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Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: February 7, 2016 | 10:00am
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SERMON SERIES:
Where are We Going?
Recently, my wife Amy and I began a new routine. Each afternoon at 4:30, we walk the track together down at the YMCA. It’s cold outside and with little ones, being outdoors isn’t really an option. As we walk, we ask one another questions, not terribly weighty or philosophical questions—just innocuous, entertaining questions that help the laps go a little quicker. Questions like: if you could drive any car what would it be? If you could go anywhere in the world at any time in history where would you go?
Last week, she asked this one: “If you could change one thing about your physical appearance, what would it be?” Well, I’d like to be about 4 inches taller. But since I’m not 18 and haven’t grown that direction in over a decade. I’d like to regain a little of the former glory.
You see, like many, as I’ve gotten older, this glory has begun to fade, things have begun to migrate south—as if getting old wasn’t bad enough, now my body is literally making its way closer to the ground. What once was reasonably priced sport sedan (notice I didn’t say high performance sports car, I’m a realist), this sport sedan has started to resemble the minivan that carries the Cornell Clan nowadays. Well, not if I have anything to say about it.
So, if you’re curious what your pastor is doing at about 6am most weekday mornings, he’s down at the Y, attempting to slow the de-glorification process.
We live in a society that is utterly consumed with glory preservation. That may take different shapes, it may be a moment in time when our job was especially rewarding, or when our family was particularly happy, or when we felt particularly close to God (after a week of summer camp). We are obsessed with stopping, even rolling back time.
For me, one of those moments was the commencement ceremony for Amy’s Graduation from Princeton Theological Seminary. Thousands of people packed into the jaw-droppingly beautiful, gothic chapel on the campus of Princeton University, and with the organ stops pulled out, and the mass of humanity standing shoulder to shoulder, belting out the words to “All Creatures of Our God and King,” from the bottom of our guts was one of the most holy and sacred moments of my life. If a small part of heaven didn’t descend that day, I am convinced that the Holy Spirit yanked us up to the very gates of splendor so that God Almighty could give us His undivided attention.
We all have moments when “glory” is most visible and real—and it’s only natural that we would want to stay right there and hang on to it forever.
Download the entire transcript here: 2 Corinthians 3 12-4 2 Transfiguration Sunday
