The opening words of our readings from 2 Corinthians today
are “Since we have hope we act in great boldness”.
Since we have hope....
When hope is mentioned in the Bible the temptation is to
give it our modern way of interpreting hope as wishful thinking as in I hope
England win the six nations championship or I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow.
Simple wishful thinking could never produce the results of
acting with great boldness that Paul talks about this morning.
Hope in the Bible is not like that. Hope is a certain
expectation that something is going to happen in the future and based on
verifiable knowledge of and experience of things that had already taken place.
Because “that” happened, “this” is going to happen.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the verifiable fact
that transformed the disciples from being a scared and disunited people into
being people filled with hope about the future – their own personal futures and
the future of the whole of creation.
It is that same resurrection of Jesus Christ that has
continued to instil hope ever since. It inspired Julian of Norwich to declare
boldly that in the end “All will be well and all manner of things shall be
well”.
It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ which inspired the
Christians who were decapitated by ISIS on a beach in Libya to die with the
Lord’s prayer and the name of Jesus on their lips.
They died not with wishful thinking, but with a certain
expectation in their hearts and minds.
An expectation of what? That God is in control and he will
raise them up on the last day, because Christ has overcome evil, suffering and
death.
There are many other experiences that the disciples had that
came before the resurrection which also bolstered their hope while Jesus was
still with them.
One such is the vision that Peter, James and John had when
on a mountain – High places always signifies a Holy Place in near Eastern
symbolism.
This vision, or religious experience happens in Luke’s
gospel just after Peter’s revelation of who Jesus really is. “You are the
Christ” exclaims Peter but then reveals immediately that the popular Jewish
understanding of who the messiah is was
vastly different from the Messiah God sent. Indeed so different that Jesus
calls Peter Satan for wanting to protect Jesus from having to suffer.
In the vision on that Holy Place Jesus is revealed as the
culmination, the fulfilment of the God given destiny of the Jewish people.
He shone with the uncreated light of God whilst talking with
Moses (representing the law) and Elijah (representing the prophets) which
emphasised his dominion over both.
And to add to their awestruck fear - in fact the gospel records that they were
terrified - the Lord God himself appears in a cloud and out of the cloud the
voice of God echoes the words heard at Jesus’ baptism “This is my son, the
chosen one, listen to him”
Its import would only have struck them in hindsight. Like
most of us, they would be reacting with a curious mixture of terror and
confusion.
But afterwards Peter recalls this miraculous event in his
second letter; 2 Peter 1: 16-18
16 We told you about the power of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We told you about his coming. The things we told you were
not just clever stories that people invented. No, we saw the greatness of Jesus
with our own eyes. 17 Jesus heard the voice of the
great and glorious God. That was when he received honour and glory from God the
Father. The voice said, “This is my Son, the one I love. I am very pleased with
him.” 18 And we heard that voice. It came from
heaven while we were with Jesus on the holy mountain.[a]
Going back to Paul, he contrasts the awesomeness of God which
was largely veiled in the Hebrew scriptures to seeing the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.
In the Orthodox East, there is a form of Orthodox practice
called Hesychasm which through deep personal prayer and contemplation the
ultimate goal is union with God – where one perceives the uncreated light of
God shot through all things.
It is this uncreated light of God which Peter, James and
John perceived on that day on the mountain.
If true, the light of the gospel can and will shine through
our lives as we slowly incorporate these truths into our life. We are as Paul
writes;
“Being transformed into the same image from one degree of
glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” (v. 18)
What does this mean for me and my life now? Well for one thing knowing these things
happened will instil comfort and confidence and give us hope. We do not follow
cleverly devised myths. We are following a chain of belief that stretches right
back to these eye witness accounts.
We do not lose heart. We do not abandon the truth. We gain
comfort, peace and hope. The certain
expectation that all will be well and all manner of things will be well.
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