Sunday, February 27, 2022

Transfiguration Sunday
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 99
Hebrews 3:1-6
Luke 9:28-36

Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.

Have you ever really considered the amount of knowledge that can be found in one library? My own bookshelves are covered with hundreds of books, from children’s stories to novels to reference materials. I have books about Christmas, faith, health, history and language. I can'\’t count the number of books about prayer or the books I haven’t even read yet. I have a pile of books I intend to read soon. Somehow the pile just gets bigger. I also have an e-reader with dozens of books I want to read.

Most universities have huge libraries. When my daughter and I were college shopping a few years ago, we went to several universities to see what they had to offer. During one visitation we had a few moments, so we slipped into the library to see what is available to the students. That library was the biggest building on campus, seven stories and the size of a football field. The library had many rooms available for private study and even a large auditorium, but there was also more than a million books, plus plenty of electronic resources. I have a general idea of what is available in my library. If someone asked to borrow a book about grace, I know which ones would be good for them to read. If I’m looking for a poem or a certain person’s perspective, I can find it pretty quickly. However, I can’t imagine ever knowing everything that is available in every one of my books. The university library is my library magnified hundreds of times. Can anyone ever really know everything in those books?

A library has so much knowledge that no person can know it all, but it is even harder to know everything about God. A.W. Tozer in his book “The Knowledge of the Holy” wrote, “Neither the writer nor the reader of these words is qualified to appreciate the holiness of God. Quite literally a new channel must be cut through the desert of our minds to allow the sweet waters of truth that will heal our great sickness to flow in. We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire his wisdom, but his holiness he cannot even imagine.” And His holiness is just the tip of the iceberg. Everything about God stands apart; His grace and His love is beyond our wildest imaginations.

No one can know everything in every book ever written. It would be impossible for anyone to even read every book, let alone remember all the details. A librarian would have more knowledge than most people. At least she would know where to find a book on the subject. She might even be able to suggest the right book. It is that way with the holiness of God. We can study God, know the history of His people, learn and follow His law. We can try to live according to His wisdom and His love. However, there is no way we can possibly even imagine the holiness of God. His ways, His thoughts, His purposes are higher than human flesh can attain.

The psalmist reminds us that God spoke to the Israelites through the pillar of cloud and through His priests. He spoke to them through His Law. “They kept his testimonies, the statute that he gave them.” In later times, God spoke through His prophets. Moses and Elijah represent the people God chose to speak His words to the people. And then God sent His Son. Now, we hear God’s words through the stories of Jesus, through the scriptures, through the people who are still called to preach and teach today. God speaks through our priests, pastors, preachers, missionaries, prophets and teachers. He speaks through other Christians. He speaks through us.

We must remember, however, that what is important is not the work we do, but that we remain true and faithful to God’s Word. Unfortunately, we often act in response to our circumstances without really listening to God. That’s when we show our own faithlessness. Moses hit the rock because he was frustrated by the continued faithlessness of the people, and in doing so showed his own faithlessness. Peter offered to build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses and Elijah because he didn’t want the moment to end, and in doing so ignored the true ministry to which he was called.

I think, perhaps, the hardest part of being a parent is learning how to balance the necessity for discipline of our children and our love for them. We want to let go and forgive them everything, but we know that if we do they will never grow into mature and responsible adults. As hard as it is to punish our children, we are charged with helping them learn how to do what is good and right and true. It isn’t any easier for God, sometimes He deals with us by allowing us to suffer the consequences of our sinfulness.

The psalmist wrote, “You are a God who forgave them, although you took vengeance for their doings.” The story from the Old Testament lesson is one of those moments. Moses was the chosen one of God. He led God’s people out of Egypt and through the wilderness for forty years. He stood in the presence of God. He received the Law and gave it to the people. He sought God’s help for the people over and over again. Every time they complained about the lack of food or water, every time they grumbled, Moses asked God to help in their stead. He was an incredible man of God, faithful and obedient. And yet, he was just a man and he failed.

The consequence of Moses’ unfaithfulness was that he would never enter into the promised land. We hear in Deuteronomy 32 “Die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people; because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel. For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.”

Moses was faithful and obedient, but not perfectly. In the desert, the people complained about the lack of water. Instead of acting according to God’s Word, he struck the rock in anger. Instead of approaching the rock trusting in God’s word, he approached with a determination to prove to the people that they will get what they do not deserve. Instead of speaking forth the water, he struck the rock twice.

It is absolutely necessary for us to trust God’s word above all else. God is gracious, and He is merciful, but faith is by hearing, not by sight. And so, at this important juncture in the story of Israel, God commanded Moses to speak to the rock. Moses, following his base instincts and his anger, struck the rock, instead.

In Numbers 20, God told Moses, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” Imagine the scene. Moses stood by the rock and hit it twice with his staff. What would you believe? Would you believe that it is the word that made the water flow? Or would you believe that Moses caused it to come? Who would you thank for that water? God commanded Moses to speak the word, and in doing so he would have shown God to be holy and powerful. Instead, Moses showed himself to be holy and powerful. This is why Moses could not enter into the Promised Land.

But God is gracious. Even though Moses was faithless at that moment, we see in today’s Old Testament lesson that God still honored Moses, “Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face.” The Israelites continued to hold Moses in high regard, almost to the point of putting him above God. Even to the days of Jesus, Moses was seen as more than just the man who led them out of Egypt. He was the deliverer. He was the lawgiver. They knew God was behind it, but they gave the credit to Moses. If God had allowed him to go on, they might have made him like a god, but Moses was just a man. He was a man chosen and gifted by God to do great and wonderful things, but he was just a man.

For his faithlessness, Moses was buried on the other side of the Jordan. He was not allowed to enter into the Promised Land. However, God is gracious and merciful: He gave Moses the chance to see the fulfillment of the promise. Moses died with God’s faithfulness in his sight. God did what He told Abraham He would do. His people were finally home after four hundred years in Egypt, after slavery, and after forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

Moses died, but first he laid his hand upon Joshua and gave him the authority to continue leading God’s people into the Promised Land. Moses only went so far and then had to turn the responsibility over to another. This was a foreshadowing of what was to come. Even the name Joshua parallels the story of Jesus; both names are different forms with a similar meaning, “the Lord is my salvation.” While Joshua is not Jesus, Joshua was the one who finished the Exodus; he led God’s people home, just as Jesus does for us.

Moses appears again in today’s Gospel lesson. Despite his faithlessness, God still honored Moses’ obedience. Moses may have failed, but he was also faithful. Isn’t that true of all of us? We respond faithfully to the call of God, but we also fall short. Sometimes we do things that seem to put us ahead of God. Like Moses in the desert, we make a big show of our power and authority and though we mean it to glorify God, it becomes more about our action than God’s Word.

In the story of Cinderella, Cinderella was a girl who found herself in horrible circumstances. She was unloved and abused by the people who should have cared for her the most. With the help of some friends, Cinderella overcame all the hurdles and found her prince charming. She found her happily ever after; she was at the top of the mountain reveling in the glory of her new and transformed life.

Disney made a sequel to their version of this age-old story called, “Dreams Come True.” In this story, Cinderella found out what it was like to live in the everyday moments of running a castle. She had to be a hostess to all the visitors, acting royal as was expected by the people in her new world. This mean that she could not be her usual warm and welcoming self if she was to act according to the traditional ways. So, she had difficulty living up to everyone’s expectations. She could not be herself; she had to act like something different. By the end of the movie, Cinderella discovered that she must be herself to succeed.

Jesus could not live up to the expectations of the world; He had to be obedient to the Word of God, to do what God intended. The disciples and so many others wanted Jesus to lead an army that would destroy their oppressors and then sit on an earthly throne. Jesus knew that His story would have a much different ending.

Shortly before Jesus and those three disciples were on the mountain where He was transfigured, about eight days according to Luke’s account, Jesus told the disciples for the first time that He would have to suffer and die at the hands of all who would reject Him. Those words must have been disturbing and disheartening for the disciples. Peter, James, and John witnessed His glorification. It must have made them doubt Jesus’ warning. “Surely if God would do something so miraculous, then Jesus must be more than even He thought He would be!” God would not allow His Chosen One to die, right?

There is a human tendency to need to “do something.” Peter, James, and John saw Jesus in His glory; they heard God’s voice declare Jesus as the beloved One and Peter did not want it to end. It is no wonder that he would want to build permanent structures in which Jesus, Moses, and Elijah could dwell. There on the mountaintop, in the presence of the Holy, no one could harm Jesus. However, this was not the way it was to be.

Peter was interrupted by a voice from heaven. A cloud came down and covered them and they were afraid. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!” The voice does not command the disciples to bow down and worship Jesus, to follow Him, or even obey Him. God commanded the disciples to hear Jesus, to listen to Him. God's word matters and it is Jesus who speaks God’s word with faithfulness. We are to believe and do whatever He says.

Jesus had this moment of glory, but the real glory would come in a much different way. They needed to return to the real world, to the world which needed God’s mercy and grace. They needed to go back to the crowds, to the dis-ease, to the oppression. Jesus had to go back to the hatred and rejection that would send Him to the cross. The disciples quickly learned that the brilliance and magnificence of that mountain top experience was fleeting. Peter wanted to take control; for him it became more about the act than the Word.

How often do we act when we should simply listen and obey?

How does God speak to us? Unfortunately, we often become confused about what is real and what is our own response to the circumstances in which we live. Moses hit the rock because he was frustrated by the continued faithlessness of the people, and in doing so showed his own faithlessness. Peter offered to build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses and Elijah because he didn’t want the moment to end, and in doing so ignored the true ministry to which he was called.

We look to our pastors and leaders to help us to understand God’s Word, but we often confuse our trust in them with faith in God. By doing so, we risk following teachings that lead us in the wrong direction. We are not called to follow men, but to follow Jesus. We are faithless like Moses and Peter when we trust our pastors, institutions, doctrines and programs more than we trust God.

There are many in our world today that have found themselves struggling because they know there is good reason to leave a church, but they can’t because something is holding them there. They have roots. They have family. They built the church with their sweat and their material resources. It is understandable. We are afraid to let go because those things have been our foundation and our hope. But sometimes we have to consider whether we have placed our trust in something less than God.

It is easy to become confused by the voices we hear. Which one is God? Who is really from God? Who is telling the truth? We wonder if we truly understand what the scriptures mean and we need to consider whether we are putting our own spin on God’s Word. Peter had been listening to the expectations of the world and his own hope for Jesus’ ministry; he was acting on the wrong voices. He didn’t want to believe what Jesus was saying about His suffering and death. God reminded him that the only voice that is true is Jesus’. The writer of Hebrews says, “For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God.” God does not negate the ministry of those who are sent like Moses or Elijah, but He reminds us that there is one greater. Jesus is our hope and our salvation and more worthy of our praise and thanksgiving, for He has built the house.

Thankfully, God is gracious. Even when we are faithless, He is faithful. We may suffer the consequences of misfocused trust, but God will always let those with faith see the Promised Land. And though Moses did not enter with the people when they finally crossed the Jordan, He was not forgotten by God. He was still honored for his obedience and faith by standing in the glory of the true Savior. We, too, will fail but one day we will stand in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we do, it will be for eternity because by His grace we have been made a part of His house forever.

Like Peter, we would like to focus on the transfiguration and the glory. Jesus refused to stay on the mountain and in the glory because He knew the greater glory was to come. Instead of savoring the moment, Jesus herded His disciples back down the mountain into the path of the real work of the kingdom. We are reminded that it is never about the work we do, but about remaining true and faithful to God’s Word. Moses did good work, but he fell short when he did not do as God commanded at the rock in the desert.

We want Jesus’ mission to be a great king who overcomes the oppression of our enemies, but the Gospel passage is bookended by the truth of Jesus’ mission among us (Luke 9:21 and 9:44). He came to suffer at the hands of men and to die. God reminded them that they should listen to what Jesus had to say, even though it was hard and did not make sense to them. Jesus never said that He would be an earthly king over Israel. He never promised to lead them into battle against their oppressors. Instead, Jesus told them that He would have to die. The glory would not be found on a mountain, in a castle, or on a throne. The true glory was found on the Cross. For the work of God to be complete He would need to get off the mountain.

Imagine this choice: suppose someone has offered to send you on a vacation and they give you two places from which to choose. On one vacation you will be pampered like royalty, waited on hand and foot at a beautiful resort in the balmy Caribbean. On the other trip you will be working on a ranch. The activities will include slopping pigs and cleaning out the horse stalls in the barn. You’ll even have to help with the cooking and cleaning each day. Which vacation would you choose? What if you discovered that choosing the vacation in the Caribbean would be the highlight of your life and nothing after could ever compare to it, while the vacation on the ranch was just the beginning of an incredible life you never expected?

If you could see beyond the vacation, would you choose the temporary pampering or the life-changing experience? Peter, James, and John were not given a choice, but as we look at the story of the Transfiguration we know that we are blessed that they followed Jesus down the mountain. Jesus calls us to follow Him and to join in His work. We will never know everything about God, but we know more and more as we listen to Jesus, read and study the scriptures, and hear God’s voice in our prayers and through the body of Christ.

I wonder what it would have been like to be with Peter, James, and John that day. I’d like to believe that I could understand what was happening, that Jesus was giving us a preview of what was to come. The transfiguration was a brief moment in time when God showed the disciples the end of the story, that Christ was the King, the Messiah, the One who would save the world. It was all so overwhelming for those three men, though. There they stood with Elijah and Moses, while Jesus was glorified before their eyes. What did it mean? They could only think in human terms. They did not want this moment to end.

We see the cross as a horrible and ugly thing, something to be passed over so that we can celebrate Easter. We are indeed Easter people, shining the light of Jesus Christ for the world to see, but Jesus was glorified when He took upon Himself the sin of the world to set us free from sin and death. The beauty is in the cross, the most foolish and hardest to believe aspect of Christian faith. There could be no resurrection without death, no New Covenant unless the old one passed away.

At the Transfiguration we saw Moses and Elijah honored for their faith despite their failure; they represented the Law and the Prophets who spoke for God until the Day when Jesus came. But at the Transfiguration we learned that Jesus was greater than the Law and the Prophets. He is greater than Moses and Elijah. When we listen to Him, we’ll grow in our knowledge of the God who saved us by His grace. The world will be blessed as God’s glory is reflected in our lives and through our work, even though Jesus has led us off the mountain into the hard work of His Kingdom.