I wanted to tell you just quickly about my love for Renaissance festivals.
I've mentioned it a time or two, but Renaissance Festival for me did not start by going to
the one up by Montgomery and the one over in Todd Mission.
For me, Renaissance Festival started in fifth grade in the elementary school.
Renaissance Festival for me was that we were all trying to figure out what costumes we
were going to wear and how we were going to participate in this festival.
Now, I had absolutely no idea what a Renaissance outfit would look like.
So I tried to come up with what I thought would be the best thing closest to it.
But in my mind, Renaissance Festival was kings and queens and royal courts.
So I made what I didn't realize was a kingly type of outfit, even including a crown on
my head.
Now, I ended up getting to the festival realizing that absolutely nobody else dressed exactly
like that.
So there I am, the one person presiding over everybody else like the king that apparently
I thought of myself as.
Now, what was interesting about this though, in addition to the fact that, well, it's kind
of ridiculous in my mind, is that I was kind of ashamed of having dressed up as a king.
You see, the whole time I kept trying to take off the crown or trying to kind of cover up
the outfit itself.
Because there I am thinking to myself, what right do I have to dress up as a king in this
place?
Not granted, I probably would have had a better time if I just bossed everybody around.
But instead, I spent the whole time trying to cover it up.
And what strikes me is that in many ways, the Christian life is oftentimes about avoiding
what we should truly find glory and joy in because of what we think is going to somehow
stand out even better.
Over the last several weeks, there have been some things that we've gone over that have
been leading up to today, today being the transfiguration.
Some of the things that have been there is, one, the story of God, it's going to happen
one way or another.
But if it's happening in and through us, then that's because we listen and follow.
But as we do so, is that that's really how repentance happens, is that we don't repent
because we're sitting here saying, I want to change.
We repent because we see and believe in who Jesus is and changes us inside so that we
want to be something different.
But that life, definitely not easy by any means.
The Christian life is a struggle.
And the thing is, is that if we spend all of our time trying to avoid the struggle, chances
are we're probably saying and doing things that are not leading us or anybody else closer
to God.
But who is it that we're actually listening to in regard to that journey?
The prophets that we're called to listen to are those where you can see what God is doing
in their lives now and even as they point toward the future.
This isn't just, oh, well, I guess we'll wait and see and hope that you're right.
But rather is how is it that God himself is working through them to go in the direction
that he wants to go, his direction and not ours.
And as we go that route, that does mean that we serve.
As much as we enjoy the parts where we get to make the decisions and boss people around
with or without the crown on our head, that's not where ministry actually occurs.
It occurs in the places where we're the ones serving.
And as we bring those together, I want that to be your background as we're talking a bit
about the transfiguration.
Now we had our Exodus passage earlier, and I want to make sure that you know what it
was that went into that passage.
See, Moses had gotten the commandments for the second time.
The reason he had to get them twice is because he broke them the first time.
And no, he's not just as clumsy as Pastor Jason.
This was a deliberate anger, we're going to smash these.
Why?
Because he had come down from the mountain and the people had made a golden calf.
Instead of waiting to hear from God himself and see what it is that he wanted to speak
to them.
Instead, they were like, well, we're used to being in Egypt, and we're used to these
beautiful animals that are in their worship.
So let's just do that.
Because then if people come by and they see us, they'll see this golden calf and they'll
really know to respect us.
And let's do all the things that will end up feeling beautiful.
Because all we're doing is just following God out into this wilderness, and here's a
mountain.
What's that going to do for us at all?
And yet, when Moses went to go back and get those commandments again, because God was
merciful enough to speak to a sinful people, when he comes back down, he's shining.
He has been in the presence of God and he's shining.
Now you would think, oh, well, they wanted something spectacular.
Shouldn't they be impressed?
All they could do is say, please cover it up.
We can't handle this.
They wanted something beautiful that they could control and construct, but the actual
presence of God, they wanted to hide it.
Isn't that in many ways what we end up doing is that the actual presence of God, what God
is actually going to do is the thing that we oftentimes run away from the most.
Actually, we may be looking for something pretty or nice or beautiful in some way, but
is it real?
As you all may not be aware of, once upon a time I had a career in karate.
And by career, I mean I was nine years old and had a green belt because they were just
being nice that day.
One of the things with it is that everybody right around my age, we were all trying to
be Ralph Machio.
We wanted to be the karate kid, although apparently that might have been William Zafka.
That's a whole other debate.
But one of the things that struck me is that when you're in karate, what are you supposed
to be doing?
You're practicing, you're getting into shape, you're learning different moves, and that
really just takes time and perseverance and struggle.
But what was I looking for?
Why didn't the karate kid?
I was just looking for that perfect move, that one thing that was going to somehow win the
fight for me.
But what's amazing about the flashy kick is that if you actually go back, it was an illegal
kick to the face.
They were trying so hard to make sure that this movie had a climactic moment, and yet
at the same time, if you were to do that, you'd end up being disqualified.
But isn't that oftentimes what it is that we're trying for as the church?
We're looking for some moment, something that's going to somehow be flashy and beautiful, just
somehow fix it all.
And in reality, the Christian life is continual, piece by piece.
And that's one of the things that we end up seeing here is that instead of being willing
to go through the challenge, what it was that God was taking the people into the wilderness
for in the first place, is instead they just wanted to go right back to where they were
originally.
And that ends up pointing us to what we see with Jesus.
You see, the thing about Jesus being transfigured is that there wasn't anything that it was
supposed to do.
Jesus was transfigured because it was just who he was.
There's a bit of background with this.
Moses and Elijah are there on this mountain, and the two of them are known as two people
who were taken up into the presence of God mysteriously, Elijah because of a chariot of
fire and Moses because, well, he left and God buried him up on that mountain somewhere.
And so for the people, when they see these two individuals, they know that this must
be Elijah and Moses for whom they were supposed to be waiting.
And so what is it that Peter comes up with?
He may be wondering, what was up with the tents?
Well, you see, one of their festivals was the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of the Tents,
the Boons.
It was a celebration that they would have that reminded them that God had led them through
the wilderness to the Promised Land.
And so whenever they would celebrate, they'd all get into their little tents, almost like
a college sort of affair, and they would then be looking toward the future kingdom of God.
So there they were, seeing Jesus transfigured with Moses and Elijah, and what can they think
of?
Festival of tents, Festival of Boots.
How about we set up a tent for each of you, Jesus, you and Moses and Elijah?
Was that the point?
Was that what they were up there for?
Is that at that moment, Jesus was being ministered to by Elijah and Moses, and he was just being
himself.
The glory of Jesus shown forth just because that was who he was.
But that's a piece that we take for granted a lot, is that the glory of God shines forth
because of how he has transformed us.
Because instead of Peter trying to figure out, okay, what do we need to do?
Do we need to set up a little tent for each of you?
Do we need to make sure we're prepared for all this?
And it was just, God is saying, listen to him.
Don't we have struggle with that oftentimes?
We're trying to figure out the right thing to say or the right thing to do when in reality
it always starts with, have you listened to my son?
And that's the piece that we struggle with, but it's the piece we need the most with this
Sunday.
You see, the kingdom of God, the faith that God gives us is what changes us.
But it also involves the struggle of this life, and it involves serving him and one another.
This moment on the mountain didn't change that.
Jesus had to say, don't tell people about this yet.
Why?
Because he still needed to get to the ultimate place of his glory, the cross.
Would we be willing to see God do his will in this place, or are we more interested in
our own will?
Because I think we're afraid.
I think we're actually afraid.
Because I think that we're afraid of what it would actually mean and do if we're genuinely
submitting to God and saying, God, you be the one to move through us.
If we were to genuinely say, we know that we need to change and not hold things back.
If we were to genuinely say that, yes, our lives are meant to be in service to one another.
Why?
That might mean that maybe we have to let go of things that we thought mattered even
more to us.
I think that we're afraid of the actual glory of God because of where the glory of God actually
is.
The glory of God is on the cross.
So as we look at this, we're not looking at God's glory shining because somehow we've
managed to make something perfect or do something in a way that is flashy or amazing in some
outward way, but rather is God the one that is leading us.
We've got different things that we're making sure we emphasize, and we've been putting
out these different newsletters on fasting and prayer.
We definitely want to encourage you, if you are able, to consider finding a way to practice
fasting throughout this season of Lent.
Not because it's somehow something that we want to take pride in.
I'm not going to take attendance on fasting and not going to have you check off anything.
Next week Sunday, if you come in looking all ragged, it's not going to be like, are you
hungry?
Do you need a donut?
But rather is that as the people of God, if we truly want to be as the people of God
pursuing God's will, then maybe we need to spend more time in the places and in the ways
that we know God can more clearly speak to us.
So as we go to Ash Wednesday, and as we spend this season preparing for the cross, may we
take the time to ask how God is shining forth in us and through us, not through the things
that we think are beautiful, but through what he finds beautiful, his love for us, the suffering
that it took and what it means to serve one another.
Thanks be to God.