It's like looking in a mirror...

When I was in high school, I had two teachers who were married to each other. It was easy to know they were married, because they shared the same last name. But if you only knew their first names, you might still wonder if they shared some other connection. There was something familiar that they shared between them. They shared similar mannerisms, speech patterns, phrases, and even the same hair style! Somehow, though, I don’t think they began their lives together with all those similarities in place.

Over time, they probably grew to resemble each other. They spent countless hours together in deep and intimate ways. They raised children together. They shared the same profession, and many similar interests and passions. You may recognize this pattern from your own life or relationships. After spending a lot of time close to another person, it is not unusual to experience changes in yourself that resemble things unique to the other person.

This coming Sunday we remember the transfiguration of Jesus. It’s one of the weirder stories in the Bible, and it can make you ask, “Huh?” Jesus experiences deep communion with God, and as a result something about him changes - he becomes bright, radiant, and dazzling. In the Old Testament book of Exodus, we read that Moses had an encounter with God that produced very similar effects. His face was so radiant, that he had to wear a veil.

One of the implications of these encounters for us is that we all possess the ability to be changed and transfigured. Maybe we’ve already been changed because of our spouses, or other people in our lives that we are close to and admire. The same is true for us as it relates to our relationship with Christ. The more time we spend with Christ, the more we will become like him. We spend time with him through prayer, Bible reading and study, worship, and fellowship with others who are on the Christian journey. The more we experience closeness to Christ through the development of this deep relationship, the more Christ will work through us to bring about the transfiguration of our hearts, minds, and spirits. Spending this intimate time with Christ enables the Holy Spirit to reshape us in every way, making us more like Christ each and every day.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that when we, like him, strive to imitate and be like Christ by getting to know him, then “he will transform our humble bodies that they may be conformed to his glorious body, by the power that enables him to make all things subject to himself” (Philippians 3:21). May we all be radiant examples of Christ in us.

Super Bowl Episode XLVII: Who does God want to win?

     A brief, cursory study of the Scriptures may reveal something very important about the way God feels about a serious upcoming event. I invite you to walk with me through a couple Bible passages.

Gold and silver are mined, then purified; the same is done with iron and copper. Miners carry lanterns deep into the darkness to search for these metals. They dig tunnels in distant, unknown places, where they dangle by ropes… Miners go to places unseen by the eyes of hawks; they walk on soil unknown to the proudest lions. – Job 28:1-4, 7-8

Celebrate and sing! Play your harps for the Lord our God… He provides food for cattle and for the young ravens, when they cry out. – Psalm 147:7, 9

     Clearly, God has a deep concern over the outcome of Sunday’s Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens… unfortunately, I just can’t figure out which team God is rooting for. 
     Seriously though—and I say this as someone who loves watching the Super Bowl—I don’t think God cares very much which team wins and which team loses. I do, however, believe that God is concerned about how the game is played. If we spent a little more time in Job 28 and Psalm 147, here is where we would arrive:

God alone understands the way to wisdom… And this is what God says to all humanity: ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding.’ – Job 28:23, 28

The Lord’s delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner; but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. – Psalm 147:10-11

     But what does it mean to “fear the Lord?” It means living our lives oriented to God. This orientation is “developed and nurtured by the disciplines of piety: prayer, meditation, and other religious observances that serve to remind one of God’s continual presence.”¹ Time spent with God makes us more mindful of God’s presence in our lives, and helps us focus on how God wants us to live our lives. When all of our interactions reflect the reality that God is with us, within us, and within the other, we begin to understand the true depth of fearing the Lord. No matter what competitions we are witnessing, or may be involved in, may we always remember that God is present, and cares very deeply about how we play the game.

     Oh… and go Ravens.

¹Newsom, Carol A. “The Book of Job.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary. 

     Vol. IV. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996. 534.