To Be Translated

Sometimes, probably often if we're honest, we need things to be translated for us. Not simply words of different languages, but concepts, gestures, activities. This can be frustrating because we must reconcile with the fact that we don't understand everything, perhaps very little, whereas we're probably heard from various sources out whole lives that understanding, mentally grasping things is possible. The readings this morning, however, present a different view, one that shows that translation is necessary, not merely for mental knowledge, but for our entire way of being.

Rabbi. Messiah. Cephas. These are words, titles, concepts, names we've heard so often, yet the Gospel writer, though we are different from his original audience, tells us today to not be quick to think we understand their meanings. Teacher. Christ. Peter. He translates them. Words, the Word, have such depth, such life. They contain no space, and yet they shape everything. We must be careful to not assume we understand just any word, some name. We need translation.

"Children, let no one deceive you." We need a rabbi, a teacher, one who has overcome the work of evil and sin. "The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous." We need a Messiah, one christened by the Spirit, the Lamb of God, who walks in righteousness for he is the author of righteousness. "The children of God are made plain." God, through the work of Jesus, has by the Holy Spirit given us a name, one that sets us apart, renews us, captures our very essence.

Not only do we need translations, we ourselves need to be translated. Too often we act, speak, live like, as the epistle writer puts it, children of the Devil. But we are called to something so much greater. We are called to sing a new song, a song proclaiming the saving power of God throughout the earth. We are called to live the son in loving our brothers and sisters. We are to tell our brothers and sisters, like the apostle Andrew did Simon, "We have found the Messiah." The good news is a work of translation, a transformed reality. The bread and wine we will eat and drink transform us into the Body of Christ. The Word of God, the Lamb of God, is brought into our very beings. Here, in our prayers, our worship, our listening, our fellowship, in our silence, we are taught, we are anointed, we are named.


(1 John 3:7-10, Psalm 98, John 1:35-42)