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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2008
THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
Matthew 17:1-9 (Theophany, anyone?)
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TODAY’S SERMON THEME:
More
than anything else, what we desperately need today -- as individuals and as a
nation -- is a theophany. We need to see
God face-to-face. We need to see Jesus
in all His heavenly glory. For only in
Him, and through Him, can we find the "change" that our political and
leaders are calling for.
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1. For most of my adult life, I
have studied the English language. I
guess you could say that I LOVE our language.
And I
come by this love honestly. As many of
you know, I was raised in a "newspaper family." My father was a journalist -- a reporter and
an editor. And my dad's father was a
journalist -- a printer and an editor. And
I spent the decade of the 1970's working as a reporter and an editor. To be perfectly honest, I grew up diagramming
sentences, parsing verbs, and analyzing paragraphs. As a result, I have over the last 30 years
collected some of the best -- or some of the worst -- examples of the use of
the English language. A few days ago, I
stumbled over some of them. In no
particular order, here are the ones I found:
(1) An electric
company spokesman had this to say about two nuclear power plant employees who
were caught sleeping at the control panel of the plant: "It depends on your definition of
sleeping. They were NOT reclining or
stretched out. They had their eyes
closed. But they were seated at their
desks in the nodding position." Now
THAT'S perfectly clear, isn't it?
(2) A congressman was caught red-handed in the
House banking scandal. He had
written tens of thousands of dollars in hot checks on his official House
checking account. And here is what he
told the news media: "Hey, they
gave me a book of checks! They never
said anything about having to make deposits!" Right.
Try doing that with your own bank account and see what happens.
(3) Former New York
City Mayor David Dinkins was also caught red-handed by the Internal Revenue
Service. His crime was that he
failed to pay federal income taxes. And
here is how he explained it to the press:
"I have NOT committed a crime.
What I did was fail to comply with the law." A BIG distinction, right?
(4) And, of course,
President Clinton was (and still is) the undisputed master at using and abusing
the language. Several years ago,
when his administration was caught selling secrets to China, the President was
asked if he had altered U.S. foreign policy for money. Here is what he said (and I defy anyone to
figure this sentence out): "I don't
think you will find any evidence that suggests that we changed policies solely
on the basis of a contribution." It
all depends on what the definition of "is," is. Right.
2. Just this past week,
listening to the presidential candidates of both parties sparring with each
other, I found myself longing for the good old days of Vice President Dan
Quayle. Talk about an expert in
linguistic gobbledygook. Who can ever
forget Quayle saying such things as: (1)
"I love being in California. You
know, I practically grew up in Phoenix."
(2) And: "It's great to be back in the great state of
Chicago." (3) And: The time when he
added the letter "e" to the word "potato" in an elementary
school reading class, proving to everyone that the second most powerful person
in the world could not spell.
3. Frankly, this is a funny way
of looking at something very serious. I believe that we are living in an age
where TRUTH is routinely called FALSEHOOD and FALSEHOOD is routinely being
called TRUTH. Darkness is being portrayed
as light, and light is being portrayed as darkness. We have -- in the last 50 years or so -- gone
from the age of "PLAIN SPEAKING" with President Harry Truman to the
indecipherable political non-speech of our presidential candidates. We are living in an age where television reporters
interview EACH OTHER on their own talk shows for the "official slant"
on today's news. We are living in an age
where more people are more depressed over more things than ever before. And even the GOOD NEWS of the day seems to be
set aside by those who make their living trafficking in darkness, doom,
despair, depression, disease, and disasters.
4. SO. Where will it all end? How can it possibly end? This is the point I want to make this
morning, as we look at our Gospel lesson from Matthew Chapter 17. And here is my point:
More than
anything else, what we desperately need today -- as individuals and as a nation
-- is a theophany. We need to see God
face-to-face. We need to see Jesus in
all His heavenly glory. For only in Him,
and through Him, can we find the "change" that our political and
leaders are calling for.
With all due respect . . .
Politics cannot change us. Government
cannot change us. Clever news reporters
cannot change us. Public relations
campaigns cannot change us. Even an
exciting Super Bowl cannot change us.
Only God can change us . . . from the inside out. Only God can give us the SPIRITUAL change
which we can ultimately believe in.
5. Our Gospel lesson today is
the story of the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus. It is the lesson we encounter every year at
the end of the Season of Epiphany, right before the season of Lent. It is one of the most mysterious -- and most dramatic
-- of all the stories in the Gospels. It
is also a story that defies our best efforts to understand it. For it is nothing less than one of the
greatest mountaintop experiences in history.
Let us look at it closely:
(1) Jesus is at a turning point in His earthly
ministry. He is at the northernmost part
of Israel (near Caesarea Philippi), and He is preparing to head south -- all
the way to Jerusalem.
(2) He takes His three
closest friends with Him (Peter, James, and John), the inner circle. They go off by themselves to the top of a
high mountain, seeking a time of prayer and solitude.
(3) While they were praying, Jesus was “transfigured”
before them. (The Greek word is “metamorphoo.”)
His clothing became dazzling white, His countenance began to glow, and
His face “shone like the sun.” Clearly,
the divine presence of God was there in Him.
(4) Suddenly, they were
joined by Moses and Elijah -- the two giants of the Hebrew faith. Moses, the deliverer, and Elijah, the first
and greatest prophet. It is important to
remember that Moses had been “dead” 14 centuries; Elijah had been “dead” 8
centuries. And, yet, there they were
with Jesus -- discussing the events that would soon take place in Jerusalem.
(5) Peter babbles
something about building three booths -- one for Moses, one for Elijah, one for
Jesus. But while he was speaking, a
mysterious, “bright cloud” from heaven descended upon them, and a voice from
above said: “THIS is my beloved Son,
with Whom I am well pleased. Listen to
Him!” The three apostles fell on their
faces in fear and trembling. One account
says they fell over “as though dead.”
(6) Jesus reaches down
and touches them, telling them to “fear not.”
They look up to find only Jesus there with them. And Jesus tells them to remain silent about
this THEOPHANY, this vision of God, until “the Son of Man has been raised from
the dead.”
(7) Peter and James and
John had seen the face of God -- in the face of Jesus -- and they had seen the
glory of the Lord. Nothing in their
lives would ever be the same, for they had looked on God and survived.
(8) The PRESENCE of the
Lord changes everything -- forever. The
PRESENCE of the Lord brings LIFE, shattering the bonds of death. The PRESENCE of the Lord brings LIGHT,
penetrating even the deepest darkness.
The PRESENCE of the Lord brings HOPE, swallowing up the ancient forces
of despair and depression. The PRESENCE
of the Lord brings JOY, brushing aside the gloom and doom of the present age.
GOD’S PRESENCE changes
everything . . . starting with us.
And all we have to do to
experience God’s PRESENCE is to WANT TO EXPERIENCE GOD’S PRESENCE. In a profound sense, WANTING TO EXPERIENCE
GOD’S PRESENCE is sufficient. It is
enough.
6. Today is the last Sunday in
the Season of Epiphany. The Season of
Lent begins Wednesday. The questions before us today
are simple ones: WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE
THE LORD FACE-TO-FACE? Would you like
REAL CHANGE in your life? Would you like
to make contact with a POWER GREATER THAN YOURSELF? Change CAN happen for us. Despair CAN be transformed into hope. Darkness CAN be transformed into light. Apathy CAN be transformed into joy. God has given us His promise on all of this.
The great Billy Graham
once said that the Bible contains 32,000 promises from God to us . . . 32,000
PROMISES!
And ALL of them are
contingent only on our willingness to BELIEVE IN HIM. Once again, WANTING TO . . . is
sufficient. It is enough.
Theophany, anyone?