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RSSA Different Majesty
by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
Last Epiphany, Year A
Exodus 24:12-18
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
Psalm 2 or Psalm 99
We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. — 2 Peter 1:16
It was a long time ago, of course, and none of us were there — but what kind of "majesty" was it that they witnessed with their own eyes? We know that they didn't see Jesus of Nazareth crowned as king or emperor — the only crown he wore was a crown of thorns, and the only people who hailed him as a king did so in cruel jest. And we know that they themselves, those earliest Christians, didn't command any noticeable power in their world: they were the subjugated people of an occupied country, and then they were wandering people with no country at all.
This writer, whoever he is, must mean something else when he speaks of majesty, something besides the power we associate with the word.
We do know what sort of things happened among them. People listened to them and believed, some of them. People were healed by them. They learned to live a life of accountability with one another in a community characterized by love — or at least, they tried, and they succeeded well enough that the little community of love grew to encompass us: it has lasted two thousand years. And we know that, right from the beginning, the primary way this community showed its love was in caring for those in need.
Perhaps the majesty of which 2nd Peter tells us looks like this: Episcopal Relief & Development is providing emergency assistance to communities in Sri Lanka affected by ongoing civil unrest. At least 55 people were killed over the past weekend in the latest clash in a civil war that has been waging between the Sri Lankan Military and Tamil Tiger rebel forces since 1983. Although there has been a nominal truce since 2002, fighting has never stopped in parts of the country, and the death toll since that time has topped 5,000. Now, even the unsuccessful attempt at a cease-fire has been called off, and the fighting which rages on has displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Still reeling from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, many villages are overrun with fighting, and the people have been forced to seek refuge in camps, where their only shelter is rubber sheeting hung from the trees.
The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, partly supported by our donations through Episcopal Relief & Development, is delivering critical emergency aid to those living in the camps. That's all: blankets, food, clean water, more rubber sheets from which to make shelters, given by strangers to people who fled with nothing but the clothing on their backs. Nothing very majestic, not as the world understands majesty.
But then, the world's understanding is always only half of the truth.
