What we have
heard today requires a leap of imagination. Such an leap shouldn’t worry those skeptical
scientists because they use their imagination day in and day out, imagining the
seconds after the big bang, the coupling of sperm and ovum, the sudden appearance
of a new galaxy. Physicists work with light, as do makers of cinema, as do
teachers.
...On this day, 6th August in 1945, at 8.15am, one atomic
device nicknamed Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, then three days later, 'Fat
Man' devastated Nagasaki, the Christian city of Japan: These strangely named
bombs reduced the people of these
Japanese cities to ash, leaving survivors to carry in their bodies unseen
radiation. The flash of the explosion has been called the light brighter than a
thousand suns. Photographs of people who looked at the nuclear flash show that
they had their eyes burnt out.
Since that
morning in 1945 we have lived under a nuclear cloud, a radioactive fog. Notice
how the images of light, and sleep and fear are in both Hiroshima and the light
of Jesus.
On witnessing the first test of the atomic bomb Robert Oppenheimer
later said:
We knew the world would not be
the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the
Hindu scripture, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
......
Today, along with all nuclear States, we must pray that Israel is released
from fear, and gives up its attempt to gain security with nuclear devastation.
That prayer also includes Australia, prepared to accept nuclear protection by allying
with the United States, the so-called Christian nation.
Our true safety comes not from fear and anxiety prompted by the
atomic cloud; but from the God of life whose light heals and gives hope for
life.
So, today we are presented with two names: Hiroshima and Transfiguration.
Hiroshima, with its devastation, stands as a warning of the devastation
we can unleash;
The Transfiguration of
Jesus has the liberating power to bring us to the light of the Creator who
wants all to flourish.
Aren’t Christians called to be the first to seek the abolition of
nuclear devices, and the first to celebrate for all a world without weapons?
So let us go from here trusting the God who in the beginning broke
the darkness, and with light utterly transformed Jesus,
chose him to be the Beloved Son, fed him at his mother’s breast, anointed
him with the Spirit; and is calling a company of people marked by his light.
Let yourself be claimed by this same God of light. Take hold of Jesus
Christ whose light was witnessed on the mountain and in his resurrection. Join in
his celebration of life.
AMEN
Rev Dr Wes Campbell (for full sermon see sermons page)
