Second Presbyterian Church

"Glimpses of Glory"
March 2, 2003

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2003 » Sermons for March 2003

Transfiguration of the Lord, Year B
by The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• 2 Kings 2: 1-12
• 2 Corinthians 4: 3-6
• Mark 9: 2-9

Introduction

Lent begins later this week. It is a time to reflect, to repent, to remember the passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is a time to open ourselves to God, to find and confess the ways that we may block the Holy Spirit from entering our lives.

Lent is a time to remember (not that we should forget at other times!) the love that God expressed to us through Jesus Christ: who was willing to take our sin (and all humanity's sin!) upon himself and to die on the cross to remove it.

Lent is a time to remember the terrible price that God, in Christ, was willing to pay in order to redeem us and reconcile us. It is a time to remember and refresh our gratitude to God for God's self-less love, poured out for our lives.

A Problem & Solution

Peter, James and John were very fortunate disciples. They were able to witness a glimpse of the glory of God. I can well imagine that having this glimpse of Jesus in his divine glory helped them through some very rough times that were ahead. But it was only a glimpse. Why?

Too much glory, too soon would have made it even harder for the disciples, and succeeding Christians, to really understand the glory of God as expressed through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Just a glimpse of glory was all that was needed for now.

And yet, even today, we struggle with the glory of Christ and was find ways to minimized the passion of Jesus Christ, that is: his willingness to suffer, and die on the cross for the redemption of humankind. It is not hard to find religious groups, even ones who call themselves "Christian" who try to develop a religion based upon the glory of God and bypass the suffering of Christ. Recently I was in the Crown of Victory Community church. When you walked in the foyer, one of the main entrances, it had a picture of a crown embedded in the floor tile. I was struck by the total lack of the cross as a symbol in the worship center. The cross is currently out of vogue in many worship centers that cater to people in ways that try to lure people in, quite frankly, by minimizing or eliminating the scandalous cross. As one theologian said nine years ago when referring to Jesus' suffering and dying on the cross, "we don't need that weird, blood stuff."

Again, if you have ever had any interest in what used to be called New Age Religion you would notice how nice everything is set up to be. God is love, God is gracious, God is nice, people are good, and the goodness of people is good enough for God. Get in harmony with nature and maximize your goodness with yourself, your neighbor and your God. It is all sweet music, incense and crystals. Life is glorious and wonderful.

It sounds good, doesn't it. And what is wrong with having a nice God and nice, good people? It does not do justice to the reality of sin. Professor Jurgen Moltmann said in one of his theological books about the twentieth century (it was written in the 1980's). I paraphrase from a faulty memory. "Humanity tends to express how good things are and how good things are becoming even while standing knee-deep in blood."

New age religion is not about a new age. All ages have dreamt of making everything utopian. And most ironic of all, are the experiments that seriously tried to develop an utopian culture. They not only failed, they became examples of evil. Both National Socialism (Nazism) and Communism were dreams of how a utopian society should be. Nothing needs to be said about how much blood was shed in order to usher in that heaven-on-earth non-reality. In other words, at best, New Age type views of reality only offer a head in the sand perspective of evil. And evil is the enemy that we all must face, first in ourselves and in our culture and world.

The disciples did not understand this very well either. Perhaps they did not avoid the reality of evil in the same manner that we tend to do. But in their day and age just about everybody expected the Messiah to come, a son of the great king of Israel - David, and to liberate Israel from her conquerors. It was expected that when the Messiah came He would raise an army and beat the mist out of the armed forces of Rome. After the victory, he would again establish and sit on the thrown of David and rule Israel from Jerusalem.

You see, right after Peter confessed to Jesus that he was the Messiah, Jesus began to teach the disciples that he was going to Jerusalem. At Jerusalem he would be arrested, abused, crucified and on the third day he would be raised from the dead.

Peter actually tried to rebuke Jesus when Jesus first told the disciples this plan from God! Peter, bless his boldness, actually pulled Jesus aside and said something like this, "Now Lord, what are you talking about? You are the Messiah. You are the victor. You are supposed to beat the mist out of Rome!" Jesus, "Get behind me, Satan!"

Jesus' plan had contradicted the expectations of glory that men and women had. It was hard to understand. It IS hard to understand. That is why the voice from the cloud said not only, "This is my beloved Son." But the voice also said, "LISTEN TO HIM." And you will note that the rest of the Gospel of Mark, until Jesus is arrested, describes how Jesus worked hard at teaching his disciples about Who he is, and How he expected his disciples to behave.

As we shift, this week, into the season of Lent, we are invited to gain another appreciation of the true glory of God as Manifested in Christ. And this glory far outshines any feeble human attempt at glory. It is beyond human comprehension.

You see, the glory of God shines through the cross and through all the pain and suffering that Jesus, as the Son of God, chose to take on for himself. God, as an expression of his deep and boundless love for sinful humankind, chose to suffer and sacrifice Himself so that humankind could be redeemed from their hopeless and helpless situation.

Surely on that mountain-top Peter James and John had a glimpse of the glory of God that was in Jesus Christ. But their true appreciation of the glory of God began when they once again encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ.

In closing, let me note why I believe that is so crucial. This world is not fair. Evil manifests itself in so many dimensions and ways. Someone is murdered. Someone else is raped. A child is abused. A marriage is betrayed. A loved one becomes very, very ill. Nations war against nations. Races hate races. Our need for a Messiah, or a Savior, goes way beyond what any human imagination can conjure up as nice and good, a humanly contrived utopia. We need a Savior who has been there and experienced directly what evil can do. We need a Savior who has experienced the defeat and despair that we humans can experience. So that when we are in these pits of horror, we have a Savior who is there with us, holding our hand and reassuring us, "here I am, you shall never be forsaken. There is no place where I can be shut away from you. Take courage, my courage, for after death shall come the resurrection to eternal life."

That, brothers and sisters, is the true glory of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, the Son of God. We, too, now have a glimpse of the glory of God - Jesus Christ, crucified and raised from the dead. Amen.