The Transfiguration Transcript

Hi, this is Pastor Kevin Rettlidge at Burwin United Methodist Church. This podcast episode is from a worship service for Sunday, february 11th 2024, traditionally known as Transfiguration Sunday. While we had technical issues recording the actual message, this is an abbreviated version to share to make sure that the message it contains is spread out to those seeking to hear it. I invite you to join with me in prayer. Loving God, we give you thanks that you have gathered us together across time and space, in person and online. We ask that, in the hearing of your scripture and hearing it proclaimed, that we might be touched by your spirit, no matter where we are, that in our encounter with you we may be transformed Transformed in how we love you, how we live out your call, and transformed in how we love one another. We ask this all in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. The scripture reading for today comes from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8, verse 27, to chapter 9, verse 8.

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea, philippi, and on the way he asked them who do people say that I am? They replied some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and still others one of the prophets. But what about you? He asked who do you say that I am? Peter answered you are the Messiah. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days, rise again. He spoke plainly about this and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter Get behind me, satan. He said. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Then he called the crowd to him, along with his disciples, and said whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me, for whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with the holy angels. And he said to them truly, I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.

After six days, jesus took Peter, james and John with him and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone, where he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. There appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. He did not know what to say. They were so frightened. Then the cloud appeared and covered them and a voice came from the cloud. This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him. Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. This is the word of God for the people of God.

One of the themes of the Gospel of Mark is this question of who is Jesus. We hear early on the story where Jesus went to John the Baptist to be baptized, and John the Baptist was calling out people into the wilderness to be baptized for repentance of sin and they went. John told them that somebody would be coming after him for whom John the Baptist was unworthy to even tie his sandals. Then Jesus appears to be baptized and John at first refuses, but Jesus said it must be done Following the baptism. Jesus hears a voice Nobody else does, but Jesus hears a voice that says this is my Son and you. I am well pleased For the rest of the Gospel of Mark, at least up until this point, there had been this question of who is Jesus.

When he was in his own town. They asked that question because they had heard all of these stories of doing deeds of power. He didn't even there. Then he was run out of town. In last week's reading we hear of Herod, who had been hearing these stories of Jesus and wondered who Jesus was and feared that it was John the Baptist raised from the dead.

In today's passage, jesus asked the disciples who do people say that I am? Some of the disciples say well, some say you're Moses, others say Elijah and still others John the Baptist. There's that returning theme of Jesus competing with John the Baptist and being likened to John the Baptist and confused with John the Baptist. But, as we read last week, john the Baptist is dead and placed in the tomb. Now the same thing would happen to Jesus, but we know that that story ends with Jesus coming out of the tomb, resurrected, alive and well.

So Jesus hears all of these answers and I can imagine him thinking about each one and why people would associate him with that. So he then turns to them, the disciples, and said who do you say that I am? And they think about this for a little while and Peter, wonderful, wonderful Peter, gets it right. This time he turns to Jesus and says you are the Messiah, the Christos, the anointed one. And Jesus confirms that he is right, but then tells the people, the disciples, not to tell anyone about it.

This messianic secret, the secret that Jesus is trying to keep by telling them not to tell others who he is when he heals, someone tells them not to go and tell that he had done it. It is peculiar and distinct to Mark. We're not sure why Fully. We don't understand, but in this case I think it is because there were so many conflicting views of what the Messiah was here to do and that if all people heard was that the Messiah had come, they would expect the Messiah to act in the way they think Maybe the Messiah was to come and overthrow the Roman government that had been occupying Israel at the time so that they could rule themselves and be reestablished. That's one view of the Messiah. Another view of the Messiah is that this cosmic ruler will return and reestablish God's kingdom and God's reign on earth fully. It was a sign of the end times. That the Messiah had come at all Could be.

Another understanding of the Messiah was that he would come and set right the spiritual state of Israel, that all the laws and the ways that things had been set up that had drifted over time would be reestablished and set right. Some people expected that and so, as you can see, if there's different groups expecting Jesus the Messiah to come and do different things and they hear Jesus as the Messiah and expect Him to do that and he doesn't, then he's easily rejected and saying well, obviously you're not the Messiah if you didn't do these things. So it makes sense that he wouldn't want them to not share that Jesus is the Messiah, because what we hear next is Jesus telling them exactly what the Messiah was there to do that he would suffer, that he would serve, that he would die After being tortured for three days. We know this is shocking and not how anybody understands the Messiah, because we hear Peter saying no, this will never happen to you. You can't bear to hear His teacher, his friend, his guide, the Messiah that he just proclaimed as the Christos, the Son of God. He would suffer and be put to death. And Jesus turns to Peter, who had just had his moment in the sun, proclaiming Him as the Christos, the Christ, the Messiah. Hear Him, say, get behind me, satan.

A few days after these events, the question of who is Jesus continues and the answer is given again and again. In this case, jesus took Peter, james and John up to a mountain and while they were there, appearing next to Jesus was Moses and Elijah. Moses representing the giver of the law, the chief among the prophets, and Elijah as the prophet who did not die, who was taken up to heaven while still alive in each area. And Jesus is talking to both of them. The disciples see this and are terrified by what they see. They can't make sense of it and so they do the only thing they can think of. Peter turns to Jesus and says it is good that we are here. Should we make sense? One for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Now, I don't think they wanted to stay there forever, but they certainly wanted to stay there long enough to make tents and use them. And as they ask the question, moses and Elijah disappear. Jesus's appearance is transfigured, not white as in a color, but white as in a blinding light, much like Moses when he went to the mountain and encountered God, and the people could not look at him, so he wore a veil. Mark is giving this definitive statement that Jesus is not Moses, jesus is not Elijah, but a voice from heaven that the disciples hear proclaiming that Jesus is God's son.

And now it's time to go back to work. It's almost like a locker room moment in the Super Bowl this evening. Half the game is over, they've won some points, they've lost some points, but the second half is going to be hard, hard fought, hard won. The emotions are going to be high and everybody's got expectations of how it's going to go. And they have this locker room moment where Jesus gets this pep talk and is here's the voice of God yet again saying this you are my son, but the disciples here as well. And now they have to go and play the second half, where Jesus has already said that he is going to go. He's going to suffer at the hands of others and be put to death, but rise again.

Question for us today is the question that Mark asks throughout the Gospel, the question that Jesus asks the disciples. The question for us is who do we say Jesus is? If somebody were to ask you, who is this Jesus that you follow, what answer would you give? The answer that we give makes a big difference in how we live, how we talk about Jesus, the difference that he makes in our lives and our willingness to go where he sends us. If Jesus is only a good teacher teaching us how to live, then all we need to do is dive into His words by ourselves. Read the Bible, read it even only once, and learn it, and learn what he teaches, and that's it.

If we're good to go, we don't have to interact with Jesus again anymore, and I know that's not what Jesus wants and it's not what we need. On the other hand, if Jesus is just that deity, that God that we turn to and confess our sins to when we feel like we need to or feel like it's been too long, if all we need to do is spend a few moments and say Jesus, this is the way I've let you down. I need your forgiveness so that God will accept me into heaven. Then we can ignore Jesus most of the time again, just like the good teacher. We only need to turn to Him when our sins feel weighty and we fear God's retribution. This is neither what we need nor what God intends.

There are many of us still that believe that Jesus will come back and reign in glory and all the injustice, pain and suffering in the world will be righted, and everyone who fought against Him, who disagrees with Him well, who disagree with us will be thrown into the pit. So we are sitting here waiting for Jesus to come back, and so, again, we don't really need to interact with Jesus all that much. We're just waiting. Waiting to pull out the popcorn at the end of the world to watch Everyone who does not believe in him suffer. I don't believe this way. I do believe that Jesus is going to come back, but I don't believe that we should just sit here and wait, and I certainly don't want to relish in the suffering of others In this life or the next. What if Jesus isn't any one of these things, but all of them A teacher, a guide, a savior, the one who will come and write all things, the one who is guiding us and leading us today, the one who wants to be in deep relationship with us.

Through our relationship with him, we are transformed into the very people that God knows that we can be. We get to partner with him at work in our world. We get to see the world through his eyes. We get to experience the transformation that he promises in this life, a life full of meaning, of hope, of peace, of purpose. If we see Jesus as all-encompassing, then we want to spend time with him. We want to be guided by him, we want to spend time in prayer, we want to work beside him while using our hands and feet and service to others. We want to come to know him more through his word and study.

This Jesus is not one that can be thought of every once in a while, that can be grasped through simply reading the scripture and studying his teaching, and certainly not one that wants us waiting around until he comes back, and is definitely not a get out of jail free card. If we could wrestle with and grasp on to an understanding of Jesus that is not built on something that we can do and ignore him at our whims, but instead is the very breath of life that we need and is the very purpose of life we are given and provides the depth of meaning we long for, then Jesus is not one that can be ignored, and Jesus is also one we want to share with others, for each of those understandings of Jesus that we may have. When it comes to talking about him to others, there's always deficiencies. If Jesus is a good teacher, well, he's right on the bookshelf with all the other good teachers in the world that help us live ethical and moral lives. There's no reason to lift him up any higher than any other.

If Jesus is a get out of jail free card meant just to confess our sins to who died for the sake of them, then first we've got to convince people that hell exists, that they're going there, that somehow the God that sent Jesus Christ for love of the world, but somehow his wrath, has taken over. It's a mixed message. If all we're doing is waiting around for Jesus to come back, then there's not a whole lot of reason to convince other people to wait with us. Why would they? Especially those that see that we have work to do to make this world better for those who are suffering. But if, instead, our life is shaped, the daily walk with Christ, that we are made more like him through spending time with him each day, wanting to become more like him in word and deed, and in doing so we find peace and hope in the midst of trials and tribulations. And a love of Christ in his servant hands, as he taught us to serve beside him, moves us into action in our communities to serve the least and the lost, the hurting, the lonely and the suffering. When he becomes the reason for why we live the way we do and our lives are transformed because of that and we find that meaning and that hope that so many in our world are longing for that. That becomes a lot more convincing when people ask us who is this Jesus? So I hope you'll take a few moments. More than that, I hope you'll spend time in prayer and seeking out the answer to that question who do you say that Jesus is? And I hope that the answer can't be expressed in one or two sentences and cannot be relegated to a bookshelf or an occasional visit. Amen, I invite you if you are moved by this message, want to be a part of it, want to learn more about who we are at Burwin United Methodist Church.

Because of it, you'll visit our website, burwinumcorg. There you can find some small group or devotion materials related to this message, some reflection questions on what does it mean and how to live it out, a reading guide to dive deeper into God's word about this message. They're all found there. If you are in need of prayer, there's a prayer wall on our website where you can put any prayer requests that you have and know that people in our church will pray for you. Indeed, if you create an account, you can see the requests that have already been entered and pray for those as well.

If you want to support the ministry of Burwin United Methodist Church, you can do so on our website as well. Know that you're not doing it because it's required of you or buys God's favor or love, but it's because you want to be a part of what we are doing in our community and around the world. We have other Christians here in our church to make a difference. Your gifts are very much appreciated. And finally, I invite you to reach out to me, pastor Kevin. You can find my contact information on our website. You can set up a call and we'll get together. I'd love to hear from you and know that I'm praying for you, god bless.