Sermon - Transfiguration Sunday - Year B

 Mark 9:2-9                                                

Transfigured Lives 

One of the reasons pastors change churches is so they will have stories to tell.  You can’t use someone as an example in your sermon if everyone else already knows them.  So it is safe to tell stories about folks in previous parishes.  Today I want to tell you a story about a particular family in the congregation I served in Upper Michigan. 

When the oldest child, Hannah, was about nine she announced to the rest of the family that she would like to start going to church.  The parents, Steve and Ellen said, "Okay, what kind of church would you like to attend?"  Hannah said she wanted to go to a church like the one her grand­mother attended.  As they questioned her more closely they learned that “a church like the one grandmother attended” meant a church constructed of " red brick".  Realizing that other similarities might be important, the decision was made to bring the family to the local ELCA parish, Good Shepherd. 

Sometime after the family attended, I paid them a visit.  It was a visit like none other.  After I arrived and we exchanged pleasantries, then they sent the children away - I mean out of the house and down the street.  Steve and Ellen were prepared with a whole host of questions about the church's theological stance.  They wanted to know how seriously we took the doctrines they had read about.  Don't get me wrong, I loved every minute of the conversation, but it was quite different from the exchange of smiles and stories that usually occupies an initial visit.  

What I remember most was their honesty as to why they had started coming to church.  It was because Hannah wanted to come.  They told me it was their intention to bring her and her younger brother (Karl) in order that they might learn the basic teachings, and thus be more at home in American Christian Culture.  But that was about as far as they saw their involvement extending. 

The Siedel family was at Good Shepherd five years before we moved to Clemson.  Before we left, Steve had been elected to serve as Vice President of the Council; he chaired the Mutual Minis­tries Committee, and had consented to be nominated to the Synod Council.  Ellen was the chair of the Christian Educa­tion Committee and co-superintendent of the Sunday Church School program. 

I openly teased them about their earlier comments and then subsequent involvement.  Their respons­es revealed the reason for heightened interest.  It wasn't so much the doctrine of the church that pulled them inside, it was the experience of community.  They did not learn something that caused them to want to be at Good Shepherd every time the doors opened.  They came because they discovered an opportunity too good to pass up.  Within the church they found themselves in the company of those who lived transfigured lives. 

Say what you want, teach what you may, a faith journey does­n't begin until one experiences.  Something has to happen, some­thing must be observed, before faith begins and misgivings subside. 

Today is the Sunday of the Transfiguration.  This feast is one of my fav­orite because it plays such an important role in the unfolding of the Church year.  There is much to be learned and appreciated about this day and the events we recall through our readings.  I looked back through my old sermons and realized that this is exactly the approach I have taken for most of the years I have preached on Transfiguration.  On this day, I tend to preached heady stuff.  On Transfigura­tion Sunday, I speak as much wisdom as possible.  Countless hours have been devoted to analyzing and retelling the mysteries of the Transfiguration. 

But the Transfiguration is about something different.  It is primarily an experi­ence.  It may not be as impor­tant to consider what Jesus and the disciples learned through all of this.  Rather the significance of this story may lie in what they experi­enced.  And how that experience changed their lives. 

The gospel writers try to tell us that this is the approach to be taken.  The story of Jesus' transfiguration is in the 9th chapter, verses 2-9.  Just before this story, we have two paragraphs in which Jesus tells the disciples that he will be traveling to Jerusalem.  Once there, he is to experience the rejec­tion of the priests and scribes, and be condemned to death.  Those two paragraphs are introduced with these words: Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected ... and be killed, and after three days rise again.  He began to tell them what was going to happen.  For the first time in the gospel narrative, Jesus re­vealed these things to them.  The story of the Transfiguration comes immediately ­upon the heels of Jesus beginning to try and teach the disciples who he really was and what he had to do. 

What happens as a result of his efforts?  They don't under­stand.  Those two earlier paragraphs also contain the exchange between Jesus and Peter in which Peter's refusal to accept what Jesus is saying ends with Jesus telling him,   "Get behind me, Satan!"  Jesus tries to tell them, but no­body understands.  It just doesn't make any sense to them. 

So what does the gospel writer do?  He follows this worth­less attempt at sharing information with an experience.  They don't understand when Jesus tells them, but when they see his appear­ance transfigured they know that something about him is worthy of their devotion.  The experience accomplished what no amount of teaching ever could - it started them on their journey of faith. 

Interesting to note that as the four of them are making their way down the mountain, Jesus tells the three disciples to tell no one about what they had seen, until after ....(he)... had been risen from the dead.  Mark continues to drive home the point - until others have also shared in the experience they will not be able to understand the words.  "Wait", Jesus tells them, "until a time when the words will serve to elucidate the experience."  Then, and only then, will the words make sense. 

Every now and then we need to drop all our doctrinal state­ments about Jesus and admit that we believe because some­thing has con­vinced us that this stuff makes a difference in our lives.  We must acknowledge that while we have many good reasons for believ­ing, we believe because we have experienced something too pro­found to ignore. 

This Wednesday we begin our Lenten pilgrimage.  During those 40 days, we follow the path of Jesus' route to the cross.  It is a time to set aside insight and knowledge and form­ulas.  It is a time to experience.  To encounter the love of a God who cares enough to take on our suffering. 

Others may try to tell you what that means - but it won't do any good.  You must experience it for yourself.  Until you do, nothing about your life will change.  But when that experience does come, nothing is ever the same again. 

AMEN.