February 11, 2024 | Dynamics of Faith: A Life of Faith

Transfiguration Sunday | Mark 9: 2-9 

 

Rev. Andrew Chappell asks this of his congregation:

Are you prepared to allow God to change you in such important and intense ways that he might be able to use you for peace? 

Are you ready to allow God to transfigure your life? 

Are you ready to live a life of dynamic faith?

 

The Transfiguration.

I’ve always viewed the transfiguration of Jesus as this weird, hard to fathom thing. When I think of the idea of transfiguration, I immediately think of the moment in Beauty and the Beast, when the beast transfigures back into a human…OR in Harry Potter’s Transfiguration class, when he transfigures animals into goblets.

I have memories when I was young of asking my father (who is a pastor) what the transfiguration meant…and he didn’t say it was magic or that it involved anything to do with Disney. He just said this: “It’s a mystery. No one really knows what this scene is or what Jesus became at that moment. But we do know that it was a response to a protest and a glimpse into the future.” Let me explain.

Answer to a Question.

In chapter 8, after Jesus feeds four thousand with a few fish and heals a blind man, he goes to Caesarea Philippi (on the northern end of present day Israel) and asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” 

Of course, Peter is the one to respond (confidently, as he often does), “I’ll tell you who you are…you are the Christ, the Messiah.” 

And then Jesus goes on to tell them about the suffering and death that is in store for him. He shares word for word what is coming his way. And Peter, always a hot head, grabs Jesus and protests, “This can’t be! We won’t let you go this way! Don’t talk like this! We will protect you!” 

That’s when Jesus exclaims, “Get behind me Satan.” And he then calls out to the crowd, but we all know he’s saying these things to Peter, “If you are going to follow me, then follow me! And let me lead! Indeed the kingdom is coming…the day is coming when the world shall see what I’m talking about, the world shall witness true glory, the splendor of God, an army of angels, the Son of Man…”

And not a week later, Mark says, they SEE a glimpse of what Jesus is talking about. And all of it occurs when they climb the mountain and three disciples have this mountain top experience.

Mountain Tops

Have you ever experienced something like that? A mountain top experience I mean? An moment between you and God that changed you? And it is seared into your brain?

It’s interesting, in film and literature, in our cultural stories, whenever there is a mountain, something big is happening, something that will change the course of the story.

(My favorite marvel movie is Iron Man, and if you remember that story)...Weapons manufacturer Tony Stark (after being injured by his own weapons), creates his first prototype of the Iron Man suit and begins a deep philosophical change of how he sees his life in the mountains of Afghanistan.

The mountains are present in the Lord of the Rings as well. Throughout and at the end of the story, Frodo Baggins contends with the destruction of evil, which has to occur at Mt. Doom, in the mountains of Mordor, and such an experience transforms Frodo in the process.

In Frozen, Elsa sings Let it Go and finally allows herself to become who she is in the mountains of Arendell.

Authors and filmmakers love to have big moments set near or on or in the mountains. Scripture is no different. The authors of Scripture continually depict God as someone who loves the mountain top.

Exodus 19-20 - God descends on Mount Sinai in fire and thunder to meet Moses and share ten commandments. 

1 Kings 19 - God meets Elijah on Mount Horeb in a gentle whisper and offers renewal and strength.

Zechariah 14 - Zechariah is given a prophecy that one day, God will descend upon the Mount of Olives and establish justice and the reign of God’s kingdom. (Which is why you see graves on the Mount of Olives today - people want to be close to the action).

God loves a mountain top…and more often than not, mountain top moments are transitional experiences. They are important moments in which God introduces a change that has consequences for the future.

The Transfiguration

Jesus and his three friends go up to the mountain top, and we are told that while there, Jesus is transfigured before their very eyes. The Greek there is metamorphoo - where we get the word metamorphosis. 

What does that mean? It means Jesus looks different. It means his form changes. His clothes shimmer, they glisten white. In Luke’s, the appearance of his face is altered. And not only that, but Moses of the Torah and Elijah of the prophets appear too. Jesus and these two legendary figures of the Hebrew faith are there, right before their eyes! And the disciples are amazed. They cannot believe what is occurring, what they are being allowed to see. Talk about a mountain top experience. 

And naturally, what happens? Whenever we experience something amazing and wondrous, whenever human beings have a mountain top experience, we want to figure out how to keep that feeling, don’t we? We try to figure out how to experience that same thing again.

That’s exactly what Peter wants to do here. He wants to build them each a place on the ground, to keep them physically present, to maintain that amazing experience…

Poet Jan Richardson writes about the desires of Peter and the others in her poem “Dazzling”: 

We could build walls

Around this blessing,

Put a roof over it.

We could bring in 

A table, chairs, 

Have the most amazing meals.

We could make a home.

We could stay.

I’m reminded of the title of the band Nickel Creek’s second album,  “Why Should the fire die?”

Peter doesn’t want the fire to die. He wants to nail down this experience, so that he can experience it again! But it doesn’t happen. And then, responding to Peter’s previous protest from chapter eight, in which Jesus demonstrates that the end is coming, the glory of God is near…a voice from the cloud echoes onto the mountain top, “This is my Son, marked by my love. Listen to him!” (MSG). 

In other words, God says, “This IS the Christ. The kingdom IS coming. This is my guy. Hear him when he says this stuff. Don’t brush it off. Trust me. Elijah and Moses are here, but he is greater than they. So you disciples (and Peter). Listen to him. And trust him.”

But the transfiguration is not simply an answer to a dialogue between Jesus and Peter. It is much more than that.

The Transfiguration Stuff

Because for me, the climax of the story is not when God speaks. It’s the transfiguration part. It’s the metamorphosis, the actual change in form that Jesus undergoes. 

Now…this story is so wild, it’s so weird, some scholars think that Mark accidentally put this story in the wrong spot. Some think that this actually happened after the resurrection, and Mark just forgot where it needed to go. Why? Because the Jesus we find here is a lot like the post-resurrection Jesus. I mean it sort of makes sense on one level. Jesus WAS different after the resurrection. His form was not as it was before. It was new. It was different. And it’s true that transfiguration Jesus and post-resurrection Jesus have a lot in common. 

But I think it’s in the right place, because it seems to have a pre-resurrection purpose. And its purpose is to give us a glimpse of what the future form/glory will look like. 

My favorite scholar and preacher of the 20th century, Leslie Weatherhead (you’ve heard me quote him all the time) used to get questions about Jesus’ divinity and humanity. Someone would ask, “How can Jesus be fully human and fully divine?” Remember, that is essential Christian doctrine, and has been for a very long time. But it is hard to explain and understand. And Weatherhead would answer like this: “Jesus contained as much of God as can be poured into a man without disrupting his humanity (and making him a monstrosity).” I’ve always liked that. 

You see, in the transfiguration, I believe that God gives us a glimpse, a vision of the fully realized Christ, on full display. This is a vision of the future Christ of glory, of wonder and splendor, this is sitting-on-the-throne Jesus. And Jesus does this, he transfigures, he changes, I think, to show us what the end will be like. And in seeing the end, his purpose becomes clear. HOPE. 

AFTER ALL, Peterson, Hope is the activity of love that reaches into the future.

That to me is the deeper meaning of the transfiguration, the metamorphosis, the change of Jesus of Nazareth to Jesus the Christ. It is that he already has the future in his hands. He already knows the end result. And he’s willing to show us a glimpse, he’s willing to transfigure, to transform, to change. To give us hope. In all aspects of our lives.

Hope that the end is not the end, that the hardship will not win, that suffering will have meaning, that though we may go through hell, we will bring something back with us, that death cannot ultimately be stronger than love. HOPE.

Our Future

There is, I think, one more thing to be gained from this story. Because Jesus is doing more than just responding to Peter. He is doing more than simply giving us a glimpse into HIS future, with the purpose of granting hope. I think Jesus, in this magnificent transformation and change is giving us a glimpse into OUR future. 

I think Jesus is sharing with us that we too will be transfigured, that we too will undergo a metamorphosis of sorts, that we too will change.

In fact, I believe that he is already in the process of changing us. If you are seeking to follow closely behind Jesus today, you are being transfigured. You are being changed! Wesley called it sanctifying grace - the process by which God is working to renew the image of God in you that has been there since the beginning. 

Paul confirms it when he writes in his second letter to the church in Corinth, (MSG) “And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”

It seems that in the end, Jesus is not the only one who changes…we change too. 

But I’m not sure our change process will be as sudden and abrupt. Rather I think it will likely occur over time, over experience, over life, over trials, over joys, over suffering, in low valleys and in mountain top experiences.

Change Is Hard 

Gardener and poet Luci Shaw says it like this in her book Water My Soul. She says: 

…I've been…astonished at how [God] can transmute experiences that we can only look at with revulsion or disappointment into good use. He allows us to learn from our mistakes; just because we stumble and fall, God doesn't disqualify us from further enterprises. Though we often have to live with the consequences of our choices, those consequences are illuminating, providing us with the wisdom and experience for future decisions. On occasion, the Lord has had to let me hit rock bottom, in enough despair that life seemed to hold nothing of value for me any more. But distressing as this was, it had a clarifying effect. In the pit of desperation I could see that many of the minor issues that had so obsessed me were just that-minor. That out of the grave where I had to die to those things, God was going to resurrect me, purged clean and more prepared to face his priorities for me.

Do you know what Luci Shaw is talking about? 

She’s talking about transfiguration. 

She’s talking about transformation. 

She’s talking about sanctification. 

She’s talking about God’s incredible ability to reach into our lives and invite us to CHANGE.

And change is hard. Change is difficult and painful. When I think of the change that God invites us into, I think of Scrooge’s response to the ghost of Jacob Marley, who when invited on a journey that will inevitably lead to change, Scrooge’s reply is simply: “I think I’d rather not.”

And if I am honest, (maybe it’s just me) but I think sometimes I’d rather not. And I don’t think I’m the only one! I think that sometimes we Christians can be known more for our immovable nature than our desire to be changed. Sometimes I think that as a faith group we would rather check the box next to Christ-follower than truly be transformed. I see the evidence all the time, in myself, in others, and in an American church that occasionally seems more concerned with being wrapped up and soaked in the partisan political games of our nation, rather than seeking to be transfigured by the grace and love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

And all the while, the world is in need now more than ever. And do you know what the world needs? I think the world needs a savior. I think the world needs hope and healing. I think the world needs care and compassion. I think the world needs to know that our cultural or political identifiers are surface level compared to our original identifier, that each of us is first and foremost a child of the living God. 

And I hope that anyone who walks in those doors finds exactly what they need. I hope that anyone who is in here today finds a community ready to offer those things. I hope that anyone who walks in here meets a group of people willing to say, “We don’t have it all together, but we sure are open and willing and ready for God’s Holy Spirit to shift and change and transform and transfigure us so that we might continue to look a little more like Jesus every day.” 

That’s what a life of faith is. A life of faith, of following Jesus, a life lived under the Lordship of Christ is one of growth, it’s one of shedding old parts and gaining new parts. A life of faith is all about not conforming to the patterns of this world, but rather being transfigured, being transformed, being changed by the renewing of our minds.

And we certainly don’t do the changing. As LaDon Denham told me this past week, “Only God can do that.” And that’s true. But we can certainly open ourselves up to the Spirit, to God, we can unclench our fists and hold loosely the non essentials, and have willing hearts and minds, willing to let God guide and direct and do some transfiguring work within us for the sake of Jesus Christ in the world. 

Leadership Morning

A few weekends ago, we held a leadership retreat on a Saturday morning for all of our folks that are on administrative committees of our church. We had a room of about 60 of our church leaders. And we spent the morning dreaming about the future of the church. It was a pretty mountain top-y experience for me at least. 

At the end of the morning, I asked everyone in the room to take a sticky note and write a one word prayer.

{explain I used to do this with youth}

After we were done I went through the prayers that next week. Here is some of what was written down, here are some of the one-word prayers that the leadership of this church prayed for you and for Newnan First UMC: 

Unity

Growth

Relationships

Wisdom

Guidance

Joy

Strength

Health

Inclusion

Stay United

Thankfulness

Passion

Grace

Peace

Hope

I’m so proud of the words our leadership offered to God on behalf of this church. What An amazing group of folks. And I think those are great prayers, necessary prayers. God knows we need peace in our communities, unity in our churches, wisdom in our states, grace in our nations, and guidance in our world. 

But if we really want to pray for those things, I wonder, then do we know who God’s instruments of peace on earth are going to be? Do you know who God will use to be the peace-makers? Do you know who he will call to be the hope-bringers, and the unity-sewers, and the grace-givers and the includers and the strengtheners and the growers? You. And me.

And if you and I really want to be a community that exhibits those things, I wonder today what might need to change in us, that God might be able to do some of that work THROUGH us.

I’ll finish with a question:

Are you prepared to allow God to change you in such important and intense ways that he might be able to use you for peace? 

Are you ready to allow God to transfigure your life? 

Are you ready to live a life of dynamic faith?

After all, a life of dynamic faith is a life filled with change.

Amen.