Exodus 34: 29-35; Psalm
99; Corinthians 3: 12 – 4: 2; Luke
9: 28–36
This is a homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at St.
John’s Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, February 7, 2016.
“SOMETHING VERY OLD, YET VERY NEW”
(Homily texts: Exodus 34: 29–35, II Corinthians 3: 12 – 4:
2 & Luke 9: 28-36)
In my lifelong interest in trains
and in railroads, I once witnessed a delightful event in which a brand new
Amtrak diesel locomotive (of the sort that we see running on the tracks behind
the church twice each day) and an old steam locomotive (built in 1909, and
still running today!) were parked, nose-to-nose, coupler-to-coupler. The age
difference between the two locomotives was about 80 years or so. Those
attending the annual meeting of the tourist railroad where this event took
place were welcome to go inside the cabs of each locomotive. It was impressive
to see how different they were.
And yet, these two locomotives,
despite their age, had a lot in common. For example:
- Both would couple up to any passenger coach with ease that is in use today, or which has been in use in times past (from about the 1880s forward).
- Both run on the same set of tracks (spaced 56.5 inches apart – standard gauge).
- Their air brakes would operate any coach they pulled.
Those are just some of the examples
of the things they have in common.
This illustration shows that – in
the railroad industry – past practices have a lot in common with the newest
developments in the industry. We might say that railroads are doing things that
are “very old, and yet very new”.
The same can be said for our three
Scripture readings today, all of which have to do with the appearance of God’s
light, revealed to Moses and to three disciples of the Lord - Peter, James and
John - and the response of God’s people to that light. Each of our three appointed
readings for this morning is very well matched in that sense, for all three
deal with the topic of God’s light, revealed to humankind.
Each of our readings, when taken
together, constitutes something very old, yet very new.
Using the image of trains and
railroads, let’s explore each of these.
In our reading from Exodus, we hear
the account of Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai, having received the tablets of
the Law from God while he was there. Moses’ face shines with the reflected
glory of God’s light, having been in God’s presence. In a sense, what has
happened is that God has given His people a basis for being in relationship
with Him. That basis, that foundation, is like the tracks that trains run on.
The track of Holy Scripture forms the basis upon which the journey of God’s
people in ancient times – and in our time - rests. God’s light shines
ahead, lighting the way forward, like the bright light of a locomotive’s
headlight. And Moses serves as the power for this new revelation of God, for he
is the locomotive which draws God’s people in its train.
Fast-forward now to the revelation
given to Peter, James and John on the mountain, taken from our reading in Luke
this morning. (It’s worth noting, at this point, that we consider this same
event every year on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, rotating – in turn –
through the accounts of this event in Matthew, Mark, and Luke). That same
resplendent light that Moses saw is the same light which Peter, James and John
experienced. The glory of God is revealed to them, as it had been to Moses.
In
this act, God is doing something very old, but also something very new, for God
has acted in the same way with Moses and with these three disciples.
Yet in the
process, a new light – the light of Jesus Christ – shines, lighting the way
ahead, the way which will lead these three disciples down from the mountain, to
Jerusalem, to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning. The light
which these three saw was given not only to light the way forward to these
events, but also to give light to you and to me as we begin our Lenten journey this week, a
journey that will take us from the liturgical heights of the Last Sunday
after the Epiphany, down to those events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.
Now, Jesus acts to propel God’s people forward, providing the power to make the
journey through this life and into the life of the world to come.
Our Epistle reading from St.
Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians warns us of the dangers of looking
backward, and not forward. Paul, in a masterful turn of image, tells us that
the Law of Moses now serves as a veil to cloak the glory of God for the chosen
people of God. Instead of seeing the light of Christ, that new-thing-that-is-a-very-old-thing
that God has done in sending Jesus Christ, God’s chosen people can only look
back at their glorious past. Their approach would be very much like having a
train enthusiast whose only interest is in antique steam locomotives.
It’s one
thing to appreciate the past; it’s quite another thing to live in the past.
To live the Christian life is to be
willing to take up the business of valuing the very old things of our faith,
even as we apply that wonderful legacy to the new situations that we will face
in everyday life.
That’s
one of the hardest things we Christians are called to do: We are called to
apply ancient wisdom to contemporary situations.
How might we manage to be successful
in this calling?
Here are some ideas:
- The basis of our faith remains Holy Scripture. As we said earlier, that basis is like the foundation that tracks provide for a train passing over it. The direction of the track determines the destination of the train. In the same way, Scripture allows us to move forward in life, and its foundation is essential to every decision we make. The great Anglican priest and theologian Richard Hooker[1] said that Scripture is the most important source of authority we have. Scripture is assisted in guiding us, he said, by what he called “Right Reason” and by Tradition. (Please note that these three sources of authority are not equal: There is no “three legged stool” as some have characterized it.)
- Decisions we make will be consistent with the past in some way or another. Deciding just how a possible action is consonant with what has gone before can be the most challenging aspect of moving forward.
- We must realize that most situations we will face have also been present in the past. The reason for this reality is that – absent God’s action in people’s lives – human beings are essentially the same in the present as they were in the past. Our condition before God is unchanged, unless and until God intervenes in our lives to bring His divine light into the darkness of the human mind and heart.
So we disciples of the
Lord Jesus stand with our gaze fixed in two directions: We look to the past and
to the accumulated wisdom of God’s revelation as we have it in Holy Scripture
in Right Reason and in Tradition, and at the same time, we look to the present
as we seek to live out the love of God given to us, that divine light of God
which lightens our darkness, the light which has come into the world in the
person of Jesus Christ.
AMEN.
[1] Richard Hooker lived from 1554 – 1600. His
major work is entitled The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.
