Dave spoke this morning on the Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:2-9). So many people seem to crave physical transformation these days through cosmetic surgery and Botox; Michael Jackson, for example, was transformed by plastic surgery, but in essence, this only deals with the outward appearance and cannot change the inner personality. Jesus’s transfiguration was not just about physical transformation (though his appearance was changed as he dazzled with light), but was more a case of his true nature shining through. The Transfiguration revealed His true glory and splendour and we all need to experience this in our lives; we need to experience God in ways that stretch our imagination and revolutionise our lives.

We can, if we are not careful, be like the young boy who was so thrilled by the circus parade that came to his home town that he failed to go to the circus itself, mistaking the preliminary excitements for the real thing. We need to experience the full glory of God, not just become used to mere ‘routines’ of prayer and praise. Whilst life cannot be lived entirely on the mountain top, we do need to yearn for God’s presence and seek His glory. Then, equipped by a renewed vision of G0d, we are able to go back to the valley and continue the work to be done there – work which, as Jesus reminded His disciples, included suffering and death.

We need always to remember that Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. Peter wanted the glory of the Transfiguration without the sacrifice of Calvary and that can never be the case. His view, like so many nowadays, was that ‘where the Messiah is, there’s no misery.’ The truth is that where there is misery, there we will find the Messiah. Glory never comes without sacrifice; triumph does not come without suffering. Jesus knew there was one more mountain to be climbed: the mount called Calvary. Glory and sacrifice are twin peaks in the Christian life: the one does not exist without the other. We have to learn from the glimpses of God’s glory on the mountain tops, but we must also learn to take those experiences into our daily lives in the valleys and walk with God in every moment of every day.

On Sunday, we had a birthday to celebrate:

One of the hardest things for us to accept is that in God’s kingdom, strength often comes through brokenness. None of us like being broken. We want to be whole; we strive for wholeness and completeness. We want to be strong. The world tells us that we can only be strong if we put ourselves first and trample over everyone who stands in our way. It tells us that strength comes through power and often we like the many stories of God’s power that we read in the Bible and feel frustrated if these things are not being replicated in our own lives. But if our Saviour chose the way of strength through brokenness, we cannot expect our path to be any different.

Nicholas Darrow, a character in the Susan Howatch novel ‘A Question of Integrity’, is a Christian priest with a strong healing ministry. In this novel, we see him learning some very, very painful lessons about life and relationships and at the end of the book he says ‘I have this unusual ministry among the sick and the broken, and now that I’ve been sick and I’ve been broken I should have a new solidarity with those I try to help. Wonder-workers are never sick and broken, of course. Wonder-workers never fail. But a Christian priest acquires strength through weakness and power through vulnerability.’ (‘A Question of Integrity’, P 611)

Our lives often look like shattered pieces of glass. We feel broken into pieces and wonder how God can ever use us in this state. But He is the One who, having been broken Himself, understands brokenness and is able to assemble ‘all our broken, shattered pieces’ making of them something beautiful. (‘Long Live The King’, Aaron Shust)  He carries the scars of the cross even with Him into eternity. Brokenness is no barrier to receiving God’s strength. As Rend Collective sing ‘Though I’m broken, I am running into Your arms of love.’ (‘Joy’) When we are broken at God’s feet in worship like an alabaster jar with the fragrant perfume running out, we are in the place where His strength can be poured into us and His strong arms can pick us up and we can be carried to new places. Nehemiah reminded the people that ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ (Neh 8:10) As we realise afresh our brokenness but realise afresh also the depth of God’s love and mercy towards us, we gain strength to rise.

Graham Kendrick’s song ‘Meekness and Majesty‘ shows us the paradox of our Saviour’s combination of strength and weakness and helps us to see that we too can only ‘conquer through sacrifice’:

‘Meekness and majesty,
Manhood and Deity,
In perfect harmony,
The Man who is God.
Lord of eternity
Dwells in humanity,
Kneels in humility
And washes our feet.

Father’s pure radiance,
Perfect in innocence,
Yet learns obedience
To death on a cross.
Suffering to give us life,
Conquering through sacrifice,
And as they crucify
Prays: ‘Father forgive.’

Wisdom unsearchable,
God the invisible,
Love indestructible
In frailty appears.
Lord of infinity,
Stooping so tenderly,
Lifts our humanity
To the heights of His throne.’

There can be no doubt that God is strong and mighty (see Ps 24:8). However,there are also times when we come face to face with paradox and have to learn the mysteries of the Godhead; times when to access God’s strength, we have to lay down our understanding of strength with all its limitations and find a new reality, a new dimension, a new definition of strength. Isaiah tells us that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. (Is 55:8) Paul tells us that ‘God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong’ (1 Cor 1:27), reminding us that ‘the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.’ (1 Cor 1:25) Paul struggled with a ‘thorn in the flesh’ which tormented him (the word means ‘buffet’ or ‘maltreat’, or to punch with a fist.) Clearly Paul wanted to see God’s strength manifested in the removal of this thorn, but the answer he got was probably not one he wanted! ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Cor 12:9)

In our eyes, weakness and strength are opposites. Weakness is, in fact, defined in terms of the absence of strength; being weak is ‘lacking the power to perform physically demanding tasks; having little physical strength or energy.’ A secondary definition is no more encouraging than the first! – ‘liable to break or give way under pressure; easily damaged.’ But in God’s kingdom, weakness is not despised, for His way is the way of surrender and self-sacrifice, where vulnerability and weakness are not to be feared or shunned.

Jesus is indeed the mighty Creator, the all-powerful Word of God and the sustainer of our universe (Hebrews 1/ John 1.) He is the Messiah, the Chosen One of God, the Light of the World and the Resurrection and the Life. He is the Healer and Deliverer whose authority and power over creation, demonic forces, sickness and death are complete. John’s vision of Him is completely correct, with hair like wool and eyes like blazing fire and face shining like the sun in all its brilliance. (Rev 1:12-16) But He is also the Suffering Servant described by Isaiah: the one ‘despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain’ (Is 53:3), the one who ‘was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.’ (Is 53:7)

God’s way of working through weakness is manifested at the Cross, where Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to death. (see Phil 2:6-8) Far from being a defeat of God’s power, we see there God’s plan of salvation being outworked, with Christ’s resurrection demonstrating His total victory over death. (1 Cor 15:54-56, Eph 1:19-21) Strength is closely linked to humility and obedience and being prepared to lay down our lives. (Mark 8:34-35) There is strength in weakness and brokenness:

‘There is strength in my weakness
That only comes from You.
There is power in meekness
That I have found in You.
Where else can I go?

You know I’m weak;
I know You’re strong
You say when I’m broken
And can’t carry on
“Carry on!”
When all my strength is gone,
You’re still holding on.’ (‘Carry On’, Kutless)

Our weakness and brokenness might be hard for us to accept, but they are no barrier to receiving God’s strength. We may well be weary and weak, stumbling and falling, discouraged and even despairing, but as we wait and hope in the Lord, He will renew our strength and enable us to stand in His mighty power. (Is 40:29-31)

Strength probably conjures up different pictures in our minds: strong buildings…

… or strong people:

or super-heroes:

We might think of Samson (single-handedly killing a lion in Judges 14:5-6 and killing thirty men in one go at Ashkelon in Judges 14:19):

When we think of everyday strength, however, the key question is ‘Whose Strength Is It Anyway?’

As Christians, we’re not called to live life in our own strength. That is one of the fundamental mistakes we make. Paul says to the Galatians ‘After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?’ (Gal 3:3) and any time we try to live life simply in our own strength, using our own resources, relying on our own skills rather than living by faith and resting on God’s strength and grace, we are likely to come unstuck. We have to recognise that for the Christian, life is lived in God’s grace and power, not in our own strength and wisdom.

God is strong (see Deut 3:4, Ps 24:8, Prov 18:10, Ps 89:10, 13, Ps 140:7, Prov 23:11, Jer 50:34). The exodus from Egypt demonstrated His power over Pharaoh (see Ex 3:19-20, Ex 14:13-31) and showed Israel His protection and power in no uncertain terms. The Bible abounds with examples of God’s strength: God’s power enabling Sarah and then Hannah to conceive after years of barrenness; people taking possession of Jericho without having to fight, the walls tumbling down miraculously; David able to kill the giant with just a sling and five stones because of God’s presence with Him; Daniel being preserved from the ferocity of the lions and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego preserved from the fiery furnace. In the New Testament, we see miracles of healing and deliverance throughout the life of Jesus which testify to God’s strength and authority over creation (the calming of the storm, for example), over demonic forces (when Jesus casts evil spirits from people), over sickness (when people are healed) and even over death (when He raises the widow’s son, Jairus’s daughter or Lazarus, for example) and later we see God’s power evident in miracles performed by apostles and to rescue them (the earthquake delivering Paul and Silas from prison, for example.)  Because God is strong, He is able to be a stronghold for us – a place of refuge and safety and protection. (2 Sam 22:3, Ps 9:1, Ps 27:1) We really don’t have to depend on our strength; we depend on a God who is strong!

Garry spoke from Jer 2:13 this morning at Cherry Tree Court, a verse which talks about how God’s people commit a serious error when, instead of coming to God, the source of living water, they insist upon digging cisterns which leak like sieves. In ancient times, water was stored in cisterns which were lined with clay to make them water-proof, but if the holes dug were not properly lined, water would simply leak away. In any case, stored water is never as good as that which is fresh and flowing, but our human tendency to independence means we often want to rely on our own efforts than learn to lean on God.

Today’s individualistic society discourages dependence in any form, but we are naive if we think we can actually control life. There is so much beyond our control – weather, health, even the supply of water, gas and electricity to our homes which we take for granted in this country. We need to learn that God never intended us to live life independently of Him and that He is able to carry all our cares and burdens, because He cares for us. (1 Pet 5:7) Learning to lean is an essential part of growing in Christ. Dependence on Christ is not a weakness, but everyday trust is a sign of maturity. Let’s learn to lean!