SPECIAL DAY: Sunday of Transfiguration

February 22, 1998 - LESSON: 2 Corinthians 3:12-18; 4:1-2, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: Habituation

(Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)

Michael Robinson in an article for Smithsonian Magazine, "Here the Birds are Unafraid," September 1997, writes about a condition called "HABITUATION."⁽¹⁾

While studying the defensive behavior of crabs in Panama, he found an interesting variation in the flight responses of mangrove crabs.

"Those that I watched lived close to a major road.

They did not flee down their burrows in response to passenger cars, but did retreat when large trucks went by.

Trucks were rarer than cars, in a ration of about 1 to 40.

Interestingly, the escape response to trucks persists in absence of real danger.

No crab has ever been attacked by a truck standing outside its burrow.

It is appropriate, however, that escape responses to large moving objects should be difficult to extinguish.

"But, because hundreds of cars passed by throughout the day, running for shelter every times a car passed wouldn't be energy efficient.

In the absence of attacks, many organisms learn to ignore stimuli that are constant or occur frequently.

This is a behavioral process call habituation.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)

It occurs widely in the animal kingdom.

Scarecrows cease to scare.

Plastic owls on buildings finally fail to exclude roosting starlings,

Recordings of their alarm calls eventually fails to rid airports of feeding seagulls."

The behavioral process of habituation also has a great im-pact on the human species.

Living in a rut

Taking things for granted

Loss of purpose and sense of excitement, accomplishment

Major and even minor events in life lose their impact.

Wedding couple observing their anniversary on Valentine's Day.

You cannot easily forget your anniversary.

Significant reminder.

Many men and women do actually forget anniversaries and birthdays.

The process of habituation is well illustrated by an incident in the life of the Hebrews while camped at Mt. Sinai.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)

God appears on the mountain to Moses and the Hebrews.

(Exodus 19 NRSV) On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. [2] They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.

[3] Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: [4] You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. [5] Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, [6] but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites."

[7] So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him.

[8] The people all answered as one: "Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do."

Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.

[9] Then the LORD said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after."

When Moses had told the words of the people to the LORD, [10] the LORD said to Moses: "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes [11] and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. [12] You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death. [13] No hand shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or human being, they shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain."

[14] So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. He consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes. [15] And he said to the people, "Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman."

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)

[16] On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

[17] Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain.

[18] Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.

[19] As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. [20] When the LORD descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the LORD summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

[21] Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people not to break through to the LORD to look; otherwise many of them will perish. [22] Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves or the LORD will break out against them." [23] Moses said to the LORD, "The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you yourself warned us, saying, 'Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.'"

[24] The LORD said to him, "Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the LORD; otherwise he will break out against them." [25] So Moses went down to the people and told them.

God spoke the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments.

The peoples response ought to be noted.

(Exodus 20:18-21 NRSV) When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance,

[19] and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die."

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)

[20] Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."

[21] Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

Here is the result of the process of habituation.

(Exodus 32:1-6 NRSV) When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron,

and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

[2] Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."

[3] So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. [4] He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"

[5] When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD." [6] They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

Moses had been gone for awhile.

It was so long that the attention of the Hebrews turned from God and Moses in the mountain to the worship of an idol, a substitute god and one more familiar to them.

It was a god with whom they were acquainted in Egypt.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)

Paul writes in (2 Corinthians 3:12-18 NRSV) about this experience and its results.

Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, [13] 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.

[14] But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.

[15] Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds;

This is the result of the process of habituation.

We move through life and the seasons of the church year.

This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday.

How many Transfiguration Sundays have we observed?

What is it's present meaning and purpose for those of us who are members of the Christian community?

God seeks to help us avoid the deadening impact of habituation.

He desires to help us maintain a sense of excitement,

The sense of excitement is created by the growing knowledge of God and life and ourselves, our relationships.

Excitement is also created by the application of this knowledge which helps us to change.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)

He seeks to provide us with a sense of purpose.

What is the purpose of Christianity?

It is to restore in human beings the image of God.

It is also to help us understand that the present is not our true home.

We live and prepare now for our future state .

He desires for us to live with a sense of accomplishment,

I officiated at a funeral on Tuesday evening.

One fine lady came up to me and said, "I really want you to do my funeral."

I said to her that, "I enjoyed funerals."

Not that I enjoy the grief or the tears or the loss which occurs.

What I enjoy is creating a service that makes people feel good about themselves, and the one who has died, God and the future.

I believe that this is why Paul concludes his observation with an alternative that helps us to do what it is that God is asking of us.

[16] but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

[17] Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)

[18] And all of us, with unveiled faces,

seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror,

are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another;

for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

This is why it is important to help one another create some sense of purpose, some sense of excitement, some sense of accomplishment in their and your lives.

1. Michael Robinson, "Here birds are Unafraid," Smithsonian Magazine, quoted in Homiletics, February 1998, p. 70.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 1997 - 1998)    (Back to sermons Home Page)    (Back to Shultz Home Page)