Part of the Epistle appointed for today, the Thirteenth Chapter of Saint Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, to be precise, is also one of the permissible New Testament readings on occasions of Holy Matrimony.  In my experience, many, many brides rush to have this text read at their wedding.  I don’t know why.  It is one of the deepest and most difficult texts in all the New Testament canon, . . . and my heart cringes to hear it; . . . my heart cringes to hear the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians . . . because it reminds me how far I am -- still -- from apprehending the Truth . . . so that He is in me and I am in Him.

    I suspect that brides so adore Saint Paul’s discourse on the third theological virtue -- love; . . . I suspect that brides so adore this text because they imagine it to be about the warm, endearing, and tender love that a man and woman feel toward one another so as to cause them to permanently commit themselves to each other in the estate of matrimony.  Perhaps brides even imagine that Saint Paul is talking about the kind of love that is of the durable and forgiving variety necessary for the raising up of hopeful and healthful children within a stable and affirming household.  . . . But Saint Paul is talking about something far more wonderful than these.

    In order to understand the Thirteenth Chapter of Saint Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians . . .  you must know what is said in the Second Chapter of Saint Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians, . . . particularly at the seventeenth verse, which reads

For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence.

Paul is saying that the holy Word of God is not objective spiritual paraphernalia -- something which you may put on and off like jewelry as the occasion demands.  That is “superstition”.  Paul, as an Apostle of Jesus, did not deal in “methods” or “techniques” by which to hoodwink God into granting us favors.  Consequently, Saint Paul says, neither does the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church deal in such things.  You, Saint Paul asserts, are Angels.  All of us together are standing in the presence of God . . . so that everything we do and say and think . . . is a witness to the mind and heart and will of God.  You are this way because a magnificent thing has happened to you:  by the mercy and love of your heavenly Father and by the grace of the Holy Spirit . . . you have been baptized -- reborn -- into the life of Christ Jesus.  And so, when Paul tells us that love is patient and kind, and not jealous or boastful or arrogant or rude or irritable; that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things, . . . he is not saying that we must get up each morning and decide, “Well, today I must remember to be patient, and not be jealous [or] I must remember to be kind and not be rude.”  Oh no, . . . Paul is saying that the nature of our Lord and Saviour is love, . . . and that we must rise each morning and pray as we do at the announcement of the Gospel at the Eucharist, “Lord Jesus, be in my head and on my lips and in my heart.”  Love is not something a Christian does.  Love is what a Christian is (!), . . . because that is what the divine nature is, and our humanity is being transfigured into its likeness by the glory of the Son of God Whom we have received.

    And this is the meaning of the terrible and glorious truth which was revealed to Peter, James, and John when they went apart with Jesus.  They saw, for the first time, the true nature of their Lord and ours.  They beheld, shining forth from the Incarnate Son, the glory -- the divine radiance -- of God which was clothed with our humanity, and they saw our simple humanity transfigured by that holy and radiant light.  And then, lest they get things wrong, the voice of the Father commanded Peter, James, and John -- and us -- to listen to the Son.  The Greek word Luke uses for “listen” is akosete, which conveys the sense of receiving the Son (Kittel, Vol. 1, p. 219).  So, Luke wants us to understand that it is the intent of God, in showing us this wonderful thing and in speaking to us out of the cloud, . . . it is the intent of God that we are to appropriate Jesus; we are to hear the Gospel with our ears . . . and then capture the Gospel -- apprehend -- the Gospel with our lives.  The voice of the heavenly Father, speaking out of the cloud, insists that you, the Church, must so know and love and live the holy Word of Jesus that it will transfigure you and cause you to shine with God’s glory, . . . like an Angel, who stands in the presence of God . . . even though she may stand within the sight and hearing of men.  You see, the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . was not an event that happened.  . . . It is a reality -- it is the Truth -- which Peter, James, and John suddenly apprehended.  It had been there all the time, . . . and, alone with Jesus on the mountain, they saw its terrible beauty.

    In the January 21st edition of The Living Church . . . The Rev. Michael Petty suggests that somehow Christianity has allowed itself to be regarded as a “religion.”  And the difficulty with this is that all “religions”, by definition,  “are assumed [Father Petty writes, . . . all religions] are assumed to provide equal access to God.”  But that assumption is simply a lie.  As Saint Paul suggests, all religions are an attempt to feel about in the dark hoping to encounter God.  . . . But only in Christ Jesus do we have access to God.  . . . We, who are Christians, . . . before we were called by that name . . . we were known as the People of the Way.  . . . The Crucified, Risen, and Transfigured Jesus is not one way to God among many.  He is the Way.  And anyone who is baptized into the Life of Jesus is not initiated into a “religion”; . . . oh no, . . . anyone who is baptized into the Life of Jesus becomes a member of the Sacred Body of Jesus.  Neither do you simply have access to God, … but you are Angels; . . . you are Angels sent by the Father but who stand in His Presence.  You are light to all the religions of the world, sent by the Father, to beckon them to Jesus.  You are the People of the Way that all religions of the world must go if they desire to have their soul’s desire.  You are the People of the Way to Jesus and of birth into His most excellent love.  For, the Lord God Almighty has told us at the Transfiguration of His Son . . . that Jesus is His Chosen One . . . and that we and all the world must listen to Jesus.

    And this is why we remember the Transfiguration today, on this Last Sunday after the Epiphany:  because it reminds us of why we keep Lent.  Our Lord Jesus has said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  On Wednesday we will begin the wonderful work of intentionally doing just what Jesus has commanded:  of allowing our Saviour’s precious sacrifice upon the Cross . . . and our own self-offering to God . . . to become a unity.  On Wednesday we will undertake, for a season; . . . we will undertake to listen to everything Jesus has to show us about obedience and the Cross.  But our purpose in doing this is so that we might give ourselves to Jesus.  For the Master has said, in effect, whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, . . . they will be transfigured!  Whoever loses their life for the sake of Jesus, . . . will receive Jesus . . . and their humanity shall be transfigured into the glorious light of God’s love:  a love which is patient and kind, and not jealous or boastful or arrogant or rude or irritable; a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things . . . in Christ Jesus our Saviour and Lord.  The work of Lent is for the Church -- for you and me -- to akosete; to apprehend the Truth; . . . the work of Lent shall be for us to apprehend the Truth so that He is in us . . . and we are completely in Him.