Sermon illustrations for Transfiguration Sunday, Cycle C (2016)
Illustration
Object:
Exodus 34:29-35
Imagine that you have gone for a walk just as the sun is setting. You are walking east on an east/west road. As you walk, you pass people coming from the opposite direction. Because they walk west, the setting sun lights their faces. Their faces are aglow with what you do not see -- the setting sun.
When Moses came down from the mountain holding the two tablets of the covenant, the skin of his face shone with what the Israelites did not see. Rather than a setting sun, his face was aglow because he had been talking with God. It was set aglow by the glory of God.
The chorus “Surely the Presence of the Lord” claims this phenomenon occurs to people of faith. I have known people whose faith journey takes them in a direction where they see what others do not see. They see the presence of God in their midst, and their faces are aglow with the experience.
I pray that from time to time others see my face shining because I have caught a glimpse of the presence of God.
R. Robert C.
Exodus 34:29-35
John Seligman’s book Authentic Happiness describes lawyers as having the best-paid careers in the U.S., but they are also the least happy of any profession. As measured by self-reporting, lawyers say they are unhappy with their jobs, depressed, and have higher rates of alcoholism, drug abuse and marital breakdown. Pessimism is one of their main problems. In almost every other career, the more optimistic you are the more you achieve. But law needs lawyers to be pessimistic. They need to foresee the worst possible outcomes, and make preparations for that possibility. This is a job skill that is the opposite of what brings career satisfaction.
Application: To enforce the Ten Commandments can be an emotionally draining experience.
Ron L.
Exodus 34:29-35
The Law of God is awesome. John Calvin called the Law “majestic” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. III/1, p. 391). But on the whole Americans don’t pay it much mind. Witness the decline in morality -- a 2006 Associated Press/Epsos poll found that 68% of Americans say lying is appropriate sometimes; a 2014 Gallup poll found 69% think divorce is morally acceptable, 58% find having a baby outside marriage appropriate, and even 33% approve of pornography. Not much fear and trembling before the Lord here. It is like St. Augustine once noted: We are so messed up that we would rather concentrate on the gossip about other people’s lives than change our own (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, p. 142).
If we do attend to the commandments, it is likely because we feel like we do a pretty good job fulfilling them. That is why at least as recently as 2001 the Barna Research Group found that seven in ten Americans say that one must [and so can] do works in order to be saved.
Martin Luther well explains two ways of responding to God’s Law. Then he suggests a third way (the correct use of the Law): “For the Law has three kinds of pupils. The first are those who hear the Law and despise it, and who lead an impious life without fear.... The second kind are those who attempt to fulfill the Law by their own power, without grace.... The third kind of pupils are those who... understand the intention of the Law and it demands impossible things” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 35, p. 245).
Luther wrote a hymn expressing why the commandments demand our veneration and attention. (The lyrics could well be read with a rap beat.)
That man a godly life might live
God did these Ten Commandments give
By his true servant Moses, high
[Up] upon the Mount Sinai...
Help us Lord Jesus Christ, for we
A Mediator have in thee.
Our works cannot salvation gain;
They merit [nothing] but endless pain. (What Luther Says, pp. 746-747)
Mark E.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
Our experience in following Jesus is said to be what reveals the truth to us. This scripture reminds us to open ourselves to the whole of the message Jesus gave us -- not just to words, but to actions, to ministry, to sacrifice, and even to the revolutionary acceptance of those who are on the margins or who are outside our experience. It is through this close following of the teachings of Jesus that the veil is removed from our eyes and we are set free to live and speak the truth.
The Spirit of love, present since creation, infuses use with the courage and the vision to be about the work of Jesus in the world in which we live. What if this simple, and complex, fact is the purpose of the Transfiguration? What if the light of the prophets, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus calls us to be infused with the light of love and mercy? What if we lived that out in the world? Would we be transfigured? Would the world be transformed?
Bonnie B.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
The conflagration referred to as World War I left many young men horribly disfigured, with portions of their faces blown away -- and the state of reconstructive surgery was still very primitive. One woman, Anna Coleman Ladd, who had grown up in privilege in Philadelphia and had been a successful sculptor in Boston, used her skills in France following the war to create masks based on the faces some of disfigured soldiers had worn before the war. These veils over the faces of the veterans allowed them to take their places in normal society without feeling like they were being stared at, or cast out of human company altogether. Yet each presented the image of God regardless of their appearance. People were not willing to look at them.
Last week the people of Nazareth did not recognize a prophet just because he’d grown up in their midst. Sometimes our vision is veiled from recognizing God’s work among us because we don’t want to look. Paul reminds us there was a veil over Moses’ face, not because he had to wear it but because the people wouldn’t look at him without it. And to be honest, most people put a veil over the face of Jesus, because they want a comfortable God who doesn’t challenge them, push them beyond their comfort zone.
We have faces -- scarred by life, but authentically ours, telling our story. Let us look at each other, and appreciate each person for who they are, because we are also looking at the face of Jesus when we look at each other.
Frank R.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
I am not an artist, but I did have the opportunity to watch an artist at work. She was an art teacher at the school where I taught several years ago. I can remember her doing a sculpting project. On the first day I helped carry in a large block of clay and placed it on her work table. It was at that time just a big, rectangular block of brown clay. I watched her work each day. At first it was hard to notice any difference. However, after a week the block began to look different. At the end of two weeks it was noticeably changed. It began to resemble a person. By the end of the month, she had transformed that ugly block of clay into a beautiful masterpiece.
I thought about her and her work again as I read through this text. We are not like the Israelites, whose minds were hardened. They could not see the glory because the veil that once hid Moses’ face was still over their hearts. That veil is set aside in Christ, so Christians see the glory of the Lord, even though it is, for now, a “reflected” image. Being in Christ, having his Spirit work in us transforms us. We are becoming more like Jesus. It may not be something that you notice in a big way every day. If we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us, little by little, over time, we are becoming different.
An artist can take that which is ugly, formless, and nothing and make it into something valuable and amazing. Allow the divine artist to work in your life. Be transformed by his power and glory. You’ll never be the same.
Bill T.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
When I read the Old Testament as a child, the meaning was often hidden to me. I could understand the words, but their meaning was often not clear. My reading of the New Testament seemed to conflict with some of the Old Testament and not clarify it. I’m sure that Moses’ meeting with God made that evident. When anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
This made me concentrate on the New Testament and not the Old Testament. Jesus not only clarified the Old Testament, he often replaced its meaning.
If I had Moses’ problem, I might have put a veil over my face rather than try to explain God’s message to people who had not met Jesus. It seems like our job is not to take away the veil, but to bring others to know Jesus -- his words and his Spirit will make God’s will clear and will lift the veil!
Moses had another problem: democracy! Democracy was a disaster in the Bible. If it were to rule, we would be worshiping that golden calf the people had asked for while Moses was gone to meet with God! They couldn’t take what Moses brought them, which conflicted with their sinful desires, so he had to hide it for a while!
Without his Spirit, it can be hard if not impossible to understand God’s word. He gives us his Spirit so that we can perform his ministry. It sounds like each one of us has a ministry. To accomplish it we had better study God’s word with prayer first, and then discuss our solution with our pastor and fellow Christians before we open our mouths!
Bob O.
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Mount Tabor in Israel is the traditional site of the Transfiguration of our Lord. The ruins of the first church built to commemorate this event go back to at least the fourth century. Today there is a Franciscan church and monastery on the site.
As tourists unload from buses and trudge toward the church, they are besieged by local entrepreneurs offering to sell them souvenirs of their visit to this holy place: “I picked this sprig of olive leaves on the very spot where God spoke from cloud, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen.’ For a small donation, you can have this to remember your visit.”
To avoid being offended by such crass commercialism, one should remember that this is in keeping with the biblical description of that day. When the three apostles accompanying the Lord saw the glorified Moses and Elijah standing with the glorified Christ, Peter suggested three structures as a way to memorialize the day. Perhaps edited from his remarks were suggestions about how to monetize the event: “In addition to the dwelling for you, Moses, and Elijah, we could build a food tent over there and have parking a little way down the mountain for tourist caravans. Yes, Lord, this would be a great way to fund our ministry.”
The voice from the cloud set the apostles straight. “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him.” When standing on holy grounds, set aside the concern of the world and listen for the message.
R. Robert C.
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Jesus Christ and God are Majestic; the Transfiguration reminds us of this. Martin Luther well describes the awesome character of God’s Majesty: “But the Power of God cannot be so determined and measured, for it is uncircumscribed and immeasurable, beyond and above all there is or may be. On the other hand, it must be essentially present at all places, even in the tiniest leaf. Therefore, indeed, he himself must be present in every single creature in its innermost being, on all sides, through and through, below and above, before and behind, so that nothing can be more truly present and within all creatures than God himself and his Power.” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 37, pp. 57-58).
The idea of God being in many places at once (in a different dimension from what we ordinarily experience) is in line with cutting-edge scientific insights from string theory (a field of physics that posits that the electrons in an atom are oscillating strings). The theory implies that there are many dimensions to reality beyond the three that we know from observation (Elias Kritsis, String Theory in a Nutshell).
An appreciation that Christ shares God’s majesty has practical implications in the view of John Calvin. It gives us confidence: “We ought to gather from this passage a useful doctrine, that when we are not thinking of Christ, we are observed by him; and it is necessary that it should be so, that he may bring us back when we have wandered from the right path” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XCII/2, p. 79).
Mark E.
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Demos Shakarian was the founder of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship. From its start, he saw so little growth that he thought continuing the program would be futile. So he announced that December 26, 1952, would be the group’s last meeting. It would have ended that day, except that night he had a vision of four men in chains coming to life. This changed Shakarian’s mind, and he continued with the fellowship. Over the years the fellowship has had over 1,000 chapters worldwide.
Application: Transfiguration can take many forms, one of which is the revival of a men’s fellowship group.
Ron L.
Imagine that you have gone for a walk just as the sun is setting. You are walking east on an east/west road. As you walk, you pass people coming from the opposite direction. Because they walk west, the setting sun lights their faces. Their faces are aglow with what you do not see -- the setting sun.
When Moses came down from the mountain holding the two tablets of the covenant, the skin of his face shone with what the Israelites did not see. Rather than a setting sun, his face was aglow because he had been talking with God. It was set aglow by the glory of God.
The chorus “Surely the Presence of the Lord” claims this phenomenon occurs to people of faith. I have known people whose faith journey takes them in a direction where they see what others do not see. They see the presence of God in their midst, and their faces are aglow with the experience.
I pray that from time to time others see my face shining because I have caught a glimpse of the presence of God.
R. Robert C.
Exodus 34:29-35
John Seligman’s book Authentic Happiness describes lawyers as having the best-paid careers in the U.S., but they are also the least happy of any profession. As measured by self-reporting, lawyers say they are unhappy with their jobs, depressed, and have higher rates of alcoholism, drug abuse and marital breakdown. Pessimism is one of their main problems. In almost every other career, the more optimistic you are the more you achieve. But law needs lawyers to be pessimistic. They need to foresee the worst possible outcomes, and make preparations for that possibility. This is a job skill that is the opposite of what brings career satisfaction.
Application: To enforce the Ten Commandments can be an emotionally draining experience.
Ron L.
Exodus 34:29-35
The Law of God is awesome. John Calvin called the Law “majestic” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. III/1, p. 391). But on the whole Americans don’t pay it much mind. Witness the decline in morality -- a 2006 Associated Press/Epsos poll found that 68% of Americans say lying is appropriate sometimes; a 2014 Gallup poll found 69% think divorce is morally acceptable, 58% find having a baby outside marriage appropriate, and even 33% approve of pornography. Not much fear and trembling before the Lord here. It is like St. Augustine once noted: We are so messed up that we would rather concentrate on the gossip about other people’s lives than change our own (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, p. 142).
If we do attend to the commandments, it is likely because we feel like we do a pretty good job fulfilling them. That is why at least as recently as 2001 the Barna Research Group found that seven in ten Americans say that one must [and so can] do works in order to be saved.
Martin Luther well explains two ways of responding to God’s Law. Then he suggests a third way (the correct use of the Law): “For the Law has three kinds of pupils. The first are those who hear the Law and despise it, and who lead an impious life without fear.... The second kind are those who attempt to fulfill the Law by their own power, without grace.... The third kind of pupils are those who... understand the intention of the Law and it demands impossible things” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 35, p. 245).
Luther wrote a hymn expressing why the commandments demand our veneration and attention. (The lyrics could well be read with a rap beat.)
That man a godly life might live
God did these Ten Commandments give
By his true servant Moses, high
[Up] upon the Mount Sinai...
Help us Lord Jesus Christ, for we
A Mediator have in thee.
Our works cannot salvation gain;
They merit [nothing] but endless pain. (What Luther Says, pp. 746-747)
Mark E.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
Our experience in following Jesus is said to be what reveals the truth to us. This scripture reminds us to open ourselves to the whole of the message Jesus gave us -- not just to words, but to actions, to ministry, to sacrifice, and even to the revolutionary acceptance of those who are on the margins or who are outside our experience. It is through this close following of the teachings of Jesus that the veil is removed from our eyes and we are set free to live and speak the truth.
The Spirit of love, present since creation, infuses use with the courage and the vision to be about the work of Jesus in the world in which we live. What if this simple, and complex, fact is the purpose of the Transfiguration? What if the light of the prophets, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus calls us to be infused with the light of love and mercy? What if we lived that out in the world? Would we be transfigured? Would the world be transformed?
Bonnie B.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
The conflagration referred to as World War I left many young men horribly disfigured, with portions of their faces blown away -- and the state of reconstructive surgery was still very primitive. One woman, Anna Coleman Ladd, who had grown up in privilege in Philadelphia and had been a successful sculptor in Boston, used her skills in France following the war to create masks based on the faces some of disfigured soldiers had worn before the war. These veils over the faces of the veterans allowed them to take their places in normal society without feeling like they were being stared at, or cast out of human company altogether. Yet each presented the image of God regardless of their appearance. People were not willing to look at them.
Last week the people of Nazareth did not recognize a prophet just because he’d grown up in their midst. Sometimes our vision is veiled from recognizing God’s work among us because we don’t want to look. Paul reminds us there was a veil over Moses’ face, not because he had to wear it but because the people wouldn’t look at him without it. And to be honest, most people put a veil over the face of Jesus, because they want a comfortable God who doesn’t challenge them, push them beyond their comfort zone.
We have faces -- scarred by life, but authentically ours, telling our story. Let us look at each other, and appreciate each person for who they are, because we are also looking at the face of Jesus when we look at each other.
Frank R.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
I am not an artist, but I did have the opportunity to watch an artist at work. She was an art teacher at the school where I taught several years ago. I can remember her doing a sculpting project. On the first day I helped carry in a large block of clay and placed it on her work table. It was at that time just a big, rectangular block of brown clay. I watched her work each day. At first it was hard to notice any difference. However, after a week the block began to look different. At the end of two weeks it was noticeably changed. It began to resemble a person. By the end of the month, she had transformed that ugly block of clay into a beautiful masterpiece.
I thought about her and her work again as I read through this text. We are not like the Israelites, whose minds were hardened. They could not see the glory because the veil that once hid Moses’ face was still over their hearts. That veil is set aside in Christ, so Christians see the glory of the Lord, even though it is, for now, a “reflected” image. Being in Christ, having his Spirit work in us transforms us. We are becoming more like Jesus. It may not be something that you notice in a big way every day. If we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us, little by little, over time, we are becoming different.
An artist can take that which is ugly, formless, and nothing and make it into something valuable and amazing. Allow the divine artist to work in your life. Be transformed by his power and glory. You’ll never be the same.
Bill T.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
When I read the Old Testament as a child, the meaning was often hidden to me. I could understand the words, but their meaning was often not clear. My reading of the New Testament seemed to conflict with some of the Old Testament and not clarify it. I’m sure that Moses’ meeting with God made that evident. When anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
This made me concentrate on the New Testament and not the Old Testament. Jesus not only clarified the Old Testament, he often replaced its meaning.
If I had Moses’ problem, I might have put a veil over my face rather than try to explain God’s message to people who had not met Jesus. It seems like our job is not to take away the veil, but to bring others to know Jesus -- his words and his Spirit will make God’s will clear and will lift the veil!
Moses had another problem: democracy! Democracy was a disaster in the Bible. If it were to rule, we would be worshiping that golden calf the people had asked for while Moses was gone to meet with God! They couldn’t take what Moses brought them, which conflicted with their sinful desires, so he had to hide it for a while!
Without his Spirit, it can be hard if not impossible to understand God’s word. He gives us his Spirit so that we can perform his ministry. It sounds like each one of us has a ministry. To accomplish it we had better study God’s word with prayer first, and then discuss our solution with our pastor and fellow Christians before we open our mouths!
Bob O.
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Mount Tabor in Israel is the traditional site of the Transfiguration of our Lord. The ruins of the first church built to commemorate this event go back to at least the fourth century. Today there is a Franciscan church and monastery on the site.
As tourists unload from buses and trudge toward the church, they are besieged by local entrepreneurs offering to sell them souvenirs of their visit to this holy place: “I picked this sprig of olive leaves on the very spot where God spoke from cloud, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen.’ For a small donation, you can have this to remember your visit.”
To avoid being offended by such crass commercialism, one should remember that this is in keeping with the biblical description of that day. When the three apostles accompanying the Lord saw the glorified Moses and Elijah standing with the glorified Christ, Peter suggested three structures as a way to memorialize the day. Perhaps edited from his remarks were suggestions about how to monetize the event: “In addition to the dwelling for you, Moses, and Elijah, we could build a food tent over there and have parking a little way down the mountain for tourist caravans. Yes, Lord, this would be a great way to fund our ministry.”
The voice from the cloud set the apostles straight. “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him.” When standing on holy grounds, set aside the concern of the world and listen for the message.
R. Robert C.
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Jesus Christ and God are Majestic; the Transfiguration reminds us of this. Martin Luther well describes the awesome character of God’s Majesty: “But the Power of God cannot be so determined and measured, for it is uncircumscribed and immeasurable, beyond and above all there is or may be. On the other hand, it must be essentially present at all places, even in the tiniest leaf. Therefore, indeed, he himself must be present in every single creature in its innermost being, on all sides, through and through, below and above, before and behind, so that nothing can be more truly present and within all creatures than God himself and his Power.” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 37, pp. 57-58).
The idea of God being in many places at once (in a different dimension from what we ordinarily experience) is in line with cutting-edge scientific insights from string theory (a field of physics that posits that the electrons in an atom are oscillating strings). The theory implies that there are many dimensions to reality beyond the three that we know from observation (Elias Kritsis, String Theory in a Nutshell).
An appreciation that Christ shares God’s majesty has practical implications in the view of John Calvin. It gives us confidence: “We ought to gather from this passage a useful doctrine, that when we are not thinking of Christ, we are observed by him; and it is necessary that it should be so, that he may bring us back when we have wandered from the right path” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XCII/2, p. 79).
Mark E.
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)
Demos Shakarian was the founder of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship. From its start, he saw so little growth that he thought continuing the program would be futile. So he announced that December 26, 1952, would be the group’s last meeting. It would have ended that day, except that night he had a vision of four men in chains coming to life. This changed Shakarian’s mind, and he continued with the fellowship. Over the years the fellowship has had over 1,000 chapters worldwide.
Application: Transfiguration can take many forms, one of which is the revival of a men’s fellowship group.
Ron L.
