Word Become Bread! Bread Become Flesh!

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B: 

Word Become Bread! Bread Become Flesh!

In this Sunday's 'First Testament' reading from I Kings (19:4-8) we encounter Elijah the prophet on the run. He is running for his life after defeating the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. His victory and slaying of the priests enraged Queen Jezebel who had brought the priests of Baal to Israel. She swore to kill the holy prophet Elijah. In our section of Kings, we meet Elijah who is at the end of his physical and psychological strength, in of all places, the desert. Not even the beauty of the landscape can comfort him. There in the wilderness he asks for an end to his misery; "Lord, I have had enough! Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." Elijah was God's appointed prophet. He was doing what he was supposed to be doing, faithfully preaching God's Word. Now he is filled with self-doubt. When people experience hard times they sometimes think God is punishing them for doing something wrong. But Elijah did not do anything wrong. He is enduring the usual rejection and threats of violence inflicted on God's prophets. Some endured more than threats and were killed for their faithful service to God. This is happening even in our day.


He thinks or probably more accurately feels, that he is no better than his ancestors but actually this is far from the truth. He is better than his ancestors because we do not find him complaining like the people in today's gospel (John 6:41-51) about the lack of food in the wilderness. Conscious of his own inadequacy as a prophet he entrusts his soul to God. It is a lovely irony that just because Elijah gives priority to the word of God he is able to survive on bread alone. Perhaps ‘survive’ is not quite the right term here. Recent scientific research suggests that regular ‘fasting’, keeping down the number of calories we consume, is actually good for us. It gives the body an opportunity to repair damaged cells and can prevent the onset of cancers or diabetes. If Elijah managed to walk all the way to mount Horeb on a stone baked loaf (this sounds rather good!) and a jar of water that might indicate that he was used to a meagre diet. It would be quite fitting if, without knowing it, the prophet lived a longer and healthier life as a result of self-denial in the service of God.


The fact that an angelic being ministers to Elijah’s very human needs reminds us that there can also be spiritual dangers in self-denial. A failure to respect the body’s needs for food and drink may be a sign of depression or self-loathing. The material and spiritual dimensions of life are inseparable and it can be just as much a temptation to undervalue our bodily nature with its various needs as it is to overindulge it. In the gospel today people are "complaining"–they are ‘murmuring’ just like the Israelites in the desert with Moses–they are not complaining about a lack of food. They are complaining that Jesus seems too ordinary, too perhaps human? "We know his father and mother, How can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'" The problem is not one of communication. Many of them would readily have understood the implications of what Jesus is saying. The giving of manna, the feeding of the chosen people with bread from heaven, was often associated in Jewish minds with the giving of divine teaching. In other words Jesus is clearly giving his teaching a unique status – he sees his own teaching as indispensable and as life-giving as our daily bread. Jesus has declared in his time of trial in the desert, "Humans do not live on bread alone, but on every word that flows from the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy 8:3)


In the wilderness, after praying for death, Elijah falls asleep. Then he has a double-dream theophany. An angel wakes him and provides food for him. We can see where the story is going. Like Israel's sojourn in the desert and when we cannot provide for ourselves, God can nourish us. And that's exactly what God does. The prophet cannot continue on his own, but God nourishes him for the "long journey" that lies ahead. Elijah's problems aren't removed, but God provides what he needs for the next phase of his mission. God has more for him to do. Elijah is given food in the wilderness to strengthen him to walk for; "forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God." On Horeb (or Mount Sinai) God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, another kind of bread for hungry people in the desert. The theme of being fed on physical and spiritual bread are them amplified in today's gospel.


Elijah was not just on a journey he chose for himself. He started out as a fugitive fleeing for his life but after his encounter with the divine messenger his flight becomes a pilgrimage that will take him to a holy place. Isn't that the way life can be for us? We find ourselves in a crisis, or stressed, hardly getting through a day. We cry out for help, when we discover we cannot provide for ourselves. Somehow God visits us in our wilderness, gives us nourishment to continue our life journey. At the end, when we look back on the difficult experience, we realize God was there for us each step of the way. God has not abandoned Elijah, but seeks him out. In our times of weakness, God does not abandon us, but seeks us out. The Elijah story helps us to trust in the gracious provision of God. It is a story of a human who cannot help himself. Which leaves plenty of room for God to move in with bread and water, nourishment to continue the journey.


What Jesus is trying to help his "complaining" listeners understand about "the bread" that he gives it is unlike the manna their ancestors ate in the desert. His bread is a bread that satisfies our true and deepest hunger and gives us life for the new age that he is inaugurating. Jesus doesn't debate with his opponents. If they try to just use their reason they will never get to understand what he is teaching. The crowd are closed to what Jesus is saying to them. Logic does not work for them in their encounter with Christ. The way people come to Jesus is that they are to be "drawn by the Father". Seeing with the 'eyes of faith' is a gift from God. What an opportunity Jesus' hearers have before them! The Father is drawing them to Jesus, but they are resistant. We cannot achieve God on their own, but must be drawn by God, who gives faith. The invitation to believe Christ's teaching is also there for us and all who will listen to Jesus. Do we accept what the religious authorities rejected, "the bread that has come down from heaven?" Our communion this weekend should be an affirmation of faith experience the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ. Amen..

Looking Beyond the Bread to the Baker!

 “Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10 

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B:

Looking Beyond the Bread to the Baker!

In our gospel this Sunday we read the words from John's gospel (6:24-35); “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty!” This is what John has been try to tell us. It is more than just a summary of the miracle feeding of 5,000. The reference to “never being thirsty” recalls for me the story of Jesus meeting the spiritually thirsty woman of Samaria at the village well (Jn 4:1-42). John doesn’t present us with Jesus-the-magician; John presents us with 'Jesus - heaven come down to earth', or 'eternal life incarnate'. It’s a sign that Jesus is speaking with divine insight. He’s saying, “Listen to me. Let me tell you the deepest truth about what’s going on here. Don’t misunderstand who I AM for you! You’re seeing the sign – but you’re not reading it properly. You look at me and see a miracle worker. That’s not who I am. I am the stuff of life, sent you from God! Don’t have your minds on your stomachs but look more deeply and face the hunger and thirst for Life that is at the very core of you. Then look at me, and you’ll understand!”

We live in a world where two thirds of its inhabitants are starving and the other third has problems associated with overeating. When Jesus speaks of being the "Bread of Life" in John’s gospel, and criticises his hearers for being concerned only with full stomachs, he is not spiritualising hunger, nor is he advocating a focus on the “spiritual” rather than the “physical”. John’s Jesus is, more explicitly than in any other part of the New Testament, God incarnate. The 'Incarnation' is about God’s entry into the human condition and not a flight from it! This gospel can be read to challenge the rich, the well-fed, the powerful and the “haves". Jesus is the "Living Bread" who comes down from heaven who gives and is the life to the world! “Ah,” you might say, “but what sort of life is he giving? Is it the life that comes from giving bread to the hungry, or is it actually some sort of other-worldly life, meant to be lived in another place?” The point of the miracle is about feeding hungry people who have no means of feeding themselves. Provision and salvation Jesus is saying, belong together. Feeding hungry people and enabling them to continue living is part of God's idea of salvation! God it seems is interested in the whole person.

The wonder of the provision of food from heaven as seen in the Exodus passage (16:2-4,12-15) is about God providing what is needed to sustain the life of God's chosen people. When the hungry are fed and the naked clothed; when the poor are given enough and the thirsty given a cup of water, this is A PART of salvation! It is not some sort of “preparatory spadework” for evangelism. And when Jesus feeds the crowd, they do not only have enough, they have far more than enough. There is “something more”. It is this “something more” that Jesus goes on to stress that is the hunger and thirst of the soul. In a materialistic age, this is an important point. And for those of us who are aware of the sense in which the gospel is the Good News of a transformed world order of justice and provision for all, it is important not to neglect this dimension of human existence which is about more than eating, being clothed and having clean water. The Incarnation is about bridging the “gap” between heaven and earth.

Our 1st world culture has been built so that our lives and culture can exclude God. Individually and collectively, many people seem to be cut off from God. The fundamental “gap” manifests itself in injustice, oppression, poverty and death-dealing power or sin. To talk theologically, sin is both a personal and a collective structural problem. The “gap” is the absence of the Life of God. In John’s gospel (10:10) the terms, “eternal life” or “life in abundance” is something we are meant to experience in the here and now. We are created for fellowship with God. Jesus - the Word made flesh, does not only show us what God is like but he shows us what it is like to be truly human. To be human like Jesus is to live in the awareness of being God’s child and of the constant, transforming presence of God in our lives. Abundant life in Jesus is a life that overflows to others. We are made for joy, for love, for hope, for laughter, for deep relating. Yet these type of experiences of God in Jesus and through the Spirit are so often ridiculed as emotionalism or unimportant.

We fail people if we do not recognise the reality of and their spiritual hunger. The signs of the hunger for the "Bread of Life" are evident everywhere to whose eyes are open. Look at the current explosion of spirituality in self-help books, new age psychic fairs, meditation courses and classes on eastern mysticism. Millions of people who have nothing to do with the Church are desperate to make connections with spiritual reality. And yet the Church often fails to help them make a connection between their own deep sense of spiritual hunger and Jesus, the "Bread of Life!" We stand by in embarrassed silence, while people who have found something of significance in the occult, eastern meditation, Buddhism, and yoga. I think the reason for our failure is that we do not recognise in it a mirror of our own deep hunger and thirst for God. We should examine ourselves, lest we like the crowd in the gospel, fail to read the sign of the multiplication of bread correctly. In reality we need to remember that we are nothing more than beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.

Often Christian churches can hold all sorts of strange doctrines and practices that can keep hungry and thirsty souls from life giving spiritual food. And the danger is that they distract and prevent needy people coming to experience Jesus Christ. They sometimes seem to obscure and “lose” Jesus! Our passage from John's gospel challenges us to do good theology. Good prayerful spirit-directed theology has to do with life – the life of faith and the life of the world. Good theology provides answers to our ongoing hunger and thirst for God. It is interesting that John gets the passionate about faith when he is at his most “theological” best – which means most deeply aware of God's grace! Because at the end of the day, grace is what this all about: a God who answers hunger and thirst with a gift that is far more wonderful and life-giving than we can ever possibly imagine: the gift of Jesus. This Jesus is not a dry, academic theory but "Living Bread!" And we are invited to come and eat and drink … if of course, we are hungry and thirsty in the first place! Amen.

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost-YB -Br Simeon & Br. Luke

Homily preached by Brs. Simeon & Luke e.f.o. at Maroubra on Sunday 2^nd August 2015

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

Gospel:  John 6: 24-35

"Lord, give us this bread always"

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.

Last week we heard the amazing episode of Jesus feeding the 5000.  He took the tiny amount of loaves and fishes and multiplied it into enough to feed all the people on the hillside with food to spare.  Jesus suddenly had people wanting to be around him, he had crowds following him and they wanted more. They wanted more food and more miracles and more shows of his authority.

Today we hear Jesus tell the people what they really need.  He tells them that they are wrong to look for food again.  He tells them that they should not actually be looking for physical food; they should be looking to be fed by the Holy Spirit.  He tells them that the bread they are searching for is not the food but himself.

Many sought Jesus out because he offered them something no one else could give - bread from heaven from the very hand of God himself. When Jesus had performed the miracle of multiplying five loaves of bread and two fish to provide a refreshing and satisfying meal for more than 5000 people ( John 6:1-15), they wanted to make him their king - no doubt because they wanted more. When Jesus withdrew from the crowd and quietly returned to Capernaum to be with his twelve disciples, they ran to seek him there (John 6:24-25). Jesus met them with a probing question - “are you looking for physical food that perishes or food that gives eternal life?”

Jesus' question to the crowd, and to each one of us as well, echoes the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy" (Isaiah 55:2)? There are two fundamental types of hunger - physical and spiritual. Only the Lord Jesus can satisfy the hunger in our heart - the hunger for truth, life, and love. Jesus alone can satisfy our hunger for truth - because in him alone is the Truth which is found in God. Jesus alone can satisfy our hunger for life - because he alone can give us abundant life - the supernatural life of God which transforms us now and lasts forever. Jesus alone can satisfy our deepest hunger for love - the love of God that knows no end, that never fails nor forsakes us, that outlasts sin and death. Jesus alone can satisfy the eternal hunger of our heart, mind, and spirit.

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus tells the people. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” He is offering the people himself. He is the imperishable bread that nourishes and sustains imperishable life.

Jesus makes us the same offer. He offers himself to us in every one of our relationships: family, friends, strangers, enemies, those who agree with us, and those who disagree. In every situation and each day of our life we choose the bread we will eat, perishable or imperishable. In so doing we also choose the life we want.

Theresa of Avila's prayer book contained a bookmark which she wrote: Let nothing

disturb you, let nothing frighten you; All things pass: God never changes. Patience achieves all it strives for. Whoever has God lacks nothing, God alone suffices.

As we leave this place of worship today,  I leave this with you and for me to ponder throughout this week....

 “Do you hunger for the bread which comes down from heaven and thirst for the words of everlasting life?”

Amen.

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

5th Sunday after Pentecost 13th July 2014

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,
either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Gospel:Matthew 13:1-23: 


God's Word Will Work It's Purpose The heart of Jesus' message is about the 'Reign or Kingdom' of God. The parables like that of the sower for this week's liturgy is a special way to help us know its significance. Matthew seeks to explain why some people do and some don't accept the way God wants to be in this world. There are two groups of listeners the disciples and the Pharisees. Jesus explains to the disciples why the coming Reign of God is not announced in spectacular ways. Jesus does not usually explain his parables but one is given. The parables can be heard in different ways and not wishing to outdo the Christ, I would like to share my response to the gospel words. In case you are already saying to yourself, “Heard that before, know that,” I ask you to listen again with a fresh heart. You just might just hear this parable in a new way.

In Jesus day a farmer would put a heavy seed bag on his shoulder and go out to his field to sow seed. The farmer would through seed across a fallow field before ploughing. The seed was first sown, and then gently ploughed into the ground. Some of the farmers precious seed, fell on a well worn path cut by foot traffic through the fallow field. So some seed landed on the path. And when it did, the birds quickly enjoyed lunch. Other seeds, said Jesus, fell on rocky ground. Because there was little soil there, the seedlings sprang up quickly and then withered under the scorching sun or those that fell into the thorns were choked off. Finally, some seed fell on good ground and brought forth a good crop yielding thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold. Jesus ended the story calling all to listen; listen carefully, deeply, thoughtfully. Listen! Jesus gave an interpretation to this parable that has endured down through the ages. Many believe that Christ’s interpretation of the parable, represents various kinds of people, and is the only legitimate interpretation. I believe, this parable can have, and does have many meanings? As with all of the parables, the key is to listen and let the word take root in our lives - that is to change us. I would like to share my response on this parable.

The parable could I believe be applied to every individual life? Our lives have worn, rocky, thorny, and good soil in which seed of God's word can grow. If your life is like mine, daily living has created well-worn paths. They can be called ruts. Routines are often required, but sometimes in our relationship with God, routines can become ruts. We can attend church week after week, hear the scriptures read (like this parable), sing familiar hymns, go through the church routine, and in so doing, give the good seed God sows us to the birds of indifference. It happens and may be happening even now. God’s seed also falls on the rocky places of our lives. Life, by definition, can leave us cold, sharp, soil-less, and rough. Pain, the cruelty of insensitive friends, and the cutting comments of strangers can leave us lifeless and unmoved, like hard rocks void of God’s bounty. The thorns of negative thinking that can choke out the ways of trust and faith, robbing us of God’s promise. We have all heard and believes too many unloving voices.

Thank God, some seed falls on good ground out of open trust. When it does, the miracle of growth and harvest happens. I think of the people who have started to tell me a story about their life with the words: “You’ll never believe what happened to me.” Or, “I had no idea God could take what I did and use it to bless another’s life.” Or, "I never thought I would find my way of the burden of pain I was carrying." We all have a story. Look back and see the times God sowed good seed in the good ground of your soul, and how from a small beginning came a result that still leaves you amazed. There will always be parts of us that are worn out, rocky, wasted, and good. But the gospel reminds us there is far more good in all of us in which God’s grace can take root. All types of ground exists in the fields of our lives. We are invited by the parable to clear out the rocks of hardness of heart, to cut down the thorns of negativity, to change the routines of life sometimes, to not listen to the birds that do not speak of Christ and the gospel way and to give God even more opportunities through prayer and silence to grow into the generous, loving person God in Christ made us to be? I invite you to LISTEN once again to Christ's words and so to discover the amazing work of God in and through your beautiful life. God is working in you patiently and carefully - just LISTEN you may hear it grow.

Amen

1st Sunday After Pentecost - Trinity Sunday - Br Andrew

                            

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached at Winmalee by Br Andrewvon  Sunday 15th June 2014:

Trinity Sunday. Year A.

Many Persons in Ones God

Gospel Matthew 28:16-20

Today is Trinity Sunday and, in the words of Jesus in today’s gospel we find the Trinity inferred for the first time after Pentecost.  (Matt.28:19) Considering that we are Monotheists believing God is One then who are these three?

We know of the Father since He is our Creator, we know that Jesus is the one referred to as the “Son” and as for the Holy Spirit, he or she has been here since the world was created:-The Ruach Elohim, Breath of God; who first brooded over the waters (Gen. 1:2), the Ruach Hakkodesh the Holy Breath of God (Ps.51:11) to whom David prayed  “do not take your Holy Spirit from me” Yet how is it that these three are One?

In Exodus 34: 5 the One refers to its self as “Yahweh” so we do know that the One has a name. In ancient times to know someone’s name was to know the source of their secret strengths or life, to reveal your name to another was a huge step towards being in relationship with that person. The first time Moses met with Yahweh was at the burning bush,(Ex.3:14) at the beginning of his ministry where we learnt from the Scriptures that “Yahweh is translated I Am that I Am” – Yahweh, Y’hw’h without its now unknown vowels leaving the  Hebrew consonant’s which when spoken together Yoh- hey, vah, hey—almost sounds like we are  breathing. The Name is the very breath we take to sustain life. I Am forever fully present I AM the One who makes all others things be.

This Yoh-hey,vah,hey  is the Ruach Hakkodesh because the Jews have always believed that they are the same. Yet the Ruach hakkodesh is also uniquely itself with its own areas of operation.

“From the time of creation constant reference is made in Holy Writ to Messiah and the Messianic hope of Israel. ‘The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”; the spirit of God means Messiah.”

(Midrash Genesis Rabbah 2; Leviticus Rabbah 14)

Definition:

In Judaism, the Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש‎; plural midrashim) is the body of homiletic stories told by Jewish rabbinic sages to explain passages in the Tanakh. Midrash is a method of interpreting biblical stories that goes beyond simple distillation of religious, legal, or moral teachings. It fills in gaps left in the biblical narrative regarding events and personalities that are only hinted at.purose of midrash was to resolve problems in the interpretation of difficult passages of the text of the Hebrew Bible, using Rabbinic principles of hermeneutics and philology to align them with the religious and ethical values of religious teachers.

As time passes Yahweh reveals only enough about the One who Is as we can understand and have the wisdom and courage to believe.

The Jews of old knew Yahweh as a Father (Ex.4:22), a Shepherd (Psalm 22/23:1), a Husband, (Is.54:5-8), Potter (Jer.18:6), and Vineyard owner, (Ps.80:8-13) they did not as yet know him as a brother; nor would they believe, in a hurry that their Father, through mystic means would beget a human son.

Yahweh in choosing to enter into a relationship with us became vulnerable because the One, with His Spirit entered into Covenant with us to keep us safe and in His anthropomorphic form as his own son knew he would be required to enter creation to suffer and to die to save it from sin and death.

And so it is that another comes to us from Yahweh, One who has always existed, whom we yet do not know: He comes into our world as one of us, a defenceless child, he is the Messiah prophesied in the previous Covenant.

”For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.(Is. 9:6 WEB )

 His conception is miraculous, his birth unremarkable, he grows up in Nazareth in a province known as Galilee of the Gentiles.

While Jesus the Christ was with us he taught us more about Yahweh than was ever yet revealed because He is Yahweh, standing in the flesh beside the people of his time and yet seated in heaven taking care of the world. (John 3:13)

Before Jesus ascended into heaven he said to his Apostles ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.' (Matt 28: 17b-20 NJB)

Jesus also promised that his Father would send another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth and this is the one we have already met, this Spirit, is the Ruach-Hakkodesh of old, given to the 72 Elders to Prophets and Kings, sometimes not permanently, as in the case of King Saul, who went mad when the spirit left him.

The Holy Spirit is not just given selectively to the chosen but on the day of Pentecost roughly 33 AD was sent, into the world  as a Person, in his or her own right – just as the prophet Joel prophesied “ In the last days -- the Lord declares -- I shall pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young people shall see visions, your old people dream dreams.” (Acts 2:16,17:cf Joel 3 NJB)

We live because we breathe the Spirit of Yahweh

When the Holy Spirit comes upon us it melds with our own Spirit to testify that we are now sons and daughters of Yahweh, inheritors of all good things, brothers and sisters of Christ, one with Yahweh.

 Now, with two out of three of the members of the One having been manifest in the world, and Jesus the Word made flesh having ascended back to heaven as a human being the Church gradually began asking how does the puzzle actually work. How are these three One? Since Jesus was once human how is he divine? Is he a different Person/part of God than he was when he was the Word?

We are spatial, linear beings and so Yahweh’s wonderful gift of his only selves causes us to get out our metaphorical screwdrivers to try to take God apart, rather than to simply say aha, how wonderful.

From Jewish Midrash we learned that Yahweh and his Spirit are the same,from the earlier Covenant we know that Yahweh was called Father by the Israelites therefore from Jesus, who says that he and the Father are One we know that Jesus and Yahweh are the same.

Therefore we know that God is Yahweh,Yeshuah, and Ruach Hakkodesh, (Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit) that each are fully Yahweh ( God) and at the same time uniquely themselves. Sometimes we relate to a Father or to Jesus or to the Spirit. Sometimes to all three as One

Let us close with the part of the prayer Jesus prayed for all believers

20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 

2 1 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 

22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 

23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23 NIV)

There are as many Persons of God as there are his Children, all one with God all uniquely ourselves. 

Br Andrew

Sermon Extra 1 - Messiah Means

Ludovico Carracci [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

What does Messiah mean?

Addition to Sermon on Transfiguration

(Y-not question the Sunday Readings)
by Beehive  , Brigadoon West Australia, Tuesday, March 18, 2014, 20:26
Ynot:-

www.catholica.com.au

No, the scriptures are the apostles' way of telling what they saw and heard, and their way of saying how their conviction developed and grew and became clear and definite. How they progressed from Yes and No, to certainty. And they do not apologise for saying that conviction came from the Most High.

"This is my beloved son listen to him."

This phrase is the critical element of the transfiguration episode. 

It also surfaces In one of the Gospels at the baptism of Yeshua at the Jordan. A voice from heaven saying the same thing.

Even though Peter gets a bad press for his three tents, this vision or whatever it was, had revealed something unexpected about Yeshua . They expressed it as seeing his "glory".

What does glory mean? If Yeshua had just kicked the winning goal in the grand final that clinched the premiership, we would understand. There was something great about him not realised until this moment.

The hidden talent of champions is inside them. A champion is the sum of his parts.
We don't actually know the fullness of this talent until we have watched him reach his peak and is on his way out. We can only judge, compare and rank a champion among others in the hindsight of history.
This mountain top encounter had a profound effect on Peter. Towards the end of his life he wrote about it in glowing terms in one of his epistles.

These words of YHWH whom Yeshua called "father" clinched Peter's hunch that Yeshua was the Messiah.

These words for Peter were the final missing piece of the prophetic jigsaw that connected Yeshua and Yahweh in the promised father and son relationship. This was the missing messiah ingredient.

Yahweh's prophecy to David that he would raise up a descendant to whom he would give an everlasting kingdom contained the ingredient "I will be his father, and he will be my son". 

In itself, this could not have possibly been interpreted, or understood in those days to mean that the messiah would be Yahewh!

Nor does it have any connection with Atonement theology , or Trinity,..... It is a simile. But a very unique and essential one, when considered again in hindsight of what Yeshua was called to endure.

In later life Peter recognised this as the final bit of understanding that convinced him that Yeshua was the Anointed. This encounter allowed Sophia to get through to Peter with the gift of "knowledge", and from then on he saw Yeshua's "glory", that is his full identity as the Anointed one.

We must never get ahead of ourselves with a revelation like this. "Messiah" has to be understood within the context of the times, and within the confines of the information about it before 27AD.

We do have the advantage of hindsight in examining this concept.
But we also have to keep the rules:- Investigate all and only its elements that were available to that Jewish community before that moment in history. It then has to be evaluated only within those confines. An entity is only the sum of its parts.

"Messiah" is the sum of all its predictions given to Israel before 6BC. Nothing else can be added, or taken away from it. Any messianic teaching that exceeds those parts is patently erroneous.

To find out the ingredients, graces and limitations of the promised messiah, one has to return and surf the Old Testament. It is surprising what it actually brings up! It is a living, amazing series of revelations.
Beehive

Brian Pitts