Text: 2 Corinthians 3:12-13, 3:18-4:1, 5-6; Book of Discipline 201-204, 214-221
Over the last seven weeks, we have explored together some of the foundational beliefs and practices of the United Methodist Church.
Our focus on grace and faith put into practice.
The call to reach out and share the love of God with all people.
A charge that makes room for difference and invites us to use our brains and celebrates diversity.
All grounded and centered in the core of Christian tradition… praising the God of all creation who became flesh and lived and died so that we might truly know life and who continues to empower us by the Holy Spirit.
As we come to the close of this series, we also come to a transitional date on the Christian calendar: This Sunday before the season of Lent is Transfiguration Sunday.
It is the day that a few of the disciples retreated with Jesus to a mountain top and witnessed the glory of God.
They experienced for themselves the very presence of God, radiating with light, in the person of their rabbi, Jesus.
He shone like the sun and they could hardly take it in… much like Moses before them.
Moses, too, had been to the mountaintop.
He had spent time in the presence of God and for more than just an afternoon.
In the account of Exodus 34, Moses spends forty days and forty nights with the Lord learning about the covenant God wanted to make with the people.
Exodus 34:29 tells us that when Moses came back down from the mountain, his face was radiant. He shone and reflected the glory and the presence of God. But the people were afraid and so he put a veil over his face (34:33).
The Apostle Paul picks up on this idea in his second letter to the church in Corinth.
He describes the law of Moses as a ministry of condemnation, because as individual human beings we couldn’t live up to what it asks of us.
That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a reflection of God’s glory… it was!
But Paul believes that the ministry of righteousness we receive from Jesus through the Holy Spirit is even more glorious, because we are set free to truly reflect God’s glory in all that we say and do.
We are transformed by God’s glory and Paul describes the church in Corinth as Christ’s letter… written not with ink, but with the Holy Spirit.
They are the reflection of Jesus Christ to the world and all who see what they say and do will come to know the glory of God.
That local community and its members reflect the light of the knowledge of God’s glory to everyone they meet.
And so do we.
As our Book of Discipline proclaims, “The function of the local church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is to help people accept and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and to live their daily lives in light of their relationship with God” (¶202, p. 147).
It goes on to say that the members of the church gather for worship, to receive God’s grace, to be formed by the Word, and then we are sent out to do the work of Christ. (¶203)
Or as that familiar song from our childhood reminds us:
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…
Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine…
That light, however, it isn’t my own light.
It isn’t your light.
It is the light of Jesus Christ.
I was thinking about the solar lamps that I installed in my garden last summer. Every evening they light up the path.
But the lamp has no light of its own… it simply captures and stores up the energy from the sun.
The more time it spends soaking up those rays, the brighter and longer it will shine.
Much like Moses shone radiantly after those forty days and forty nights in the presence of God’s glory.
And to keep our lights shining…
To fill up our lamps…
We need to continually spend time in God’s presence.
So as United Methodists, we don’t believe that membership in the local church is simply a box that we check.
It is a commitment and a covenant we make together with God and with the other members of our congregation.
In the coming weeks, our confirmation students will be exploring these vows deeply, but maybe it is good for all of us to get a refresher.
Membership Vows
- Renounce, Reject, Repent
- Accept God’s freedom and power
- Confess Jesus as our Savior
- Serve as Christ’s representative to the world
- Strengthen the ministries of the UMC
- Participate with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness
- Receive and profess the Christian faith
Just as John Wesley brought classes and societies of people together to focus on their spiritual life with one another, our membership vows are a commitment to “a lifelong process of growing in grace.” (¶216.1).
We turn away from sin and evil and turn our lives towards Jesus. Then, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we become ambassadors of Jesus to the world. We see each member as a vital part of the church and we have “method” for helping one another to keep these vows.
First – a local church provides opportunities for a member to grow in their discipleship. From small groups to worship, from mission events to our stewardship campaign, this local church offers ways for you to go deeper in your faith and to discover the will and grace of God. Each one is an opportunity to spend time in the presence of God.
Second – we share a mutual responsibility for one another. We need you, just as much as you need us, and together we shoulder burdens, share risks, and celebrate joys. We encourage one another along in this journey. After all, the people that make up our church are the body of Christ and we also experience the presence of God in one another.
Third – each person is responsible for their own participation. We can have all the opportunities in the world, but ultimately, you are the one who prays, who shows up, who gives, and who reaches out to share God’s love with the world.
However, as part of our Wesleyan heritage, we are called to hold one another accountable to these commitments. Those early Methodist class meetings were designed for members to keep one another on track, it is the responsibility of the local church to reach out in love to invite people to return and to nurture people back into community.
Sometimes that might look like a call or a note from the pastor, but this is the responsibility of all of us.
It is the phone call you make to invite someone to join a small group with you.
It is the note you put in the mail to let someone know you have missed them in worship.
It is the way you speak up if someone in a meeting has said something harmful.
It is the advice you offer when someone seems to be taking a wrong turn in their journey.
We do all of this, because we believe that through these ministries and this community, the glory of the Lord is transforming us more and more everyday into the image of Christ… and that we reflecting that glory to the world.
In Sara Groves’ song, “You are the Sun” she writes:
You are the sun, shining down on everyone.
Light of the world giving light to everything I see…
I am the moon with no light of my own
Still you have made me to shine
And as I glow in this cold dark night
I know I can’t be a light unless I turn my face to you.
The work of the local church and our responsibilities as members of that church is to turn our faces to the Light of the World and let God shine through our lives.
As the Book of Discipline says:
Each member is called upon to be a witness for Christ in the world, a light and leaven in society, and a reconciler in a culture of conflict… to identify with the agony and suffering of the world and to radiate and exemplify the Christ of hope” (¶220).
And we don’t do it alone. We do it together.
The work of the local church is only possible because all of us have gathered our resources and our talents and our time together so that we can reach out to the people in this community, and work to help one another grow. And we also are part of a larger connection, so we partner with other local churches – like inviting students from Windsor UMC to join us for confirmation. We work to be stewards not just of our resources, but of God’s creation as we participate in the mission of the larger United Methodist Church. (¶202, p147-148)
Let us keep soaking up the light of God so that in all of these things, the glory of God might shine through us.
Amen.
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