It Is Good for Us to Be Here

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday February 14, 2010, Transfiguraton of the Lord Sunday.

Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Today we celebrate Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday. Transfiguration, now there’s a fancy word. It comes from the Latin, so it sounds very impressive but it’s really pretty simple once it’s taken apart. “Trans-” is a prefix meaning change. “Figure” refers to the appearance of the individual. So transfiguration means, “A marked change in form or appearance.”[1] But in this case, it means so much more. It means the marked change in appearance is supernatural, a glorified change.[2] This change of appearance isn’t like me shaving my beard, even though that would surely qualify as a marked change in appearance. No, this is something more.

Jesus went to the mountain to pray taking Peter, John, and James with him. While this will not be the case at Gethsemane, they will stay awake while Jesus is in prayer. The three are transfixed while Jesus is transfigured. Jesus speaks with two of the greatest heroes of the faith, Moses and Elijah, talking about what Jesus is about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Oh to be a fly on the rock during that conversation.

Peter, John, and James saw exactly what happened. They recognized Moses and Elijah, and they saw Jesus in his glory. Just as the two eternal visitors were leaving, Peter cried out, “Master, it is good for us to be here.” Oh my yes, it is good for us to be here. But why, why is it good for them to be there?

Let us begin with one of the ways the gospel is presented in Luke. Often, the way the narrative is structured there is a question about who Jesus is, the answer is offered, then the disciples are sent out and taught about the meaning of discipleship. Eight days and ten verses earlier, Jesus asks the twelve, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” Two verses after that Jesus asks the twelve, “Who do you say that I am?” The question of Jesus’ identity is firmly asked. In the transfiguration, the answer is given with equal vigor.

The answer to the question of Jesus’ identity is found in what the three see on the mountain. The appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. This appearance reminds us of when Moses returned from the mountaintop and his face shone from being in the presence of God.

Exodus makes it clear that mere humans are unable to look upon the face of the Lord. Moses is said to be in the presence of the Lord, but scripture distinctly tells us they never met face to face. According to today’s reading, Moses leaves the presence of the Lord with the Ten Commandments, the two tablets of the covenant. Upon his return to the camp, the people noticed that there is a change in Moses’ appearance. The skin of his face shone, it shone because he had been talking with God.

How do the people respond to Moses’ radiance? They were afraid to come near him. Everyone, even Moses’ brother Aaron was afraid to come near him. By the grace of God, Peter, John, and James did not respond the same way.

Another thing Peter, John, and James saw was a glorious image of the personification of the Old Testament. They not only saw Jesus shining, they saw him chatting with Moses and Elijah. Moses, as again we saw from our Exodus reading, brought the law from the Lord to the people. To the Jews, Moses represented the law.

As for Elijah, many believe he represented the prophets. It is Elijah, who in 2Kings[3] walked with Elisha when the chariot and horses of fire separated the two of them; Elijah ascending without suffering death in a whirlwind into heaven.

It was Malachi who in the final words of the Old Testament tells us, “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.”[4] St. Matthew’s gospel proclaims this prophecy fulfilled saying Elijah returned unrecognized as John the Baptist.

These are just a few of the ways this passage helps Peter, John, and James define the answer to the question “Who do you say that I am?” The question of Jesus’ earthly and divine identity.

As for what this means about the meaning of discipleship, the three hear a word about the future. What they heard was Jesus, Moses, and Elijah speaking of Jesus’ departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. This cryptic little sentence is filled with glory because what he accomplishes in Jerusalem begins in this moment.

On this, the Sunday before the beginning of Lent, as we prepare for Ash Wednesday, Peter, John, and James become privy to the greatest story ever told. They hear about what is going to happen on the road to and while in Jerusalem. They hear of the triumphant entry. They hear of the institution of what we call the Lord’s Supper. They hear of the betrayal. They hear of the trial. They hear of the crucifixion. Then and only then do they hear of the glory of the resurrection.

Did they understand what they heard, did they understand all which he was about to accomplish? I fear they did not have an appreciation for the complete gravity of the situation. Yet, they were able to hear of the mission that lay ahead of them as disciples of the living God and as disciples of the risen God.

They also heard the first commandment of discipleship from the cloud. They heard a voice that said, “This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him!”

It’s fashionable to bash Peter for wanting to create the first “Shrine of the Transfiguration.” I did it the last time I preached this passage three years ago.[5] This year though, let us focus on what Peter said first, after seeing the blinding whiteness of Jesus’ radiance, after seeing the personification of the law and the prophets, after hearing what was going to happen, and after hearing the voice from the cloud commanding, “This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him;” after these wondrous and glorious events, Peter said the most wonderful thing he could, he said, “It is good for us to be here.”

The words Peter spoke in awe and wonder in the first century still apply to us today. It is good for us to be here. It is good for us to be together in worship of the Lord God. It is good for us to confess that we fall short in the eyes of God and be assured that by the power of the resurrected Lord we are forgiven.

It is good for us to sing. The Directory for Worship reminds us that “song is a response which engages the whole self in prayer.”[6] We celebrate the sacraments, the visible signs of God’s invisible grace. Today, we share in the Lord’s Supper, the sacrament instituted by Jesus on the day before he was betrayed. We share the sacrament Peter, John, and James heard about on that mountainside on that day Jesus was transfigured so long ago, the supper they will share in only a few days time with the Lord. Then after worship, we will share a meal together in fellowship.

On this day so long ago, Peter, John, and James came together in the presence of the glory of the Lord and were able to see and hear the full measure of God in grace and glory. They received the answer to the question which is constantly asked by peoples the world over; “Who are you Jesus of Nazareth?” Today we continue to meet together to ask this very same question. Today we continue to meet together to hear the answer to this very same question.

We live surrounded by this answer everyday, we live in the presence of the living God. Still, we often have trouble seeing the answer as it lives and breathes before our very eyes. Oswald Chambers was a teacher and writer who died almost 100 years ago. His most lasting and treasured writing is a devotional called “My Utmost for His Highest.” I found this gem recently in Chambers’ writing:

One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God… The power of visualization is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships never before experienced.[7]

Chambers notes that even 100 years ago, the ability to visualize putting ourselves deliberately before God was fleeting, this loss of imagination is not new.

It is good for us to be here together so that we can as a people regain that lost power of visualization. It is good for us to come together in the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus Christ becoming the community that we are called to be in the Lord so that we may truly seek life eternal as God intends for all creation.

As I noted earlier, it is fashionable to bash Peter. Peter wanted to freeze this moment and commemorate this place. Faithfulness requires us not to freeze in time and place, faithfulness requires us to pick up and follow Jesus; follow him unto the cross.

So today we come and go with the revelation that it is good for us to be here. It is good for us to be here because in worship we gain what we need, a firm and certain revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As it was for Peter, John, and James; this revelation would not be complete without its note on mission and discipleship. As was true for these three first disciples, we receive the fullness of the gospel and the call on our lives that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Chosen of God, and that we are called to listen to him and follow.

[1] transfiguration. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transfiguration (retrieved February 17, 2007).
[2] Ibid.
[3] 2Kings 2:11
[4] Malachi 4:5-6
[5] Here’s Your Sign,” Time Loves a Hero, http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2007/02/heres-your-sign.html, uploaded February 18, 2007
[6] PC(USA) Book of Order, Directory for Worship, W-2.1003.
[7] Chambers, Oswald, “My Utmost for His Highest, an Updated Edition in Today’s Language.” James G. Reimann, Editor. Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, RBC Ministries, 1935, 1963, Updated Edition, 1992, February 10 posting.