LOOK UP AND SEE!
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[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD]
2nd Sunday of Lent Year C
February 21, 2016
LOOK UP AND SEE!
One of the many things I enjoyed in outdoor campings and
climbs atop mountain peaks was stargazing during dark cloudless nights. I spent
hours looking up at the sky, and gazing on the stars.
You see, for one, looking up at the sky is free. Second,
everyone waxes poetic just gazing on stars. And should the muse of poetry not
be present, there at least was the excitement waiting for occasional falling
stars.
But I am not going to dwell on stars rising and stars
falling tonight. I choose to dwell on what those stars represent, from whence
they come – the heavenly firmament, which classic imagination would take to
refer to God.
Yes … God … the same God who called Abram and told him to
“look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can” …
Yes … God … the same God who has made it possible for us to
be enlisted for “citizenship in heaven, from where we await a Savior.” ….
Yes … God … the same God who manifested and revealed His
glory historically in Christ, if only for a few fleeting moments, in the
presence of Peter, James and John. ….
And He did it by calling them up a high mountain. He did it
by making them look up at the shining splendor of Christ’s transfigured being.
He still does it today, in our times. When I was younger,
climbing heights and spending overnights outdoors and doing the stargazing
thing was not difficult. When you are young and idealistic, the world is
nothing but an oyster. Everything is hopeful; every problem solvable, and all
challenges surmountable.
But then the moment of truth comes … not all peaks are
reachable and not all stars are visible all the time. Storms and hurricanes and
man-made pollution and destruction of the earth’s natural resources bring with
it not only smoggy days and
smoke-clogged nights as to render it impossible to see stars and
everything else that stars stand for.
There comes a time in one’s life when you realize that God
may have really put off all the lights and turned off the mains of earthly
happiness and earthly fulfillment. Problems do come by us and as the old song
goes, “into everyone’s life some rain does fall.” Yes … and this by far is the
most horrible darkness one can ever experience … bad things do happen to good
people.
Bad news, you say? No, not if you ignore the good news
hiding behind it!
And the good news is this … Just when you think God has put
off the lights and turned off all the mains of the sources of your external
joys, in days like this, you realize that God is a STAR that never wanes nor
dies, and a light that never fades.
You realize at some deep inner portion of your believing heart
that “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”
Peter, James and John was set up for a big revelation, like
we are set up for a big realization … But even they, who were given a glimpse
of heaven they could only look up longingly to, were also given a reality check
and a wake-up call … “A cloud came and cast a shadow over them.”
Seeing God’s glory face to face was not a guarantee that
things would get better and better all the time. Into everyone’s sunshine, some
cloud must come; and into everyone’s life some rain must fall.
But that my dear friend, is not the end of the story. Problems, trials and tribulations
don’t make up life as God wills and willed it. The final chapter of our human
and finite existence … the final course of the world as God willed it is what
we all could only longingly look up at the sky for – in faith, in hope and in
trust and in love of the God of promises and the God of fulfillment …
This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.
And looking up at the stars – and listening to His promises
– do not lead to darkness, but to the light. “The Lord is my light and my
salvation!” LOOK UP AND SEE.
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