On Not Managing God

 

Transfiguration of Our Lord - February 10, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

We sympathize with Peter.

The man is trying to get a handle on things; he is trying so hard to understand.

Even more, he is trying to manage the situation.

We do the very same thing.

When we encounter something that we do not understand, we try to fit it into a category that we already know.

We try to think that a strange thing which we encounter is like something else with which we are familiar.

So the three disciples encounter this strange vision and Peter tries to shoehorn it into existing categories somehow.

Remembering the stories from Exodus  about Moses going into the tent of meeting with God, perhaps he thought they could quickly construct something like that.

Even though he is a fisherman, in tramping around the countryside they have no doubt seen the temporary shelters that the farmers make to use during the harvest.

Perhaps in his sputtering he also has in mind something like that.

In whatever ways he can, Peter is trying to control the situation.

And it will not work.

Did you notice that Jesus did not even speak in this scene?

Peter blurts out his attempts at control, and then the cloud overshadows them.

They hear the heavenly voice  with a message similar to what we heard proclaimed at Jesus' baptism...

with references to the coronation Psalm 2 and the Suffering servant passage from Isaiah.

And the admonition: Listen to Him!

Not to all of the possible voices, not to the world full of opinion...listen to Him.

And not just to part of him, but to all that he is and says and does.

 

All across the centuries people have tried to come up with ways to limit that and manage Jesus in one way or another.

Already in the second century Marcion was a bishop who won over many people to follow him as he proclaimed that Jesus was only pretending to have a real body, and thus the birth, suffering, death, and resurrection were all make-believe.

This is what came to be known as the heresy of docetism from the Greek word ”seem”.

Marcion despised the Old Testament and only wanted parts of the New Testament.

Lots of people agreed with him.

 

In the 18^th century, the Deists had a picture of God as a one-time creator who wound up the wondrous machine and got it started and retired, leaving us in charge.

They made a Bible to match:

they deleted the primitive Old Testament,

they deleted the miracles, the healings, and anything that did not square with rational man's devotion to reason and natural law.

Their bible ends up being a very slender volume, consisting mostly of moral teachings of Jesus.

One writer has summarized the situation:

“It was a practical faith, a faith without a God who was in any way present or active, leaving us in charge now.

The world was thereby demystified and God was silenced.

We could run the world as we pleased.”

 

This will never do.

We cannot “manage” Jesus in this way.

The Transfiguration scene certainly clues us in to that.

Regarding Jesus as wisdom-teacher is a long way from bowing before  him as Lord and Savior.

 

Oh, yes, we know the power of all of that moral teaching, and especially its primary job of convicting us of our sin, how we continue to break relationships with God and each other.

But rules only go so far.

Rules cannot make joy, awe, and wonder.

Those things simply are, or are not present.

And the Transfiguration is certainly about awe and wonder.

That centers on silence, which was apparently a problem for Peter as it is for us.

The easiest way to stop trying to manage God is simply to be quiet!

And in that space perhaps the Spirit will reveal new directions.

To help that along today, we'll be hearing a very quiet piece during the Holy Communion meal.

Think of a big, mysterious, French cathedral, about 65 years ago.

Part-way through the piece we hear part of a hymn melody, and I invite you, before or after you have communed to read either of the texts in the hymnal, at Hymn 199 and Hymn 441.

They are both helpful to us today.

 

Let's come at this business of trying to manage God from a different angle.

 

On one of my trips to Israel for archeology, I arrived from Tel Aviv to Haifa just before the Sabbath, when there is no public transportation.

 From there the parents of one of Katy's friends drove me to over to Tiberius.

Along the way we did some sight-seeing, and of the places we visited was the mountain traditionally associated with the Transfiguration.

There is of course no way to know for sure; it is just a mountain like many other steep hills in the region.

You know the hairpin curves on Rt 554, Sulphur Springs Rd over the mountain from S. Wmspt.

Mt. Tabor has a multitude of hairpin curves on the road where a passing tour-bus could easily push a car off to one's death.

I sat quietly white-knuckled and did nothing to distract the driver who was chatting away happily.

An impressive church was built and rebuilt, and rebuilt over the centuries at the summit. Now to the point.

Is this a  holy place?

Would you and I like to visit such a place?

Would our lives be enriched if we could all pick up and visit that spot?...and so many other ones in the Holy Land?

Wouldn't it be grand to look through the glass floor of the modern church at the shore of the Sea of Galilee and see the excavation underneath where the scholars think they have located the house of Peter and his mother in law, one of those whom Jesus healed.

It is a moving experience to sit on the stone bench of the synagogue in Capernaum and know that the foundation stones of the synagogue in which Jesus taught are just four feet underground beneath your feet.

Or to ride across the Sea of Galilee on a modern boat and then turn and look to the northwest and see storm clouds quickly gathering and the wind picking up and remember Jesus and a storm....

 

But realistically, those things are not going to happen for most of us, are they?

Very few of us are going to have the opportunity to get to Mt Tabor or Capernaum or the Sea of Galilee or any of those holy places.

Does that mean that the majority of us do not have contact with holy things?

That's not the message of the Transfiguration story.

Remember that I described it as a steep hill, yes, but a steep hill among many other steep hills.

It is not particularly distinguished in any of those usual ways, just that God chose to use that particular spot on that particular hill to point out the special connection between heaven and earth in Christ Jesus.

That is what makes it holy; set apart for God's special purposes.

 

So where else does heaven touch earth?

According to our first point today, we have to say...wherever God wants it to do so!

God is not the absentee creator, but by means of the Spirit, is always busy encouraging, comforting, and re-directing.

And wherever that is happening is a holy place.

 

This is not to minimize the significance of travel to Israel.

One time there would do more for your life and faith than dozens of trips to the beach, cruises, or golf outings.

I'd be delighted to lead such a group.

 

But I'd be even more delighted if every person who is supposedly a member recognized this as a holy place also, a place where heaven touches earth,

a place where we all want to be together regularly, not to give God instructions or make demands,

but simply to be in his presence,

listening for his direction,

becoming one in the sharing of his body and blood of Holy Communion,

encouraging one another in our sorrows,

enjoying each others' company in anticipation of the great sharing in the fulness to come, 

and finally rejoicing with angels and archangels and all the host of heaven.

It is the wonder of Christmas said once more: et incarnatus est...He was made flesh and lived among us.

 

So, if we had been on  Mt. Tabor with Peter, and finally figured this out, we should have leaned over to Peter as he is babbling on, elbow him in the ribs and said gently, “Shut up, Peter. Stop trying to manage God. Wherever Jesus is with us, just enjoy him, forever.”  Amen.