Shining Like the Sun

We were walking together down the row of trailer homes. I had just finished my coffee run for the morning and he had just emerged from a friend’s trailer.

He kept mumbling.

Words. I couldn’t make out the words he was saying, the questions he was asking.

Grimacing, I reached up and pulled off the Bluetooth headset that was connected to my right ear. My good ear.

It was in college that I hurt my left one. One beautiful day in South Florida, a buddy of mine and I decided to go target shooting. We met up with another friend who had access to a Chinese-made SKS assault rifle. I had my “trusty” black powder .36 caliber reproduction civil war revolver. After an afternoon of fruitlessly missing targets, I decided to take one more shot (right after I had pulled off my protective earmuffs).

BLAM!

I heard ringing for weeks afterward. To this day, if it’s very quiet, I can still hear it. It’s not going to go away, so I’ve learned to adjust. If I’m in a noisy environment, I turn my good ear towards whoever is addressing me. Even at the library, I sometimes have to lean over the counter and cup a hand over my ear (which is a polite way of saying “Speak up! You’re in a library, not a mausoleum!”).

I also typically keep my Bluetooth headset plugged into my good ear. I forgot I had it on when I began speaking with this guy. His murmuring made me take it off and drop it in my jacket pocket.

Unfortunately, it didn’t help very much.

“You are a good man,” he said.

“No,” I countered, “I just love God, and that’s why I give out coffee.”

He mumbled a few other things then refocused. I seriously began to wonder if this guy was drunk at ten in the morning.

“Are you Catholic?” he asked.

“I’m Baptist, but was raised Catholic.”

He shook his head, “But what about the Virgin Mary?”

“What about her?”

“Why is she given so little respect?”

I thought for a moment and replied, “She was a great woman; I have a lot of respect for her. But it was Jesus who died on the cross for our sins.”

He nodded, “That’s very true, but what about Mary? Shouldn’t she be loved too?”

I pointed to the blue sky overhead. It was stretched out like a canopy, with the mid-morning sun softening the chill around us.

“Mary may be like a star, but Jesus, Jesus is like the sun. He fills me with so much love that I don’t have room for another.”

He thought this over and smiled at me, “Well said.”

He warmly shook my hand and went on his way.

What is it that attracts people to Jesus? What might cause apathy in others? What about those who are afraid of him?

Joe

2 Corinthians 2:14-17
But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?

You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us.

Matthew 17:1-8
Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.

Peter blurted out, “Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

But even as he spoke, a bright cloud came over them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.

Then Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” And when they looked, they saw only Jesus.

Revelations 1:9-18
I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. It said, “Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.