Listening to Jesus

Sermon for Feb. 19, 2023, Transfiguration Sunday, Year A

 Matthew 17:1-9

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The pastor I served under as a youth and young adult leader saw himself as a mentor and teacher to me, and I learned a lot about ministry from him. One day as we were talking about church things he asked me, “Can you keep a secret?” I said “Yes.” He said, “So can I” — and said no more. That was clever. Anticlimactic, but clever. 

Anti-climactic Stories

Why do people tell anticlimactic stories? Usually, stories build-up to the end; the couple finally kiss, the murder is solved, the hero defeats the monster — that is how we expect it to go. But the gospels have a couple of really odd, anticlimactic stories. 

Here we have an example. Matthew, following Mark, records this amazing story: Jesus is transformed before the eyes of his inner circle, both clothing and face dazzlingly bright, Moses and Elijah appear, God’s voice is heard from a cloud that is overshadowing them, and all this builds up to the moment when it is all over and Jesus says to them,

“Tell no one about the vision” for now.  

So why would anyone tell such an anti-climactic story, and why should we still read it today? What is here for us? Let us look at it and see.

Understanding How the Bible Works

Parenthetically, I want you to know that one of my goals, as we work through texts from the bible each Sunday, is not only to help us get the message the text has for us but also, over time, to help us see how the Bible actually works. 

We are surrounded by lots of churches that teach things about the nature of the bible that I do not believe match the facts. I want you all to see the facts.

One of the obvious facts about the stories of Jesus in the Bible is that there are four, not one, and they differ from each other, sometimes trivially, sometimes substantially. 

Noticing those differences help us to understand what each author was trying to say about Jesus and his significance.

Jesus as Moses

For example, it is quite clear that Matthew wanted us to see Jesus as the new Moses. We see it right here in this story. Matthew took Mark’s version of this story and made some edits so that Jesus’ life mirrors or echos Moses. 

He has Jesus deliver this sermon on the mount, just as Moses got the ten commandments from the mountain. 

He has Jesus take his three inner circle of leadership up the mountain with him, just as Moses had done.

There is a cloud in both stories, and the voice of God from the cloud.  

Mark tells us that Jesus’ clothing became bright white, but Matthew adds the detail that “his face shone like the sun,” to echo the experience of Moses, according to the story, which says, 

“As he [Moses] came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.  When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining” (Ex. 34:29-30).

Even the opening words of the story, “Six days later” echo the story of Moses, receiving the commandments after six days on the mountain.  

The Main Point

But let us not get lost in the details and miss the main message. Why make Jesus parallel to Moses? Because Moses was the giver of Torah, the Law. Those 613 commandments were what organized all of life for Israel. 

The Law of Moses instructed the people about how to worship, how to organize their land, how to care for the poor, what to eat and not eat, and even what they could or could not touch without incurring impurity. 

But for Matthew, now that Jesus has come, there is a new voice to listen to that fulfills the Law of Moses: it is the voice of Jesus. That is exactly what the vice of God says from the cloud:

“This is my Son, the Beloved; with him, I am well pleased; listen to him!”  

The whole point is that we, the community of people who are Jesus-followers, should listen to him. 

That is what we try to do here when we come together: listen to the Jesus-stories over and over until what he says sinks into our consciousness and becomes deeply embedded in our hearts. 

From there, Jesus’ teaching then affects everything for us, just as the Law of Moses had done for Israelites. Jesus’ teaching affects how we think of God as our Heavenly parent who loves us unconditionally.

Jesus’ teaching affects how we treat each other — remember that Jesus taught with words and by his actions — so we see his open-hearted embrace of everyone and his exclusion of no one. 

We see Jesus taking time for the poor, the sick, the people who others felt free to treat as non-persons, women, slaves, children and this schools us in how to live. 

So, listening to Jesus’ teaching affects all of life for us: from what we spend our money on, and what we find entertaining, to how we vote and what kind of country we want to have.  

Listening to Jesus in this intentional and practical way is what we are called to do.  So of course, the voice has to come from the cloud, just like at Mt. Sinai, and give us that mandate. 

And that is why Peter got it so wrong that day. His idea was that the point of the vision — which is what Matthew calls it — is to put up shrines. Shrines are for veneration. That is what most of the gods of the ancient world wanted from humans: worship, adoration, honorific sacrifices.

But Jesus did not ask for veneration. Jesus never told us to worship him any more than the Buddha did. He did not even care to have the story of this vision reported on, lest other people get the idea that veneration was the main point.  

The main point for Jesus is paying attention to what he said and taught, and then putting it into practice.  

Coming down the mountain

So now we come to the point at which it makes total sense that this story is anti-climactic; in fact, we can see why being anti-climactic is essential to the meaning. 

The expected climax to a story of seeing Jesus dazzling would have been precisely to build a shrine-complex as Peter suggested. 

But that was not Jesus’ agenda. Jesus’ agenda was to go back down the mountain to where the people he spent time with were — back down in Galilee among poor, hurting, oppressed and hopeless people. 

His agenda down there was to meet their needs. He brought healing to them, perhaps by his inclusive acceptance of them just as they were.  

That agenda is beautifully symbolized in this story by Jesus’ response to Peter, James and John’s meltdown. When they hit the ground in fear and trembling, Jesus went to them and said,

“Get up and do not be afraid.” 

Don’t grovel. Don’t abase yourself. Don’t do that “woe is me” routine. Rather, “get up” there is work to be done. 

Don’t be afraid — of anything: of God, of the Romans, of criticism, of your history of past failures, or of your lack hope that you can make a difference.  

They did get up; they went down the mountain with Jesus, and they changed the world, one person at a time. 

That is what listening to Jesus produces: people who are not laying on the ground or even sleep-walking through life, but who are awake to it all.

Listening to Jesus, until his words, his way of being, his worldview has become internalized awakens us to God’s goal for the world, which is its repair, its healing (Tikkun Olam). 

Listening to Jesus awakens us to his spirituality, his mystical relationship with God, and his passion for justice and reconciliation.  

So, when we come together, as we are doing now, our focus is on giving gratitude to God for this amazing vision. We are grateful that we have these gospel stories. The one we read today is a vision-story: we are people of the vision. And our vision is Jesus’ vision of a healed, reconciled world.

That is why we could never allow racial discrimination any quarter.  That is why we could never be seduced by the gross perversion of Jesus calling itself Christian Nationalism. 

Our vision includes us as collaborators with God, as we respond to the lure of the Spirit towards the next right thing that only we can do. 

Our vision is not motivated by fear, or resentment, or vengeance, but love for God and for the world God made, and for all of the people in it.  We keep listening to Jesus, and follow him down the mountain, into the River Valley.

Make a Difference

Sermon for Feb. 5, 2023 Epiphany 5 A

Matthew 5:13—14

[Jesus said:] “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

There is an exhibition in London, created by the Church of England, containing documents revealing the extent to which the church profited from the slave trade.  

This is part of the church’s effort to come to terms with her past.  An Associated Press report says, 

“The Church Commissioners, the body that administers the church’s 10 billion-pound ($12.3 billion) investment fund, hired forensic accountants in 2019 to dig through the church’s archives for evidence of slave trade links. They spent two years poring over centuries-old ledgers, and what they found is “shaming.”

The AP goes on to report that church had invested, in 

“the South Sea Company, which held a monopoly on transporting enslaved people from Africa to Spanish-controlled ports in the Americas. Between 1714 and 1739, the company transported 34,000 people on at least 96 voyages.”

Did the church know what they were trading? Yes, they knew.  

The exhibition also includes a version of the Bible that was produced for enslaved people.  

But the Bible is a dangerous book.  The central story of the whole Hebrew Bible is one of enslaved persons being led to freedom by Moses, and there are countless references to the exodus story in Psalms and in the prophets.  

So, the version of the Bible given to enslaved people excised everything that referred to freedom from bondage. They had to cut out “90% of the Old Testament and half the New Testament.”  It seems that the “word of God,” needs to be a different “word of God” for enslaved persons.

Should we be talking about any of this in church, even if it is Black History Month?  Some say no.  They want religion to be about personal spirituality alone.  

Well, the Bible begs to differ.  One of the many texts that the enslaved persons Bibles would have put through the shredder is the prophet Isaiah, our Hebrew Bible reading this morning.   

Isaiah has observed that the people are complaining that God seems not to be paying much attention to them, even though they have been acting quite religiously, worshipping and fasting.  He quotes them as they question God saying, 

“Why do we fast and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?”

(Isaiah 58)

Worshiping and fasting were part of what the Law of Moses said God wanted.  In the story, remember, Moses got those laws directly from God, so there should not be any question about what concerns God.  

Isaiah, however, boldly said, “No.”  There is a deeper desire in God’s heart than the desire to hear hymns of praise and to see people skipping meals.  Speaking for the Creator God, who made every person in God’s image, Isaiah says, 

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.”

(Isaiah 58)

Let us look at those concerns: breaking chains of injustice — who wears chains but enslaved people?  Freeing people from oppression, and canceling debts that drive people into debt slavery.  

These are concerns about human beings who are suffering, therefore they are God’s concerns,  and if they are God’s concerns, then they are spiritual concerns.  God cares about injustice.  God cares about oppression. God cares about violence.  God cares about discrimination.  

The ancient prophets of Israel understood this.  Just last week we heard Micah saying, 

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you  but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.”

(Micah 6:8)

Jesus was steeped in the prophetic tradition.  In Luke’s story of Jesus, at his inaugural sermon in the synagogue in his hometown, Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah saying it is fulfilled in his mission.  

What was Isaiah talking about?  The Year of the Lord’s Favor, the Jubilee year in which debts were forgiven and enslaved persons were set free.  

It is true that the gospels tone down Jesus’ rhetoric; they had to.  Their hero, Jesus, was from a nation that had just conducted a long bloody revolt against Rome which they lost.  

Jesus’ theme was all about a kingdom that did not have Caesar sitting on the throne, so of course it sounded subversive.  Jesus himself was executed for leading some kind of effort to get himself crowned king of the Jews, the Romans concluded, so it is tricky to tell his story.  It’s the story of an executed rebel from a nation of defeated rebels. 

But tell it, they did anyway.  Yes, they told the parts about Jesus teaching on prayer as a private matter that you do in your closet rather than out on the street corner like the hypocrites do.  

But he also advocated for a public dimension of faith in which your life actually makes a difference.  

“You are the salt of the earth” Jesus said. 

The ancients considered salt vitally important. The Jewish wisdom writer Sirach said, 

“The basic necessities of human life are water and fire and iron and salt and wheat flour and milk and honey, the blood of the grape and oil and clothing.”  . 

(Sir. 39:26)

Salt was indispensable and so is your commitment to God’s mission to bring justice and equity to all human beings. 

If that metaphor doesn’t grab you, try another.  Jesus said, 

“You are the light of the world”. 

Again, that means you are vitally important to the entire world.   Imagine the darkness, for example, of a nuclear winter: nothing would grow without enough light.  

There is a time to go into your private closet and pray, as Jesus taught.  But there is also a time to 

“let your light shine before others.”  

There is a time to make a difference in public.

I realize that by the time you get to the Gospels of John, at least six decades after the historical Jesus walked the earth, the message has become that Jesus is the light of the world — and I do like the truth of that; Jesus is indeed a source of enlightenment.  

But for the historical Jesus, the message is that we, his followers are the light of the world.  We have a public mission, a calling to make a difference.  For Jesus, that difference included liberation, Jubilee, freedom just as God desires for everyone. 

Even though it risked making Jesus look dangerously revolutionary, the gospels all tell about the time he went to the temple in Jerusalem during a major festival and shut it down symbolically for several hours.  

Even though the obvious political dimensions of that action are softened in the gospel narratives, his action is inexplicable apart from them.  

Jesus was about public action and called his followers to public action: be the salt of the earth, be the light of the world.  Let your light shine before everyone, he said.  Make a difference. 

Making a difference publicly is very Presbyterian.  When there is a mass shooting, a crisis at the border, or a police-involved killing, Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II Stated Clerk of the General Assembly who is himself black, writes a pastoral letter to our denomination.  

Recently, responding to the horrific murder of Tyre Nichols, he called us all to action.  He wrote that things must change.  We must start thinking about policing differently he said.  But the problems we have are larger than that. 

“The impact on marginalized individuals spills over into other issues such as a lack of educational opportunities and poverty. It’s all part of the death of the human soul. People are being left behind, and as a result, find themselves on the receiving end of injustice as we’ve witnessed through these videos. There is no respect for human life, and that must change.”

Even now there is an effort to ban books from our libraries and restrict education about our country’s history in our schools.  

I don’t know how old you were when you first heard of the white mob decimation of Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood in 1921.  I was in my 60’s.  It wasn’t taught.  

Neither did I ever learn in school about the Elaine Arkansas massacre of 1919.   There is a concerted effort to turn a blind eye to the past, so as not to stoke passion about the present. 

But we are called to be the salt of the earth.  We, Jesus said, are the light of the world.  Let us let our lights shine, and make a difference.