St. Paul’s Sermon 2005

The Transfiguration of our Lord - February 6, 2005

Lessons: Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9

“Mountaintop Times”

Introduction: A God who Does Miracles

It was the summer of 1973. I had a week off, and I got talked into driving a girls singing quartet from North Central Bible College to South Dakota to do a week of concerts. These were tiny towns with a church and a maybe a gas station/post office combination. These were open country ranchers. My best friend’s girlfriend was part of the group, and they couldn’t find anybody else. So, I went along as chauffeur and played bass. We stayed at the family ranch of one the girls in the group. It was a good week; the people of the tiny rural towns out on the prairie were very appreciative, and our evangelistic efforts had some impact. It was a time when we sensed the Lord’s presence, he provided for us, and we had a great time of fellowship with God’s people.

1973 had been a very, very dry summer, following a dry winter. The ranchers were selling off their herds, because there was no grass. As we walked across the prairie, the dead, brown grass broke off wherever we stepped. On the Sunday night before we drove home, we walked out to a hill that overlooked the ranch and had about an hour of prayer together. It was a good culmination as we prayed for all the people we met that week. We felt badly because this family was in such dire straits because of the intense drought.

At the end of the prayer, I heard a thought pop into my head; and I prayed it out- “Lord, I ask that in the next 24 hours you give these people one inch of rain. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

I was kind of embarrassed after that, because there was no rain on the forecast, and there hadn’t been a quarter inch of rain in several months. The next morning most of us headed back to Minnesota, with blue skies following us that whole day. I was a bit more embarrassed, but I didn’t say anything. A couple days later, I got a call from one of the girls who had stayed another day or two. She was all excited. She told me that the afternoon after we left, a rainstorm had come up and they had gotten an inch and a quarter of rain.

Over the years, I have seen God do amazing things. I heard my mother talk two days after the doctor told me that without a question she was brain dead. I have seen God heal many people. I have seen God provide for this congregation over and over again. One night a few years ago we sat out on the parking lot for a concert with a Trinidadian Steel Drum band. Not many people came, in part because there was a big storm warning out. We watched them set up, watched the storm come up; then as they began, it split, right over the freeway. The wind blew from the southwest, but the blue hole of sunshine remained just southwest of us for more than an hour. It rained on 94. It rained on 35w. It rained just south of Franklin. It rained just on the other side of Park. We could see the rain fall. We saw rainbows. The storm kept moving, but the hole stayed in that one spot for more than an hour. They gave their concert, they gave their testimonies, a few neighborhood people and some of our members came. It rained very, very hard all around us from a dark and roiling storm. But the hole stayed open the entire concert. As they packed up their drums, the hole closed and it began to rain. Some of you were there.

I) God Sometimes Meets us on the Mountain

We have experiences like this. Our God is real, and he answers prayer. Sometimes amazing things happen an we see them. (I’m sure many amazing things happen and we never see them!) Sometimes we have these “mountaintop times.” We call them “mountaintop times” because of stories like our texts today, with Moses receiving the law and the Transfiguration where, just before he was to die, he took just three of the disciples apart for this experience. In the Bible there are a handful of these “mountaintop” times, like Elijah at Horeb, or Abraham and Isaac at Moriah. In these times God met his people in important, miraculous encounters many times. Even so, the miracles of the Bible are clustered around Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha and in the time of Jesus and the book of Acts. In all those chapters, there are many times when God interacts with his people; but there are long periods where there are no miracles, where there are no encounters with God.

II) Sometimes it’s Hard

Even during the ministry of Jesus, times were not always glorious. Back in Jesus’ own hometown the people were ready to throw him off a cliff. Jesus and the disciples were constantly being criticized by the authorities, by the powerful, by the religious elite. It was hard being a disciple, and they obviously experienced difficult times. Often they knew they were in danger. In some places Jesus and the disciples were rejected. Imagine! People looked into the eyes of the Creator of the Universe and rejected him! It was not an easy life, even when Jesus was with his disciples.

When Jesus went back up to heaven, almost immediately we’re told of persecutions in the baby church. Stephen is killed. Paul talks at length about the hard times, including beatings, stonings, being laughed out of town, imprisonments and even shipwrecked. Read those long chapters of Acts 27 & 28- God could have stilled that storm like for Jesus and the Disciples on the Sea of Galilee– but he didn’t. This was a far way from the mountaintop experience.

In the book of Acts we see many, many miracles. But in all the letters-- of Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John– there is very little mention of miracles. Often we read about the people of the church messing up! As we read the book of Acts- see how they make very human decisions- they talk, and pray, and decide. They don’t always hear the audible voice of God. They don’t always even receive a word of prophecy or an interpretation of a tongue. There are visions, and God certainly does miraculous things, but not every day, not in all circumstances. God doesn’t miraculously provide for Paul with manna or anything else- he sews tents. Paul has a job! The other disciples may have brought goods along to trade, or they too may have sewn tents or done other work. God does mighty works, but even in the book of Acts, they got up, ate breakfast, went to work and put their tunics on like everybody else.

III) Living Real Faith in Real Life

In the whole Bible, if you were to take out all of the miraculous, you’d still have a lot of Bible left. If you took out all those times when people could see God working or speaking or even speaking through a prophet- you’d still have a lot of Bible left. And yet the people had faith. The people lived their faith through the quiet power of the Holy Spirit. Generation after generation walked through their entire lives in faith, following God, studying his Word, living in his covenant, and trusting in him. The surrounding religions had all sort of passionate things going on- they even sacrificed their living babies they were so committed! They were so passionate and intense that to worship there were sacred prostitutes in their temples so you could really commune with their god!

The people of the OT and New Testament knew they served the living, holy God. They had the stories; they had the Law; they had the worship in the temple as God had commanded it. God protected them, they lived in peace, they had their families, grew their crops, picked their grapes, pressed their olive oil and they served and loved their covenant God.

In the New Testament church, most people also worked in their jobs, raised their families, lived in their hometowns and told their neighbors about Jesus. They saw God give them boldness and add to their numbers. They had mountaintop experiences, and they had low times, and they had many times when they just trusted Jesus and lived their lives. Sometimes they were even horribly persecuted.

I worry today because there are so many books that make so many claims about how life is to be lived. What does a real Christian life look like? What does it feel like? Am I always supposed to be rapturously happy and see miracles every day? Should I be audibly hearing the voice of God every time I’m trying to choose whether I’m supposed to have Post Toasties or Wheaties for breakfast? In fact, to make good decisions is part of what it means to be created in the image of God. God puts a world before us and tells us to “mind” that world, to tend that garden. He gives us major choices. For example we decide when babies are to be created; the Bible says that couples are “joint heirs of the grace of life.” (1 Peter 3:7) Humans are given great dignity to make decisions, to be creative and act as God’s hands and feet. Sometimes God lets us even create his will as he gives us the power to make decisions and choices. God works in and through these decisions; he leads us where we need to be; he guides us and we in response act according to the thoughts, feelings, creativity and initiative he created us to have. When the disciples were making a decision at one point in the book of Acts they report, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us...” (Acts 15:28) There is human agency linked to Divine guidance.

To be a real Christian do I need to spend my every minute reading my Bible and praying and listening? Is that what Paul did? Is that what the disciples do in the book of Acts? Even Jesus took times away to hear his Father more clearly, it seems. But most of the time it the disciples shared when and where they were able; they preached where they could, they served the poor, and worked in their jobs day to day. They didn’t live on the mountaintop. Even Peter, James and John weren’t allowed to build a spiritual Disneyland on the mountaintop. They came down, worked, preached, lived and died.

When you need a mountaintop experience, God will meet you there. When you need a miracle, he’ll give you one. If you open yourself up to be God’s channel for miracles, you’re saying you’re willing for God to put you in a place where only a miracle will save the day- and you’re willing to be the fool who stands out and prays for it. But it will be when God needs the miracle. God will bring you through. God will give you all the gifts you need for ministry whenever you need him to do whatever you need to do. He will normally and faithfully meet you in his Word and Sacraments. That’s what he’s promised to do.

But as you open yourself to be used, when you open your heart to be a vessel, to open your mouth and share Jesus- he’ll do whatever is needed to work in the hearer. You may never know the outcome. But you don’t have to worry about that. You don’t have to live on the mountain, seeing the work of God with your eyes. You don’t have to feel a certain way or have to live differently than Peter, Paul or the Apostles. Just be real. Trust Jesus, he will work his good in your life, and sometimes you’ll meet him on the mountain. But you won’t live there. Mountaintops are great to visit, but nobody lives there. Not even Jesus, Peter, James or John. And that’s the way God made it.

Invitation, Amen.

February 6, 2005- The Transfiguration of Our Lord

Exodus 24:12-18

The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."

[13] Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. [14] He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them."

[15] When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, [16] and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. [17] To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. [18] Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

2 Peter 1:16-21

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. [17] For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." [18] We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

[19] And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. [20] Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. [21] For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 17:1-9

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. [2] There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. [3] Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

[4] Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."

[5] While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

[6] When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. [7] But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." [8] When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

[9] As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."