Weekly Sermon: Transfiguration Sunday: 03-02-25

The Holy Gospel according to Luke.

Now about eight days after these sayings, Jesus took with him Peter and John

and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes

became as bright as a flash of lightning.

Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.

They appeared in glory and were speaking about his exodus, which he was about

to fulfill in Jerusalem.

Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but as they awoke,

they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here.

Let us set up three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,

not realizing what he was saying.

While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them,

and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.

Then from the cloud came a voice that said, this is my son,

my chosen, listen to him

when the voice had spoken jesus was found alone and they kept silent in those

days and they told no one any of the things they had seen this is the gospel

of the lord praise to you oh christ.

If there was ever a tortured soul, it was my husband, Dan's grandfather, on his dad's side.

He was a brilliant man. In addition to having a divinity degree from Princeton

Seminary, he had a master's degree in Semitic languages.

So this included Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic.

But grandfather was a brooding introvert.

The weight of being a fourth-generation Presbyterian minister brought heavy expectations.

And I've often thought, well, too bad he can't talk to my husband,

who is the sixth-generation Presbyterian pastor.

Grandfather could write and preach. He could direct programs and explicate mission.

And he worked for the foreign mission field in the Philippines.

But he did not let people in and he did not build relationships easily.

And this was more difficult when he compared himself to his brother Gantz,

also a minister who was an extrovert and a darling of the pulpit and the national

church where he held a very prominent and public position.

Some of us know the challenges of sibling rivalry that never completely fade

and can affect our self-image even as adults.

And this was true of grandfather.

After great-aunt Bertha died and her funeral was celebrated,

grandfather's sister, grandfather started talking with my husband Dan,

who was in seminary to become a pastor.

None of the grandchildren, all eight of them, had never had a relationship or

even a significant conversation with grandfather.

But it was like he suddenly realized at age 91 that Dan was going into the family

business. So he decided to press download on the button in his brain.

And he turned, after telling some stories of his ministry,

to our text today of the transfiguration, which he had puzzled over his entire

life, and again more recently, which he did constantly, turning things over in his head.

Jesus is not just changed or transformed on the mount.

He is transfigured. That is, he is elevated into his resurrected form.

As Moses and Elijah appear with him, also resurrected.

Grandfather understood why Moses was there.

He freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and he led them through the wilderness.

He received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and he instructed them in the law.

He had an intimate relationship with God, which we heard about in our first

reading from Exodus, going up on the mountaintop and discussing things with God.

And Moses brought them to the edge of the promised land and gave them instructions,

which are recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.

But why Elijah? Why is Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses?

Why is he up there giving Jesus with Peter,

James, and John the spiritual vision and strength that they need to go down

the mountain into Jerusalem to face the cross and the crucifixion.

There were so many other leaders in the Hebrew scriptures that would have made so much more sense.

I mean, why not Solomon, who built the great temple and who asked for wisdom?

I mean, Elijah. I mean, if we were to make a Mount Rushmore of biblical greats,

I mean, Elijah would have been the Teddy Roosevelt.

It should have been King David. He was the one who not only wrote the poetry

and the psalms and the hymns of the faith, but he was Israel's most significant king.

Under David, Israel became a powerhouse nation.

Or, I mean, if it had to be a prophet, why not Isaiah or Jeremiah?

At least they had a book of scripture named for them.

Grandfather continued to puzzle over

this text in his old

age and he knew that somehow the presence

of Elijah on the mount of transfiguration had

to be the key to unlocking some secret to understanding the passage of the transfiguration

finally as he reflected back on the expanse of his own life and ministry,

the answer he had been seeking came to him as a gift of revelation that he now

shared with his grandson after the funeral of great-aunt Bertha.

Moses, on the one side of Jesus, responded to God's call in Exodus chapter 4 with insecurity.

Exodus 4 · chapter mention

He said oh I am slow of speech and slow of tongue no God I am not worthy I am

not skilled enough I can't do it I cannot be or do what you think I can do so

please God send somebody else.

Today, we call this low self-esteem and self-negation and poor self-image.

And the consequence of living with insecurity like Moses, especially when it

comes to God's purpose for us, is that we are overwhelmed with reluctance and hesitation and doubt.

And we become immobilized by fears of inadequacy.

Elijah on the other side of

jesus has the opposite problem elijah

if you recall or if you know the story at all had a

contest with 450 prophets of the god baal to see whose god would rain down fire

on a sacrifice well of course elijah won right because we have the one one one

one true God, not many gods.

But after this, instead of giving praise to God, Elijah, in 1 Kings chapter

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

19, responds with overblown self-importance with these words,

I, only I am left.

If it weren't for me, God, no one would praise you.

No one would get it right. No one would be faithful to you. I am the only one.

Elijah was full of pride, hubris, and a falsely inflated self-image,

thinking that God can't do anything without him,

that it is all up to him and him alone.

The consequence of a puffed-up ego like Elijah is isolation and burnout and despair.

We become exhausted from doing everything ourselves and thinking that if it's

going to be done right, we have to do it ourselves.

Moses and Elijah, one with no self-image and one with an inflated self-image.

For Jesus to do what God calls him to do,

he needs to walk with the middle path between these two ways of following God's

call, with a healthy, faithful self-image and response to God's call.

Jesus cannot walk all the way over here with Moses telling God,

well, I can't do it, and I'm not worthy, and I don't have what it takes.

Because it is God's power that will make him able.

For God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ever ask or imagine.

Ephesians 3.20. And Jesus can't be over here with Elijah saying,

well, it's all about me and I'm doing this alone and I'm the only one and I

am the savior of the world and your plans are shot without me.

I am, after all, the Son of God, because Jesus is not getting through the cross

without God holding him fast.

And God probably does have a plan B. Oh, yes, he does.

And we would be wise to never forget that God can always find another way with or without us.

And that was in the Old Testament too if you've read the book of Esther right

with or without us God will find a way to save the people.

Okay, God says, this is my son, my chosen,

and calls Jesus to claim this identity with confidence and strength,

along with a purpose that he is meant to embrace without insecurity,

reluctance, or doubt, because God's power resides in him.

And God calls Jesus to claim with humility and trust that God's plan will unfold

even through suffering, even through death, and that he is not alone.

Jesus can fulfill this calling without isolation or despair,

because he is not the only one who dies and rises.

Moses and Elijah have gone before him, and here they are in the resurrection.

It is God's power that will accomplish this through him, and he will return

in this resurrected figure, just like those who have gone before him.

So God calls Jesus and those of us who follow him to walk this middle path between

Moses and Elijah with what we call confident humility.

Confident humility.

So I invite you to consider this week, and it is in your sermon notes on your

insert, which direction you need to grow in order to move toward this middle path.

Is it to accept that you are not nothing, but indeed you need to step into the

confidence of being acclaimed and beloved child of God with a purpose.

And you are equipped and filled with the Spirit's power to fulfill whatever

it is that God calls you to do. No need for insecurities or doubt.

What a colossal waste of energy. Have you ever thought about that?

Insecurities and doubt are just a colossal waste of energy as a Christian.

You are a beloved child of God endowed with gifts.

You are a child of the king and let's just

let all that other crap go because it's just a lie it

is just a lie all right or do

you need to modify your strut and your disdain for others with some humility

and some trust and depend on god's power rather than your own to accomplish

the purpose to which god calls you.

Jesus gives us the confident humility to grow in faith as we follow him.

For on the mountain of transfiguration, it's not just Jesus who sees the end

of the story. We see the end of the story.

I don't know, are you one of those people who picks up a novel and reads the last page first?

So you know how the story ends? That's what this is.

That's what this is. I have a friend in St. Louis. She always reads the last

page and then she starts her book. I'm like, what?

But that's what the transfiguration is. This is, we've opened the last page

of the book. This is how it ends.

The end of this life is transformation into resurrection.

We know the end of the story.

That's why let's not waste our time in doubt and worry and insecurities,

for we too shall be transfigured from death into new life at the end of our earthly walk.

So with Peter, James, and John, we glimpse life beyond the grave,

the ultimate purpose of God, the fullness of life in eternity.

It happened to Moses. It happened to Elijah. It happened to Jesus. It will happen to us.

And it's what makes our confident humility possible.

God's promises and power for us in Jesus Christ begin now, though.

It begins now. and it's brought to completion in eternity.

And so we are embraced by God's power in Jesus Christ, which will carry us from

death in our own transfiguration when our time comes, but we can start now.

And that's what it means to accept God's power and trust in our life.

And so we're sent down the mountain with Peter, James, and John,

and we do so with confident humility, walking in the middle path.

And we have the instructions with how to stay focused.

Because God said, and we already heard it, how do we stay focused?

We listen to Jesus, right?

Listen to him. Listen to Jesus. God told us, how do we stay focused? We listen to Jesus.

We do this by reading scripture, by praying, by meditating, by worshiping together,

by taking the sacraments, by singing through music, by being in life groups

and listening to each other.

So I invite you this week to pick one new way to listen to Jesus this week.

That's also in your sermon notes so you don't forget, what are my options?

I always have options. I love options. I get bored with the same old thing,

so we've got to have options, right? Lots of ways to listen to Jesus.

Okay, so Jesus continually feeds us with his love, his strength, his mission.

Now, so we can fulfill his mission of love and hope in this world,

so people know that his love begins now and it ends in resurrection.

So by God's grace, as we listen to Jesus, God will use us in big ways and small

ways when we manage to stay in the middle path. And guess what?

Also, God works in spite of us when we flunk.

Did you know that? We're not always going to stay to the middle path,

and God works in spite of us when we don't.

What do we call that in the Lutheran church? It begins with a G.

Grace. Thank you. All right. Somebody went to confirmation. All right. We call that grace.

And this is what finally began to give grandfather a little bit of grace in his 90s.

He began to experience a little bit of grace in his 90s because he often still

felt so unworthy like Moses for what he had not done.

And other times he was so frustrated like Elijah that other leaders in the church

were just idiots, and they didn't get the mission like he did, right?

So sometimes we're over here, and sometimes we're over here.

And that's how grandfather felt even still in his 90s.

And he felt like, how many times did he miss the middle path?

But toward the end of that once-in-a-lifetime

conversation with Dan that afternoon after that funeral,

with tears in his eyes, this 91-year-old scholar,

pastor, and missionary looked at his young grandson and he said,

But God even uses people at the extremes.

Grandfather could finally see that God had used him even when he had failed

to stay in the middle path because God, after all,

had used Moses and Elijah with amazing results.

So finally the greatest

confident humility of all is

to be available here and

now for god to use us flaws and all wherever we are on the path for when we

do god shines through us like cracks in a clay jar.

And that is the most powerful transfiguration of all.

Amen. Go into the world, seeing God in the small stuff, in love shared,

in moments of rest, in the beauty of creation, and in the joy of serving others.

Live your faith in the everyday, knowing God goes with you as you love, serve, and welcome all.

Thanks be to God, and we will!