Sermon - The Transfiguration

Readings: Daniel 7:9,10,13,14

Psalm 97

2 Peter 1:16-19

Luke 9:28-36

Today is an important day for Christians - it is a day when we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration – It is a time when we can think about our relationship with God.

The day before the great Martin Luther King was shot dead he gave a speech to a large crowd – He said,

‘We’ve got difficult days ahead. But it does not matter to me now. Because I have been to the mountain top, I won’t mind.

Like anyone else I would like to live a long life… but I am not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I have looked over and seen the Promised Land.

So I am happy tonight, I am not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’

Nobody will ever know whether Martin Luther King had some kind of premonition about what would happen the following day – more likely he simply recognised the danger in which he was putting himself on a daily basis, but what is important is that he had had a mountain top experience – and from the mountain top he had seen and felt the glory of God – Nothing would make him afraid again…

And this morning we have heard the account of what some call the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36) where the glory of God was revealed to the disciples who had accompanied Jesus up to the mountain top, where they would be met by Moses and Elijah.

Peter, James and John saw transfiguration take place before their own eyes, and this morning I want to think about some things that we may hope to see transfigured or transformed in our lives.

The FIRST thing is the individual – you and I and others around us. God can transform the lives of anyone who is prepared to trust him. Throughout the history of the Christian faith millions of lives have literally been transformed - evil people have been transformed into good, selfish into generous, unloving into the most loving and so on… Many who have been healed have led transformed lives.

And yet today we live at a time when miracles are explained away and we are more inclined to rely just on technology rather than seek help and guidance from God – we are suspicious of lives that are changed, and doubtful of the substance of the change. It is too easy to ask “what’s in it for them?” rather than look for the source of the change.

But God is still transforming today and transformation is still necessary for every one of us… Transformation can come about through growth – through our studying of the Bible and through prayer, and also through fellowship and worship.

Each one of us continues on a spiritual journey throughout our lives – we must leave ourselves open to God and to his plans for our lives, and as we pray for ourselves and our own relationship with God we must also pray continually for others – and with that prayer we can have expectations as well.

Others may not believe us though! In the Second letter of Peter it says “For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” Peter was there on the mountain – he had seen the glory of God, and a few years later he is writing a letter defending what he saw. People don’t believe until it happens to them, until they can climb the holy mountain and see for themselves.

But God is still transforming lives today.

Just briefly on the subject of that reading... in our lectionary reading we had the version of it that says “brilliant light shines in your hearts”…this of course, in the better translation says “You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

SECOND point I want to think about involves the transformation of the Church. In our worship, in our welcome of people and in our outreach we are challenged to offer a relevant message today. WORSHIP – WELCOME – OUTREACH.
We must continually ensure that we are offering a Church that people want to be a part of, and that they see is relevant for them.

We must see that we are a Church that is continually listening for GOD – finding new initiatives for touching the lives of people in a way that they can never ignore or forget.

So the Church is the second point of transformation.

The THIRD POINT is the WORLD. Ambitious it may seem but none of us need reminding that the Christian Church was founded 2000 years ago on Jesus Christ and a small group of followers – today we have many more disciples who can be involved. If a rather disorganised bunch of disciples can build a church – then what can more than a billion CHRISTIANS do? “WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”

Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (4:3-6) that we heard spoke again of the image of a ‘light shining out of the darkness’ – that light is Christ who can bring light to any of the terrible situations of darkness that people find themselves in – the darkness of conflict, injustice, poverty, sickness, violence, domestic problems, finance problems, drink, drugs and so on – God can touch these problems if we are prepared to take HIM into these situations and the Bible shows us clearly through the example of Jesus himself that this is where he wants to be…

And so we think of the transformation of individuals, of the Church and of the world, but there are 3 other things we must recognise regarding transformation as well.

Firstly for transfiguration to take place we must be willing to be transformed – Jesus, Moses and Elijah all knew their part in God’s plan and were willing to accept the role to which they were called.

Secondly we must be prepared to stand up for our faith – we must be prepared to talk about the difference Christ actually makes in our lives. For the world to see that Jesus can change people, they need to see that he is changing us for the better – we must put aside any embarrassment about sharing our faith and just let people know through our words and our actions that Jesus is the Lord of our lives.

And like Peter, James and John who failed to understand the transfiguration, there will be many who don’t understand our message and many who will doubt our continued transformation – but we can assure people them that God has the power to transform anything and anyone.

And thirdly we must remember that transformation can only take place with God’s help.

A lesson from this is that in spite of our own failings and rejections and disappointments, God still pursues us to be continually transformed... God recognises our needs better than we recognise them ourselves and he wants us and he wants all people to allow Him to enter those situations of need and lead us closer to him. To make us the people he wants us to be, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit