Statements

For the past month or so I have been receiving many statements in the mail.  Most have to do with filing my 2025 Income Tax Forms.  Some others are bills, while some inform me how companies are handling my personal information.  But none of these are the kind of statements of which I write this day.

This past Sunday’s Gospel lesson told the story of our Lord’s Transfiguration.  The part of the story I find most significant is not that Jesus’ “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light”(Matthew 17.2) or the fact that “there appeared to (the disciples) Moses and Elijah, talking with (Jesus)” (Matthew 17.3)  Rather, it is what happens after the Father, speaking from a bright cloud that overshadowed them said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17.5) – causing the three disciples to fall on their faces in terror.
 
What, I ask you, kind of statement is made as, at that very moment, “Jesus came and touched them saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’” (Matthew 17.7)?  How similar is this statement to the one Jesus makes immediately after the Sermon on the Mount – “When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.  And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him saying, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’ And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I will; be clean.’” (Matthew 8.1-3)?  And can we put these two statements of our Lord with the one made in the Garden of Eden?  “(Adam and Eve) heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you’” (Genesis 3.8-9)
 
Statements are not just made with words.  As much as I like Jesus saying to those three disciples, “Rise, and have no fear” and to the leper, “I will; be clean” what really gets my attention is the wordless statements he makes before he speaks.  As the disciples shiver with terror, “Jesus came to them and touched them”  and as the unclean leper (who would make anyone who touched him to be unclean) knelt before our Lord, “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.”
 
Our God is a God of movement … always moving toward us … never waiting for us to make the first move … with the goal of removing all that separates us from him (we call that sin) and uniting with us in such a way that we become clean and free from the terrors that haunt us.
 
Our God is a God who is continually reaching out to touch us … taking all that makes us unclean into himself … seeking to add to his words tangible evidence of his gracious presence … knowing our needs more than we know them ourselves and “bending over backwards” to communicate his care in a way that we might understand and receive.
 
This is what infant baptism is all about – God coming to us before we are even aware of our need, giving us just what we need (adoption into his family, full forgiveness of all our sins, eternal life), and giving it to us in such a tangible way (water with the word) that we might never doubt to whom he has made the promise.  Our God is a God of movement who is always moving toward us, reaching out to touch us with his grace.  This same touch comes to us in the Sacrament of the Altar, as he again “bends over backwards” touching us with his body and blood to have us be reassured that he grace is ours.
 
He makes this same encouraging statement through us every time we hug someone at church (or elsewhere) … and when we send a card or a text or make a call to someone who is struggling.  He is acting the same way whenever you hold someone’s hand or touch their shoulder as you pray for them … and when your pastor comes to your home and knocks on the door (even if it is unannounced).  This is what he did through many of you this past week in the countless birthday wishes I received through Facebook and other means
 
Statements our Savior makes to us and through us … tangible messages … not bills, warnings or reminders of what we must do … rather tangible messages of love and grace, comfort and encouragement … meant to assure us that we are forever precious in his sight and safe in his arms.  Now that’s a statement we can live by!