(Click HERE to find the FB video of this service – service starts at 21:00, sermon begins at 32:00) (Note – I’ve heard that Martin Luther King, Jr, wasn’t known for his singing voice either … just sayin’)
(Click HERE to DONATE to Lidgerwood Church)
Mark Wheeler
Mark 9:2-9
“The Transfiguration: The Power of Love”
02/14/2021
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
Let’s start this morning with some shout-outs of some of your biggest surprises! What is something that SO surprised you, you had no idea how to react? [Someone at home – press your space bar and tell us what you’re thinking! – or if you’re on FB, type into your Comments, and Gerri will read it for us!]
Today’s Gospel story is that kind of story – I mean, aren’t most of the Gospel stories that kind of story – but this one was literally such a surprise, the disciples present did not know what to do!
We gather today, with aches and pains, worries and fears, doubts and debts, hopes and dreams, and in the midst of all of that we gather to be surprised by how our Savior and Lord will address us!
Holy God, we thank You for the glimpses we catch of Your gifts of peace, love, joy and hope, and light. Even in the midst of fear, of challenge, of struggle – even when we have not been sure of tomorrow,
You have ignited the Light within us … that we might glow with its brilliance from the inside out. Keep reminding us how to Believe … and welcome … and know we are welcomed … even when …. Amen.
Let’s take a second to greet each other, and those in the room, look at the camera and say HI to your friends who are at home. Tell your loved ones, “May the Love of Christ surround you.”
Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.
For those who made it into the building this morning – thank you for wearing your masks and following the seating and walking protocols. We do this not to protect ourselves from others, but to protect others from ourselves. Because we love each other, we wear masks and keep distance to keep each other safe from this “invisible potential enemy”. COVID numbers are way up in our area – let’s not give them an opportunity to climb even higher. Our Elders are listening to CDC guidelines and deciding on what seems best practices for each others’ safety. We love you, and we want everyone to be and to stay well.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.
Listen now and join in as Pastor Kathy leads our Call to Worship from Psalm 50 – and listen for and proclaim aloud the justice God demands – and the grace He offers!
Our song of praise today sings praises to this great God we cal our Lord and Savior! – How Great Is Our God – Jake Davis is leading our song today [notice that Julie is away on a Valentine’s Day vacation] (sung respectfully and under the mask)!
Through the Written Word,
And endorsed by our spoken word,
May we know Your Living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Some of you may have looked ahead to see what the surprise was going to be – who here guessed Mark’s Gospel telling of Jesus’ Transfiguration?
I have heard it said that the greatest challenge about preaching on the Transfiguration is dealing with the pressure to explain what the Transfiguration means.
Somehow we expect that we have to guide people toward making sense of why the Transfiguration occurred, or how the story functions within the plots of the Gospel stories, or why the Gospel–writers thought they should include it, or what shaped the early Christian traditions about the Transfiguration, or what symbolic value should be assigned to the “mountain top” experience (look at today’s Children’s bulletin) or Jesus’ two Old Testament visitors, or what the event says about Jesus’ nature, or whether we should praise or criticize Peter’s comments, or why some people call today “Transfiguration Sunday” while others prefer the more melodious, are you ready?, “Quinquagesima” (Latin for “50 days” before Easter).
Well, I invite you to re-listen to this story – and hear something unexpected, surprising even.
Hear the Word of God … Mark 9:2-9 …. —- [The screen will show this passage.]
2 Six days later (What had just happened 6 days previous to this is Mark’s version of the story where Jesus asks the disciples who people say He is, and “Whom do you say I am?” and Peter says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, and [in Matthew’s version] Jesus commends Peter and then He predicts His own death and Peter says, “No!” and Jesus tells him “Get behind me Satan!”… After six days …) Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and led them alone up a high mountain privately. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiantly white, more so than any launderer in the world could bleach them. 4 Then Elijah appeared before them along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 So Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three shelters—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 (For they were afraid, and he did not know what to say.)
7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, “This is my one dear Son. Listen to him!” 8 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more except Jesus.
9 As they were coming down from the mountain, he gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
“They were afraid, and didn’t know what to say!” They were shocked and speechless! So now, the church wants the preacher to make sense of this? Seriously? When has the idea of a brilliantly glowing holy figure ever “made sense,” anyway?
Maybe the transfigured Jesus isn’t supposed to be figured out. Maybe He’s just supposed to be appreciated. We should be drawn to Him, as if we were moths and He was a brilliantly glowing holy figure!
Let’s just take a moment and bask in the warm wonder of His glow.
I’m not a big three-point preacher – but this story lends itself well to three angles that help us to bask in His presence.
First angle: in this Transfiguration story, Jesus is a glow-in-the-light Savior – completely made to be seen!
On the liturgical calendar, Epiphany began a month ago with a story about a demonstration of Jesus’ identity, but it was a much more covert incident: (in Matthew’s Gospel, it is at the arrival of the magi to the “new-born King of the Jews”, but in Mark’s Gospel it is) Jesus’ baptism. And in Mark’s account of the baptism, it’s not clear that anyone else sees the heavens slashed open or the Holy Spirit diving into Jesus. The voice from heaven is for Jesus’ alone to hear. Nothing’s public. Nothing’s obvious.
Most of the epiphanies we get to experience in life consist of mere glimpses, and sometimes we aren’t even sure that they are really ours to see.
But the Transfiguration is a very different kind of a revealing. Jesus becomes a beacon, like a lighthouse planted on the mountaintop. The heavenly voice addresses all the witnesses: Peter, James, and John. On this Sunday, there is a promise that Jesus can and will be noticed.
Novelist Mary Gordon says that as a transfigured body clothed in shining garments, “Jesus insists upon being seen,” which means the Transfiguration narrative “can be read as the celebration of the visible.” (Reading Jesus: A Writer’s Encounter with the Gospels; New York; Pantheon; 2009; P. 42.)
In Mark’s Gospel, a story so full of concealment and secrecy, the Transfiguration says that this Jesus has plans to be conspicuous. What He will disclose is not necessarily the secrets of the universe or the meaning of life; rather, it’s Himself. He may be hard to see clearly in all His intricate detail, what with the radiant glare and the transfigured body and all, but — sometimes, at least — He’s definitely there.
Second angle: in this Transfiguration story we learn that Epiphany reveals the Power of Love!
Because the Transfiguration is so bizarre and unusual, it can be easy to assume that we’re supposed to approach it with sober reverence and awe. But I don’t think that’s how God views it. For God, the Transfiguration presents an opportunity to declare love for the one called “dear Son” in the NIV. (Other translations say something more like “dearly beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”!)
If God is capable of smiling, and I am certain he is, this would be the occasion in which that happens. I don’t see how anyone can talk of one’s “beloved” without breaking into a pleased grin. That’s how lovers talk to and about each other.
In Matthew 17:5, the New English Translation, says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I take great delight!” At the Transfiguration, then, “we are in the presence of delight. Delight as an aspect of the holy.”
This is not to take away from God’s intimidating purity or inviolable majesty, but it emphasizes tender holiness. The scene is a reminder that holiness, as a characteristic of God, is participatory and shared. God loves, so God interacts. This holiness expresses itself in self-giving, for that’s what happens when someone adores and celebrates someone else.
And of course we all know God’s Word calls us to “be holy for the Lord our God is holy”! We, too, are to live this love out in demonstrations of self-sacrifice for our neighbor – including our Jewish, Muslim, Black, gay, different-from-us neighbor!
Take great delight in Jesus, for God does. As God expresses this delight, we gain a little more insight into the divine heart.
Third angle: in this Transfiguration story we are promised intimacy with God Himself!!
Peter, James, and John find themselves on holy ground, in privileged company. After all, Jesus appears alongside Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets in Jewish memories.
Many things made those two ancient prophets great. For one thing, in the Bible each shares a moment of striking intimacy with God, through Moses’ face-to-face chats with God and his glimpse of God’s backside (Exodus 33:7-23) and Elijah’s encounter with God in a strange “sound of sheer silence” (I Kings 19:11-13).
When one is so close to God, everything changes. Impossibilities dissolve.
We should also note that both prophets, like Jesus, labored to help the people of God remain faithful as they were tempted by idolatrous religious ideas. All of them sought to keep the people of God hopeful as they suffered the burdens of abusive political systems. That is, Moses’ and Elijah’s closeness to God wasn’t something to be hoarded; it energized them in their service to others, equipping them to know and pursue the Lord.
We are invited to celebrate this Jesus and to join Him in righting injustices against others without power and to know the close communion of the God for whom nothing is impossible!
The brilliant light of the Transfiguration affirms life, a light that shines ahead into Lent to keep that season in perspective, never without hope and confidence. This light speaks a promise that God is here. And that God is knowable. God seeks relationship. Because God is life.
Dear God, we are thankful for the mountaintop epiphanies You give us to renew our love for You and for our neighbor in our daily walk with You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Statement of and leadership in Ordination and Installation of New Officers.
Prayer Page –
And now – call out a name, a place, a people, a situation, you are lifting to the Lord in prayer …. “Have mercy on us, O Lord.” [Lord’s Prayer] Amen.
– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
Expedition Song – How Great Thou Art! …. sung by Jake Davis (our suggestion is no congregational singing, but if you’re wearing your masks appropriately, who would know who is singing?).
Next Sunday, like we did today – please RSVP to us if you plan to attend so we can properly set up – and please CALL IN or email or text – so we can share with you what the plans will be – whether we will be allowed to continue to meet or not.
We close with this benediction: Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,
becoming more faithful with each passing day of struggle and victory,
with each encounter with the Holy Spirit, giving glory to God today and forever!
Resources: Skinner, Matt; https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord-2/commentary-on-mark-92-9-3
lidgerwoodpresbychurch 