Lord it is good for us to be here
For those of us who don’t have daily mass but use the new common revised lectionary, the transfiguration of our Lord gets moved to a Sunday. So, last Sunday our congregations at Bethel and Our Saviour’s celebrated transfiguration Sunday.
Like the Christmas story and the Easter story, the transfiguration is just as fantastic, just, less tame, less socially accepted. I mean, we’re used to the angels of Luke and the resurrection, but not so much the transfiguration.
There are no transfiguration presents, or transfiguration baskets, just the raw, hard to believe story of Jesus taking a few disciples up a mountain, where they’re met by Moses and Elijah, and where God speaks, telling everyone to listen to Jesus.
Like the Christmas story and Easter story, a lot of things included in the transfiguration are theological. That is, they are meant to convey a spiritual truth. Yet, second Peter reminds us that there were real live witnesses to this important event. Chapter one, verse 18, says, “We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.”
However you wrap your mind around this story, without the aid of the cultural acceptance of our other religious holidays, our job, here, is to try to understand what this event has to do with us. That is, how does the transfiguration, as described in the gospel according to St. Matthew inform our faith walk today.
Wouldn’t it be nice, even if, to some extent, frightening, if we too could hear Jesus’ teaching, and listen to Moses and Elijah, and to hear God’s voice telling us, “This is my Son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him.”
As I was preparing for last Sunday’s sermon, I watched a lot of sermons on YouTube about the transfiguration of our Lord. And the thing that struck me was watching the good Christian folks come into the various sanctuaries. The camera often stood facing the alter, showing a handful of folks sitting in the pews, three here, two there, a couple over there across the aisle. And, as the service time got close, a few more would enter the nave, filling up the pews a little more until the church would be perhaps half full.
But what really impressed me were the dower looks on the faces of the people, like someone forced them against their will to go to church.
Oh, for some feeling, some sense of excitement or fear, something, anything.
It’s as if folks don’t expect anything to happen. It reminds me of the time I was on internship at Breckenridge Lutheran, and a Sunday school student told me, “I don’t care what kind of worship we do, even if we have the greatest Christian rock band in the world, to me, it’d still just be church.”
What would it be like to encounter the fullness of God’s promises, not just in words, but in the very presence of God’s prophets and God’s unmistakable voice?
Well, we do it every Sunday. We climb up that mountain, and hear God speak, every time we gather together, or even when you do your daily devotions. We hear God’s promises, and sometimes those promises do elicit emotions, or better yet, some action.
But, like Christmas, or Easter, the message becomes so ordinary.
We might be timid. We might be scared. But we’re only afraid of what the neighbors might think. If only we could be frightened by the message, so that Christ might have to calm us down. “Get up and do not be afraid.”
For the last couple weeks, we’ve pondered the sermon on the mount. Are they the words of Christ that God said we should listen to?
If they are, then no wonder Peter, James, and John were afraid. No wonder Jesus took them up to a high point in order to get an overview of the landscape, in order to get their bearings. And when they saw what lay ahead, the passion story, the glorification of Christ, and the resurrection. No wonder they were afraid. No wonder they needed comforted and encouragement.
If we really come prepared to listen to God’s words, then we’ll be excited, and scared, too.
When I was working through the AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) 12 steps, when I got to the third step - “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him” - Me, a lifelong Lutheran, baptized, catechized, and confirmed, I who studied religion in College and earned my masters in divinity, I realized, that I’d never turned my life over to the care of God. And I was afraid. Emotionally frightened and physically shaking at the very idea of letting go of control and trusting God to take over my life. But once I practiced trusting God. Once I trusted Christ with my whole life as best as I could. I was comforted. I was relieved because I didn’t have to do anything, I didn’t have to expect others to do my will, all I had to do was try to do what I thought God would want me to do next. All I had to do was the next right thing.
Reinhold Niebuhr is credited with writing the serenity prayer that AA finds so helpful. The long version goes like this.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen.
If you’ve ever wondered why we do this to ourselves, why we come to worship on Sundays, and take time out of our busy days to climb up this mountain, to spend time with Jesus, to risk the wonder and fear of really listening and taking to heart what Jesus, the one whom God loves so much, this is it. We need to climb up high, to observe the big picture. We need to let ourselves experience God’s promises again. We need to fall in love with God again, and to take Christ’s words seriously enough to become afraid again. And then to experience God’s comforting grace and freedom again. Then, we might have that reasonably happy life, here, and supremely happy life forever.
Let us pray: Lord, in our Sunday gathering, special meeting times, and private devotions, lead us up the mountain. Bring us to that place where heaven touches the earth, to that place were voices and conversations between God, prophets, and people take place. Help us to listen, not just to hear noise, but really listen. Then comfort us like you did Peter, James, and John, so that we might fearlessly minister with forgiveness and love that endures forever. Amen.