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When they lifted their eyes, they saw no one but him, Jesus alone (v 8). We divide our lives into two parts ... important days and ordinary days ... green days and white days. You probably don’t remember much of anything about the ordinary days, the green ones of your lives. They come ... they go ... they can be good and plentiful, but the important ones ... birthdays, graduations, anniversaries ... we never seem to forget those, or at least we aren’t supposed to. Those are the days we pay attention to. They bring us joy and peace. You may not have realized it when you woke up this morning, but today is one of those days ... a day to pay attention to ... a day filled with joy and peace. Today is the Transfiguration of our Lord, and it is good to be here (v 4). Transfiguration Sunday gives us the unique opportunity to witness firsthand, through the reporting of Saint Matthew, Jesus alone. Like Peter, James, and John who followed our Lord up the mountain ... the Greek actually says Jesu...

[Jesus said,] Amen, I tell you, with no one have I found such great faith in Israel. Now I tell you many from east and west will come and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness. There, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (vv 10b-12). Did you know there are only two religions in the world? Some say there are 4,000, but there really are only two. The most prominent of these two says you must do something in order to be saved. To be sure, there are some 3,999 varieties of this religion. But all of those have a most important trait in common ... the words “if you will.” In other words, if you will bathe in the sacred river, you will receive the forgiveness of sins ... if you will obey the Law, God will bless you ... if you will give your heart to Jesus, you will be given a new life. They all hinge on you. I don’t know why anyone would want to follow the religion of “if you will.” I...

Saint John leaves little doubt as to what today’s Gospel Epiphany is all about. In fact, he tells us rather plainly. Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. ... It manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him (v 11). As Epiphanies go, the sign of changing water into wine isn’t quite the Aha moment that the Baptism of Jesus was last week. But it is still a momentous one. As we pass through the waters of our Lord’s baptism,  in the end we can see and hear the Gospel. We can see Christ giving us an abundance of his best gifts for this life. We can recognize that the kingdom of God really comes without our prayer (SC III) and that heaven really has been opened to all who believe (1:51).  That’s what the Season of Epiphany is all about ... it’s about seeing and hearing and celebrating the manifestation, or the illumination, of the glory of God through the humanity of Jesus Christ. That’s why we focus on the signs Jesus did. As John will ultimately te...

Then Jesus made his public appearance from Galilee upon the Jordan toward John for the purpose of being baptized by him. Now John tried to prevent him, saying, I have need by you to be baptized, and you come to me? Then having answered, Jesus said to him, Allow it now, for in this way it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed it, and Jesus was baptized. Immediately, he walked up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I delight.  Today is the Baptism of our Lord. That being said, today we’re gonna focus on Baptism.  Sadly, our subject matter is a rather contentious one among Christians. We don’t agree on what baptism is. We don’t agree on what baptism does or doesn’t do. We don’t agree on when baptism happens, and how it happens. We don’t even agree on who does it ... or who should rece...

Twinkle, twinkle, little star / How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high / Like a diamond in the sky. One of the things I love about living here in the pastures of west-central Missouri is the ability to see the stars. You see, I lived most of my life east of the Mississippi, and there are only a handful places there where you can see the stars; none of them are in Illinois. The light of mankind absolutely floods the night sky there. While Kansas City to the north, Springfield to the south and St Louis to the east spoils the night sky for most folks in Missouri, we here in Appleton City are just a few miles north of one of the first dark zones west of the Mississippi where you can see the twinkle, twinkle of little stars.  When you live in an actual dark zone, and if you are young enough, on a clear night astronomers say you can probably see about 3,000 stars in the night sky. The older you get, the fewer you can actually see.  Was it one of those twinkles that le...