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“God’s
Choice”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Luke 9:28-36
“This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
My dear sisters and brothers, the first and greatest choice God made was
to accomplish yours’ and my salvation.
The reason God created this universe; the very reason God created
the heavens and the earth was to create an atmosphere in which He could
bring us into His life and love. The
very reason God designed and created humanity was to bring forth a
creature that He could adopt into His life and His family.
Today is the Sunday of the year in which we focus on the transfiguration
of our Lord Jesus Christ. In
the words that came out of the cloud to Peter, John, and James, we have
just heard it spoken, “This is
my Son, my chosen, listen to
him.” Last Sunday we
talked about that one of the main reasons we come to church is to hear
him. This morning, I want
emphasize these very words “my chosen.”
As we hear what God’s good message is telling us about our
salvation, we may very well see in our hearts a new light upon our Lord
Jesus Christ that will transfigure us in what we believe about God’s
eternal decree concerning us.
I think a very common understanding that we have about God as the
creator of this world, and yes, our savior, is that God being a glorious
creative divine ground of all being, used His power to create a universe
with creatures on the planet we call earth, and yes, He also created
angels, some of whom fell into the domain of Satan, rebelling against
God’s authority, wanting to be in charge of this world.
And because these evil worldly powers had a deathly influence
upon us, then God came up with a plan to offer salvation to those who
would believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.
We have been led to think much this way, where we understand
God’s choice to save us as a choice made after we fell into sin.
But, that is not how it is.
Your salvation is not God’s second choice.
Your salvation, in the context of this creation, is God’s first
choice.
God chose to make a covenant with humanity.
The meaning of creation is to make possible the history of
God’s covenant with us that has its beginning, its center and its
completion in Jesus Christ.
In our passage, Jesus took three of his close disciples up the side of
the mountain with him, to pray. Jesus
was seeking to know the will of God the Father.
One of the main prayers we should have in our own lives is to ask
God to transform our hearts to want His will.
Before we even know the will of God in certain times of our
lives, our first choice should be to ask God to lead us, help us, make
us to desire His will, whatever it might be.
As Jesus is praying, his face changed, his cloths became dazzling white
and there He was talking with Moses and Elijah, two of the most famous
prophets from times before Jesus. Moses,
of course, is the one who saw God in the burning bush, and whose face
was veiled among the people after his time with God.
And they are talking to Jesus about his departure.
Jesus was learning more of God’s choice for his ministry.
His departure is referring to his death on the cross.
This transfiguration of Jesus is a miracle that Jesus experienced and
his disciples observed. It
continues on in its amazement. Peter
doesn’t really know what to do, but he wants to do something, so he
offers to build three dwellings, each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
And then the cloud comes over them; they are terrified and God
speaks once again, like at Jesus’ baptism, “This
is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
They walk away in silence and say not one word about this until
after the resurrection of Jesus.
This story is so fascinating, and so unique that it could not have been
made up by men. Even we in
our highest level of creativity could never have imagined something like
this.
What is it showing us to believe about God?
Jesus is experiencing a divine level of planning,
accomplishments, and God’s work behind the scenes and the history of
our lives. And it has to do
with our salvation.
One of the most important parts of our lives as Christians is to
continue to see our salvation at new levels.
God’s first choice, God’s eternal decree was our salvation. Our salvation was not first being rescued from the forces of
evil and death due to sin. Salvation
was first and foremost the gift of our place in the life of God.
Salvation is the gift of being a member within the love of God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Had Adam and Eve, and each and every one of us not fallen into sin, had
death not been a result of the power of sin in our lives, had this earth
remained the paradise before the fall, God still would have come to us
in His Son Jesus Christ because Jesus is His chosen, and His first
choice was for Jesus to bring us into their love.
For us to be adopted into the life of God, into the very love between
the persons of the Trinity, God chose to become one of us, so that we
could be taken back to be one with Him.
God’s first choice, before there was any aspect of creation was for
the Son of God to become a human being so that the love and communion
within God could now be known with the mind and heart and will of a
human being. That is the
transfiguration accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray…
Amen
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