Certain historians have developed what they call a "cyclical" view of the past. These scholars believe that history repeats itself every 100 years or so. They say societies will go to one extreme and then things will get so bad that they will swing back towards the other extreme. Both extremes lead to crisis size problems, but during the years that the pendulum is in the middle, things can go fairly well.
Unfortunately, even within Christianity people tend towards extremes. For many years Jesus Christ was portrayed as an angry, violent pursuer of sinners who took delight in casting people into hell. In recent years, that same Jesus has been turned into a cuddly buddy who would never do anything to go against our will. Both concepts of Christ are grossly exaggerated and lead to tremendous damage to our understanding of who Jesus is and what he means to us.
This Sunday (10:00 am) we are going to study an event in Jesus' life which is called "The Transfiguration". It is a moment in Jesus' ministry in which he visibly takes back some of his divine characteristics. The affect on his disciples is overwhelming. In the midst of this awesome display of power, however, Jesus contemplates his upcoming arrest, torture, crucifixion and resurrection. It is as though Christ were saying, "I've got more than all the power in the world and I'm going to use it to rescue human beings."
The Jesus you will meet this Sunday will be no cuddly buddy, but neither will he be a vengeful monster. He will be as he has always been, Lord of Lords and Savior of all!
Hawaii Lutheran Church (WELS)
- Community Lutheran Church
- Honolulu, HI
- Community Lutheran Church holds protestant chapel services in Honolulu, Hawaii near Pearl Harbor, HI. We are next to the USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hickam Air Force Base, and Fort Shafter Hawaii. Look for us directly behind the Salt Lake, Hawaii, Target.