Forty Days And Forever
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series II, Cycle A
Object:
Here's a story that many church members have been telling for a while.
Two seminary professors entered a local fast-food restaurant loudly chanting, "For-ty days! For-ty days!" Then they were joined by three more. Then five more gathered at their table, all chanting, "For-ty days! For-ty days!" Soon, the uproar had disrupted the entire restaurant and the manager came over to ask the professors to keep the noise down.
"What's all the chanting about anyway?" asked the manager. "You are disturbing everybody." Still shouting, the professors began pointing vigorously at the center of their table. Here the manager saw a fully assembled and framed child's puzzle depicting the face of Winnie-the-Pooh.
Becoming annoyed, the manager said, "So? What's the big deal about this puzzle?"
Finally, as the chanting subsided, a senior faculty member explained. "Everyone thinks that seminary professors have no common sense and are out of touch with the real world. We grew tired of being ridiculed, so we decided to set the record straight. Our entire faculty got together and purchased this puzzle. We put it together, working as a team among the community of believers."
"Uh huh," replied the manager, as she began to look around for something, anything, that required her attention. "So, what's the big deal about this puzzle?"
"Just look at the side of this puzzle box," exclaimed another professor. "It clearly and precisely bears the inscription '2-4 years.' We assembled it in only forty days!"
The chanting bedlam resumed. "For-ty days! For-ty days!"
And the manager bowed her head and silently prayed, "Lord, give me strength," as she swiftly darted behind the counter.
Can you see the core issue of the professors here? They were too concerned with other's opinions about them. What others thought about them began to dominate their behavior and ultimately resulted in even more foolish, ridiculous actions.
It has been said before that many Christians have been raised with eleven (not ten) commandments. The eleventh commandment was the question ... "What will people think about you?"
You see, the real issue here, for those foolish faculty members and for us, is "What does God think about you?" It's not about us; it is about God.
Today, Transfiguration Sunday, celebrates what God thinks about us and what God does among us in forming us as God's people. Indeed, it is not simply a matter of what God has thought and has done. The transfiguration also declares what God is thinking and doing among us, and promises to continue thinking and doing among us in the future.
Let's look at our Old Testament lesson for Transfiguration Sunday.
The text immediately follows a gathering of elders near Mount Sinai, the holy mountain of God. Here Moses and the elders celebrated God's presence and guidance. Here they pledged to obey God's instruction.
Our text begins with an articulation of three crucial aspects of God's forming and guiding presence in the lives of God's people: God invites, God's people wait, God gives.
The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction."
-- Exodus 24:12
First, God invited Moses to meet him on the holy mountain of Sinai. Here in this place the glory of the Lord would be revealed in all its power and intensity. Here in this place the presence of God would illumine the identity and clarify the mission of God's people. Here, on this mountaintop, at the invitation of God, Moses was invited to experience the highest of "spiritual highs."
Two thousand years later, Jesus invited the inner circle of his disciples to a mountaintop where they, too, experienced the transfiguring glory of God and a powerful affirmation of their identity as part of God's holy people.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could live our lives on one everlasting spiritual high? Wouldn't it be marvelous if every day was mountaintop day? One lifelong glorious, happy time of joy and wonder would be just fine, thank you.
God does invite us to a special space where God does show us his glory and reveals to us his eternal love and forgiveness. God does think about us with an abundance of steadfast love and mercy, and that holy space, obviously, can be anywhere, because we know God is everywhere.
However, the children of Israel knew from past experience (Exodus 3) that God's presence would definitely be revealed on this mountain at this time. In the same way, we know that God reveals his presence and guidance wherever God's people are gathered for worship. Here beneath the cross, in front of the altar, beside the baptismal waters, in the midst of God's people, God reveals his presence to us. Here in the proclaimed word we hear what God has done, is doing, and promises to continue to do among us and for us. Here God invites us to be formed and "transfigured" into a new identity as God's own people. Here could be a spiritual mountaintop high for us, just as it was for Moses and for the disciples.
However, we don't always get it. We don't always feel it. Nor should we expect to. It's not about us; it's about God!
Little Jasmine was preparing for her first worship anthem as a member of the cherub choir, a group of three-year-old angels in her congregation. Many times, the choir director had the children practice walking to the chancel steps from their seats beside their parents. "When all the people sit down, you leave your parents in the pew and come up here. Then we'll sing 'Jesus Loves Me' so loudly that people can hear us out in the parking lot." The anthem was a joy to behold! At the proper time in the service, eleven cherubs, including Jasmine, made a glorious noise to the Lord.
The next Sunday, "when all the people sat down," Jasmine still remembered her instructions from the previous Sunday. She calmly walked to the chancel steps, and, all by herself, began to sing "Jesus Loves Me." Jasmine's daddy knew that his daughter's impromptu solo was not in the bulletin, and he rushed to her "rescue." Scooping up his little girl in his arms, Daddy started jogging toward the nursery, with Jasmine loudly pleading to the congregation, "Somebody help me!"
Maybe Daddy didn't get it. Maybe Daddy was too worried about what people would think ... about his daughter and about him.
Jasmine's solo is a good example of the second point in our lesson. God's people wait. What is faithful waiting anyway? Again, let's look at the text. After God invited Moses and Joshua to ascend Mount Sinai, Moses instructed the elders: "Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them" (Exodus 24:14).
Faithful waiting for God's people does not mean sitting on our thumbs and doing nothing. It means hearing God's word and obeying God's teachings. In fact, Moses urged the people to do just that in the verses just prior to today's lesson (Exodus 24:7-8).
Even though Jasmine's solo was not in the bulletin, she did proclaim God's love both in word and in deed. She sang God's praise in the past (the week before) and she was proclaiming God's love in the present. Her spontaneous declaration of God's love would also permeate the soul of that congregation in the future. On that day, Jasmine's faithful waiting became a transfiguring moment for everyone.
Note that Aaron and Hur were designated by Moses to serve as leaders of the people as they waited faithfully for Moses' return. They were charged with insuring that God's words would be proclaimed and God's instructions would be obeyed. Perhaps you also recall that it was Aaron and Hur who held Moses' tired arms high in order to bring victory in a battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:10-12). Aaron, Moses' brother, was responsible for faithful worship and proclaiming God's words. Hur, possibly Moses' brother-in-law, was responsible for faithful obedience to God's teachings. Together, they were to insure faithful waiting ... to make sure that the people got it even if they did not always feel it ... to make certain that faithful waiting was all about God, and not all about them.
Jasmine did that, too. Faithful waiting includes everyone in God's family -- brothers and brothers-in-law, sisters and aunts, moms and dads, grandparents and cousins -- all of God's baptized family. When we just don't get it, when we are too exhausted or pre-occupied to feel it, God gives strength and courage to press on faithfully.
So, God invites. God's people wait. Most important here is the third point of our text: God gives.
In today's lesson, when Moses ascended the mountain, "the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai" (Exodus 24:16). Moses and the elders assembled below. They knew for a fact that God was truly present there and yet the mountaintop was shrouded by a covering of clouds for six days.
Nevertheless, they were well aware that the real presence of God was specific and real on that mountain. Why? Because God said so. God invited Moses to see it. God gave the onlookers a glimpse of his presence. "Now, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel" (Exodus 24:17).
God gives us glimpses of his awesome presence. As he penetrates our cloudy perceptions, God reveals his radiant transfiguring presence to us in the waters of baptism. God's words to us echo his words to Jesus, "You are my beloved child." These words embraced Jasmine at her baptism. These words clear the clouds that cover our very souls today.
Today, Transfiguration Sunday, God invites us, with Moses, to "enter the cloud" enveloping God's presence. Today, God gives us a taste of his abiding love at the altar. Today, here in this place, God shows us his radiant glory as we see with the disciples, the shining wonder of God's beloved Son. God is indeed giving us a mountaintop spiritual high.
Nevertheless, we will not always get it or feel it. Just like the professors with the puzzle, we will expend enormous energy in futile and ridiculous feel-good tasks.
Today, Transfiguration Sunday, mountaintop Sunday, God sends us with the disciples, back down into the valley of waiting. God did not abandon Jesus or the disciples as they began their journey to the cross. God does not and will not abandon us. God gives us many "Jasmines" who surprise us with the wonder of God's presence. Best of all, God gives us his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who invites us to journey with him during the forty days of Lent and forever. Now that's glory! That's good news! Amen.
Two seminary professors entered a local fast-food restaurant loudly chanting, "For-ty days! For-ty days!" Then they were joined by three more. Then five more gathered at their table, all chanting, "For-ty days! For-ty days!" Soon, the uproar had disrupted the entire restaurant and the manager came over to ask the professors to keep the noise down.
"What's all the chanting about anyway?" asked the manager. "You are disturbing everybody." Still shouting, the professors began pointing vigorously at the center of their table. Here the manager saw a fully assembled and framed child's puzzle depicting the face of Winnie-the-Pooh.
Becoming annoyed, the manager said, "So? What's the big deal about this puzzle?"
Finally, as the chanting subsided, a senior faculty member explained. "Everyone thinks that seminary professors have no common sense and are out of touch with the real world. We grew tired of being ridiculed, so we decided to set the record straight. Our entire faculty got together and purchased this puzzle. We put it together, working as a team among the community of believers."
"Uh huh," replied the manager, as she began to look around for something, anything, that required her attention. "So, what's the big deal about this puzzle?"
"Just look at the side of this puzzle box," exclaimed another professor. "It clearly and precisely bears the inscription '2-4 years.' We assembled it in only forty days!"
The chanting bedlam resumed. "For-ty days! For-ty days!"
And the manager bowed her head and silently prayed, "Lord, give me strength," as she swiftly darted behind the counter.
Can you see the core issue of the professors here? They were too concerned with other's opinions about them. What others thought about them began to dominate their behavior and ultimately resulted in even more foolish, ridiculous actions.
It has been said before that many Christians have been raised with eleven (not ten) commandments. The eleventh commandment was the question ... "What will people think about you?"
You see, the real issue here, for those foolish faculty members and for us, is "What does God think about you?" It's not about us; it is about God.
Today, Transfiguration Sunday, celebrates what God thinks about us and what God does among us in forming us as God's people. Indeed, it is not simply a matter of what God has thought and has done. The transfiguration also declares what God is thinking and doing among us, and promises to continue thinking and doing among us in the future.
Let's look at our Old Testament lesson for Transfiguration Sunday.
The text immediately follows a gathering of elders near Mount Sinai, the holy mountain of God. Here Moses and the elders celebrated God's presence and guidance. Here they pledged to obey God's instruction.
Our text begins with an articulation of three crucial aspects of God's forming and guiding presence in the lives of God's people: God invites, God's people wait, God gives.
The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction."
-- Exodus 24:12
First, God invited Moses to meet him on the holy mountain of Sinai. Here in this place the glory of the Lord would be revealed in all its power and intensity. Here in this place the presence of God would illumine the identity and clarify the mission of God's people. Here, on this mountaintop, at the invitation of God, Moses was invited to experience the highest of "spiritual highs."
Two thousand years later, Jesus invited the inner circle of his disciples to a mountaintop where they, too, experienced the transfiguring glory of God and a powerful affirmation of their identity as part of God's holy people.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could live our lives on one everlasting spiritual high? Wouldn't it be marvelous if every day was mountaintop day? One lifelong glorious, happy time of joy and wonder would be just fine, thank you.
God does invite us to a special space where God does show us his glory and reveals to us his eternal love and forgiveness. God does think about us with an abundance of steadfast love and mercy, and that holy space, obviously, can be anywhere, because we know God is everywhere.
However, the children of Israel knew from past experience (Exodus 3) that God's presence would definitely be revealed on this mountain at this time. In the same way, we know that God reveals his presence and guidance wherever God's people are gathered for worship. Here beneath the cross, in front of the altar, beside the baptismal waters, in the midst of God's people, God reveals his presence to us. Here in the proclaimed word we hear what God has done, is doing, and promises to continue to do among us and for us. Here God invites us to be formed and "transfigured" into a new identity as God's own people. Here could be a spiritual mountaintop high for us, just as it was for Moses and for the disciples.
However, we don't always get it. We don't always feel it. Nor should we expect to. It's not about us; it's about God!
Little Jasmine was preparing for her first worship anthem as a member of the cherub choir, a group of three-year-old angels in her congregation. Many times, the choir director had the children practice walking to the chancel steps from their seats beside their parents. "When all the people sit down, you leave your parents in the pew and come up here. Then we'll sing 'Jesus Loves Me' so loudly that people can hear us out in the parking lot." The anthem was a joy to behold! At the proper time in the service, eleven cherubs, including Jasmine, made a glorious noise to the Lord.
The next Sunday, "when all the people sat down," Jasmine still remembered her instructions from the previous Sunday. She calmly walked to the chancel steps, and, all by herself, began to sing "Jesus Loves Me." Jasmine's daddy knew that his daughter's impromptu solo was not in the bulletin, and he rushed to her "rescue." Scooping up his little girl in his arms, Daddy started jogging toward the nursery, with Jasmine loudly pleading to the congregation, "Somebody help me!"
Maybe Daddy didn't get it. Maybe Daddy was too worried about what people would think ... about his daughter and about him.
Jasmine's solo is a good example of the second point in our lesson. God's people wait. What is faithful waiting anyway? Again, let's look at the text. After God invited Moses and Joshua to ascend Mount Sinai, Moses instructed the elders: "Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them" (Exodus 24:14).
Faithful waiting for God's people does not mean sitting on our thumbs and doing nothing. It means hearing God's word and obeying God's teachings. In fact, Moses urged the people to do just that in the verses just prior to today's lesson (Exodus 24:7-8).
Even though Jasmine's solo was not in the bulletin, she did proclaim God's love both in word and in deed. She sang God's praise in the past (the week before) and she was proclaiming God's love in the present. Her spontaneous declaration of God's love would also permeate the soul of that congregation in the future. On that day, Jasmine's faithful waiting became a transfiguring moment for everyone.
Note that Aaron and Hur were designated by Moses to serve as leaders of the people as they waited faithfully for Moses' return. They were charged with insuring that God's words would be proclaimed and God's instructions would be obeyed. Perhaps you also recall that it was Aaron and Hur who held Moses' tired arms high in order to bring victory in a battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:10-12). Aaron, Moses' brother, was responsible for faithful worship and proclaiming God's words. Hur, possibly Moses' brother-in-law, was responsible for faithful obedience to God's teachings. Together, they were to insure faithful waiting ... to make sure that the people got it even if they did not always feel it ... to make certain that faithful waiting was all about God, and not all about them.
Jasmine did that, too. Faithful waiting includes everyone in God's family -- brothers and brothers-in-law, sisters and aunts, moms and dads, grandparents and cousins -- all of God's baptized family. When we just don't get it, when we are too exhausted or pre-occupied to feel it, God gives strength and courage to press on faithfully.
So, God invites. God's people wait. Most important here is the third point of our text: God gives.
In today's lesson, when Moses ascended the mountain, "the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai" (Exodus 24:16). Moses and the elders assembled below. They knew for a fact that God was truly present there and yet the mountaintop was shrouded by a covering of clouds for six days.
Nevertheless, they were well aware that the real presence of God was specific and real on that mountain. Why? Because God said so. God invited Moses to see it. God gave the onlookers a glimpse of his presence. "Now, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel" (Exodus 24:17).
God gives us glimpses of his awesome presence. As he penetrates our cloudy perceptions, God reveals his radiant transfiguring presence to us in the waters of baptism. God's words to us echo his words to Jesus, "You are my beloved child." These words embraced Jasmine at her baptism. These words clear the clouds that cover our very souls today.
Today, Transfiguration Sunday, God invites us, with Moses, to "enter the cloud" enveloping God's presence. Today, God gives us a taste of his abiding love at the altar. Today, here in this place, God shows us his radiant glory as we see with the disciples, the shining wonder of God's beloved Son. God is indeed giving us a mountaintop spiritual high.
Nevertheless, we will not always get it or feel it. Just like the professors with the puzzle, we will expend enormous energy in futile and ridiculous feel-good tasks.
Today, Transfiguration Sunday, mountaintop Sunday, God sends us with the disciples, back down into the valley of waiting. God did not abandon Jesus or the disciples as they began their journey to the cross. God does not and will not abandon us. God gives us many "Jasmines" who surprise us with the wonder of God's presence. Best of all, God gives us his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who invites us to journey with him during the forty days of Lent and forever. Now that's glory! That's good news! Amen.
