Posts Tagged ‘Our heavenly citizebnship; taking up our cross’

Our Citizenship is in Heaven!

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

Second Sunday of Lent

Gen 15: 5-12, 17-18;Phil 3: 17 – 4: 1; Lk 9: 28b-36

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

Guess what?  Our citizenship is in heaven, not on earth!  That’s what St. Paul is telling us this morning.

Does it feel like that to you?  Or are you one of those people that Paul is talking about whose minds are occupied with the things of this world?  Now I’m not talking about right now this morning.  All of you are here this morning to worship the Lord.  But what about when you leave here in 45 minutes or so and for all of next week?  It’s hard to focus on the Lord then, isn’t it?  There’s the kids and the job and the yard and the house payment and the shopping and the laundry and soccer practice and heaven knows what all else.  These are all things of this world; they are not about our heavenly citizenship.  So, how can we focus on citizenship in heaven in the midst of all that?

Well, let’s take Abram as an example.  He was prosperous in the Land of Ur- a great property owner.  He was involved in running a large household and many things of this world.  Yet Abram took the time to reflect on his life, and listen to the urgings of the Lord.  And the Lord told him to pull up stakes and go to a land he would show him.  He didn’t even tell him where that was till he got there.  And then, the passage this morning describes what happened after Abram arrived there.

Indeed, Abram went through a process of centering his life on the Lord in parallel with living in this world.  The fact is that Abram believed there was a Lord, listened to the voice of the Lord in his life; and was open to what the Lord said.  In other words he trusted the Lord, even when it was difficult.  Abram left a life of comfort and control to embrace the perceived will of the Lord.  And he was obedient even in the face of uncertainty.  In a word, Abram had faith and lived in faith, but that was not without its consequences.  Indeed, the move from the land of Ur was painful and involved a lot of self-sacrifices.  Because of his faith and obedience, though, God made a covenant with Abram down to the thousandth generation, one in which he promised his faithful descendants the promised land.  And that promised land symbolizes life in the heavenly kingdom.  In other words, Abram was focused on being a citizen of heaven.

This morning’s Gospel is all about the transfiguration.  And the transfiguration is filled with symbology.  Jesus takes on the appearance of his glorified body- symbolic of what citizenship in heaven will be like.  He is seen with Moses and Elijah, also in their glorified bodies.  Jesus spoke to them about his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem- his exodus- in other words, the voluntary uprooting he would experience from the relatively comfortable life he had been living, nd acceptance of the cross, suffering and death.  So that’s what he was talking to Moses and Elijah about.

Now the Apostles were just spellbound by all that.  They wanted to stay there and experience more of the glorified Christ.  But what happens?  The Father envelops them with the shadow of a cloud and speaks to them plainly: “This is my chosen Son, listen to him.”  Listen to him.  We know that the Gospel goes on to tell how Jesus told the disciples that he would be handed over to the authorities, suffer greatly, die, and then, and only then, be raised from the dead.  It was as if the Father was saying to the Apostles: “Listen guys, if you want the glorified state you just saw, listen to my son.  He will tell you what you need to do.”  The trouble was, it wasn’t what they wanted to hear because just after the Father spoke from the cloud, Jesus told them the truth of his suffering and death.  They were incredulous and confused.

It’s not what we want to hear either.  We don’t want to listen to God tell us we need to move out of our comfort zone.  We don’t want to hear that life is anything other than the plate we currently have, and we certainly don’t want to hear about the suffering greatly and take up our cross part.  But we have got to face the reality that life is a continual conversion process, and that conversion process is the one that Abram experienced.  Lent is the ideal time to pull back and follow Abram’s example.  We have to believe that God is calling us; we have to step back and listen to God; we have to follow his voice even in uncertainty and trust that he will lead us to the promised land; and we have to do all of that while living in this world.

Fortunately, few of us are called to give everything up and move away, like Abram.  Rather, we are called to other kinds of conversion.  These calls are the nagging feelings we have when we take the time to pray and reflect that something is wrong in our lives- something with our spouse; some evil influence from our neighbors or friends; some constant temptation we yield to like food, sex, laziness, whatever.

Lent is the time to get in tune with the voice of the Lord.  Now is the time to listen to the Lord tell us “No, follow me instead” whenever we have those nagging feelings that something is wrong.  Because, all of us really do want to be citizens of heaven.