The Transfiguration of Our Lord
Text: Mark 9:2-9
"CURING OUR DEAFNESS AND
BLINDNESS"
I'm not the world's most observant person. Ellen tells me when she
is getting a haircut, because I
might not notice otherwise. She can rearrange the furniture or the
wall hangings, and it might be
days before I notice. Just last night she had worked hours on
rearranging kitchen cupboards,
which I sat across from at dinner and totally missed.
But even I would have noticed the change that came over Jesus on the
mountain of
transfiguration. God even provided contrasting figures, Moses and
Elijah. They were the two
greatest prophets in Israel's history, but they paled in comparison
to Jesus. Apparently, Jesus'
status is kind of a prophet plus. And to make sure that
the disciples got the point, God even
overshadows them in a cloud and repeats the message at Jesus'
baptism with an important
addition: "Listen to him!" the voice says. Jesus is standing with
the two greatest prophets of their
religious tradition, but Peter, James, and John are instructed to
pay particular attention to the
words of Jesus.
While the disciples' basic powers of observation could see and hear
what was happening, the
meaning of it went over their heads. Apparently, they were not very
bright. The Transfiguration
was the moment for them to finally understand that Jesus had come to
help them see and hear
something new and bold, but it was lost on them. They were already
scratching their heads on the
way down the mountain, completely confused about this 'raising from
the dead' business.
And Mark is tougher on the disciples than any other Gospel writer.
He makes it clear that they
never really get it. They run away at the trial and
crucifixion, and Mark's gospel ends before they
see the Risen Jesus.
In fact, there is a lot of irony in Mark's Gospel around seeing and
hearing. Our Epiphany theme
has been healing. Jesus heals many, many kinds of ailments. At the
end of chapter 7, Jesus heals
a deaf person. And flanked around today's reading in Mark 9, Jesus
heals blind men in chapters 8
and 10. Catch the irony? It's as if to say that Jesus has an easier
time healing literal deafness and
blindness than he does to heal the metaphorical deafness and
blindness of his own disciples. At a
crucial place (Mark 4), Jesus even quotes when God spoke to the
prophet Isaiah and said, 'This
people has eyes unseeing and ears unhearing.' There is something
that God has desperately been
trying to get us to hear and see, but even disciples of God's own
Son remain deaf and blind to it.
Two weeks ago I suggested that
the number one disease facing humanity since the beginning of
time -- the one thing that has caused more deaths than anything else
-- is our own violence. And
I believe that Jesus came to show and tell us that the number one
cure for that disease is
forgiveness. But like the disciples, Jesus' message of nonviolence
and forgiveness goes over our
heads. We have trouble seeing and hearing from God because we prefer
to try to cure it with a
dose of 'good' violence, a righteous violence because we are using
to stop the other violence.
When relationships break with hurt and conflict, we feel it our
righteous duty to get even. The
cure for crime is armed police forces, prisons, and execution. The
cure when violence beyond our
borders threatens is war. When it comes to God's cure of forgiveness
in the face of such
violence, we have eyes that don't see and ears that don't hear.
Mark's Gospel ends with the violence of cross and God's loving
forgiveness in the Resurrection.
In the last week of his life, Jesus prophesied the destruction of
the Temple and Jerusalem, and Mark wrote his Gospel just as this was
taking place 40 years later. Jesus' people endured the
terrible violence of the Roman Empire, and the only solution they
could see was to fight it with
their own righteous violence. But it didn't end well. Instead of
their retaliation working to 'cure'
the situation, it ended in utter destruction. Jesus' own beloved
people needed to listen to Jesus
and see his other solution, but they had eyes unseeing and ears
unhearing. Jesus had been able to
cure deaf and blind people, but the deafness and blindness of his
own people on what counted
most, curing the number one disease of violence, fell on deaf ears.
Two thousand years later we have another opportunity to see the
brilliant light shining from Jesus
and to hear his voice calling across the centuries. Look back just
over this last century. Nearly all
the churches in Europe have closed, and the same fate is threatening
North America, where the
last two generations participate in church at about 10%. In my
pastor's column, I mentioned a
YouTube video that has gone viral, passed on to me by one of our
sons. It's called "Why I Hate
Religion but Love Jesus." Its main message is: "What if I told you
Jesus came to abolish
religion? . . . If religion is so great, why has it started so many
wars?" After a century that began
with Europe as the center of Christianity and ended with the church
nearly dead in the aftermath
of two World Wars, we of European descent in North America have
another opportunity to
finally see and hear Jesus.
It's a colossal understatement to say it won't be easy. But,
brothers and sisters, isn't this the very
heart of our calling? That you and I are finally healed to hear and
see what humanity has been
deaf and blind to since the beginning of human history? It's why
Jesus had to die a violent death,
so that his loving and gracious power of forgiveness could begin to
shine among us and
transfigure our lives.
Jesus left behind small bands of followers who gathered in homes and
small groups to support
one another. And we need to start small as well. In our Sunday
morning class, we've been talking
about Twelve Step groups that began with Alcoholics Anonymous and
have spread to so many
other points of healing. At the heart of the Twelve Steps is that
number one cure: forgiveness.
Step Four is, "we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves." the next steps are
confessing our wrongs to other people and turning them over to God,
trusting in forgiveness. It
climaxes in Step Nine with: "We made direct amends to the people we
had harmed wherever
possible, except when to do so would injure them or others." Twelve
Step groups are one of the
greatest spiritual movements ever undertaken. Multiplying small
group ministries in our
congregation to undertake healing in those areas of our lives where
we most need it would
advance our discipleship, as we support one another through the
healing power of forgiveness.
Where you could use the support of a group? Parenting? Surviving the
modern work place?
Finances? Living a simpler lifestyle that's sustainable for our
Mother Earth? What are the
community groups where we can be a healing presence? Brother and
Sisters, the possibilities are
endless in a hurting world that so desperately needs the healing
presence of Christ's forgiveness.
You and I are healed and called to be that presence. Come to our
Lord's table to be fed, revived
and sent out to shine a light that helps our Lord transfigure this
hurting world. Amen
Paul J. Nuechterlein
Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran,
Portage, MI, February 19, 2012