Readings:
Matthew 16: 5-6,13-20
August 1, 2004
The Rev. Robert Hansen
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
Matthew 16: 13-20 "You are Peter, the Rock...."
Matthew 17: 5-6"and a voice called from the cloud, 'THIS IS MY BELOVED SON; LISTEN TO HIM.' At the sound of the voice the disciples fell on their faces in terror.
The church calendar shows the Feast of the Transfiguration this coming week. My text for this sermon is taken from the Gospel reading for that day. Get comfortable. I'm going to be a bit long-winded.
A few weeks ago, during the 4th of July festivities here at St. Jude's, many of us were witness to a rather spectacular and very entertaining transformation. The sight of our rector, Pastor Karen, tooling in on that audacious motorcycle and the subsequent performance was marvelously entertaining! But was that "Transfiguration"? Maybe not. Transfiguration is something a bit different than physical change.
I recall that as a child, I would be thrilled in the summertime to take the trip from our home to visit my grandparents in a little town not too far from Portland, Oregon. On a clear day-not always a sure thing in northwestern Oregon we could see three snow capped mountains from my grandparents' house. There was Mt. Hood, and Mt. St. Helens, and, I think the other one was Mt. Jefferson. Mt. St. Helens was the most symmetrical mountain I have ever seen. It has been called "the Mt. Fuji of America". For me, it was always "the ice cream cone mountain".
A dictionary definition of transfiguration is: "a radical transformation of figure or appearance.
On Good Friday, 1980, Mt, St. Helens experienced a radical transformation of appearance by erupting and blowing its top off; it was transfigured? I don't think so; not in the sense I will argue here. I suggest that the mountain top transfiguration described in the gospels is to be made to become more like the image that God created, which is not a physical thing.
That story about the transfiguration is related in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It clearly has major significance. Maybe we can find in that story something that will help us to experience the fruit of the spirit in abundance. That fruit of the Holy Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.
So, let's recall the setting: it was a week before the Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem when Jesus, having predicted his journey there and his death which would occur there, (which Peter couldn't comprehend), took Peter and James and John and climbed Mt. Tabor. The three disciples were probably still in a state of shock about the predictions they had heard. What kind of messiah is a killed messiah, anyway? How can you win when you are apparently about to lose? So they talked and they prayed. Then, something happened that they could not understand or explain. It was as though Jesus was suddenly transfigured before their very eyes. He glistened and was as bright lightning in radiance. He seemed to speaking to Moses and Elijah, those two great prophets of Israel's past. And then a cloud, (the sign of the presence of God), seemed to come down around them. And they heard a voice saying, "this is my son, my beloved on whom my favor rests. Listen to him." then they saw no one, only Jesus.
Well, what are we to make of that? What in the world are we to make out of that?
Peter thought they could capture the moment by building tents for them. (It's really hard to believe that the church was to be founded on Peter. On this rock??)
But how about us? What does it mean to us today? What does---
What can - that episode, that strange story, hold for us in our time? How can it help us to receive the fruit of the spirit?
Clearly, it was important or it wouldn't have been related in those three gospels. There are, no doubt, a number of reasons for its prominence, but there is one reason for it that I am going to talk about this morning. The one, rather obvious answer, is that it certainly testifies to the influence Jesus has always had on the lives of people.
People, as we know, are measured, in the long run, not only by what they are, but by what they do to other people. To call a person great, it is not enough that they have extraordinary vitality within themselves. They must also have the capacity to communicate that vitality, to -in a way of speaking---touch dead things and bring them to life again.
Jesus always did something to people right from the beginning; some, he called to be his disciples; some, who were sick, he made well. Some who were evil he made good. Some who were easygoing in their thinking, he made stop and think. And some who were complacent, he made mad. No one can ever say he left people as he found them. No one can ever say he leaves us as he finds us.
That is a pretty sweeping statement. One that is hard to substantiate, because the influence of one person on another is an invisible kind of thing. But, try this test on the place where you live. How great is the influence of Jesus in your community? What of Cupertino or Sunnyvale or Santa Clara or San Jose or Campbell or Saratoga or Los Gatos? (What did I leave out? Mountain View and Los Altos are there others? Morgan Hill) He lived two thousand years ago and there have been many great people who lived before and since who have mightily shaped our history, our language, our culture. Plato and Aristotle, Galileo and Copernicus and the scientists, Shakespeare and so on, but, in your minds eye, just take away every hospital and church and social agency where people are doing things for other people because somebody there, in that community, has felt the compassion of Christ.
Take every book out of every library that shows the slightest sign of Christ's passing upon the mind and spirit of its author; take out of the community every individual who either directly or indirectly, through parents or ancestors or through their own experience has been influenced in thinking, in behavior, in hoping and in praying, by Jesus; take away the exercising of the many ministries you, the people of St. Jude's do, ministries that are being highlighted at each of our worship services this summer; take all that out, remove all that, it never was, and how much is there left? Not much. You know as well as I do that our communities would be as deserts as far as people caring about people are concerned. The influence of Jesus in the community where you live is that far reaching, whether we know it or not.
But, to admit to this requires us to go a bit farther. It raises a question in our minds: what is the secret of his influence? If Jesus influenced more people than any other, why? Certainly it is not to be found in any sword he held, or in any financial power, or any influence to be found in any political system he devised. And (horror of horrors in Silicon Valley) it doesn't even seem to be found in any professional skill or training.
The only thing Jesus had in abundance was the power of this incredible idea. And this is the idea: love is the most powerful force in the world. Now be careful, no simplifying or reducing things to such a low level that they mean nothing. But, let me suggest that if we take everything Jesus ever said or did, it would all come down to this: that love, sacrificial love, is the most powerful thing in the world. Not sentimental emotionalism, not unbridled passion, but the kind of love that you see in strong families, the kind where love means not catering to people but caring for them really caring for them even though they may have made terrible mistakes, even though they forget you, even though they betray you.
We are often uncomfortable with such a notion. Maybe because we want to protect ourselves. We want to defend our rights and our privacy; we are afraid that if we do not build high walls of self protection someone will come in and rob us of our independence. We seem to mostly always not let ourselves love this way.
Yet ,we have, all the while, men and women, looked on Jesus and confessed down deep, "he is right." and when we survey all those whose minds have been alert and sensitive and delicate to perceive the hidden meaning in the mystery of life, we finally lift our eyes and see no one except Jesus. It is the transfiguration experience on the mountain brought down to us, all over again, and again, and again.
But, it's not an easy thing to bring that mountain top experience down to where we live.
I'm going to tell you two stories about how I think transfiguration happens for most of the people that it happens to. For the first one, I'm going to try to take on the persona of Peter with some excerpts from his story.
(Peter talking)
My name is Simon. Oh, I know you've come to know me as Peter, and I'll tell you about that in a moment. I'm going to tell you something of how I came to be here, an Apostle of our Lord. I know, many of you already know quite a bit about me, but let me tell you a little from my viewpoint.
Now, about being called Peter-my brother Andrew and I were fishermen. One thing I should say right here. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, those of us who were closest to Jesus, the ones called Apostles, were not necessarily poor, simple, impoverished folk. Andrew and I had a fishing business on Galilee and we, in general, did well. We were good at what we did and we made a good living. We were among the wealthiest people in our village. We owned a boat! Do you have any idea of how expensive boats are? James and John were also successful fishermen. The tax collector wasn't poor. Even Judas of Iscariot, the betrayer, was not destitute. Anyway, my brother Andrew, who was a disciple of John the Baptizer before becoming a disciple of Jesus, met Jesus first and brought him to our house for me to meet him. We had talked for some time and then, Jesus looked at me intently and then he said, "Simon, from now on you are to be called Peter," which means "Rock". No one in all of Judea was ever named Peter, before. I certainly didn't understand at the time that it was a sort of joke. That became evident later. Jesus was always a very good judge of people.
There was the incident where Jesus took James and John and I up on a mountain to get away from the crowds. Jesus went off a little way to pray and then, there before us, the most amazing thing. In our eyes, Jesus seemed to glow. His clothes became a dazzling white. And then it seemed as though Elijah and Moses were there with him, talking to him. Somehow, anyway I could, I wanted to capture that moment forever. I blurted out to Jesus how wonderful it was and we should make some tents so Elijah and Moses would stay, and.... Then there was a cloud that came and covered them and it seemed as though a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him." And then Jesus was there alone. Later, on our way back, he told us not to tell anyone about it until....I just thought, somehow, that if we could just be in that wonderful state always, just seize that moment....It took a long time for me to come to the understanding that moments are just that-moments. They cannot be captured. They can only be appreciated and learned from.
There were other instances where, as I'm sure many of you know, where I was not very rocklike.
I suppose I deserved a reputation for being impetuous and saying the wrong thing. There was the time on that last dreadful night, where he was teaching us what it meant to be a leader. He proceeded to wash our feet! I was shocked that he would act like the lowliest of servants. And he said that though we didn't understand then we would later on. And I said never should he wash my feet. And he said that if he didn't wash me, I could have nothing in common with him. And then I shouted, not only my feet, then but my hands and my head also. He said this is not a bath, Peter. And then he explained that if he, the Lord and Master had washed our feet, then we must be willing to wash each other's feet. That we must be willing to be servant to all. That he had given us an example of how we were to treat everyone.
... It took me a long time to get beyond my actions later on that night and the next day, when he was killed....I had to learn to forgive myself.
There was another lesson for me, much later. It was after Jesus was taken up by God. I had a vision of Jesus and he was telling me to eat of all kinds of things that I had always been taught were unclean. Three times he showed me things that he said I should eat. I kept repeating that I couldn't eat anything unclean. And he said I had no right to call unclean anything that God had made. I couldn't understand it. Then I was summoned to go meet Cornelius, a Roman Centurion; a man who had a good reputation among the Jews. And the Holy Spirit told me to go see him. We met and talked and I learned once more. I realized that my vision was telling me our Jewish prohibition against mixing with non-Jews was wrong. That God alone will say who or what is profane or not.
I think that, over the course of time and experience, Peter became transfigured. He became closer to the image God had created.
Here's a second story. I think it tells about how transfiguration happens for most of us if it ever happens at all. Some of you have heard this from me before, and I know it will stir childhood memories for some of you. Given the opportunity, you'll hear it from me again! This is the best Transfiguration story I know, even better than Peter's in my opinion, the one that fits best for me. It is a passage from "The Velveteen Rabbit." Listen:
The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive, to boast and swagger and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.
"What is real?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
Real isn't how you're made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real, you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
For all have ears to hear and eyes to see, it is clear that this is no story about nursery toys. It is about human growth toward spiritual maturity; it is about receiving the fruit of the spirit in abundance; it is about transfiguration.
Jesus, the transfigured one, not only exerts great influence, not only is possessed of a great idea, but he has incarnated, he has fleshed out, the love of God with the fullness in his own life. He talked about the love of God, but so have many others. As a matter of fact, he didn't say anything about that love which had not been said before. The unique thing about Jesus was that when he talked about the love of God, people felt that love draw near them. Or, to put it another way, when Jesus came along, God came right along into the hearts of human lives, enabling us to become real; enabling us to obtain the fruits of the spirit.
Jesus came to the Skin Horse in the nursery. And he said to him: "Have patience. Persevere. Don't be afraid to hurt and to have your hair pulled off and yourself become all ugly-looking, because reality is around the corner----reality that will never end."
What more could we possibly ask?
AMEN
| Updated 8/5/04 |
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