The Transfiguration of Our Lord Year A
A sermon based on Matthew 17:1-9
In the name of Jesus; amen.
“Get up and do not be afraid.”
Jesus is transfigured on the mountain and God tells the disciples, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased; listen to him!” And the very first thing Jesus tells them is, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
This is today’s message: “Get up and do not be afraid.”
So what are you afraid of?
I have an irrational fear of bridges. I say irrational because rationally I know that when I am driving over a bridge it will not collapse the moment I am in the middle of it sending me plummeting to my death or that I will not be struck by a car sending me careening over the side to my death, but that’s exactly what will happen.
Now living in South Jersey with an irrational fear of bridges, like I did for 6 years, is not the easiest thing in the world to do because everywhere you go you have to go across a bridge to get there. The first house we lived in was on a little island called Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City. The first time we looked at it I remember looking at the map and telling my husband with trepidation and fear that there were only two ways off the island: the bridge and swimming.
Later, I remember attending a luncheon after a funeral where I sat with the family and one man at the table who was an engineer who built bridges. He spent a good 10 minutes trying to explain to me how bridges were built and how they were structurally sound. It made perfect sense, it was rational, but my fear is irrational and it doesn’t help that there are bridges that have collapsed and that there are cars that have driven over the sides. I try to block those mental images whenever I am about to cross a bridge or else I know that I would become paralyzed with fear and be unable to cross.
The three disciples that Jesus takes with him up on the mountain are overcome with fear after hearing the voice from heaven. It causes them to fall to the ground and tremble until Jesus touches them and tells them to get up.
I think hearing the voice of God must seem irrational. Recently the confirmation class watched Evan Almighty. It’s a silly movie loosely based on the story of Noah’s ark. Evan has just been elected to congress and seems to have a promising future until God speaks and asks him to build an ark because there is going to be a flood. No one, including Evan believes that God speaking to him is rational and they see him as being a big joke.
There was a time when if God spoke to people it caused great fear, but now it seems that God speaking to anyone is a laughing matter. Rita Rudner, who was a comedian during the 80’s used to ask, “Why is it that when you speak to God they call it prayer, but if God speaks to you they call it schizophrenia?”
The disciples must have already been on edge when they saw Jesus transfigured and talking to Moses, who was dead and Elijah, who had been taken up into heaven. Peter tries to make what seems like a very irrational situation rational by suggesting that they build booths, movable altars, tents that can be taken with them and worshiped, but even he falls apart when God speaks.
What are you afraid of?
What might cause you to fall down paralyzed with fear?
In my sermons I often say that God is calling to us or that God is speaking to us or asking something of us, but I wonder if any of us ever hear that message with a sense of fear. I do believe that God speaks to us today, but I think we have lost a real sense of the gravity of it. Perhaps it is too hard to imagine the actuality of it and so we dismiss it. Perhaps it is so scary to imagine God speaking to us that we suppress the actuality of it in order to live the lives we live.
But God does speak to us; God’s voice cries down from heaven every day with the message that we are to listen to the Son, the Beloved and the gravity of that voice should weigh us down with a fear and desire to do just that.
We should listen to the Son, the one who preached repentance and acceptance. We should listen to the Beloved who cared for the other and lifted up the lowly. We should listen to Jesus who tells us to “Get up and do not be afraid”, because there are too many fears, rational and irrational that hold us back from doing what God desires of us.
Because listening to Jesus transfigures our lives. This story of Jesus being changed on the mountain foreshadows the resurrection. It points to the thing that is to come. When we listen to the words of Jesus it points us to what is to come for us: resurrection and everlasting life because listening to Jesus changes us, makes us new people. That is perhaps why there is a baptismal connection to this story.
God also speaks at Jesus’ baptism and says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Get up and do not be afraid. God’s voice might frighten us, but it directs us to the one who is meant to calm our fears and take us into new life.
Get up, do not be afraid, but listen to the one who transfigures us.
Amen.
“Get up and do not be afraid.”
Jesus is transfigured on the mountain and God tells the disciples, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased; listen to him!” And the very first thing Jesus tells them is, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
This is today’s message: “Get up and do not be afraid.”
So what are you afraid of?
I have an irrational fear of bridges. I say irrational because rationally I know that when I am driving over a bridge it will not collapse the moment I am in the middle of it sending me plummeting to my death or that I will not be struck by a car sending me careening over the side to my death, but that’s exactly what will happen.
Now living in South Jersey with an irrational fear of bridges, like I did for 6 years, is not the easiest thing in the world to do because everywhere you go you have to go across a bridge to get there. The first house we lived in was on a little island called Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City. The first time we looked at it I remember looking at the map and telling my husband with trepidation and fear that there were only two ways off the island: the bridge and swimming.
Later, I remember attending a luncheon after a funeral where I sat with the family and one man at the table who was an engineer who built bridges. He spent a good 10 minutes trying to explain to me how bridges were built and how they were structurally sound. It made perfect sense, it was rational, but my fear is irrational and it doesn’t help that there are bridges that have collapsed and that there are cars that have driven over the sides. I try to block those mental images whenever I am about to cross a bridge or else I know that I would become paralyzed with fear and be unable to cross.
The three disciples that Jesus takes with him up on the mountain are overcome with fear after hearing the voice from heaven. It causes them to fall to the ground and tremble until Jesus touches them and tells them to get up.
I think hearing the voice of God must seem irrational. Recently the confirmation class watched Evan Almighty. It’s a silly movie loosely based on the story of Noah’s ark. Evan has just been elected to congress and seems to have a promising future until God speaks and asks him to build an ark because there is going to be a flood. No one, including Evan believes that God speaking to him is rational and they see him as being a big joke.
There was a time when if God spoke to people it caused great fear, but now it seems that God speaking to anyone is a laughing matter. Rita Rudner, who was a comedian during the 80’s used to ask, “Why is it that when you speak to God they call it prayer, but if God speaks to you they call it schizophrenia?”
The disciples must have already been on edge when they saw Jesus transfigured and talking to Moses, who was dead and Elijah, who had been taken up into heaven. Peter tries to make what seems like a very irrational situation rational by suggesting that they build booths, movable altars, tents that can be taken with them and worshiped, but even he falls apart when God speaks.
What are you afraid of?
What might cause you to fall down paralyzed with fear?
In my sermons I often say that God is calling to us or that God is speaking to us or asking something of us, but I wonder if any of us ever hear that message with a sense of fear. I do believe that God speaks to us today, but I think we have lost a real sense of the gravity of it. Perhaps it is too hard to imagine the actuality of it and so we dismiss it. Perhaps it is so scary to imagine God speaking to us that we suppress the actuality of it in order to live the lives we live.
But God does speak to us; God’s voice cries down from heaven every day with the message that we are to listen to the Son, the Beloved and the gravity of that voice should weigh us down with a fear and desire to do just that.
We should listen to the Son, the one who preached repentance and acceptance. We should listen to the Beloved who cared for the other and lifted up the lowly. We should listen to Jesus who tells us to “Get up and do not be afraid”, because there are too many fears, rational and irrational that hold us back from doing what God desires of us.
Because listening to Jesus transfigures our lives. This story of Jesus being changed on the mountain foreshadows the resurrection. It points to the thing that is to come. When we listen to the words of Jesus it points us to what is to come for us: resurrection and everlasting life because listening to Jesus changes us, makes us new people. That is perhaps why there is a baptismal connection to this story.
God also speaks at Jesus’ baptism and says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Get up and do not be afraid. God’s voice might frighten us, but it directs us to the one who is meant to calm our fears and take us into new life.
Get up, do not be afraid, but listen to the one who transfigures us.
Amen.
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