Luke 9:28-36
January 31st, 2010
"Glory"
In Verse 29 in our scripture today it says, “And while (Jesus) was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.”
This was a visual experience that was probably like that depicted in many TV shows and movies when God or an angel appears.
But the glow came from within Jesus and radiated out. That’s what the Biblical word “transfigured” means! It’s as if Jesus glorified state burned right out through His human body for the disciples to see. It seems like science fiction, but it was pre-science and pre-fiction.
Jesus stood before His disciples, Peter, James and John, glowing a brilliant white light, revealing to them His glory, the glory that God had given Him.
It was a mysterious, awesome experience that Jesus, his three disciples, Elijah and Moses had on this mountain top, an experience that revealed God within Jesus and was over almost as quickly as it began.
Many of the great spiritual experiences of God in the Old Testament happened on mountains. Our Old Testament scripture spoke of such an experience with Moses where too his face shone after experiencing God after he descended the mountain with the 10 Commandments. Many of you have also had special Mountain Top experiences of God at summer camps, family camps, and Mission trips.
Mountains seem to be places where we meet God in very special ways and where we meet God we too can be transfigured in a sense like Jesus if we let the experience do it.
At the BOOM meeting I attended this last week several of the candidates for ministry and pastors shared deeply spiritual experiences that they had had that were as mysterious and powerful for them as this story today. God gave them these experiences, God revealed his glory to them in order to call them into service and strengthen them in that service. God was present with them.
But we can ask why was Jesus transfigured? Why was he there on the mountain with of all people, Moses and Elijah? And why were the three disciples there?
First, why was Jesus transfigured? The answer for him, not us, but him, was that God was preparing and strengthening Jesus for the suffering of the cross He was facing. Watch the movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” to get a grasp of what Jesus knew was coming.
In all three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, this story is the pivot in the book. Up to this point, Jesus’ emphasis has been on teaching, preaching and healing.
After this, He sets His face and ministry towards Jerusalem and the cross. This is why this scripture is usually picked to be read and preached on the Sunday before Lent as the journey towards the cross begins. This year, though, I switched the scripture because the Sunday before Lent begins is Valentine’s Day and instead I will talk about love that day.
But this luminous, mysterious, powerful experience of the transfiguration was something for Jesus to hold onto as He began His journey towards his torture and death. It was an assurance of God’s presence and plan.
And why was He there on that mountain with Elijah and Moses? Weren’t they dead?
No, they were alive and living in the presence of God! Remember, Elijah was swept up alive in the chariot of fire into the presence of God? This is where we get the song “Swing Low”! And Moses, well he died and was buried by God, but there he stood with Jesus and Elijah.
Their presence told Jesus and the disciples that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. Jesus completed everything the Law and the Prophets pointed to and taught about.
Elijah represented all the prophets of the Old Testament. He was the one who came as the new age of God was ushered in.
Moses represented the Law of the Old Testament, the parallel is that Moses’ face shone when he descended the mountain, so that when God said to Elijah and Moses and the disciples “Listen to Him!” God was saying that in Jesus’ teaching and words they were the fulfillment or completion of both law and prophets.
God was saying Jesus’ words and very being were the direct, divine revelation of God! In Jesus, God had come to dwell is what the cloud and transfiguration all said. They said together, “Jesus Christ is God!” and God is present with us.
All this was done to prepare Jesus for the cross. One of the things I feel Moses’ presence said to Jesus was “Look, I died for God outside of the Promised Land because of my sin, and yet here today I stand alive in the Promised Land and you will too.”
Moses silently, by his presence, was saying, “I died for God and yet I was forgiven and now I live and you will too.”
Do you remember Moses’ end? How God did not let him enter the Promised Land because of his sin? How God let him come to the edge of the Promised Land and then told him to climb up that mountain, take a look at the Promised Land, and die?
For Jesus it was a great story to remember as He began His journey towards His suffering and death.
Yes, with Elijah and Moses present, Jesus understood that He was their fulfillment and He was strengthened for His journey.
Well, why were Peter, James and John present?
They were present because God was making a special attempt to show them who Jesus really was and strengthen them also for the agony of the cross.
Now in verses 33 Peter tries to convince Jesus to let them make three shelters to stay and bask in the moment. Peter wanted to hold onto the present moment that was fading rapidly into the past. In fact Peter wanted to enshrine the moment.
Jesus said no because the purpose of the whole experience was not to hold onto it and enshrine it as a wonderful past event, but the event was to strengthen them for future service and glory.
At our first Administrative Council meeting of the year the devotional was about a person who was given the opportunity to escape an island to a much better land. The only problem this person had was that they wanted to carry with them a ton of cabbage to use for food in the new land. They had to swim and there is no way you can swim with a ton of cabbage.
Well the person who was trying to rescue the cabbage owner assured him that there would be plenty of food in the new land but the cabbage owner would not let go of the cabbage.
He held onto the past way of thinking and being and it prevented him from going to a much better place. The point was that we as individuals and as a church we need to let go of our ton of cabbage to move into the future and mission that God has for us. We need to let go of thinking and saying, “Well we’ve always done it that way.”
We need not build shelters to enshrine the past, but use these marvelous past events that speak of the presence of God to propel us into the future God has for us.
In my work with youth I had what I called “My 10 commandments”. One of them was “It doesn’t matter what we do, but how we treat each other does matter.” The stress was not on events, though, I turned out more for water park days than service days, but the stress was on relationships. My belief and practice was that everything we did could be fun if we did it together. Our just being present with each other “mattered the most”.
Our presence with one another gives strength for the journey. Our Stephen Ministry trains people how to be present for others and their presence gives strength for the other to face their trial. Much of what I and Stephen Ministers do when we go to the hospitals, and nursing homes and homes in mourning is to be simply present. It matters and it helps.
Now this is a funny story that reminds us our presence matters. “A man was dying and in his last hours called his lawyer and his doctor in to sit with him. They both came into his room and sat one on each side of the bed and held his hands. They sat in silence for a long, long, long time and finally the Doctor couldn’t stand it any longer. He said to the man, “You don’t have much more time. Why did you call us here?”
The man looked up winked, smiled and said, “I always wanted to die like Jesus did between two thieves."
Now I assure you my presence and the presence of you or the Stephen ministers has much more meaning than this. We are involved in other ministries like “The Strength for the Journey” camps for those who have HIV/AIDS. Some of our members come along side these sufferers and offer them strength for their journey. They practice a ministry of presence and service much like our Christian ancestors have always done for those who suffer illness.
We all need to be able to practice a ministry of presence that helps the other in their pain and suffering and we can do it no matter what our age.
“Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he had been asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.”
O, the times I have visited people and all I did was cry with them. You who have lived long and loved much you know of what I speak.
We as a church have a lot of current ministries on the table and future ones under consideration. I won’t go into them here but I want to deeply reinforce an understanding that “it doesn’t matter what we do but how we treat each other does.”
Our relationships of love, that strengthen one another for the journey, whether it is to success or failure are what matter. When we succeed we will rejoice together and when we fail we will help each other cry, but in all things I implore as Jesus did to love one another.
Today we will celebrate the past which is this beautiful Schlicker Pipe Organ, which is also our present and our future with which we have praised God, mourned our loved ones and celebrated together marriages and new life.
At lunch we will rejoice and celebrate our future in the “Love Your Youth Shareholder luncheon” as they raise funds for their upcoming mission trip.
We have other projects coming up like the Sidewalk Sunday School and our project of becoming “the church for families with children living at home.” This next hour I will just/met with a Sunday School class who is letting go of the past to stretch into the future and we will go there together.
So be present with one another and together we will honor the past and yet not be bound by it as together we are strengthened for the future that God is calling us to.
Together with God we can face anything be it a load of cabbage or a call to the cross.
In Jesus Name Amen
