Trustworthy 3 February 2008

Trustworthy
2 Peter 1:16-21
Epiphany 4/Transfiguration
3 February 2008

This is the season of political primaries when promises abound and uncertainty flourishes. This month we also celebrate African American contributions to our common life, reflecting on the hills and valleys we have traversed and celebrating the bridges that have brought us over. But we also remember the promises made and broken and with that memory comes the challenge to know who to believe and what is trustworthy.

The Christians addressed in 2 Peter struggled in knowing who they should trust. Then as now the community was awash with multiple and competing voices holding various and contradictory positions. Offering guidance and direction, the writer draws the saints’ attention back the source of the community itself, namely God’s work in Christ Jesus. In Christ, God has given to believers everything that we need for the life that God calls us to live. Sourced in and endorsed by God, Jesus Christ is the word of the prophets made more certain in whose light we bask until that same light sets us aglow.

Knowing that Jesus himself is the word that we can trust solidifies our confidence in the word of welcome that he offers all who would believe on him. We hear again, anew, afresh his invitation: “Come unto me.” Welcome to the family. Welcome to the church. Welcome to the Body. Welcome to the Blood. Welcome to the table that God has prepared in the presence of our enemies and in the company of our brothers and sisters. We hear the welcome and we know it’s trustworthy. We know it’s for real.

Sing “’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”

Let us pray:
Faithful God, in a world full of promises made and broken, how grateful we are that in you we find a trustworthy word. Make us likewise faithful and honest in our character and most especially in our proclamation of your grace. In the midst of all the confusion around and within us, in the dark places of our lives, we pray that we might focus ever more on the light of Christ while we await the dawning of perfect day and the rising of the morning star. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.