"Who Do You Say I Am"

Two word for today Seed and Transfigured: the dictionary meaning states transformed into something new, something more beautiful or elevated. Can you give me some examples of things you cannot see or touch but you know are there.  What do you know is inside this apple seed?

   

Feb 23, 2020:  Romans 14: 5-9,   Matthew 17:1-9

For at least the last five hundred years the Western World - the industrial and scientific world - has been intolerant of biblical mystery.  Ours is an age which is obsessed with the idea of knowing and explaining everything.   A story is told of a little boy who lived in a religious home whose father expressed the usual before dinner command -- "Hurry up, and wash your hands and come to the table so we can say a prayer and eat." As the boy went toward the bathroom, he was heard to mutter, "Germs and Jesus, germs and Jesus!  That's all I hear around here, and I have never seen either one of them."

There are many things that we can't see, many things that we can't touch yet but we know they are there.  The flower, the fruit or the tree within its particular seed, we know they are there in all their fullness.  

Despite all the evidence that there is a creative genius behind the reality of all things, many still refuse to believe in God.   In fact may I say that there are many within the church today who refuse to believe that all things are possible with God, things that are outrageous and out of the ordinary.  Many are skeptical when it comes to the miracles -  the power of the Holy Spirit – or the healing power of pray as instruments of change and transformation.  This seems especially visible within the Christian Church in the Western world.  May I suggest that many have become out of touch with the invisible forces that underlies our faith and our beliefs.  There has been an upswing of interest by those outside the church but also by many professed Christians in what we might call the New Age Movement of Spirituality involving a fascinations with the occult, readings to help us look into the future not only to include the rise of hundreds of self-help therapy’s and publications on the subject.  All of which offer a reliance on one’s self rather than teaching us to reach out to God who has the ultimate power over disease, depression, anxiety and death.  Many here today may scoff but such beliefs have a great appeal for many.   May I suggest that many of the mainline religions in the western world have failed in their commitment to teach a reliance on God not self.  The emphasis placed upon offering certainty to a congregation has resulted in many who have become distracted or preoccupied with sin, the end times, heaven, purgatory, hell, and death.  May I suggest that this preoccupation has opened the door to charlatans and self-proclaimed prophets who teach a false Gospel and many are following?  The Mystery of a mystical experience is very much a part of our faith and for the most part will remain a mystery until the day we become face to face with our creator.   Indeed that which is mystical and cannot be explained lay at the very root of all that we believe in especially the virgin birth and the resurrection of the Christ.  Yet there are witnesses and there is testimony to guide us.  Throughout history right until the present day many notable persons of faith have reported experiences that are outside the realm of the rational mind.  Moses, Jonah, Sampson, Elijah, Mary, Lazarus and the apostle Paul just to mention a few.   Most important of all to the Christian is the resurrection of Jesus who defeats death once and for all.   But again as I have so often expressed in the past let us not get caught up in trying to prove a particular miraculous event, to include the transfiguration of Jesus as we heard read this morning.  Our job here is to look for the wisdom nuggets that can be minded from those who witnessed this experience.   That is will help our faith to grow deeper.  So first let us look at who the characters are in today’s story? 

First we have Moses a scribe who penned for us the beginning stories within the Holy bible upon which he introduces us to a God who, out of kayos creates good,  galaxies, planets and living beings, how outrageous can it get?  For the Jews He is their major prophet.  Moses represents not only freedom for the Israelite but He brings to the world the written law, the 10 principals for living a Godly life.  

Second we have Elijah who ranked right up there with Moses by the Jewish people. He was the first prophet to raise someone from the dead, could he be the Messiah they though?  But what was their commonality?  Both of these men were among the dead not the living.

Thirdly we have the three chosen men: Peter, James, and John.  Peter is significant as he will be the rock on which the church will be built. He does not know this yet but Jesus is preparing him for this role.  James is family he is the brother to Jesus who like Jesus will die as a martyr of the faith.  Then we have the beloved one who was the only disciple to be by his side at the crucifixion. The mystic John who introduces us to the Word made flesh, that which was there with God in the beginning, The Christ Genesis 1: 26.

So then what are we to make of all this mystery? These three very creditable men offer for us testimony, they are our witnesses to this extraordinary event and their commonality is: they are among the living yet are able to visual see and be there with two dead prophets from the Old Testament.  Now to top it off, Jesus is no longer the same Jesus these three men have known up to now.  No, we have a transfigured Jesus, a Jesus who has been transformed into something more than just a human being.   May I suggest that this transfigured Jesus is giving us a glimpse of the true meaning of what is to come at Golgotha, his resurrection?  The scripture tells us they didn’t understand the significance of what they witnessed but because we, who know the rest of story, we should.  Jesus is showing them that He is not just Lord of the living as they thought, but He is both Lord of the living and the dead.  Do you recall hearing it read from Roman 14:9 this morning.   They didn’t quite get it, but we can because of their witnesses and their testimony.   Just as we know by faith that an apple tree in all its fullness and glory exists within this apple seed, we know by faith that our eternal life exists in all its fullness and in all its glory within the one and only seed Jesus The Christ.  All that is required of us is to take that seed and plant it into our lives, follow in His way and we to will become part of the transfiguration for ever.  Don’t you see it folks.  I know all of you here today know Jesus as did the disciples at first, as God’s only begotten Son, a prophet, a physical person who walked, taught and cared for all whom He came into contact with but we also need to know the transfigured and resurrected Jesus who is much, much more than that.  He asks, who do you say I am.    Let us pray.