Sermon 23rd February 2020 –
The Transfiguration
Text: Matthew 17:1-9 – Listen to him
Having recently returned home from a
cruise in January I can’t help feeling for the 4000 people who were quarantined
on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
The rooms are extraordinarily small –
much smaller than a motel room.
The expectation of a cruise is that
you’ll spend most of your time on deck throughout the ship or on shore, so the
room doesn’t need to be that spacious.
Even having a balcony doesn’t really
add that much to the room.
So even though those stranded
passengers are on a luxury cruise ship there is very little enjoyment going on
being trapped in your cabin.
Sometimes life can be like that.
Even though our surroundings might
seem like everything is going great – job is going great – family life is great
– church is going great – finances are going great – inside we might be feeling
like our world is collapsing.
And like those on the cruise ship,
what began as a holiday of a lifetime turned out with unexpected circumstances.
No one could have predicted what they
are going through.
So too with life, life may be
cruising along really well but then tragedy happens.
The Transfiguration of Jesus which we
are celebrating today is a message that God sends to us to give a glimpse of
hope because there are many times in life where we feel like life around us is
very dark and dismal.
There are times when being a
Christian does not add instant joy to our lives especially when we are going
through difficulties in life – sickness, grief, financial worries, family
worries, worries about the future – worries about the present.
Jesus is about to begin his walk to
the cross and he has previously explained to his disciples what that would mean
– that he would be handed over to the leaders, suffer and die.
No one could have predicted that
outcome with everything Jesus is achieving.
Just like none of the passengers
could have predicted their outcome on the cruise or they wouldn’t have gone on
the cruise.
When Jesus chose his disciples and
said – come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men – if he had said,
follow me and you will suffer and die because of me – would they have followed
him?
Peter was mortified and wanted to end
this nonsense that Jesus, the Messiah, would have his life ended in such a way.
So Jesus takes them up on a
mountaintop and there he reveals the truth to Peter and the other 2 disciples.
For a brief moment Jesus’ true glory
is revealed.
And for Peter this is more like it.
This is the ending Peter wants for
putting his faith in Jesus.
And so he offers to build 3 dwellings
to keep Jesus, Elijah and Moses there for all to enjoy.
There are many times in our life
where we would love to freeze that moment in our life.
To build dwellings for us to stay in
so we don’t have to leave.
But Jesus says that they can’t stay
there and that they must return, back down the mountain and to the real life.
We don’t really know what Peter,
James and John experienced fully other than Jesus became dazzling white.
Probably similar to what the
Israelites experienced when Moses appeared before God and came back and had to
have a veil put over his face because his face was glowing so much that it
blinded the Israelites.
On those occasions a cloud would
cover the mountain or the tabernacle to announce God’s presence as Peter, James
and John also experienced when a cloud enveloped them at Jesus’ transfiguration
and heard God speak to them.
As I read this account again there
are 2 things that come through which I believe are what Jesus prepared for them
when he took them up the mountain.
It wasn’t just to be a dazzling light
show.
Firstly there is the message that
comes from the cloud – the presence of God.
God also spoke from a cloud in the
Old Testament.
The glory cloud in the Old Testament
was called the Shekinah Cloud.
The Shekinah Glory Cloud was a
visible presence of God on earth.
The word Shekinah is a Hebrew name
meaning “dwelling” or “one who dwells.”
It helps us to understand why Peter
said – let me make 3 dwellings.
3 dwellings that we could keep coming
back to when we need to.
But the message said that this would
not be where they would come to for hope and strength.
He says: This is my Son, the Beloved;
with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
When we start to worry about the
future or the present we need to come back to Jesus and listen to him.
The dwellings Peter wanted to build
were human made dwellings we make for God.
God is saying – come back to Jesus
and what he has created.
Where are those places – there are 2
of them that we have always taught: Word and Sacrament.
Jesus is God’s Word made flesh who
came and dwelt among us.
There again is that word “dwelt”.
God makes his dwelling with us – we
don’t make a dwelling for God.
In a way God was sad when David and
Solomon wanted to build a temple for God because he designed the Tabernacle to
be transportable so he could go with them and not remain static.
In the Greek the word “dwelt” among
us it is the same word used in the Old Testament for Tabernacle – the dwelling
of God.
Jesus is the new transportable tabernacle
who goes with us.
In times of worry or distress – we go
back to God’s Word.
We read it – we listen to it in
worship – we pray it.
God’s Word is where all that God has
to say is written.
All of God’s promises are there to
give us hope.
It’s what John’s gospel says towards
the end:
Jesus performed many other signs in
the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these
are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and
that by believing you may have life in his name – Listen to him.
And God has given us the Sacraments –
Baptism and Holy Communion.
In our Baptism we are washed and
affirmed as God’s children.
The same statement made about Jesus
at the transfiguration - This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well
pleased; listen to him – is the same promise made at his Baptism.
In our Baptism is where Jesus made
the promise to us – I am with you always till the end of the age.
That was important for Peter, James
and John.
As Jesus sends them back down the
mountain it says that Jesus went with them.
He was sending them back to the way
of the cross but he was going to lead them and be with them.
And he is with you and leading you
too.
Which is why he had earlier said to
Peter when he feared the way ahead to the cross – Get behind me.
So, as fearful and uncertain as the
present and future may be we stay behind Jesus who has promised to be with us
always.
Listen to him.
The other Sacrament, Holy Communion,
is Jesus promise to us also that he is with us.
This IS my body – this IS my blood.
And it is through this Sacrament that
Jesus now makes his dwelling in us as our bodies now become the Temple of the
Holy Spirit.
The blood that was used from the
sacrificial lamb to cleanse the temple is now the blood of Jesus the Lamb of
God used to cleanse God’s temple in us as God makes his dwelling place in us.
And that’s why God didn’t want Peter
to build 3 dwellings at the Transfiguration.
God has already made his dwelling
place and it is in each of us.
The Transfiguration continues in us
as God continues to give us a glimpse of the glory awaiting us when we gather
before him to worship him.
That’s why we leave the world behind
today for a brief glimpse of glory in worship.
Like Peter, James and John, we are
given a glimpse to keep our faith strong until the day we gather in God’s
presence in eternal Glory.
As Paul says in Colossians to keep us
strong : set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right
hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you
died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your
life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Until that day of glory may the peace
of God that surpasses all our understanding keep your hearts and minds forever
in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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