February 3, Boy Scout Sunday, Transfiguration Sunday

Lesson: 2 Peter 1.16-21

Sermon Title: Transfigured

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INTRODUCTION:

Gift Disappointment (1)

The rich aunt was hurt and said to her nephew, "I'm sorry you don't like your gift. I asked you if you preferred a large check or a small check."

"I know, Auntie," the nephew said contritely, "but I didn't know you were talking about neckties."

  1. What are we talking about?

    1. There is a wealth of information in this rather short passage of scripture.

    2. There are two verses that really stand out.

      1. One is verse 16.

      2. The other is verse 19.

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MAIN BODY

  1. Verse 16 strongly reminds us that the disciples did not follow cleverly devised myths or fables when they wrote or had written their gospels and letters.

16For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.

    1. Myths and fables come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

      1. There's no way this story is true:

There once was a pastor who went into his back yard one day to find that a kitten had climbed up a tree and was afraid to come back down. The pastor tried coaxing, reaching up for the kitten, even offering warm milk, but to no avail. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and drove away so that the tree bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten. He did all this, checking his progress in the car frequently, then figured if he went just a little bit farther, the tree would be bent sufficiently for him to reach the kitten. But as he inched forward, suddenly the rope broke. You can guess what happened next.

The tree went "boing!" and the kitten went sailing through the air out of sight. The pastor felt terrible. He walked all over the neighborhood, asking people if they'd seen a little kitten. No one had. After awhile, he prayed, "Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping," and went back to business as usual.

A few days later the pastor was at the grocery store and met one of his church members. As he stopped to say hello, he happened to look into her shopping cart and was amazed to see cat food. He knew that this woman was not fond of cats, so he asked her, "Why are you buying cat food when you dislike cats so much?"

She replied, "You won't believe this," and told him how her little girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. As the begging continued and Mom got tired of hearing it, she finally told her daughter, "Well, if God gives you a cat, I'll let you keep it."

She told the pastor, "I watched my child go out in the yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a cat. And, this is going to sound crazy, but a kitten suddenly came flying out of the clear blue sky, with its paws outspread and landed right in front of her!"

      1. Now this is a fable.

    1. We are also familiar with the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

    2. How about stories of Greek mythology.

    3. Unfortunately there are also religious authorities who are responsible for spreading myths and fables. (2)

Once upon a time, [Paul Oppenheimer] argues, Western culture, founded largely on the myths of original sin and the Fall, conveniently described guilt as the result of sinning against God. Such a view of guilt entered history through Augustine -- who repressed his own lustful childhood in his Confessions with idealized versions of sin and salvation -- and held sway in the West until the 19th century. By that century's end, Nietzsche had condemned the Christian religion for enslaving its followers through a doctrine of guilt that weakened them and robbed them of their will to power. In addition, Hegel and Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God, while Feuerbach, Marx and Freud declared that God was simply a projection of humankind. The 20th century opens, according to Oppenheimer, on a moral wasteland bereft of God -- and yet, he notes, the guilt remains. Writers as diverse as Kafka, Dostoyevski, T.S. Eliot and Maupassant, he says, express lucidly the anguish and despair of the modern conscience when it lacks the contours and context to define its inchoate guilt. As the 21st century unfolds, guilt lingers on and begins to take a new shape. Oppenheimer contends that our unending material desire provides the foundation for our current guilt.

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  1. Once we deal with myths and fables the other verse that comes into play is verse 19.

19So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

    1. Morning star = phosphorous - phosphorous.

      1. Phosphorus is used in making self-striking matches.

      2. Phosphorus is the transforming light of the Gospel.

        1. Lamp shining in a dark place gives little light.

        2. The dawn is brighter.

        3. The morning star brings all the brilliance of the Godhead.

    2. When the morning star arises in the heart, kardia, (the thoughts and feelings) all of one's life undergoes a transformation.

      1. This brings about a transformation of personality.

J. Allan Peterson writes in his book The Myth of the Greener Grass:

Newspaper columnist and minister George Crane tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband. "I do not only want to get rid of him; I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me."

Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan. "Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you've convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you're getting a divorce. That will really hurt him."

With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised!"

And she did it with enthusiasm. Acting "as if." For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing.

When she didn't return, Crane called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?"

"Divorce!" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him." Her actions had changed her feelings. Motion resulted in emotion. The ability to love is established not so much by fervent promise as often-repeated deeds."

      1. This brings about a transformation of life-style.

Two Kids (3)

Checking out of the grocery store, I noticed that the bag boy was eyeing my two adopted children curiously. They often draw scrutiny, since my son's a blond Russian, while my daughter has shiny black Haitian skin.

The boy continued staring as he carried our groceries to the car. Finally, he asked, "Are those your kids?"

"Yes, they are!" I answered proudly.

"They adopted?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"I thought so," he concluded. "I figured you're too old to have kids that small."

      1. This brings about a transformation of relationships.

Pastor Joe Hensley relates the following story about a soldier, a soldier in the Israeli army. (4)

"One day he was on patrol in an area of occupied Palestine when he felt a rock strike him in the back. Before he had a chance to turn around, another rock had struck him in the shoulder, then another hit his helmet.

"He whirled around, his rifle ready to fire. In his sights were several Palestinian children. Children. They were picking up more stones to throw at him. The soldier did not want to fire, but he could not allow them to attack him again.

"Suddenly, he had an idea. He bent down and picked up three of the rocks. He picked them up and began to juggle. Yes, juggle. The children were mesmerized and forgot about their stones. The soldier did a few tricks, and the children laughed. Then he did a grand finale, and they applauded. He took a bow and walked away.

"No, that soldier did not end the war with his action. But he took what had been hurled as weapons and transformed them into objects of wonder. He took a broken moment and made it whole with the laughter of children. That moment revealed God's shalom."

It's not likely that that soldier was a Christian, but he knew something about the peace of God, the same peace we believe Jesus the Christ came to bring us and to give us in his death and resurrection. Hensley continues: "Christ took the cross, a tool of torture and death, and transformed it into a symbol of salvation. Christ took death and transformed it into life. Christ took our despair and turned it into hope. He took our sins and juggled them before our eyes that we might forget our hatred and focus on his power and love."

      1. It is better to go where people are.

Writing in The Atlantic Monthly, Larry Levinger (5) recounts a tale that shows how grace in gesture can transform a moment: "Once, at a dinner party [novelist and Nobel Laureate William] Faulkner was attending, a polite man pulled a dining chair out for one of the women, who, busy talking with other guests, was unaware that he had done so. She fell to the floor, surprised and chagrined.

"Faulkner sat down on the floor with her. The gesture -- noble, tender, humane -- was much in character. Faulkner could not abide harm or diminishment. He preferred to get on the floor with the fallen. That's where he found his inspiration."

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CONCLUSION:

  1. Why can we not come to terms with our being transformed into the likeness of Christ until Christ lives within us?

    1. M. Scott Peck, in his recent book, tells of a conference where he and Harvey Cox both spoke.

[Cox] told the story of Jesus' being called to resuscitate the daughter of a wealthy Roman. As Jesus is going to the Roman's house, a woman who has been hemorrhaging for years reaches out from the crowd and touches his robe. He feels her touch and turns around and asks, Who touched me? The woman comes forward and begs him to cure her and he does, and then goes on to the house of the Roman whose daughter had died.

After telling the story, Cox asked this audience of 600 mostly Christian professionals whom they identified with.

      1. When he asked who identified with the bleeding woman, about a hundred raised their hands.

      2. When he asked who identified with the anxious Roman father, more of the rest raised their hands.

      3. When he asked who identified with the curious crowd, most raised their hands.

      4. When he asked who identified with Jesus, only six people raised their hands.

    1. Something is very wrong here. Of 600 more or less professional Christians, only one out of a hundred identified with Jesus.

      1. Maybe more actually did but were afraid to raise their hands lest that seem arrogant.

      2. But again, something is wrong with our concept of Christianity if it seems arrogant to identify with Jesus.

      3. That is exactly what we are supposed to do!

      4. We're supposed to identify with Jesus, act like Jesus, be like Jesus.

      5. That is what Christianity is supposed to be about -- the imitation of Christ.

    2. Jesus was transfigured.

    3. We are transformed.

Amen

M. Scott Peck, Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth (Simon & Schuster, 1993), 210.

1. Pastor Tim [posts@cybersaltlists.org]

2. Publishers Weekly, Cahners Business Information, Inc., posted on amazon.com. Retrieved January 19, 2002.

3. Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke! You Make Me Laugh [You_Make_Me_Laugh@crosswalkmail.com]

4. --epiphanydc.org/sermons/sermon_2006_04_23_Hensley.pdf. Retrieved November 4, 2006.

5. "The prophet Faulkner," June 2000, 82

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