SermonStudio

Today we celebrate the Transfiguration Of Our Lord. We will soon begin the Lenten Journey. Often Lent is abused. It has in certain times and places become a period of empty abstinence from tidbits of affluence, and the enjoyment of gloom of self-denial.


This is not the purpose of Lent. These 40 days should be a period of engagement with God, of repentance and prayer and a renewal of our baptismal vows. Lent looks towards God's act in the cross and the resurrection. Lent is the opportunity to move within the shadows of the cross and let the heart be bathed with God's love. Lent is a time to look toward the victory of Easter and the victory that is ours in Jesus Christ.


About a week after Jesus' question, 'But who do you say that I am?' and Peter's confession, 'The Christ of God,' Jesus goes up on a mountain to pray. A strange and mysterious thing happens.


I invite you to turn with me to the ninth chapter of Luke's gospel. I shall begin the reading at verse 28 and read through verse 36.


Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a high mountain. He went there to pray. Prayer was vital for Jesus -- most especially on occasions of critical significance. Jesus had to make a decision. He went up on the mountain to seek guidance through prayer.


The very Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirits.


While Jesus was praying he was transfigured. The appearance of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white.


Suddenly two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glory and talked with Jesus. They spoke of his death on the cross in Jerusalem. The event is crowded with meaningful symbolism.


Biblical faith takes history very seriously because God takes it very seriously. God took it seriously enough to bring it and to enter it and to promise that one day he will bring it to a serious close.


Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the prophets. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. God's purposes have been long in unfolding. God's servants have been many. Moses and Elijah appearing with Jesus says that the anticipated Messiah is fulfilled in Jesus. As Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt to form a new nation, Jesus was to lead his followers into a new kingdom. As Elijah had confronted the evil prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, Jesus was to conquer sin on Mount Calvary.


Moses and Elijah disappeared, leaving only Jesus. The old is ended. The new has come.


Peter is so overwhelmed by what he has seen he wants to perpetuate this marvelous moment by building three altars. Jesus refused the offer. He tells him to be silent about the experience until after the resurrection. Apart from the cross the full story cannot be told. There is one more mountain to climb -- Calvary!


Again, as at his baptism, Jesus receives the confirmation of God. Out of a cloud comes a voice saying, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to Him!'


Jesus the Christ -- a life invested with heavenly light and power for the salvation of the world.


All the way down the 20 centuries since Jesus was born, there have been countless different kinds of people who in countless different ways have been filled with his Spirit. People who have found themselves in deep and private ways healed and transformed.


In the book, Unconditional Love, Father John Powell tells of a young man, Tommy, a student in his class, The Theology of Faith. Tommy turns out to be the 'atheist in residence' in the course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father-God.


At the end of the course he asked in a slightly cynical tone: 'Do you think I'll ever find God?' Powell decided on a little shock therapy. 'No!' he said. 'Oh,' Tommy responded, 'I thought that was the product you were pushing.' I let him get five steps from the door and then called out: 'Tommy! I don't think you'll ever find him but I'm absolutely certain he will find you!' He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.


Later, I heard a report that Tom had graduated, and I was duly grateful. Then a sad report, Tommy had a terminal illness. Before I could search him out, he came to see me.


'Tommy, I've thought about you so often. I hear you are sick.'


'0 yes, very sick.'… 'Can you talk about it?'


'Sure. What would you like to know?'


'What's it like to be only 24 and dying?'


'Well, it could be worse.' 'Like what?'


'Well, like being 50 and having no values or ideals, like being 50 and thinking that booze, and making money are the real ‘biggies' in life.'


'But what I really came to see you about,' Tom said, 'is something you said to me on the last day of class. I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, ‘No!' which surprised me. Then you said, ‘But he will find you.' I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was not at all intense… at that time.


'One day I woke up, and decided to spend what time I had doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your class, and remembered something else you said: ‘The essential sadness is to go through life without living. But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.' So I began with the hardest one, my dad.


'He was reading the newspaper when I approached him. ‘Dad?' ‘Yes, what?' he asked without lowering the newspaper. ‘Dad, I would like to talk with you.' ‘Well, talk.' ‘I mean, it's really important.' The newspaper came down three slow inches. ‘What is it?' ‘Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that.' The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could not remember him ever doing before. He cried, and he hugged me. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me.


'It was easier with my mother and little brother. We shared things we had been keeping secret for so many years.


'Then one day I turned around, and God was there. Apparently, God does things in his own way and at his own hour.


'But the important thing is that he was there. He found me. You were right. He found me even after I stopped looking for him.'


'Tommy, you are saying something very important and much more universal than you realize. You are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make him a private possession, a problem-solver, but rather by opening yourself to his love.'


My dear friends, the surest way to find God is opening yourself to his love in Jesus Christ. We can open our hearts to the love of Christ and say, 'In peace that only thou canst give, with thee, 0 Master, let me live.' This is the invitation to all today. An invitation from Jesus, whom God said: 'This is my Son, listen to Him!'