CELC The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration of Our Lord – February 6, 2005

2 Peter 1:16-21

Do you have to “see it to believe it?” I thought of that statement when reading the paper recently. It seems that Bill Murray was driving about Roanoke in his Mercedes when he hit a curb and did some damage to the car.

So, with all his fame and fortune he stopped at the local Mercedes dealer to have his car fixed and the folks recognized him. There were pictures in the paper of Bill with all the folks at the dealership.

Bill then invited the mechanic who fixed his car out for a drink. The mechanic called and told his wife, “I going out for a drink with Bill Murray, the actor…I fixed his car today…and I may be late to dinner.” His wife’s response was something like, “Yeah, Bill Murray, sure, a drink with Bill Murray. Just be home on time for dinner.”

I guess the mechanics wife had to “see it to believe it;” see Bill Murray for herself.

If you believe the witness of St. Peter, he was there to “see it and believe it.” Peter was there on the mountain with our Lord Jesus when Jesus was transfigured and Moses and Elijah stood with him.

Peter is there and saw and believed. It was the second time that the voice of God spoke and revealed that Jesus is the Son. Here, Jesus is clearly demonstrated to be God’s own Son as he stands with Moses and Elijah. In the darkness you can see it all because Jesus is revealed in his glory, so bright that Peter, James and John can barely look at him.

Peter is there and the experience makes him a transformed disciple. Peter wants to make special places for Jesus and Moses and Elijah to live. He knows now that the Lord is the beloved of God, the Son of God and he will never see Jesus in the same way, again.

Yet, you and I recall that before the rooster could crow that fatal morning, Peter denied Jesus as Lord, as the Son of God, our Savior. It was not a good time to be known as a follower of Jesus. Jesus was about to be crucified. Peter did not want that for himself. There, in the pressure of the crowds and the intensity of the moment, Peter caved and said, “Not me. I am not with him.” Peter denied him, not once, but three times.

Peter’s story is our story, isn’t it? Up on the mountain when everything is bright and beautiful, it is easy to sign on: “Let’s build a building for Jesus,” we say. And we do. Being a disciple at that moment is easy. Everyone is with us. Everyone wants to be a part of the progress, a part of the new and bright and beautiful.

Then come the more difficult moments: the times we face the reality that God calls us to forgive one another. We remember that God forgives us, just as Peter was forgiven his denial of Jesus. But, me forgive that person who offended me last month by what he said as I was leaving church? “Not in this lifetime,” we say. And so we join Peter when the pressure is on, the crowd is loud. If everything does not go our way, well don’t expect us to be forgiving and caring.

Jesus was transfigured and that is OK with us. We aren’t certain, though, we want his grace to transform us. Transforming us, well, that is a different matter, especially when “strings” are attached, strings like, “love God and love one another.”

That, though, is precisely what God does. God loves us anyway. Even if we aren’t too keen on being transformed, the cross of Jesus comes and does just that. The cross comes with great love, mercy and forgiveness, and we are made new. It’s a fact of our faith. It is the witness of Peter to us today: know that the morning star, Christ himself, has in the cross made you new.

How, then do we respond to such grace and love, such mercy and forgiveness; a forgiveness that even forgives our resistance to being transformed? How do we respond to God as we are forgiven and re-formed, remade, for new living? It is overwhelming, and the love beyond our comprehension. God loves us totally and unconditionally. How shall we respond?

Perhaps you will decide to respond by hearing the words of our Lord Jesus in the gospel lesson and doing as he asks. In verse nine of Matthew 17 Jesus says, “Tell no one…” Well, most folks view it that way, perhaps you do, as well. Tell no one about the gracious, loving, forgiving God we have that calls us to proclaim the cross as the supreme moment of love and life in all history. Tell no one…and we stop there.

Read on, though, and it becomes something new: “Tell no one…about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” Ah. This is very different than “tell no one.” Jesus, himself, calls you to tell others since he has been raised from the dead. And that is what we tell: God himself is raised from the dead, and we are transformed by the love and forgiveness of that resurrected life. Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley