New Covenant, in Christ, effected by His blood, by the sacrifice of His own
life, perfect as it is, we are now perfect of. We are now
beneficiaries. We take advantage of it.
The second thing I want us
to understand about the Transfiguration is our mission. Understanding the
good news of the New Covenant and its provisions, now we realize our
mission. Hence, we go down from the mountain. We don't remain
in it. Peter says, “Why don't I make a Tabernacle and enjoy the
presence of the Lord?” We are like that. We get a spiritual
high and we sing, "Oh, the glory of His presence.” It is rightly so
because it is enjoyable in the presence of the Lord for in the presence of the
Lord is fullness of joy.
God, the Father, tells
Peter, "Listen to My Son. I know this is awesome for you. I know you
sing Charismatic songs in My presence and you jump up and down, but listen to
Him. Listen to what He has to say. Watch Him and follow after His
example.” Peter had to understand that the experience was to equip and to
prepare him for ministry. On the mountain, there is fullness of
joy. The glory cloud of the Lord is there and they were privileged enough
to have a glimpse of what Elijah and Moses looked like. But there awaited
in the valley an epileptic son of a father who came to Jesus on his
behalf. Jesus healed him. There were other people needing ministry,
deliverance, prayer, and love.
Are we to stay in the
majestic presence of God, in the air-conditioned Cathedral of the King, sitting
here and enjoying the presence of God as we worship? This is good but
there is a time for that and there is a time also to listen to the Deacon when
he says, “Let us go forth into the world, into the valley of the shadow of
death where death prowls because there is a multitude of people needing our
ministry.” The reason we spend time in the glorious presence of God is so
that we are energized, equipped, and empowered for that ministry.
It is not only so that we
can enjoy for ourselves the awesomeness of the presence of God, but so that we
can take that into the world and minister to those in need. There is a time for
everything as Ecclesiastes says – seedtime and harvest; night and day; blessing
and sending; Pentecost, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and Ordinary Time or
Kingdomtide when we minister. There is the time for the mountain; there
is the time to go down to the valley.
The last verse of a song
we sing in Epiphany says, “Manifest on mountain height, shining in
resplendent light. Where disciples filled with awe, Thy transfigured
glory saw. When from there, Thou leddest them, steadfast to Jerusalem.
Cross and Easter day attest, God in man made manifest.” God told the disciples, “Listen to
Him. Follow Him.” He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem to
fulfill His mission to suffer and die for us.
By going down from the
mountain and accepting His passion and death, a death He freely accepted, Jesus
showed His disciples and He is showing us today a more excellent way of
love as shown in 1Corinthians 12 and 13. The glory of God's love is
greater than the glory of His transfiguration and His other spectacles.
What awes us and what should awe us is not that He spoke the world into
existence and not that He did miracles. What should awe us is that what
He did the miracles for did not deserve them, while we were enemies. The
Psalms says that the very people who scorned Jesus, He loved and saved.
This is more glorious.
This is more awesome. While we were yet sinners and enemies, deserving of
death, deserving of His wrath, He reached down to save us. This is His nature.
God's glory is His nature, and His nature is His love. Therefore, we
press on; we strive and we live by that same standard to which we have attained
so that we may have life more abundantly. In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I
came that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.”
This phrase is by God’s grace. What follows it that they may have it more
abundantly is by our works. Eternal life is not meant to be
attained. You cannot gain eternal life. It has already been
provided and given for us, in the New Covenant, by God in Christ. No use
striving to attain eternal life. What we are to do is to live that
eternal life to its fullness.
There is a saying,
"What you are and what you have is God's gift to you.” It is by
grace; you did not earn it. What you become is your gift to God.
Our gift to God is actually for our own sake and well being. What we make
of what God gave us, when we live it to the fullest is what we offer back to
God. He has already given us eternal life. Understand and realize
that we do have eternal life. We live the fullness of that life by
pressing on the goal of the upward call of God, in Christ Jesus. It is by
listening to Him.
Do not grow weary in doing
good, in following after Christ. In due season, we will reap the
harvest. As long as the earth remains, there is seedtime and harvest,
summer and winter, and night and day will continue. Yesterday, we had day
time and we had night time. Everyday night is followed by day. As
night follows day, harvest follows seedtime and planting. It is naturally
without fail. I know that because God says so and that is the way it is
in His kingdom.
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
ISAIAH 49:14-16
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