02 March 2014 “Fearing Jesus?” Matthew 17:1-9
What is it about having a police car
following too close? Why do we automatically feel the sweat when we get the
letter saying we owe more money to the IRS than we thought? Who knows what
drives our nerves when late at night there is that knock on the door?
We are adults, we know the presence or absence
of a car, a letter, a knock should not evoke full on panic no matter how close,
how much, or how loud. But we are human after all and easily confused, so when life
gets too close, or too much, or loud our eyes and our attention are fully fixed
on the situation at hand.
When we are afraid there is
something about how our attention becomes so, well, attentive! It is as if we
have a built in survival response system that becomes fully alert and our
senses fix in rapt attention. Survival, and anxiety, and fear all play into
this system.
We can only imagine how Peter, James, and his
brother John must have felt. The day began innocently enough. They had gone
with Jesus, whom they trusted completely, up one of those high mountains he was
always dragging them to. They were alone there with him when suddenly and
unexpectedly Jesus was radically changed in physical appearance. They could not
believe their eyes. They were fixed in rapt attention.
“His face shone like the sun, and his clothes
became dazzling white.” Just as suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them and
began talking with Jesus. I can imagine
the panic and screams, “Where did these guys come from? What is going on?
Should we run or what?”
Peter, wanting to make sense of what was
happening, offers to build something. How about a place out of the sun, and the
wind, and the extreme conditions for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah? A classic boy trying to fix what was obviously
broken response.
Then, Bam, while he was speaking, God shows
up! God showed up in the form of a bright cloud. From that cloud God spoke,
“This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased, listen to him!”
Peter, James, and John were laid out on the
ground after this. The red lights were flashing and the siren was loud. They
were overcome with a fear they never thought possible. Admittedly, anyone with
any sensibility would experience fear like never before.
How could these relatively new apostles, who
were still trying to understand who Jesus was, hear what God was saying in the
midst of such chaos and terror? They must have thought their world had come to
an end. Actually, that is exactly what was happening.
Being Jesus disciple ends our world as we know
it! How could anyone possibly be safe following Jesus up any mountain or
anywhere else for that matter after this? Lord, we want desperately to follow
you, but we do not want to die in the process. At least not until we understand
who you really are.
Isn’t that the key? Our ultimate safety
depends on our understanding who Jesus truly is, and who we will become in
return, when we live our life listening to him and accepting his call to come
and follow.
So, we try. We try and process it all. We are
Presbyterians after all. We can figure this out. Jesus underwent a
metamorphosis. His human nature began to be affected by his divine attributes.
Moses and Elijah show themselves so we will know Jesus’ life is aligned with
God’s law and God’s prophets. These were the folks Jesus was being compared to.
Then God shows up. Ok, we can still do this!
It was God, speaking from a bright cloud, who
in the greatest love for his Son, clothed him with glory and encouraged him
with a bracing re-affirmation of his continued love. “This is my Son, the
Beloved; with him I am well pleased.”
Good, this is good! God says this so Jesus will be comforted and
will get up and not be afraid of his fast approaching agony, there, on the
cross. God says this so Jesus and the apostles will not be afraid for God is a
God of love. Jesus and the apostles need not remain overcome to the point of
falling down in their life because when God shows up we can have courage, our
God is a God of hope.
Then God tells us, listen to my Son, my
beloved, listen to his teaching about who I am so you will know who you are to
be.
So, we try. This story is a
foretaste, a glimpse into our future. The one where we will be receiving God’s
love, receiving God’s grace, receiving God’s peace and then, the most changing
thing of all, we will be giving it all away. The gifts and our very lives.
Truly, we must be prepared for the shock to
our system and our life when we finally begin to sense the power of who our God
is. Our shock will be immediate and sudden when we truly know God. Yet, just as
suddenly, Jesus will respond to calm us because he cares for us. This is the
blessed news that is at the heart of the Christian life. Our discipleship will
be daunting, but Jesus calms us because he loves us.
But we
are human after all and we need calming reminders. Our lives take us often to the abyss and over
it in small ways and large. We know fear and angst and like the apostles our
brains revert to a fight or flight or hide mentality. This may be normal, but
it is in no way a comfort.
Jesus, our Jesus, lives with us in human
normalcy and brings Godly comfort to his demands on our lives, the narrow way
to which he calls us, the cross we take up to follow him. He walks with us when
we are afraid and lost for we do not really know the way. But Jesus does. He assures
us, I am the way, and the truth, and the light.
So we
come to worship. We come knowing if we have but a glimpse of Jesus, if we do
feel the warmth of his presence, we will have to give up any notions that our
life will be normal. We have had
glimpses enough to know that when the Holy Spirit really gets ahold of us,
well, we cannot get enough of that same spirit. When we begin to live in holy
union with Jesus, we want more, until we are consumed with his being in our
lives and ours in his and no other way to live will do.
As Methodist pastor William Willimon says,
“Church is about the possibility of a threatening, though life-changing
encounter with the Risen Christ. Church is about seeing God’s way and will in
our world – a way so very different from our ways – and then having to say yes
or no to walking that way.”
So we walk with him. We walk with him because
this story this morning about the total change of Jesus’ countenance before his
disciples there on yet another mountaintop opens us to God speaking God’s truth
and it is for each of us.
So, we try. We try, remembering the wise
counsel we have received. We cannot escape the light God sheds on our path. We
cannot escape God, Immanuel among us. God will find us in our homes and in our
work places. God will find us when our hearts are broken and when we discover
joy. God will find us when we run away from God and when we are sitting in the
middle of what seems like hell. So get up and be not afraid.
Get up and be not afraid and share this
radiant hope with the world and follow Christ. Get up and be not afraid for
Jesus is the Son of God. He is the beloved and with him God is well pleased.
What then is this way we are to live? We are
to love the Lord our God. We are to love our neighbor. We are to do justice,
and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
Live this way and God will say of us, “These
too are my beloved; with them I am well pleased.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen 030214.gpc
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