Awakened to Grace (Rev. Andy Whitaker Smith)
Today is Transfiguration Sunday. It is the day that we remember and we celebrate that very powerful story from Matthew in which Jesus takes a few of his disciples up to the mountain and transfigures before them. It is an incredibly powerful experience and you know the story doesn’t say it specifically. I don’t know if there was music in the background when this extraordinary experience took place, but I would like to think that it was either the music you just heard or Jesus is our rock or one of the other powerful songs that we have experienced today. Because it was an incredibly inspiring moment and I invite us just to think about when the last time was when a piece of music or just anything really inspired us, really revved us up and made us feel like we were in the midst of an extraordinary moment.
So, if you think about the first Superman movie where this music is playing, the first time Superman comes on the scene, he rescues Lois Lane, he catches her in one hand and the helicopter she falls out of in the other. And, of course, the people of Metropolis, they’re below and they’re watching all this and they’re cheering and they’re clapping. I wonder if there was at least one person in that crowd that said, “There is a man flying and he’s holding a helicopter in one hand. Do you guys see this? There is a man flying and he is holding a helicopter in his hand. Why are you clapping? This is terrifying!”
And that was kind of the emphasis of the next iteration, Man of Steel. It was more about: Do we really want someone like this around? That came out in 2013. Another movie that came out in 2013 was the remake of Carrie, a Stephen King story about a girl who has telekinesis. She’s able to move things with her mind, and the story doesn’t go so well. But in the remake as they’re promoting the film, they rig up this coffee shop. It’s an actual coffee shop in a city and they rig the place before it opens with magnets and pulleys and wires and things to set up a moment when a girl uses telekinesis. So the idea is this girl is sitting at her desk and this guy walks over. He accidentally spills her coffee on her computer. They get into a heated argument and then she pushes him up against the wall with her powers. Now, the way that they’re able to do this is he’s got a harness underneath his coat. There are wires that pull him up against the wall and raise him up to the ceiling. There are a few actors to play being scared, but there are also real customers. So the stunt is having people see this take place. And of course, the real customers, they’re terrified. They’re running out of the coffee shop screaming.
But it does kind of begs the question: if we were to see an extraordinary moment like this, how would we respond? Would we clap and cheer? Would we run out screaming? And we may start to understand why almost every single time in scripture when something like the transfiguration happens, the response is always fear.
But do we think of Jesus in a way that literally redefines our definition of reality? Do we think of Jesus in a way that helps to inspire us and to expect the powerful moments like the transfiguration?
So maybe we keep this in our frame of mind and spirit as we hear the transfiguration story once again. This comes from Matthew 17.
Six days later, three of the disciples saw that glory. Jesus took Peter and the brothers James and John and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him.
(And then the next thing that happens, I love this translation. This comes from The Message. So while this is taking place, the story reads, Peter broke in. Peter breaks into this holy moment when Jesus is literally floating in the air, and you see Moses and Elijah, the fulfillment of the laws and the prophets, and they’re doing some kind of divine interaction with each other. And the story says Peter literally breaks into that and says):
Master, this is a great moment. What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain? One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.
While he was going on like this, babbling, a light, radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud, a voice: “This is my son, marked by my love. Focus of my delight. Listen to him.”
When the disciples heard this, they fell flat on their faces, scared to death. But Jesus came over and touched them. Do not be afraid. When they opened their eyes, they looked all around. All they saw was Jesus.
Only Jesus.
So imagine—imagine Jesus leading these three disciples up this mountain. Jesus probably being very quiet and contemplative and the disciples kind of transfixed and talking about whatever it is that they were discussing. And suddenly they see Jesus up in the sky, conversing with these two powerful individuals built from legend, and the first thing that is said is: “Let’s build a building.”
And of course you’ve heard this sermon before with Peter doing this. Can you just not take five minutes? Can you just not take five minutes of contemplation, of awe, of majesty, of wonderment?
Do we remember the last time we used our imagination? I mean the last time that we played pretend or make believe? The last time we imagined ourselves as a dinosaur or a robot or a princess or He-Man.? This photo is not me, by the way, but it might as well be because I had that costume and I had that sword. It was such a cool sword. You would push a little button on the hilt and the yellow blade part would light up yellow. They actually used this in the new trailer for the new movie. I’m so excited.
When was the last time we just had fun with our imaginations? Or even just the last time that we watched a child do this? That we witnessed and celebrated a child creating an entire universe with nothing but their imagination. All of it happening here, but acting as though it was real.
So, we see a child do this and we think, oh, that’s so sweet. Good for them. We see a grown-up do this and we think, I might need to make a phone call.
But why should that be the case? If we see an adult using their imagination in this way, why is our first thought, oh, that shouldn’t be? When did we lose our ability to imagine?
When was the last time we spent a significant amount of time thinking about imagining something big and huge and enormous like Jesus?
I’ve found myself thinking a lot about Tiny-Jesus. In fact, you’ve probably seen Tiny Jesus around our church. We have them in the Youth Building. We have them as part of our New Visitor Packets. And it was mentioned not long ago this idea of Tactile Theology. I love that phrase: Tactile Theology, a belief of faith that we can actually hold in our hands for those times that we need those physical reminders, that we need to be reminded through touch, through our skin, through grasping and holding. So the idea of holding tiny Jesus, this idea that I can wrap my hands around this, I can hold on to Jesus and I can remember through that how it is that Jesus has a hold of me.
I think the question is: do we hold that tiny Jesus for too long, sometimes? In our desire to know Jesus, in our desire to hold him, what can happen when we only think about Jesus fitting in our hands?
And this is why I think among many reasons we need both worship and we need small groups; whether it’s a class, or just being with friends, or trusted people, or being at a house, or whether it’s official or not. We need worship to remind us of the huge majesty of God in Jesus Christ. But then we also need those small group opportunities to be able to talk it out, to be able to process it, to be able to kind of come back down again so that when we go back to worship, it enlarges it. It becomes larger than life once again. And then we go back out and we share the story.
So in this story, it begins six days, right? Six days later. Well, what happened six days before is Jesus took his disciples to the marketplace of Caesarea Philippi. It was kind of this neutral shopping center for all the surrounding tribes and communities. So, lots and lots of people. And Jesus would take the disciples through that marketplace and he would say, Who do all these people say that I am? And the disciples have to give their standard answers. Well, some think you’re Elijah. Some think you’re this and this. And then of course Jesus says, Well, but who do you say that I am? And Peter of course gives the A plus response. You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.
And then right after that, Jesus says, Well, this son of God has to go to Jerusalem to give up his life. And Peter, the grade A student, literally takes Jesus aside and he says, Lord, this can’t happen. It’s kind of the foreshadowing, the beginning of Peter’s denial journey.
And so, six days later, we see that Peter in some way, even though it’s positive, is still kind of in that denial experience when he takes this extraordinary miracle and he tries to encapsulate it. He tries to put his own spin, his own conclusion as to what this is. Let’s make three buildings.
And it’s like God finally can’t take it anymore. And this huge cloud comes over to literally intervene, to shut them up. And that’s when the fear comes in. So in this powerful moment, the disciples fall to the ground. They put their faces toward the ground. So they’re not seeing what’s happening until they feel a hand placed on them. Until then, they are once again held. And as the story says, they look up and they see Jesus, only Jesus.
In that moment of fear, offering grace, they are awakened once again to grace.
This is a great resource that has been provided by our Florida conference, Awakened to Grace. It contains daily devotionals. It contains worship resources. It contains sermons written by clergy of our conference. It even has devotions written by the laity of our conference. Just a fantastic resource to awaken us to God’s grace. It kind of reminded me that many times when I think about grace personally, it’s kind of the opposite effect. I sort of think of grace as something that’s peaceful, something that’s calming. And it made me realize maybe sometimes grace actually puts me to sleep rather than waking me up.
And I thought about John Wesley’s story. So right now we have Confirmation and Lay Leadership Academy going on at the same time. So, it’s been really neat sharing with all different age groups John Wesley’s story once again about how he went to Savannah, Georgia with this idea in mind of how he was going to change the lives of so many people in the emerging colonies and how it was just an abysmal failure and how he went back home to London feeling like not only had he failed his mission, but he had failed God. That in the eyes of God, he was a failure. And during that entire journey, literally from the time he got on the boat to get to the new world, he met this other faith community, the Moravians. And during that whole time, they started awakening him to God being a gracious God. And so when he went back to London, some of them went back with him at the same time. And one night invited him to just a small church service in a small chapel where as he heard words about grace, he writes about his heart being strangely warmed.
Seeing grace in a new way, seeing God in a new way. In that moment, John Wesley was awakened to grace.
When was the last time we went to the mountain with Jesus? Now, I realize that’s hard to do in Florida. It was hard to do in Kansas, but there are many ways we can go to a mountain.
There are many times I’ll go up to the balcony of our sanctuary and I’ll just look across over the vastness and I’ll think about the history. I’ll think about the ministry. I think about how you all do so much for this church and for this community and for our conference and think about a time of kind of going up and out, up and out of the daily routine and the things that happen and the hardness sometimes and the difficulty and the challenge and just being reminded how God is in that high moment and experience but that God is also down in the weeds in the midst in the life.
As Pastor Kim said, we are about to enter Lent with Ash Wednesday. And we may ask the question as we may every year, what is this Ash Wednesday going to be like? What is this year, this season of Lent going to be like? What is God going to do in this season? And then what are we going to do in response? What should we do with what it is that God is doing?
What did Jesus do before those hard challenging times? He tells us what’s going to happen. He takes us to a mountaintop or mountaintop-like experience and he reignites our imaginations by helping us to remember who he truly is.
And then he takes us back down. He takes us back down to the community. He takes us back down to the world. He takes us back down to the people who also need to hear that good news.
This last week, we had our Lay Leadership Retreat for all of our elected leaders for this year. Some of you were at that experience. And I asked a question of our leaders that I think needs to really be asked of all of us, whether we’re going into a season of Lent or whether we are just in the season that we are in, now:
Are we willing to go where Jesus is going?