Sunday 02/10/13 RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “I can’t
believe that just happened!”
Scripture Lesson: 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Gospel Lesson: Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Good
morning and welcome on this Transfiguration Sunday! I greet you in the name of
our Lord and savior Jesus Christ! I hope and pray that you have all had good
and blessed weeks, and I am happy to be worshipping with you all here this
morning!
On this day, the
United Methodist Church and several churches world-wide are celebrating the
“Transfiguration” of Jesus Christ. This event and this miracle, is the one
where Jesus changed the appearance of his face, and was covered in dazzling
white clothes. The Apostles that went with him, James, John, and Peter were no
doubt amazed by this miracle, and I can imagine for many of them, they might
have said, “I can’t believe that just happened!”
In my short
life time I have seen various things that made me stand in awe, sit in awe, or
just make my mouth hang open in amazement. Often in such moments, I would think
or I would say, “I can’t believe that just happened!” While all my examples far pale in comparison
the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, I have had some experiences where I just
said “Whoa!”
Perhaps it
might have been something crazy that one of my students just said, perhaps it
was a car that I witnessed get into a car accident, and I just watched it
happen. Perhaps it was something of more humorous nature, like an actor or
actress loosing there balance and falling over on the “Red Carpet” on
television. If we all think about it, we certainly can think of many good and
bad things that we have experienced where we may have said, “I can’t believe
that just happened!”
About 3-4
weeks ago, I went over to my mother Susan and step-father Michael’s house for
dinner in Weavertown on a Sunday night. There was a considerable amount of snow
on the ground and on the roof of their house when I arrived. After we had eaten
dinner, we were watching television in the living room, and all of the sudden
there was literally a rumble, and the house shook. Mike looked at me freaked
out, and I am sure I looked pretty freaked out to. I kidded him after the fact,
and told him that he thought it was the rapture or Jesus’ second coming, but he
hasn’t admitted to that being true yet! As it turned out however, after about
10-seconds after this happened we figured out that massive pile of snow had just
fallen suddenly off my the roof into the back yard. When this happened though,
my step-dad as I said, looked at me like “what was that”! I sat there for a few
seconds thinking the same thing, and was thinking, “I can’t believe that just
happened!” Well after we figured out what had just happened, that Jesus hadn’t
returned in his second coming, and that Weavertown was not experiencing an
earthquake, we did what any level headed rational men would do in a situation
like that. We quickly went in the back yard to see the massive pile of snow.
When we got in the back yard, my step-dad Mike said, “Wow look how much snow
there is!” I looked at the big pile of snow and then looked at my step-dad and
said, “Dude I can’t believe that just happened!”
I suppose many
of us felt this way on September 11, 2001 when the twin towers were attacked and
collapsed in New York City, and we probably thought this when the Newtown
Connecticut school shooting occurred recently.
You see, if
“seeing is believing” then the Apostles James, John, and Peter, that Jesus took
up on the mountain in our gospel of Luke reading from this morning, were given
a visual example and a miracle of what Jesus Christ was and still is capable
of! In our scripture reading from 2 Corinthians from this morning, the Apostle
Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Corinth that “Since, then, we have
such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over
his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that
was being set aside”. In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus was with Elijah
and Moses, and Jesus’ face was transfigured, and he had changed his appearance
and his clothes. He in effect had transfigured himself or changed his
appearance, which no doubt was a veil lifting experience. The Apostle Paul in
his second letter to the church in Corinth went on to say that people of Israel
had developed hardened minds, and that many still abided by old laws of
Judaism. Many of them not accepted the glory and salvation found in Jesus
Christ. The Apostle Paul said, “a veil lies over their minds, but when one
turns to the Lord, the veil is removed”.
In a way
though, in our gospel reading from this morning, Jesus almost in manner of
speaking put a veil on himself. For while performing a miracle and is with
Moses and Elijah, he was not fully recognizable. Could the three Apostles that
went up on the mountain with Jesus to pray, see passed the veil? Could they see
Jesus, even though they couldn’t see Jesus? As we here are thinking about this
as well, what do we think Jesus’ face looked like when we was transfigured? In
fact, I would like everyone to shut their eyes for a few moments to image what you
think that Jesus’ changed and glorious face might have looked like. * Hold up
photo * Can you all open your eyes? My guess is Jesus did not look like this!
By accepting the Holy Spirit though,
that third person in the Trinity, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are
illuminated to truths of Jesus Christ. Part of this illumination, is that Jesus
Christ wants our full devotion to him, our full repentance, and wants to turn
from darkness, to walk with him in certain light. For if we can learn the
difference between evil and darkness and goodness and light, then Jesus will be
much more recognizable, as will all goodness and light.
When Jesus
lead the three Apostles James, John, and Peter on the mountain top, our gospel
reading from this morning said that Jesus went up to the mountain to pray. The
gospel reading for this morning said that the Apostles James, John, and Peter were
“weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake” or at least
marginally awake “they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him”. I can
imagine in my mind, if Peter were the first one to notice the Transfiguration.
Maybe he would have said, “James, John, dudes, look”! Well that is at least
what my students would say in that situation! Once they were all focused on
Jesus being transfigured though, dressed in dazzling white, talking with Elijah
and Moses, they were probably memorized.
Then the
Apostle Peter, the bold one, “the rock” as was called by Jesus, said, “Master,
it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for
Moses, and one for Elijah”. While Peter was saying this the gospel says a cloud
came and overshadowed them, from the cloud the voice of God came. God said,
“This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Then suddenly they were standing
there, and it was then just Jesus and them. The Apostles, according the gospel
reading from the morning, “kept silent and in those days told no one any of the
things they had seen.” You know though, I can imagine that maybe when James,
John, and Peter got a minutes over the next few days that they might have
whispered to one another, “Dude, I can’t believe that happened?” James might
have whispered to John, “John you saw and heard all of that right?” Peter might
have whispered to James, “It wasn’t just me was it?”
I would like to close this morning
with a story about unexpected miracles. Sort of like the Transfiguration of
Jesus was an unexpected miracle. This story Taken from "Growing Deep -
Exploring the Roots of Our Faith", by Charles R. Swindoll. It is called:
The Reflection, and here is how the story goes: There were once two men, both
seriously ill, in the same small room of a great hospital. Quite a small room,
just large enough for the pair of them - two beds, two bedside lockers, a door
opening on the hall, and one window looking out on the world.
One of the men, as part of his
treatment, was allowed to sit up in bed for an hour in the afternoon,
(something that had to do with draining the fluid from his lungs) and his bed
was next to the window. But the other man had to spend all his time flat on his
back - and both of them had to be kept quiet and still. Which was the reason
they were in the small room by themselves, and they were grateful for peace and
privacy - none of the bustle and clatter and prying eyes of the general ward
for them. Of course, one of the disadvantages of their condition was that they
weren't allowed much to do: no reading, no radio, certainly no television -
they just had to keep quiet and still, just the two of them.
They used to talk for hours and hours
- about their wives, their children, their homes their former jobs, their
hobbies, their childhood, what they did during the war, where they had been on
vacations - all that sort of thing. Every afternoon, when the man in the bed
next to the window was propped up for his hour, he would pass the time by
describing what he could see outside. And the other man began to live for those
hours. The window apparently overlooked a park with a lake where there were
ducks and swans, children throwing them bread and sailing model boats, and
young lovers walking hand in hand beneath the trees. And there were flowers and
stretches of grass and games of softball, people taking their ease in the
sunshine, and right at the back, behind the fringe of the tress, a fine view of
the city skyline.
The man on his back would listen to
all of this, enjoying every minute how a child nearly fell into the lake, how
beautiful the girls were in their summer dresses, and then an exciting ball
game, or a boy playing with his puppy. It got to the place that he could almost
see what was happening outside.
Then one fine afternoon, when there
was some sort of parade, the thought struck him: Why should the man next to the
window have all the pleasure of seeing what was going on? Why shouldn't he get
the chance? He felt ashamed and tried not to think like that, but the more he
tried, the worse he wanted to change. He'd do anything!
In a few days he had turned sour. He
should be by the window. And he brooded and couldn't sleep, and grew even more
seriously ill - which none of the doctors understood.
One night, as he stared at the ceiling,
the other man (the man next to the window) suddenly woke up coughing and
choking, the fluid congesting in his lungs, his hands groping for the button
that would bring the night nurse running. But the man continued to stare at the
ceiling.
In the morning, the day nurse came in
with water for their baths and found the other man dead. They took away his
body, quietly, no fuss. As soon as it seemed decent, the man asked if he could
be moved to the bed next to the window. And they moved him, tucked him in, and
made him quite comfortable, and left him alone to be quiet and still.
The minute they'd gone, he propped
himself up on one elbow, painfully and laboriously, and looked out the window.
It faced a blank wall.
You see Jesus chose were to perform
miracles, and how to perform miracles. I can imagine, that this small miracle
that the one sick man performed for the other sick man, is a small and even a minuet
example of the miracles that Jesus performed. You see Jesus could and still
does make us all see things, experience things, and be captivated by him, and often
does this by creating miracles out of nothing. By creating vibrancy, life, and
joy, when there is really just a blank wall. As we go forth this week, let us
look for the miracles that Jesus puts in our lives every day, and may we share
the miracle of our savior Jesus Christ with others. May we tell our friends and
all we know about how we have been changed by the Messiah. By Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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